The Mets Police

In 2008 I took a lot of shots at Howie Rose because he was citing attendance figures as if there were actually 45,000 people in Shea, when there clearly weren't (yes I understand the "paid" thing but Howie is better than that.)   In 2009, Howie came back strong and I hereby anoint him a general in the Blue Cap Army.   From April 19th 2009.

Today I welcome back the real Howie Rose to the Mets Police.

This time last year I was quite frustrated with Mr. Rose as he would tell me every night that there were 40,000 people at Shea when there clearly weren't (and no he wasn't talking paid attendance.)

Yesterday, the real Howie Rose was back on the air.  The Howie Rose of my youth.  The Howie Rose that was such a thorn in the side of the Mets that they once had a rule where he couldn't be on WFAN until a half hour after  the game.

Yesterday Howie opened up the radio cast with a rip into the Mets.  I'm paraphrasing but it was something along the lines of "the Mets are actually wearing blue!   (sarcastically) Because when your official colors are blue and orange why would you wear blue?   It's the fifth home game and they finally got around to wearing their primary colors, although it's with the snow whites, maybe one of these days they'll wear their primary uniforms with the pinstripes."  (That's pretty close, I wish I had a transcript.)

Look at the two pictures on the left.  One looks like a baseball team, the other a softball team.   If they want to have Black Uniform Sundays, fine - I'll eat crow - but would it kill them to  look like a baseball team the other six days?   Lots of fans this week have sent notes agreeing.

Later in the game Howie took a preemptive strike about moving the fences in for 2010.   If you've been to a game at Citi you'll notice the ball doesn't carry all that well.  That's fine with me, the Mets have always been about pitching.  It's fine with Howie too, and he chided the Mets in advance for even considering moving in the fences.  This is our new home, let's figure out how to play in it and use it to our advantage.  We don't need games decided by luck and winds like the Yankees will at Sammy Hagar Stadium in the Bronx.   Pitching and defense.

Hopefully, the real Howie is back.   If we can have the uncensored Howie Rose in the booth it will be a great listen.

Howie, I hereby appoint you leader of the No-Black Crusade.  Please mention it every single day.

For you kids that know nothing about the Mets prior to Mike Piazza...read this, Howie used to be quite annoying to the Mets back in the day.

Howie would rip the black uniforms again a few days later.

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Howie is in the middle of another black uniform rant.

He was talking about how nice the uniforms look, and said the cream color with the blue would be a nice basis for any potential redesign.   I've (me, Shannon not Howie) found fans like this weekend's look, even with the non-modern NY.

Howie then started talking about some website - I will assume it was Uni Watch but my iphone buffered and I lost it - and suggested they mock up these throwbacks with a traditional Mets script on front.  If anyone is good at photoshop and wants to try it I will post it.

He also said that this would be the last time they wear them.  I wonder if they are wearing them Monday - I wanted to wear my NY Giants jersey when I head out there tomorrow.

So I started typing fast and furiously and the below is a big-time paraphrase of what Howie said.   He was talking about the uniforms, the cream and how the Mets redesign should eliminate any and all black....now here's the paraphrase as I typed:

...based upon what the fans  have told them (the Mets), they need to honor their tradition and its a tradition worth honoring.


Look at the teams (I missed the exact list but it was at least the Yankees and Cardinals, possibly Giants and Dodgers)...they dont change colors every year.


The Mets would be well suited to follow their lead, personally speaking...


Amen Howie.  It's so nice to have a fan in the booth.

I will post lots of pictures of the throwbacks in a few days.  There's too many pictures on the main page right now and I don't want to slow down the site further.

If someone wants to take a crack at the photoshop idea...

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During the top of the first Sunday...big time paraphrasing:

The Mets are wearing their alternate black road uniform tops today at the behest of Charlie Samuels.  Charlie was all hopped up yesterday that they won while wearing the non-Mets black uniforms.


Then either Howie or Wayne said that it's funny that you never hear from Charlie when the Mets lose in black uniforms.

While we're talking about Howie - what a fine play by play guy he has become.  He was never awesome on Sportschannel where he was burdened with Fran Healy, but since becoming the main voice of the Mets following Murph's death, Howie has really hit his stride.

Howie was born in 1954 so hopefully we will get another 20 years out of him.  It also means he was a young man when he was hosting Mets Extra.

