Honouring Gary Carter

I haven't said much about the passing of Gary Carter. I knew that he had a baseball life before coming to New York in December 1984 (and I didn't start following until October 1986). But I don't think I had ever appreciated what he meant to the Montreal Expos and the city of Montreal.

Apparently, he meant a lot to that city, evident by a lot of stories and remembrances from the Montreal media. And no more so than what the Montreal Canadiens did on Sunday night before their game. I also didn't appreciate how much the city of Montreal holds onto the Expos (if MLB teams are looking at moving, I think that city would welcome a new Expos team, especially in a new stadium).

The baseball team itself left town after the 2004 season (so this will be the 8th season without baseball in Montreal), and a player who came up almost 40 years ago and was traded away over 27 years ago has been held in such high regard by that city that the entire city mourned his loss.

There are a lot of Mets fans and former players grieving along with the city of Montreal. Carter was the final piece in the puzzle of the mid-1980s New York Mets. By all accounts, he was a standup guy. Mets fans have written their own tributes (some in video form) to the player known as "The Kid". There was even a gathering the day after he died at the site of Shea Stadium where Mets fans came to mourn together and sign some tributes, with a teardrop number 8 logo collecting condolences from Mets fans (the logo is also part of a t-shirt being sold to help benefit the Gary Carter foundation).

But in Montreal, a city where the legacy of the baseball team seems to be owned by the hockey team (the only other top-level sports franchise in a league associated with the United States in that city), and where the baseball team's mascot was orphaned and adopted by the hockey team, the memories of the players that gave that baseball team a personality and something to cheer for live on. In 2005, after the hockey lockout had ended and the baseball team had been in another city for an entire season, the Montreal Canadiens honored the legacy of the Expos by raising a banner holding their lifetime (1969-2004) and their retired numbers to the rafters to sit along side what is now over 100 years of hockey history from that city. Gary Carter and Andre Dawson were on hand for the ceremony, along with new Canadiens mascot Youppi, all wearing Canadiens hockey jerseys with their baseball names and numbers (something Youppi! still wears). The legacy of the Expos are important in Montreal.

That brings me to Sunday night. The Canadiens players all came out for warmups (the hockey equivalent to Batting Practice) wearing recreations of the same #8/Carter Canadiens hockey jersey that The Kid had worn on that night in 2005. The Canadiens will announce this week how those 20-something jerseys will be sold to benefit the Gary Carter Foundation. MetsBlog.com has pictures of the warmups.

The Canadiens had a tribute to Carter which featured 2 large-sized Gary Carter Montreal Expos baseball cards projected onto the ice from side boards to side boards. They can be seen in this video from NHL.com (and also seen on MLB.com), which features the rest of the tribute. At the end, Youppi! in his old Montreal Expos jersey featuring a new #8 patch in Carter's honor, came out to lead the fans in a moment of silence where he was greeted by a moment of loud cheers. My suggestion - Youppi! should wear that #8 patch on his hockey jersey for the rest of the season (just as the Expos would have done and the Mets most likely will do).


I posted this on twitter late last night after seeing the video tribute from Montreal.

star of the day goes to @CanadiensMTL for holding the legacy of the @Montreal_Expos and honoring Gary Carter (and Youppi's Expos jersey)

— Jason Bornstein (@DyHrdMET) February 20, 2012

I am sure the Mets will do something to honor The Kid. Uniform patches yet to be designed (they probably won't wear them until Opening Day, so there's some time to get it right). A moment of silence before the first Spring Training home game, before the first NY Mets regular season home game in April, and before the first St. Lucie Mets regular season home game also in April will most likely be held. The Mets had a video tribute for Carter playing at most games after Carter was first diagnosed, so I'm sure something similar will be seen at Citi Field on Opening Day. I'm pretty certain the Mets will get this right. Montreal certainly has. So have the Mets fans.


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SNY and the Emmys

Read it here!

Included in the list are programs related to the Mets (remember the field trip to the Pepsi Porch and all 4 TV announcers nominated for the best in their craft) and SNY (which got nominated for things related to another baseball team in New York).

