Shea Flashback - a final farewell

It was a year ago today that a group of Mets fans, about 200 strong, came out to the see the remains of Shea Stadium, one last time together, a few weeks before the final pieces fell.

Here's the start of a multi-post recap that I wrote a year ago on the event. It's quite long, but there was so much to say.

I also took a lot of pictures.


Let's hear your stories...


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Naming rights issues in Port St. Lucie?

An interesting piece coming out of the Treasure Coast in Florida about the naming rights of "Tradition Field" in Port St. Lucie, which you can read here.

To fill you in, it looks like the group that owns the name "Tradition" hasn't made their payment to St. Lucie County for the naming rights to the Mets' Spring Training ballpark (it was due a month ago), and there's speculation that they won't make their payment to the Mets in another month. You can catch up on the story here, here, and here.

While nothing's changing now, columnist Ray McNulty has an interesting idea for the Mets (from the first article linked above)

Pay for it yourselves — at least until Core Communities comes through (which now appears highly unlikely) or you can land another title sponsor.

Just write a check to the county for the $75,000 its not getting from Core Communities and, if necessary, eat the $75,000 you’re probably not going to get in March.
...
This is a wonderful opportunity to step forward during this economically challenging stretch and show your gratitude to the county and its money-strapped residents for 22 years of loyal support.

It’s a chance to buy a priceless amount of goodwill in the community at a bargain-basement price.

You’d come across as caring and compassionate, sensitive and generous, even noble.

All for a paltry $75,000.

And if you do this now, before pitchers and catchers report to camp, you’d create a feel-good buzz that would resonate throughout the team’s spring-training stay.

Some interesting stuff going on down there. It really shouldn't affect the Mets as a team at all. But Ray's idea of the Mets imposing some good will really could be a gold star on a blank sheet that they have right now.


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Meet the Mets

This morning I woke up and started reading the headlines and blogs and saw a few posts on the passing of Jane Jarvis this past Monday at age 94. Aside from her career playing jazz music, she was also known to the first generations of Mets fans as the organist from Shea Stadium.

Her playing days at Shea were before my time. I only know her from the history that I've learned in my 23+ years as a Mets fan. So I'll send you to two of my favorite blogs to get some perspective.

Greg Prince shares a story of meeting her a few years ago.
And over at loge13.com comes this post from almost 2 years ago about Jane. Update: - Loge13.com's post today marking her passing.

In honor of Jane, please take a few minutes to find your "Meet the Mets" CD, and play the organ version of the 1964 Meet the Mets song. For me, it comes 3 weeks earlier than I would normally go to find it.


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Shea was better than the cookie cutters

Watching some classic games and highlight films on MLB Network and SNY (including the 1976 and 1984 Mets Yearbook videos and a classic (1995) Mets loss on MLB Network) and reading some comments to the programming note I posted on the facebook version of this site, I realized that Shea was better than the cookie cutter ballparks of a slighly later vintage.

There was Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Vetrans Stadium in Philadelphia, Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, all opened in the early 1970s, and all had no charm. All were round, gray, and had artificial turf. They were multi-purpose stadiums. There was no character. The "cookie cutters".

They were all trying to follow Shea, Busch Stadium, Oakland-Alameda County Stadium, Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Those were the multi-purpose stadiums of the 1960s.

The ballparks of the '60s had color. They all looked different. Most had natural grass. The ballparks of the '70s all looked the same. They all had artificial turf. No imagination.

Of them all, only Oakland's ballpark still stands (and still hosts both baseball and football). Of the others, Shea was the first to go up, and Shea was the last to come down. It widthstood the the other ballparks from the same era, and the next era. Most of those other places needed to be replaced, and have been, with something much nicer looking. Shea, well, I won't go there.


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Proof that the fan bloggers are smart

Bloggers and fans have been saying this for most of the offseason. Some probably since last summer (myself included). Now it's in the mainstream media, thanks to Ken Rosenthal on FOXSports.com.

What have all of us been saying? That the Mets are dysfunctional. I won't go into why. It's like preaching to the choir. But what it does mean is that we, the fans and fan bloggers, ARE NOT WRONG. Something we have been saying for several months is now being said by a well respected national journalist. It means that WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT. We're not just some cranky, upset fans making up excuses.

I'm just saying...Not that we can do anything to fix the problem. Or can we?...


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Top 10 Mets injuries and mishaps in 2009

From the home office at the William A. Shea Municipal Stadium Memorial Parking Lot in Flushing, Queens, it's tonight's Top 10 List. Tonight, the top 10 injuries and mishaps to befall the Mets in 2009.

Number 10 - Oliver Perez shows up in camp

Number 9 - Alex Cora plays half the season without the use of his thumbs

Number 8 - Mike Pelfrey claims an earthquake shook the pitcher's mound in San Francisco

Number 7 - Jose Reyes is on the DL day-to-day for the last 3/4 of the season

Number 6 - David Wright is beaned on the head by a pitch and when he comes to, he thinks he's "huntin wabbits"

Number 5 - Dozens of Mets fans get carpel tunnel syndrome complaining on their blogs about their first experiences at Citi Field

Number 4 - Someone saves Jeff Wilpon from jumping off of what was then called the Gil Hodges bridge

Number 3 - Omar Minaya removes his shirt during a press conference and challenges Adam Rubin to a fight in the parking lot after work

Number 2 - Ryan Church slips on a banana peel rounding 3rd base causing him to miss the bag in a game in Los Angeles

And the number 1 mishap for the Mets in 2009...

Luis Castillo falls down the dugout steps


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We need another Frank Cashen

A great article in the Port St. Lucie area newspaper yesterday (available online at TCPalm.com) by Ray McNulty on former Mets GM, and soon-to-be Mets HOFer, Frank Cashen, here. This is the type of GM that we need in Flushing.

Some items that I was unaware of.

Frank Cashen was an award winning sportswriter in Baltimore before joining the Orioles front office.

Frank Cashen created the Mets Hall of Fame.

“I started it because I think it’s good for an organization to honor its past and have successful alumni around,” said Cashen, who already has been enshrined in the Orioles Hall of Fame. “For some reason, the Mets stopped doing it in 2002. I was gone by then, so I don’t know why, exactly. But I’m glad they’ve started it up again.

Like I said, this is the type of guy we need running the Mets.

Starting with the 1984 season, under Frank Cashen (until 1990), the Mets never finished worse than 2nd place in the 6-team NL East, with 1989 being the worst of those years (87 wins, 6 games back).


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