It's great having a real Mets fan in the booth, not a paycheck fan like Sterling (seriously, if Sterling became the voice of the Diamonbacks, suddenly Arizona would be a shrine).

Every time I hear Suzyn genuflect at the beginning of the game I throw up.  Can you imagine someone having to say "and now here he is, the VOICE of the New York Mets - Mr. Bob Murphy?"..and yeah I understand Mr. Murphy wasn't the nicest person to work with either.  

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Those of us who are a certain age remember fondly the old rain-delay films that Channel 9 would show.   They were cool video yearbooks, and had the cheesy crack sound effect added on every time someone connected with the ball.   You see pieces of them from time to time on SNY coming back from commercial.  I know for me, it was how I learned about a lot of things before my time like 1969 and 1973.

I have a program idea for SNY.  I call it "How I Met The Mets" and it's loosely based upon the setup of the sitcom of CBS's "How I Met Your Mother."  If you've never seen the show, it's a guy 20 or so years from now telling his kids about..well, how he met their mother.   The narration always starts with something like "Kids, did I ever tell you about the time...."  but what often happens is he interrupts his own story and tells of something out of chronological sequence.   If you've never seen the show this might be hard to follow but I think it would work great for some repackaged SNY filler shows and rain delay theater.

So join me for the pilot episode of "How I Met The Mets..."

Picture two kids in Mets attire sitting on a couch.

• Narrator:  Kids, did I ever tell you about the grand-slam single?  It was game 5 of the NLCS and Robin Ventura hit one over the wall (video of the play obviously)
  
• Narrator:  hang on...let me back up a bit.  Back in those days the Mets and Braves hated each other, and unfortunately the Braves often got the better end of the deal
  
• (various clips of bad Mets plays, clips of the Braves winning pennants, etc)
  
• The year before the Mets had gotten Mike Piazza (clips)
• ..but we finally made it to the playoffs.  There was a player named Todd Pratt....(clip)
  
• highlights of NLDS and NLCS
• ...and that's how Robin Ventura hit a grand slam single

The narrator on the CBS show is Bob Saget.  It would be cool to get him, or if it is cheaper and easier, I think Howie Rose would be great.

SNY - here's a whole bunch of episodes we could bang out (thanks to Mets Walkoffs for the assist).

Kids did I tell you about the time.....

• Mike Piazza homered after 9/11?
  
• The Mets traded Tom Seaver?
• Bob Murphy said "they win the damn thing?"
  
• A blackout struck in the middle of a game?
  
• A black cat ruined the Cubs season?
  
• A guy named Mike Scott almost ruined 1986?
  
• Tom Seaver struck out 10 in a row?
  
• Terry Pendleton broke our backs on 9/11/87?
  
• Mike Scioscia ruined the 1988 playoffs for us?
  
• The 1962 Mets were hideous?
  
• The Mets traded for Keith Hernandez?
  
• Tommie Agee stold home to beat the Dodgers in 1970?
  
• Gary Carter joined the Mets and homered on opening day?
  
• The ball on the wall in 1973?
  
• Tom Seaver returned in 1983?
• A fly ball killed a bird at Shea?
  
• The Mets and Reds had a big fight and Orosco and McDowell had to shuttle back and forth?
  
• Rusty Staub spent the afternoon switching between LF and RF?
  
• Bud Harrelson had a fight with Pete Rose?
  
• They closed down Shea?
  

How about it SNY?  It could be a cooler, hipper version of Yankeeography.

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"The Mets are wearing their snow whites tonight, with blue, hey how about that!  That after they lost three in a row in those black jerseys."   He said black the way a three year old says yuck when you make him eat spinach.

Today I welcome back the real Howie Rose to the Mets Police.

This time last year I was quite frustrated with Mr. Rose as he would tell me every night that there were 40,000 people at Shea when there clearly weren't (and no he wasn't talking paid attendance.)

Yesterday, the real Howie Rose was back on the air.  The Howie Rose of my youth.  The Howie Rose that was such a thorn in the side of the Mets that they once had a rule where he couldn't be on WFAN until a half hour after  the game.

