The Mets Police

Sparks sent this in:

The SNY broadcast put up this graphic during the game Thursday night.  Amazingly, no one in the booth asked the obvious question of "What else do four of these guys have in common?"


The answer is that they have color photos right?

Jimmie Foxx is like the NY Baseball Giants.  Never mentioned.




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Been saying this all season long....including during the suspension.  Good piece on Newsday.com

So before you stand up and boo Manny tonight, Mets fans, think twice. Remember how badly you wanted Manny during the off-season, and ask yourself this question: Would we take him right now, even with those PED scarlet letters painted all over his chest?




You're darn right we would.  Read here.

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Wow, once again I'm glad I taped the game so I could watch it later.   Kenny Albert sure made me miss the SNY guys.   Kenny must have a famous father or something because there's no way he earned a national play by play baseball gig.  He is terrible.  I know I'm supposed to genuflect at the Altar of Albert but I'm not.   I wonder if that is his real speaking voice or if he puts on a Marv-lite impression?

What was the point of showing me Manny Ramirez at bats.  It was his second game back, and good job out of McCarver on calling out Fox on hyping the return of someone from susupension.   I wanted to watch lots of Manny at-bats this season but Omar wouldn't let me.

I'm glad baseball hyped the Gehrig thing - I tuned into the Yankee radiocast at 1pm to not hear it.  Maybe they aired it in the pregame, but I sort of expected to hear it.  Did they do it later?

I hate the way Sterling sits there in silence making Suzyn vamp right before first pitch.  He will not say a word until the first pitch is on the way and she does her genuflecting before him.  Truly nauseating.  Put on the game today right at 1pm to see what I mean.  You can switch over to Howie right at first pitch.

Finally, the Media Goon asks if the Toronto (Canada) Blue Jays were happy to wear the Stars & Stripes?   It really makes no sense if you think about it.

I'm pretty sure the red hats are universally hated, no?

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For those of you who like road trips....

...Casey Blake Bobblehead Night is May 20th in Los Angeles (vs. the Mets)

....Adam Jones Bobblehead Night June 17th in Baltimore (also vs. the Mets)

Sadly although there is Manny Ramirez Bobblehead Night as well, it in no way includes the Mets.

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On my way into work this morning I caught a discussion on WFAN where a caller tried to buy a personalized jersey on the Mets website with the name Ramirez and the number 24 but was told it was restricted. This is the message that you are given:

Your current entry cannot be processed. Some entries are prohibited due to guidelines for past and present player names. Please create a new entry.

I decided to try a few others. No luck on Jeter 2 or Rivera 42.

OK, so MLB is blocking player/number combinations from current teams.

Not so fast.

I decided to try a non-star - the backup catcher on the KC Royals, Brayan Pena, number 39. Now I get this message:

Great choice! To purchase your customized jersey, click on "ADD TO CART."

So it seems that if you are a super-star MLB has one policy, but if you are a no-name player they have another.

Not only that, but Rivera and Ramirez are fairly common names in this area. What if Mr. Ramirez was both a Mets fan and a Willie Mays fan? Sorry, we won't take your $240.

But they'll still take $400 million from CitiGroup.

Oh by the way, you can get a Madoff 00 jersey.

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Newsday reports only 10 to 15 people attended the second Million Manny March.

Lack of promotion?

Omar's comments the other day shut down everyone's enthusiasm?

A sense that it just wouldn't work?

People just can't be bothered to go to Manhattan?

It will be very interesting to see where Manny lands.  I still see him playing on the wring side of 161st street very close to where the ghosts used to live.

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Watch for yourself. 

We aren't getting Manny. Start bitching. 

"There's not gonna be no more big move after this." A double negative. Maybe Omar gave a Clinton-esque response? Not no big move = big move? A guy can dream, right... 