Category	Program	Network
SPORTS COVERAGE: SPORTSCAST/SERIES	SportsNite: Jeter Hits 3000. July 9, 2011	SNY
	SportsNite: Subway Series. May 20, 2011	SNY
SPORTS PROGRAMMING: REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAM	Summer of ’86 – Part 3. March 3, 2011 (Roman Gackowski, Producer/Director)	MSG
SPORTS PROGRAMMING: PROGRAM SERIES	Summer of ’86 – Series Composite. March 1, 2011 (Roman Gackowski, Producer/Director)	MSG
SPORTS PROGRAMMING: PROGRAM FEATURE/SEGMENT	R.A. Dickey. December 22, 2010	SNY
SPORTS PROGRAMMING: PROGRAM SERIES	Jets Nation: Extra Point. September 9, 2010	SNY
SPORTS PROGRAMMING: SPECIAL	Brooklyn Cyclones: Baseball on the Boardwalk. August 24, 2011	SNY
	Jets Nation: Draft Day 2011. April 28, 2011	SNY
LIVE SPORTS EVENT: PROGRAM/SPECIAL	Mets “Pepsi Porch” Broadcast. July 20, 2011	SNY
INTERVIEW/DISCUSSION	The Wheelhouse. December 10, 2010	SNY
PROMOTION: NEWS PROMO – SINGLE SPOT/CAMPAIGN	Summer of ’86 Launch Spot. February 16, 2011 (Doug Field, VP/Creative Director)	MSG
PROMOTION: NEWS PROMO – SPECIAL/IMAGE	Summer of ’86 Launch Spot. February 16, 2011	MSG
PROMOTION: PROGRAM PROMO - SPORTS	Mets Subway Series Pop Up. May 15, 2011 (John Zeigler, VP/Creative Director)	WPIX
	Subway Series Speech. May 21, 2011 (John Zeigler, VP/Creative Director)	WPIX
COMMERCIAL: SINGLE SPOT/CAMPAIGN	More Sports, More Testosterone. May 9, 2011 (Marie DeParis, Vice President of Marketing)	SNY
ON-CAMERA TALENT: REPORTER -SPORTS	Kevin Burkhardt	SNY/WPIX
ON-CAMERA TALENT: PERFORMER/NARRATOR	Robert A. Frahm. August 24, 2011	SNY
ON-CAMERA TALENT: SPORTS PLAY-BY-PLAY	Gary Cohen	SNY/WPIX
	Howie Rose	MSG+ (Islanders)
ON-CAMERA TALENT: SPORTS ANALYST	Keith Hernandez	SNY/WPIX
	Ron Darling	SNY/WPIX
	Ray Lucas	SNY (Jets)
DIRECTOR: POST-PRODUCTION	Roman Gackowski. March 1, 2011	MSG
WRITER: SPORTS	Ricky Recchia. April 28, 2011	SNY
PHOTOGRAPHER: SPORTS	Andrew Johnston. July 11, 2011	SNY
EDITOR: PROGRAM	Lee Umphred. March 1, 2011 (“Summer Of ’86”)	MSG
EDITOR: SHORT FORM	Brett Hauze. December 30, 2010	SNY
GRAPHICS: NEWS/PROGRAM	Mark Rusciano. January 16, 2011 ("SNY's Sportsnite: Jets 2011 Playoff Special”)	SNY
GRAPHICS: SPORTS	John Zeigler. April 10, 2011 (“Mets Pop Up”)	WPIX
	Mark Rusciano. May 20, 2011 (“Mets on SNY: 2011 Subway Showdown”)	SNY

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Mets 2012 predictions

The new year 2012 is upon us, and I have a few predictions for the Mets for this year.