Yesterday Howie opened up the radio cast with a rip into the Mets.  I'm paraphrasing but it was something along the lines of "the Mets are actually wearing blue!   (sarcastically) Because when your official colors are blue and orange why would you wear blue?   It's the fifth home game and they finally got around to wearing their primary colors, although it's with the snow whites, maybe one of these days they'll wear their primary uniforms with the pinstripes."  (That's pretty close, I wish I had a transcript.)

Look at the two pictures on the left.  One looks like a baseball team, the other a softball team.   If they want to have Black Uniform Sundays, fine - I'll eat crow - but would it kill them to  look like a baseball team the other six days?   Lots of fans this week have sent notes agreeing.

Later in the game Howie took a preemptive strike about moving the fences in for 2010.   If you've been to a game at Citi you'll notice the ball doesn't carry all that well.  That's fine with me, the Mets have always been about pitching.  It's fine with Howie too, and he chided the Mets in advance for even considering moving in the fences.  This is our new home, let's figure out how to play in it and use it to our advantage.  We don't need games decided by luck and winds like the Yankees will at Sammy Hagar Stadium in the Bronx.   Pitching and defense.

Hopefully, the real Howie is back.   If we can have the uncensored Howie Rose in the booth it will be a great listen.  

Howie, I hereby appoint you leader of the No-Black Crusade.  Please mention it every single day.

For you kids that know nothing about the Mets prior to Mike Piazza...read this, Howie used to be quite annoying to the Mets back in the day.

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@metspolice

The Jets should retire Brett Favre's number right now.   He is a Hall of Famer.  He is one of the best ever to play his position.   He is the best at his position to ever play for the Jets.

Do you think that's a stupid suggestion?  Then go back to the sentence above and replace Brett Favre and Jets with "Mike Piazza" and Mets.     It's still a bad suggestion.  That's my point.

I'm heading out to the Mr. Mets dash with Mets Police Junior and he dressed himself.  He is wearing a black Mets shirt and the blue/black hybrid hat.  I'm choosing to congratulate him rather than berate him over the organization's marketing scheme.    But if you see us at the game roll your eyes and make fun of our hypocrisy.

Newsday wrote a nice piece about Kelvin Torve, best known for wearing #24 after Willie Mays.  As much as I give Wilpon crap about ignoring the Giants, there is no reason the Mets (who are not the Giants nor are they the Dodgers despite evidence to the contrary at N'Ebbetts Field) - there's no reason the Mets should not issue #24.  They give out 17 to anyone and everyone, and that was worn by the captain who had a ring.

Speaking of captains, can we just give the C to #5 already?

Speaking of captains, will Jerry be shaking Gary Carter's hand?   Will the Mets have Gary Carter back?  Oh yeah he was a Dodger in 1991 so they will.  Then again he was a Giant in 1990 so maybe they won't.

Speaking of Giants, the Football type are evil money grubbers for screwing their fans with PSLs.  I have nothing new to add but I don't like dropping the subject.

Speaking of PSL's - the Jets haven't announced theirs yet.  Something tells me the arrival of Brett Favre just made your seats more expensive.

The Little League World Series is evil.  There is no reason to subject 12 year olds to the pressures of playing on ESPN.   What's wrong with being the champion of your town.  Your county.  Even your state.   Why do we have to have an international tournament.    What does it mean when teams will use a 16 year old to win (I've had that happen to me - it wasn't Danny Almonte - but someone used a 16 year old against my 12's.  Why???)    These aren't even real teams, they are regional all-star compilations.   It's just offensive.  Go win the county championship and let your town have a parade.   Enough.  Done.

It's starting to look like my September 21st Yankee tickets will be quite valuable since there won't be any games in October,   Conversely I was looking to sell my September 7th Mets-Phils tickets so I could watch football that day, and they are going for nine bucks on stubhub.   There's no demand what so ever for Mets tickets even thought they've sold more tickets than ever.  I think it's the old "Howie Rose 40,000" again.  For you newbies, Howie often counts high when estimating the amount of people in the stadium.

At last look $336 gets you into the final game at Yankee.  $127 gets you into Shea on the 28th of September, but as well all know there will be games there in October.  I wonder if Seaver can be bothered to come.

Chris Carrino sounded great doing the (evil) Giants game on WFAN the other day.  Of the young sportscasters named Chris around these parts he's the best and I'll leave it at that.  Hopefully he gets some more chances.

