So this simultaneously struck a chord and was no fun at all. What might improve things?
1) Make a date to see Knuckleball! It’s a terrific movie — a smart, sweet baseball valentine, and a wonderful character study of our own R.A. Dickey, Tim Wakefield and their forerunners as knuckleballers — Phil Niekro, Charlie Hough, Wilbur Wood, Tom Candiotti and Jim Bouton. Plus it uses footage running backwards to heartbreaking effect. (But don’t worry — only once.) I caught an early screening this week; the documentary by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg opens Sept. 20 at the IFC Center right here in New York. Don’t miss it.
2) Because you can never get enough R.A., read this by Emma Span. Emma gets a lot of things that go missing in a lot of the Dickey narratives, such as his insane competitiveness and the fact that he’s very far removed from your “typical” let-go-and-let-God knuckleballer. Plus I loved R.A.’s thoughts on a female knuckleballer: Anne Dickey is as much as hero of Knuckleball! as her husband is, and towards the end of the movie we see R.A. playing catch with his daughter. Hey, wouldn’t that be something? Please make her a Met!
3) Read this post by Howard Megdal. Howard’s superb reporting was referenced in my depressing post; in his gracious response, he notes that he still finds joy taking his daughter to Citi Field, and suggests I do the same with my son, whose faith may be wavering but should still enjoy a night at the ballpark. And in fact that’s exactly what I’m doing; Joshua and I will be there Monday night.
4) Read this post by our own Greg Prince. It’s about Ed, who was born to be a Mets fan but found his birthright delayed == but not denied. Welcome, Ed! L’shanah tovah indeed!
5) Whaddya know? The Mets actually won one! David Wright got two hits, moving him within eight of passing Ed Kranepool. Jonathon Niese pitched well, overcoming the Brewers, Larry Vanover’s magical strike zone and his own sometimes less-than-enthusiastic interest in his craft. Lucas Duda hit a home run; so did Daniel Murphy. And Murph and Ruben Tejada combined for one of the niftiest double plays of the year.
After seeing Niese run out of gas in the last few months of his first few seasons, I think it’s a really good sign that he’s not doing it this year. And after seeing them pile on four runs in the first two innings after being run-constipated during their entire homestand, I vote for more road games.
I admit to an irrational dislike of Niese — he drives me as crazy as Pelfrey did. On the other hand, he wins. If he keeps doing so I can learn to live with these contradictions.
LMAO nothing makes me feel better now than to see met fans rip Matt Cerrone and Sandy Alderson to shreds for being walking talking puppets for the Wilpons..
Read what Matt Cerrone had to say:
In an interview with Sports Radio Interviews, Nationals manager Davey Johnson says:
“Citi Field is like a morgue. I remember when I was here we had 50,000 packed in Shea. I love our ballpark, man. The fans have been outstanding. They’re into it. It’s great and I’ve seen a big change since I’ve been there. … The fans have been coming out. I know there are still a lot of Redskins fans here but we’re getting a lot of great fans, we love it.”
The Nationals are averaging roughly 1,000 fans more per game than the Mets, according to Baseball Reference.
The same source indicates the Mets, Phillies and Yankees are each down roughly 3% per game compared to home games last season, while the Nationals are up around 20%.
Interestingly, the Giants, White Sox, Angels, Phillies, Yankees and Brewers (all of whom are in playoff races and well above .500) are all down in attendance compared to a year ago this team.
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JDD’s take
To say that the Mets and the Yankees are in the same universe when it comes to attendance is like saying I and Mayor Bloomberg are both rich b/c we both live in NY..
Matt Cerrone is now at desperate status….
Sandy Alderson is soon approaching desperate status…
and Met fans now see through the BS that both of them are trying to pull over our eyes…
Learn well my students have !
To make it worse….he tries to defend his statement
Matthew Cerrone MOD • 17 hours ago • parent −
If winning equals better attendance, how do you explain the Yankees, Giants, Brewers, White Sox, etc…
I’m not saying it doesn’t help, but to suggest it is that simple is clearly not the case. It’s prices, experience, on-field product and winning, as well as other things.
“It’s prices, experience, on-field product and winning, as well as other things.”
Now rewind to Fred Wilpon’s first year as partial met owner in 1980…
http://bit.ly/R8Jnuk
32 years later same company line…
Matt should just quit metsblog and open up something else…its obvious that this isnt his site anymore…
JDD, I like Matt and his work, and we don’t do attacks on our blog brethren here. Please no more of this.
Jason,
Your statement above made me take pause. Of course, it’s your blog and you can make any rules you want…I just want to understand the rules. What qualifies as an “attack on blog brethren?” If it is in a relevant manner, are commenters allowed to criticize these brethren in any way? What qualifies someone to be in this brethren and why do they need shielding?
Fair point. Reasonable criticism of posts/arguments is of course fine. Calling an individual blogger (or a beat writer) out personally as a “walking talking puppet” doesn’t sit well with me.