1. I will not win the Banner Day competition, but I will have lots of fun creating a banner and participating. And that's what it's all about.
2. The Sterling Equities partners will no longer control the New York Mets (by year's end). They will not get enough investors to loan them money in exchange for usage of Mr. Met and a Citi Field parking space (which I heard is actually only good when Citi Field's lot is used as a park-and-ride lot). They will have to pay more money than they can afford in Bernie Madoff-related lawsuits. And other owners in MLB will force Bud Selig's hand over the liquidity issues and loans from MLB that they'll basically kick Fred Wilpon out of the club. Sterling Equities real estate will also crumble over the weight of what Fred Wilpon will owe (remember, separate from the Mets, they made money from Madoff that will have to be given back).
3. The 2013 MLB All Star Game will not be awarded to Citi Field. Same with the 2014 game or the 2015 game. It won't be awarded until new ownership is firmly in place, though I expect to see it as something thrown into the pot for a new owner (sort of like how the Astros deal had a condition on them moving to the AL West).
4. The Mets will have a bad product on the field in 2012. It won't be fun to watch. And attendance will dip, again. That will cause the Mets to lose $100 million in 2012. It's kind of the opposite of "it takes money to make money".
5. The most attended event at Citi Field will be a concert and not a sporting event.
6. The NHL Winter Classic will not be at Citi Field in 2012 (or probably, ever). Reason - it's not Yankee Stadium. We just have to live with it.
7. David Wright will be traded before the trade deadline.
8. Johan Santana will be healthy enough to have trade talks centered around him during the season until a season ending injury (though it'll be something freak and mis-handled, and not related to any of the other injuries he's had with the Mets).
9. R.A. Dickey will be the Mets representative at the All Star Game
10. Howie Rose will be paired with Jim Duquette on WFAN. It should be fun to listen to.

Happy 2012 Mets fans! Mets 2012, rejuvenated at 50!


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Can I audition for the vacant Mets radio gig?

Let me start by saying that Wayne Hagin is a nice guy. I met him during Spring Training 2008, at the very beginning of his Mets broadcasting career. He did nothing wrong during his 4 seasons in Flushing. He was himself. He was a solid #2 guy in the Mets radio booth.

I use past tense because the reports strongly indicate that WFAN is not going to renew his contract in 2012. I've seen a wide list of actual candidates and fan suggestions. Let me throw out some opinions about these guys and the job in general.

Howie Rose is your #1 radio announcer. There is no replacing that. In the 50 year history of the New York Mets, they have always had a rotation of at least 2 play-by-play announcers (a list that includes ex-player and HOFer Ralph Kiner as a play-by-play man). Two of the announcers auditioning are basically analysts. That would be an interesting shift, though some fans would welcome having Howie Rose call all 9 innings.

Let me throw this out there. SNY is not going to allow the team of Gary (Cohen), Keith (Hernandez), Ron (Darling), and Kevin (Burkhardt) get broken up. So we're not going to see the reunion of Howie and Gary. And as much as I would like this pairing, I don't think we're going to see Howie Rose with Kevin Burkhardt together.

One rumor is that Chris Carlin of SNY is in the mix. Personally, I don't like him on TV, and I won't like him on the radio (though it would get him off of Mets pre/post game shows). But, he does have radio play-by-play experience calling Rutgers Football and Men's Basketball (I've never actually listened to him, so I have no idea if he's any good). I do think we're better off leaving him at SNY.

Billy Sample is in the mix. He had a short playing career, and has had a long resume as a broadcaster/writer (according to Wikipedia). I vaguely remember him on Atlanta Braves broadcasts on TBS and I know he's been with MLB.com. As good as he may be, I'm not sure how well he would fit in on Mets broadcasts.

WFAN's Ed Coleman is another candidate. I can live with him as a fill-in on the radio broadcasts, but he's much better suited to be WFAN's Mets beat reporter.

Jim Duquette is another candidate. This is an interesting choice, and the one I think is most likely to happen (based on no real information). He's an ex-GM. He's an ex-Met GM. He traded Scott Kazmir. After that, I stopped reading his bio. But to be fair, I think he was a lame-duck GM after Steve Phillips was fired and before Omar Minaya came in. He currently co-hosts a show on an MLB satellite radio channel (to which, I don't subscribe). He has no known playing career, but I've never thought an analyst serves much purpose on the radio because you don't have replay (ok, they can "spot trends"). There's a reason why a lot of baseball teams have gone with 2 play-by-play men on the radio. I think bringing him in would be an interesting change in direction for Mets radio. Imagine the stories of the Mets front office that he could tell.