I loved the Olympic bike race yesterday.  6 hours?  150 miles?  Those are real men.  Swimming is cool.   NBC's coverage seems to lack the nauseating 'up close and personal' nonsense and it's more events focused.  Nice.  Now someone tell them there are other countries too.  

Mets Police are big Misty May (sigh -Treanor) fans and so is President Bush!
 

Finally, this has nothing to do with sports but don't clone your dog.  There will be four million dogs "put to sleep" this year.  Your dog might look similar, but it's not the same dog.  Go hit a shelter.

So the Mets can come from behind!  Last night's game totally looked like another rollover and die type loss, so it was impressive in that respect.  Let's hope it lasts.

Could Jose Reyes wait more than five seconds after the game to take his shirt out.  Is his brain thinking "I can't wait until this game is over so I can look for a knucklehead."    I would not be surprised if he starts wearing his hat backwards at SS.

Spent a lot of time walking the dog listening to out of town broadcasts this week.  The Rays have a very nice clean broadcast.  I don't know who the dudes are (and can't be bothered to look it up) but they call the game, don't schtick it up, and seem to do a lot of homework about the opposition.  Very nice.


I also checked out the Cardinals broadcast.   Again I can't be bothered to research who the guys are (holiday weekend and blogging from the remote sand castle) - but it's basically guy with a regional accent and smooth generic announcer voice guy.  I hated it and turned it off after two outs.  I guess it's where I'm from (not St. Louis) that makes me not dig it because you know what's on WFAN - a guy with a regional accent and a smooth generic announcer guy.

As we wake up this morning, Joe Torre has his team a half game out of first place.   I'd like to see Joe win the west.   He deserved better in the Bronx.  This is going to wind up being an oddball final season at Yankee Stadium II - no Torre, no Bob Sheppard, no playoffs.

As we wake up this morning, the Tampa Bay Rays have the best record in baseball.  I feel like Rip Van Winkle. 

Missed this a week ago, and sorry to hear it.  The Tampa Tribune reported:

The Tampa Bay Rays will abandon ambitious plans to build a $450 million baseball stadium on the downtown waterfront in four years and instead get more people involved in assessing other locations, the team announced Wednesday.

The team, President Matt Silverman said at a news conference, no longer will seek the St. Petersburg public's vote this November on the open-air, 34,000-seat ballpark that the Rays proposed for the site of Progress Energy Park, home of Al Lang Field.

Open Letter To Verizon.   Ok we got it.  FIOS is great, Kevin Garnett has a lot of TVs and can watch TV in any room.  Please make it stop.  No more commercials.

Mets Police heading to Philly to investigate first hand what horrible uniform combination they will roll out today.  Would it kill them to wear the gray road uniforms?

Tomorrow on Mets Police - an open letter from a football Giants fan about personal seat licenses.  Good stuff, I'm saving it for a weekday.

From the Post:

The Brooklyn Cyclones' owner owes the city nearly $130,000 for underreported attendance and special-event income, city Comptroller William Thompson charged in an audit to be released today.

It's alleged they under-reported by 28,000+ fans.   The team says that the city knows bleachers aren't part of the count.    I wonder why that is?

The Mets Police suggest the city hire Howie Rose, who can continually claim there are "about 40,000" in the stands - that way the city can make money off the Wilpon Juniors.

No truth to the rumor that the Mets will move the New Orleans team to upper Manhattan where there supposedly was once a National League team with a familiar looking NY logo.

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

The Iowa Cubs played in front of zero fans on Saturday. Because of the flooding, a curfew did not allow any fans to attend the game, but the team decided to play anyway.

It is rumored that Howie Rose was broadcasting the game and said "about 40,000" in the stands, as he often says of obviously empty Shea Stadium. No confirmation of that yet as Howie was supposed to be in Flushing at the undomed stadium across from the new undomed stadium.

http://www.kcci.com/news/16609727/detail.html

Howie,

Please stop telling us how hard the Mets have it. Oh those poor Mets have to play two games today, fly on a plane to Los Angeles, take a bus ride, and then play baseball again. Oh then those poor Mets have to fly from Los Angeles to Denver on Thursday. Oh the humanity.

Please stop. You just said (as I type) "most people don't want to hear about it." Correct. Stop.

I wonder who will manage game two today?

So I saved this for Monday so more people would see it. On Thursday the Mets announced there were nearly 53,000 people at Shea. Yes I know they announce paid attendance.