My suggestion…any personal attacks should not be welcome…be it on a blogger, beat writer, radio host, commenter, player, manager, GM, owner. I criticize ownership all the time, but try not to make it personal…I even said Fred is basically a nice guy IMO. One reason I read this blog is I feel freedom to comment without being personally attacked myself. Believe me, that is no fun. I trust you and Greg will continue to police your own blog as necessary…allowing contructive criticism and debate and discouraging personal attacks on anyone, not just bloggers.
I might also throw in that criticism of how a given blog operates is best directed toward that blog, ’cause we only have anything to do with this here blog. You don’t like what Matt Cerrone and/or SNY does with MetsBlog’s comments section, please contact Matt and/or SNY. “I read something on MetsBlog that I think was ridiculous/subime…” is fine, in the same way “I read something in the News that I think was ridiculous/sublime…” is. Content is content. But ixnay on the personal stuff, por favor, unless it’s Roger Clemens.
believe it or not…Roger Clemens doesnt offend me as much as Jeff/Fred Wilpon..
Roger is a bully and a dirt-bag…and doesnt care if u know it or not…
Had Roger plunked Ray Knight…or anyone on that 86 team…there would be a rocket going upside his head…
but when the wilpons took over…the team and its roster pretty much mirrors the ownership’s mantra on providing entertainment vs. being competitive.
IMO this was why they made no effort to keep a guy like Ty Wiggington on the roster…
we had no 1B in 2003/2004…David Wright was on the come up…we made that signing of Kaz Matsui…so 2B/SS was occupied…they could’ve moved him to 1B and signed a SP..
instead they traded him away…
Wiggy was my favorite player on that team..he was young, gritty, talented…played smash mouth ball…
so basically…its not a surprise he is with the Phils
Sorry. Cerrone slimed Howard Megdal in the middle of L’affaire des titres de compétences [See Rusty Staub for translation]. Never apologized, either.
Jason, its nothing personal against Matt.
I love this team. this is the only baseball team i have ever loved.
When I see / read what I feel is a directive coming from ownership to put a spin on what is very obvious to us as a negative year in terms of attendance. I get offended.
Hey Jason, is knuckleball ok for kids? My guy (6 almost 7) is knuckleball obsessed and I’d love to take him but can’t get a sense of the rating. A little language is fine.
Yes, it’s fine. A bit of profanity here and there is all. Hope he likes it and you do too.
It’s supposed to be out on DVD this month too. I can’t wait!
If Wright ends up getting seven more hits this season then leaves town in the off-season, will Eddie Kranepool pop the cork on a bottle of something a la the 1972 Miami Dolphins? Because if David doesn’t break the record, it’s highly unlikely that ANYONE ever will in our lifetimes.
No offense to Ed Kranepool…but to have a franchise play over 50 seasons and its top all-time hitter has only 1418 hits is quite astounding. In fact I will postulate that the Mets are the worst team in the history of baseball at developing top hitters. Here is a list…a bit out of date, but clearly shows only a few younger teams with a lower count than the Mets. Quite a few teams have more than double our highest.
http://baseball.about.com/od/majorleaguehistory/a/teamhitleaders.htm
That being said, Wright is without a doubt the best hitter the Mets ever developed…and by keeping him, we could finally have a franchise-type hitter to call our own and move up this list.
VERY astounding how Eddie’s franchise hits record has stood for all this time. Even more astounding when one remembers that Ed was not always an every-day player, either.
Sorry…I still say Darryl Strawberry was that guy…followed by:
Wright
Reyes
Alfonzo
HoJO
Hundley
Hubie Brooks ? ….
I never saw any homegrown player light up Shea Stadium the way Straw did in the 80’s…
If that 86 team had more mentors than they did party animals, those guys are going in the Hall w/ the Blue and Orange on…
HoJo was acquired from Tigers…but you pretty much nailed the list…perhaps you can add Ken Singleton and Amos Otis, both of whom were traded very early in their careers and Dykstra was a great spark plug while he was here…Mookie and Cleon were good. That is about it.
Due to the fact that, unless we get screwed again, Wright will be a Met for a few more years, he will rank ahead of Darryl IMO. No Met hitter will ever have Darryl’s raw potential again in our lifetimes though.
I truly feel if the Mets get out of their own way…and put Duda in LF…leave Ike at 1B…those 2 can crack the list of the best met homegrown prospects…same with Murph…same with Tejada…
color me optimistic…but this team does have some serious young talent…they may not be all-stars…and fans are quick to point out their short-comings…but they can hold their own…
if u ask me…the best move would’ve been to have Reyes at SS…Tejada at 2B…Murph slide to 3B…Wright to RF…Duda to LF…Ike stays in 1B..Bay to Left Out…the only position ur trying to fill is CF…
Total payroll this year would’ve been around 100 mil…next year would’ve been 105 mil…the year after with Santana/Bay’s contracts coming down and Wright getting a minor bump up…the payroll would’ve been dramatically LOWER…even with Wright + Reyes…
We COULD HAVE HAD a team of mainly home-grown players…and talented at that…
a team in NY with a payroll that is about to drop to Pitt levels in 2 years should NOT have to choose b/w Wright and Reyes…we should’ve locked them up in 2009 to 7 year deals…which would’ve ended 4 years from now…when they were both in their early-mid 30’s…
now if u wanna give Wright a 7 year deal…it ends when he is 38…which does make it a bit risky since u cant DH him…
The wilpons are and have always been the problem..