I wonder if one of the SNY kid-casters is now old enough to take the job. No matter what, Mets radio broadcasts will be different in year 51.


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50 Years of the New York Mets

There's something really weird about seeing Mets and 50 together. I've been joking for a couple of years now about "Mets 2012, rejuvenated at 50!" The Mets came up with "Fantastic at 50", with the emphasis on "fan". And I don't mean to offend those who have reached that milestone age. But it just seems so big to see Mets and 50 together.

(image courtesy of ESPNNY.com)

A few thoughts on all of the announcements from today's 50th anniversary kickoff.

I'm glad the Mets are celebrating their 50th anniversary season and that they're honoring the past. And we know they're listening to the fans because they heard us and brought back Banner Day. I say it should be when Houston comes to town (also celebrating their 50th anniversary season, or at least, Houston should be celebrating it). The Astros are in for a weekend at the end of August with 2 afternoon games. Perfect.

Bobbleheads - that's always cool. I say after Tom Seaver should be Gary Carter. But remember that any giveaway will have a sponsor's logo fixed on it. I have a Tom Seaver bobblehead. He has an orange Spring Training/BP jersey in this one, which was the style at the time that I won it at a game in Port St. Lucie.

I'm also looking forward to the new exhibits at the Mets Hall of Fame and Museum. Some days, that's one of the better parts of the ballpark experience.

Back in July, I had a better idea for honoring the past. It includes banners, retired numbers, and officially naming the area outside the stadium as "Casey Stengel Plaza".

And now, the uniform changes.

I've heard something about a new BP hat and jersey. Anything has to be better than what they've been wearing since 2005 (what I call the "anatomically incorrect" jersey because the black is the dominant color for numbering and lettering and the orange is mostly hidden). I think all of MLB's BP hats look ugly, but I saw a picture of the new one that has orange piping on the top that looks more Metsy. Rule of thumb, black, as a color on uniforms, should be used in outlining and drop shadows only (if that).

And then the Mets announced new jerseys to go along with a single cap. Back to the traditional Mets look without the black drop shadow and going solely with the all blue caps. I don't like the new snow white jersey as much. I don't know if it's the appearance that the blue is too dark, or the blue piping around the collar and alongside the buttons (or both). But I didn't like the snow white jersey when it had the drop shadow as much as the pinstripe.

The updated pinstripe home jerseys and gray road jerseys just look "right" to me. When I think about a Mets jersey, those are what I think of. The black jersey is still around as an occasional alternate jersey (maybe only on the road). The real sharp looking blue jersey introduced last year as part of Los Mets may make an appearance this year and could become "official" next year. Personally, I'd have that replace the black and snow white jerseys as a Sunday home/road/doubleheader alternate jersey.

Maybe the play on the field will get me this excited. When I first saw all of the posts on Facebook earlier today, I felt like a kid at Hanukkah starting to open my presents.


Overall, I think the Mets are on the right track with their 50th anniversary, but I also think there's more they can do (read my ideas for the Mets 50th that I linked to earlier for some of what I mean). It would be nice if they could actually be rejuvenated at 50 instead of just starting to rebuild.



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Watching Reyes Leave

It sounds like Jose Reyes will not be a Met next season. Fine. Let him go. I hope it's the start of Sandy Alderson starting to turn things around with the Mets. It's time to say goodbye to those who were part of losing and injuries (something I was saying 2 1/2 years ago before the injuries became an issue), and it's time to bring in smarter spending.

Basic baseball spending principle - you can do more with your team if you don't throw 99% of the money at 1% of the players. Okay, in baseball, it may not be quite that extreme, but a GM can fill more holes (and there are many) by not throwing all of the available spending money at one player. I am all for filling in the holes more than I am in favor of bringing back a player who, while being very dynamic, was also very prone to injuries, and was one of the "leaders" of the team during the days in which the team had utterly failed. There are other "leaders" that I would get rid of who have been around the Mets for some time now (David Wright, you know who you are).