Howie Rose, during the 9th inning, conceded the point and suggested there were 40,000. No way no way no way.

Another nice day out so I'm trying not to get suckered in to the blog all day.

Heard Howie Rose once again claim about "40,000" in the stands yesterday. They announced 53,000 paid. So as Bondy pointed out earlier in the week - are there really 13,000 no-shows and what does that mean? Why would 13,000 people not use tickets.

More on Howie and "40,000" tomorrow (with photos) - I love ya Howie but I suspect something rotten in Denmark.


Over the years I've heard not so nice things about Tom Seaver. I only met him once, as a very very young lad and he was nice to this 4 year old - but Raissman says Hernandez said on TV: "I love Tom, but in '83, when I got traded over (to the Mets), the last time we went into Philadelphia we had a Sunday game and Tom wasn't pitching," Hernandez said. "And Tom took the train back to Connecticut and didn't stay for the game. I was just stunned."

Kinda bored with "the turnaround." Folks ya gotta be halfway consistent. On Monday 80% of the fans would have paid for Willie's cab back to the Bronx. Win 4 out of 5, with Santana next then 6 games against bad teams - and suddenly it's 1986. I'll remind everyone that after winning two against the Yankees everyone was buying World Series tickets, then we spent a week trying to get Willie fired. Reminds me of that time Jets fans were chanting "Super Bowl!" in the sportbar, and then Marino called "clock." Calm down everyone, Willie won't be here in September.

Pedro being Pedro. It was actually weird to see him in the dugout yesterday. I suggest Willie keep that bullpen well rested today and tomorrow.

Wally Backman. Good article in the Post checks in with Wally. The guy should've gotten the job before Whiny Randolph complained nobody would give him a chance, even though he had never managed in the minors. Poor Wally didn't even have his name come up this time. Hopefully Mazzilli will make him his bench coach when Omar finally makes the change. http://www.nypost.com/seven/06012008/sports/mets/major_obstacle_113487.htm

Mike's Mets talks about trades: but focuses on the good ones. I'm still not over the second worst trade ever - Juan Samuel, and the worst trade ever: David Cone for Jeff Kent (who will somehow be a Hall of Famer) and the just awful Ryan Thompson. Every time this comes up I say the same thing and always will - I would STILL rather have David Cone NOW than those two. http://www.mikesmets.com/2008/06/a_different_kind_of_trade_talk.html

I'm still fascinated with The Rays. Some guy named Scott Kazmir (and some bullpen help) threw a shutout yesterday, and The Rays actually had a sellout (aided by a post-game Trace Adkins concert.) Maybe the Mets could offer them a crappy pitcher and get a gem. Oh wait...

So I thought I'd see what was up with The Rays by using Google and I found this link http://sticksoffire.com/2008/06/01/tampa-bay-rays-on-the-intertubes/ which took me to a bunch of Rays blogs.

The Tampa Tribune talks to the groundskeepers about the changing atmosphere.
"Obviously, you have a lot more energy when you come to work," he said. "When you're doing damage control all the time, it saps your strength. This is the way it's supposed to be. This is an adrenaline rush. It's hard to work the kind of hours we work, and you need to have some kind of a boost, and that's what this is. This is a boost."
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/jun/01/na-workers-bask-in-rays-glow-its-a-lot-more-pleasa/?sports-rays

Tampa Tribune also suggests things don't look good for a stadium.

68 percent oppose the Rays proposal;

82 percent says there is not enough parking downtown;

58 percent are unwilling to extend the tax payments at Tropicana Field to pay for a new ballpark.

But these folks want one: http://www.majorleaguedowntown.com/

Thanks again ESPN - I sure do hate sitting at the ballpark when it's 80 and sunny, when I can go at night and get home at 2am.

Listening to Howie call the 9th inning - sure did sound like he thought he was calling Willie's final inning.

Will it be Jerry Manuel or will it be Lee? All the newspapers had those at the top two - pretty funny because Lee wasn't even mentioned until this jerk here started blogging.

Meanwhile on SI.com: SI learned that on the eve of the Subway Series, Mets COO Jeff Wilpon called together Randolph and GM Omar Minaya to impart this message: "You guys need to turn it around, and turn it around quickly.''

I'm predicting Jerry, and I'm predicting the fanbase will be even more ornery that under Willie.