Get Ready for More?

by Greg Prince on 1 April 2024 11:04 am

Three games into the new season, and I already don’t want to dwell on the most recent baseball game the Mets played and lost. For the record, Tylor Megill labored for four innings Sunday and left with tenderness in his shoulder, slating him for an MRI. Carlos Mendoza served a suspension for Yohan Ramirez throwing in the general airspace around Rhys Hoskins the day before. Ramirez was suspended for three games but opted to appeal it, so fill-in manager John Gibbons used Yohan for three innings, a sure sign of an appeal likely to be dropped. The Mets did load the bases for a tantalizing moment in the fourth inning, albeit with two out. Omar Narvaez, the nine-hole hitter, was up, and I began to dream of Rusty Staub being deployed to pinch-hit, until I remembered a) Francisco Alvarez was the DH, so that meant — because we carry only two catchers — Alvarez would have to move behind the plate and we’d therefore lose the DH (stupid non-position that it is); and b) Rusty Staub hasn’t been available to pinch-hit in quite a while. Anyway, Narvaez hit for himself and gave a Colin Rea pitch a good ride, but his bid for a grand slam died at the warning track, as did the Mets’ last honest-to-goodness rally in their listless 4-1 loss to the now hated Brewers.

Stare into the neon and forget about the runs you can’t find on the scoreboard.

The Mets must know how little we want to dwell on how they play, because they built many distractions into their season ahead of time. I saw a lot of what they were planning when they unveiled for the media their “NEW IN 24” chazerai, to use a word my mother would sprinkle into conversation when she wished to refer to random stuff, but do it with a touch of Yiddish. Citi Field’s chazerai is the stuff on the margins of baseball, like the way the 0-3 Mets will be lucky to be on the margins of the playoff race. Stuff like neon lights in upscale club spaces, and LED displays around every corner, and expanded retail operations, and more convenient ways to book a suite. Oh, and food, glorious food. Citi Field’s food has always been a winner, and a generous sampling by this reporter indicates it will continue to be so. (Pro tip: seek out Empanada Mama behind Section 103.)

Met donuts don’t have as many holes as the Met lineup.

The Mets were also kind enough to give visitors that chilly March day a sneak preview of the Queens Crew. The Queens Crew is the dance troupe you might have heard about. It’s a reflex reaction among Mets fans of a certain age to groan at the idea that dancers are being added to the baseball menu, because they didn’t have that in our day, let alone at our Shea. But y’know what? Time dances on, and maybe, as long as it’s between innings and the PA volume isn’t on blast, some people who aren’t me will enjoy it a lot. And I have to give these kids in the Queens Crew props for dancing in their thin getups on such a frigid morning. Seriously, they presented their first number in the left field corner, with the wind howling in so ferociously that it would have knocked down a Pete Alonso moonshot. Some of the young ladies (it’s a co-ed bunch) were sporting bare midriffs, and I was hoping somebody from one of the myriad team stores would appear when the music ceased to wrap them in blankets.

At least the Mets’ dancers showed up some pep in March.

Despite accompanying my wife to the ballet a few Sundays a year many years ago, I’m no judge of dance, but these dancers showed some real skill and tons of enthusiasm. No, it’s not traditional baseball, but maybe we could use another distraction this season. Plus, there is a legitimate nostalgic element to bringing out a dance team at select home games in 2024. What wasn’t widely reported, but I’ve since learned, is that the Queens Crew is part of a reboot of one of the great Met anthems associated with the greatest of Met years.

That’s right: they’re bringing back “Get Metsmerized”.

This Queens Crew truly knew how to kick it.

Well, not bringing it back, exactly. They’re updating the song made famous during the 1986 season, the Mets’ bold entry into hip-hop, in which about a third of the roster — led by George Foster and including Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Lenny Dykstra, Rafael Santana, Rick Aguilera, Kevin Mitchell, Tim Teufel and Howard Johnson — rapped their intentions to dominate the National League East and then some. You can’t say they didn’t make good on their prose or their promise.

The new version is called “Dance Metsmerized! 2024,” and it has quite a story behind it, per the Mets’ own hype. “‘Get Metsmerized’ was a landmark in the cross-pollenation between professional sports and an emerging art form,” the Mets’ press release detailing the new beats explains. “With ‘Dance Metsmerized! 2024,’ we’re adding a whole new layer to the timeless concept of ‘getting Metsmerized’. It provides us the opportunity to let our fans intimately know our newest personnel in a fresh and contemporary manner informed by old-school overtones, while providing a thumping soundtrack to the Queens Crew routines we’re confident Citi Field crowds will come to embrace. It’s baseball and diversity at its most ‘Amazin’!’”

Save a spot on your calendars for a “Dance Metsmerized! 2024” Day sometime this summer, sponsored by Danskin, Official Dancewear Partner of the New York Mets, with the first 15,000 fans through the gates getting sent to their devices a link that will allow them to download the song and its various remixes. By midseason, a vinyl version will be on sale at Citi Field concessions and through Mets.com, with all proceeds benefiting the great work done by the Amazin’ Mets Foundation.

“‘Dance Metsmerized! 2024’ strikes just the right balance of swagger and humility that the Mets have always been known for,” the release elaborates. “It may not be 1986 on the field, but you can bet at Caesars Sportsbook at the Metropolitan Market located on the Excelsior level that Citi Field’s world-class sound system will be pumping with ‘big league’ phrasing while the Queens Crew’s steps as they dance their hearts out atop the home team dugout will prove an inside-the-park home run!”

It’s admittedly a lot to digest. For copyright reasons, the actual music isn’t available for sharing yet, but fortunately, you can get a taste of “Dance Metsmerized! 2024” from the lyrics the Mets have furnished to various outlets (like ours). And you really do get to know better some of the new people the Mets brought in over the winter so they’re not just names on a stat sheet.

Honestly, with the Mets’ decision to play this little ditty “five or six times per game, including on our television and radio broadcasts, plus whenever fans engage with our social media accounts,” it would be foolish today or any day to think this baby won’t eventually be worming its way into all of our ears

***‘DANCE METSMERIZED! 2024’ OFFICIAL LYRICS
PRESENTED BY DANSKIN,
OFFICIAL DANCEWEAR PARTNER OF THE NEW YORK METS

QUEENS CREW
IN THE HOUSE!

QUEENS CREW
PLEASE ANNOUNCE!