good night..
and good luck
It seems that the constant issue with all Mets-related public relations efforts is the amount of spin, spin that’s much like what a desperate political campaign operation does for a candidate who has no chance of winning. No matter whether it comes from a Wilpon-funded blog, Wilpon-influenced newspaper, or Wilpon-majority-owned regional cable sports network. There’s no subtlety. It’s ham-handed. Any fan with a college-level IQ can see right through the bull, and laugh out loud about it when they read or hear about it. A Pollyanna attitude is what I’d expect if I was a nine-year-old and the Mets were my one and only sports crush. We’re not nine years old, and there’s much competition for my time. And this sorry franchise is getting less and less of it.
the lack of subtlety is offensive…
at least put some effort into it..
(The Nationals are averaging roughly 1,000 fans more per game than the Mets, according to Baseball Reference.)
Davey Johnson is raving about the Nationals’ fans?? They have two of the most exciting pitchers in baseball, they are in first place for the first time ever, and they are averaging 1,000 more fans per game than a 5th place team that has gone nowhere for 5 years. Exactly how does this make the Nationals’ Fans special??
it doesnt…
but remember the washington nationals fan base didnt exist 7 years ago…and they were basement dwellers til recently…
the point is…
Davey is experiencing what it is to play for an invigorated fan base…which is the result of a team that is winning…which is the result ultimately of a team that puts production first over image…
someone like bryce harper would’ve had the villian label stuck to them in NYC…
i havent heard one negative story about bryce all year…
does that mean there wasnt 1 person he ticked off all year? NO of course not…he may very well be the brash, outspoken a-hole we all heard he was in HS/J-College..but the Nats arent going to shoot themselves in the foot..same with strasburg…
those 2 would’ve been PR disasters with the mets…well cuz everything except boring vanilla cut and paste comment players are acceptable to the wilpons…
the FIRST thing the wilpons did was convince kevin mitchell to be immediately traded for K-Mac..
This year..its Jordany Valdespin..with the mets continuing the narrative that the media plays
since last year all i have heard about jordany was that he was too confident…and attitude issues…but he has raw talent…
never once have I heard about how hard he worked to switch
from being a SS to a 2B to an OF in less than 18 months…
Jordany Valdespin is our new Kevin Mitchell…
a guy who gets shuffled all over the place…still produces…but gets labeled the bad guy…
look at Murphy…the guy came up a 3B…they moved him to LF…moved him to 2B…moved him to 1B…moved him back to 2B….once he settled in…he is now a .300 hitter…u cant keep moving people around…that only works in video games…
Andee,
Thanks for the heads up about Knuckleball coming out on DVD this month.
Hi Jason,
You know I share your feelings about ownership and the front office having the fun of being a Met fan punched out from me, sort of like how R.A. Dickey felt last season when he said that even though he understood about the business, the front office having no faith in them was hard to swallow.
Yes, it’s the guys on the field we root for but there comes a point when the action and motivation from those in charge makes rooting for the team hard to swallow.
Believe me, it really isn’t satisfying to read that most all who believed in Sandy’s “vision” now see it in the hollow frame it was meant to be. I’m not blaming this on Sandy for him being the one who is in the public eye means he also has to take the public hits for his employers and spin the corporate line for the good of the Wilpons.
Unfortunately, I don’t believe he ever realized this would snowball against him, not because it will lead to what I believe will be a more accurate historical revision and understanding of him not ever being an architect of any baseball team as well as the myths associated with him (sabermetrics and money ball). Having seen the results of his moves along with his own admittance about that going after “inexpensive” players would yield only a fifty percent result, his actions will be seen in the light of a chief financial officer needing to keep costs down instead of being heralded as one who resolved many of the Mets problems at a fraction of the cost other teams as it was portrayed so much just a few months after he was appointed GM:
http://www.northjersey.com/sports/pro_sports/baseball/mets/114703029_Mets__winter_work_is_done.html
I suspect this will not bother him as will the permanent and I think undeserved stain on his reputation as a baseball executive with integrity.
He had to learn the hard way that lawyer spin in terms of public relations comes under much tighter scrutiny in New York than it does in Oakland. At least in Oakland, Billy Beane has been honest, stating the team has no money. I think had he any inkling this was going to happen, Sandy would have never taken the job unless he knew he could be up front with the media and the press – as he has now started to.
Too bad the damage has already been done. Maybe in time we will be forgiving of him, understanding the position he was placed in, but for now, just like R.A., it’s hard to swallow…,or forgive.
Joe D. Nice wrapup. Alderson is like Donnie Walsh in a way. Sent from the league to fix up things put in place by bumbling, incompetent owners. Walsh got out. Alderson may very well be the next MLB commissioner once the used car salesman currently in that post says good bye.
Bingo …and yes u can tell chesty that due to the comments i made about the Wilpons…i am no longer able to write comments on that site…
people can make all kind of crazy wild racist statements there…and it will stick..
but make some statements about Lil Jeffy and off to Gulag u go
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