Yes, it's true that the Mets have money issues that will indeed impact their player salary spending. Maybe that has something to do with the expected decision to not have Reyes back (we haven't actually heard anything from the Mets that regardless of where he signs, Reyes will not be back with them next year - this is just conjecture based on the lack of news coming out of Queens regarding Reyes), and maybe it doesn't. As noted above, it's just smarter to let Reyes go and use the money elsewhere than it is to break the bank to bring him back.

I've seen some angry words by some Mets fans that seem to be directed towards the Mets for not having Reyes back. I think most of these people are short-sighted. Hold the hostility for Reyes when he returns to Queens.

Game 7

Editor's note: This is an updated version of a post that I wrote 2 years ago for the occasion of Game 7. This is also a kickoff to a feature for my blog that covers my 25 years as a Mets fan.

I have 2 distinct sets of memories of Game 7 of the 1986 World Series, which took place 25 years ago today. The first is of the first 7 innings, give or take a few pitches. It was the first time I sat down to watch a Mets game with an interest in watching it. The second is of the last 1 1/2 innings and some of the postgame show. I can almost recite that part of the TV broadcast word for word.

The first 7 innings I watched on TV live. I don't remember much about it since I haven't watched the replay/tape/DVD that often. I watched it for the first time about 10 years ago on Classic Sports or ESPN Classic or whatever it was called at the time. Watching the game then, there were a lot of little things that I remembered from the live broadcast (I couldn't even tell you what they were now). Things like Keith Hernandez shaking his head at the airplane flying overhead during his at bat in the 1st (I'm cheating and watching the DVD now). Lots of those "I remember that" moments for whatever portion of the game they showed then. It really was a good game, and not just a Mets romp, which I tend to forget.

Boy Shea got loud when the Mets woke up to tie the game in the 6th. Seemed to fit in with the 1986 Mets season. Mets fans really are the best, or were 25 years ago.

By my calculations, if the game started at 8pm (probably a few minutes after), then the end of the 7th was around 10:30pm. That would make sense. At 8 years old, on a school night, my bedtime was probably 10:30pm, and this baseball/Mets thing was a bit new and my parents didn't know what to do. My dad set up a tape in the VCR at some point before I had to go to bed, and the rest of the game I know from watching that tape over and over and over again.

I probably wore out that tape watching it so much. I probably memorized most of the spoken words from that part of the broadcast. You could feel the excitement in the air from watching on TV. The Mets had it in hand. Vin Scully was a poet at the microphone.

It's so noisy at Shea that you can't hear the airplanes.

High drive into deep right field. Evans back, at the wall. GONE!

Joe, you just lost your house.

And the Sox are down to their last strike, and this crowd is really ready to reach the heavens now.

A sidebar - the video tape, which is probably long gone, had the markings of a tape that had taped over, in that my dad may have taped the whole game, and taped something over the first about 2 1/2 hours. the tape did that speed-up thing that our VHS tapes did when coming out of a newer recording to the older recording on the tape. it did that just as Carter was grounding out to Spike Owen to end the 7th after the pitching change. I told you I memorized many things from the broadcast. I'll swear that it was Back to the Future taped over the first 7 innings, or however it was arranged, and I'll also swear that the same tape, after whatever post-game show NBC had that we taped was the Opening Day festivities from WOR. I do remember running home from school on Opening Day in 1987...oh hell, I'll save that one for next Opening Day. The tape is probably long gone to prove/disprove what I remember, but I have the important parts (Back to the Future, Game 7, and the Opening Day ceremony) on DVD.

When they get through the 9th, even though I've seen this at least 100 times in the past 25 years, I still feel the anticipation (not the type that I would have felt watching live or not knowing the outcome) of the Mets winning and the final out.

It's a bit weird for me to see Shea before the blue makeover was complete (it finished somewhere around 1987 or 1988, along with the new RF scoreboard screens). It's not quite the weirdly-colored Shea of the 60s and 70s, and not the all blue Shea with orange/blue/green/red seats that I knew for about 20 years. It's something in between.


Mets World Series Trivia - who were the 3 people in uniform for BOTH of the Mets World championships?

More trivia - 2 of the quotes are calls from the game (where a play was made). Can you put them both in context?



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