The Mets Police

1970 - the Mets dynasty ain't gonna happen, and it's a world where the only Met we don't boo is Buddy Harrelson.

I booed Buddy plenty when he was the manager (especially when he was afraid to come to the mound and Mike and the Mad DOg would do 5 hours a day killing him) but it's time he return home.

On this afternoon the script went awry as it so often does these days with the Mets, who are vainly spinning their wheels in pursuit of stumbling Pittsburgh. Line drives whistled through the infield like cannonballs at Balaclava. The Mets treated the baseballs as dangerous enemies, and Seaver was driven from the game after the sixth inning, his earliest departure of the year. Only Harrelson remained immune to the epidemic of bootery. Once, after gracefully saving a grounder headed for left field, he forced a runner at second, then kicked the dirt in disgust. He felt that his hurried throw had been too low to permit the double play. He was the only person in the ball park to think so. "Buddy," says roommate Seaver, "sets impossible goals for himself." In the very next game Harrelson muffed an easy ground ball on the first ball hit to him in the first inning, the errorless streak ended and he was freed to focus his concentration on the more important issue of the moment: helping the Mets back into first place before the season has run its course.




More below:

Bud Harrelson does not exactly have blacksmith's arms, - 09.07.70 - SI Vault

1.  Wear white pinstriped uniforms.

2.  Wear blue hats.  Just to be clear, wear blue Mets hats.

3.   Introduce Tom Seaver last.   Last.   Tom walks out to the mound in a white pinstriped #41 (vintage, no black shadows).

4.  Have Tom Seaver throw a pitch to Jerry Grote, who is also in a vintage uniform.

5.  Focus on the 1969 Mets and the 1986 Mets.

6.  Do not focus on the 2000 Mets or the Wild Card Mets.  This is a celebration of Tom Seaver and Keith Hernandez and Buddy Harrelson and Mookie Wilson.   This is not about Todd Pratt and Robin Ventura.   They can be there but it's not about them.

7.   Get Mookie Wilson to show up.  I understand he is mad at the Mets.  Just work it out.  $50,000 check, a job, a public apology - just make it happen.

8.  Get Davey Johnson to show up.   See #7.

9.  Don't let the Yankees steal what little history the Mets have.  Invite Strawberry, Gooden and Cone.   They are Mets.  Don't worry where else they played or didn't.  Invite them.

10.  Ignore everyone's warts.   Gooden, Strawberry, anyone else with personal issues - everyone is welcome.

11.  No matter what the weather is this week, make sure the final regular season game is the game people paid good money to attend at 1pm on Sunday.  If a makeup game is needed don't you dare play it Sunday night or Monday.  Get out of bed and play a split doubleheader at six in the morning.   The final game is 1pm and that's that.

12.  Surprise us with the retiring of Keith Hernandez' #17.   You can announce that it will happen next June if you need the sellout that bad, but announce it now.

13.  Play tape of the long-time PA announcer (I don't know his name) who sang Take Me Out To The Ballgame (on tape) in the 1980's and beyond.

14.  Win.

15.  Don't be eliminated.

16.  Honor Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner.

17.  No Citibank executives need to be part of this.  They can throw out the ball  at game 27 next season.

18.  Mention the Jets.

19.  Invite Joe Namath

20.  Mention the Beatles.

21.  Don't have imitation Beatles make an appearance.  Focus on the Mets.

22.  Do not mention Billy Joel.  He is not a major part of Shea history despite what he's been selling.

23.  Make sure all the "right" players are there.  If you are on item #23 on a blog called Mets Police, you know who I mean.

24.  Have some of the players from the bad teams.  I want to see Joel Youngblood and John Stearns.

25.   Remember that Jackie Robinson never played for the Mets nor at Shea.   No need to turn this into a celebration of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

That's a quick 25 off the top of my head...what are your suggestions?

The Mets Police enjoy busting Howie's chops for claiming "about 40,000" at Shea when the stadium is clearly half empty.

You young kids probably don't recall that Howie once was the original kind of Mets Police.

He used to host Mets Extra and really give the Mets a hard time. Howie would ride them so hard that the Mets eventually forced WFAN to keep Howie away from the game adjacency, and made us suffer through someone named Todd Kalas (nepotism, look it up).

I decided to look back at Google News and remember how cool Howie was before he put on the rose colored attendance goggles. Just read these snippets and get a feel for old Howie. Howie, we miss you. Fran Healey must have stolen your spirit. At least you still hate the black uniforms.

METS' HARRELSON COULDN'T CUT IT

THE SOUND OF ALL-SPORTS RADIO IS MOSTLY ALL SNOOZE

So there's talk that the Mets would have a former player represent each day of the Shea Countdown Clock - so Craig Swan would show up with 27 days left and Hernandez with 17 etc. Presumably that means Mookie would do the last day (topic for another day).

Anyways, Cyclonesfan pulled this together for me, and he used Mets By The Numbers as a source of info....today's topic is Who is the Real Number?

First in a series...

1

Rightful Owner: Mookie Wilson
Rent-A-Met: Vince Coleman
Cyclonesfan's Comment: I'm surprised the Mets haven’t unofficially retired 1 considering how popular Mookie was
The Mets Police say: doesn't deserve to be on the fence, but if it were in semi-limbo like #24 that would be cool. Definitely Mookie's number.

2

Rightful Owner: Bobby Valentine
Rent-A-Met: none suggested, also no comment provided.

The Mets Police say: You gonna fly Bobby V in for the ceremony? You can't do that to Willie. How about Jose Oquendo? That would seem silly too.

3

Rightful Owner: Bud Harrelson / Rafael Santana
Rent-A-Met: Damon Easley
Cyclonesfan's Comment: OK, Raffy wasn't great, but he was a Met and an anchor in the infield

The Mets Police say: it's time to bring Buddy back into the fold. Sure he was afraid to go to the mound but in hindsight it got a lot worse than Buddy in the dugout (cough, September 2007).

4

Rightful Owner: Ron Swoboda / Lenny Dykstra
Rent-A-Met: Robin Ventura
Cyclonesfan's Comment: Regardless of the Grand-Slam Single, Ventura was a White Sox

The Mets Police say: tough call. If decisions must be made.....Swoboda.