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The Wall Street Journal reports that Citi is considering backing out of the Mets deal.   I love saying "told you so" so "told you so."   For the millionth time, all the Mets need to do is re-do the deal so the money is on the back end and everyone will look cooperative and respectful of taxpayers.   Jackie Robinson Stadium here we come (until they rename it after the Not So Great Depression ends).  Story here 

The Ledger quotes the LA Times as saying Manny rejected one year for $25M.   Hey Mets, you need media coverage on the Citi thing.  Good time to offer Manny two for $25M.  If he rejects it you shut up the fans.  If he accepts you win the pennant.

Finally, I will guess many Mets fans are Springsteen fans.  Did you have problems with Ticketmaster yesterday?  Some folks are making accusations.

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The Mets and Oliver Perez have agreed to a three year, $36 million deal.

Ollie is lefty, only 27, and proved he can pitch in New York.   That's a solid signing.

My question to Mets fans is:  Is this team any better than 2008?

Now that Ollie is back, here's a similar to what lineup you can expect to see every 5th day.  Ready?

SS Reyes
CF Beltran
1B Delgado
3B Wright
LF  Evans
2B  Martinez
RF Church
C Castro
P Perez

Impressed?  That was the lineup they started on September 28th when Shea closed down.

Want to swap Martinez for Luis Castillo?  Great!   You say Murphy/Tatis/Pagan/Random Dude is better than Evans?  Great!

Does this team actually seem any better?

How about this rotation?  Santana, Perez, Maine, Pelfrey and your choice of Pedro or a random guy from the Nationals.   It's the same team.

2008 had an all-star closer.   2009 will have an all-star closer.

It looks like the Mets think last year's team was good enough except for the bullpen.  Hopefully J.J. Putz and K-Rod won't blow thirty games like last year's crew did.  To be fair to Omar, maybe if they didn't blow 5 of those games you have a much different season.

If you look back to Opening Day 2008 and Willie's boys, they basically started the same offense that they did on closing day - just swap the LF and C for different names with similar abilities.

One last thought about the lineup because I can't ignore it and don't know why the Mets do.   I'm just going to swap in one name.  I'm not going to run any stats.  I'm not going to worry about lefty-righty.  I'm just going to replace one name.  Tell me if you'd be willing to go to war with this?




In the Daily News, Adam Rubin has the payroll at about $135 million.  The Wilpon Cap is rumored to be at $160 million.   Hmmm, there's an extra $25 million there.  I wonder what kind of player you could get with that kind of change?

New York Sports Examiner
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I don't have much more to share about the Million Manny March 2 other than what was in the News - but here's the deal.

Thursday 7pm.  Outside SNY (you can't miss it) on 51st and 6th.

At least one fan on mets.com offered up some suggested signs.  More here.

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Jerry Manuel:

I'm like the fans: If we get him, cool. If not, we'll deal with it. We have a pretty good team.

"If you've got a guy who performs on the field, you can handle the rest of that stuff. I don't think it's an issue. I don't have a problem with the clubhouse. I've got an office that's about so big.  The clubhouse, I let them do what they do."

The ever so wise Jerry on the silly World Baseball "Classic":

Of course, my first spring training, you'd love to say no distractions, no WBC. That'd be good for me. 

And my Jerry love-fest continues as he asks Over-Reyes to take responsibility!

That's the next thing for him, to add some responsibilities.   Taking control defensively, as far as where guys are positioned, different defensive plays. I want him to be responsible for the whole infield. That, to me, is maturation.

Jerry was helping out at a soup kitchen.   Mets Police for all our negativity like to applaud good deeds.  I'd share the video buy NY1 hasn't heard of embedding technology so click here.

You know, other than winning a championship for the city, it's probably one of the more rewarding things that we could do as athletes and coaches and people to lift the spirits of those that are less fortunate.

Hooray for Jerry.   He just told the world he can handle Manny, now let him do it.

In other news:

The Yankees say they have sold the equivalent of 39,393 season tickets so far.   They haven't even gotten to the folks with the 15 game plans (never mind single games) and they're going to draw 3.1 million!   The Mets also say they are selling well according to this article in the Canadian Press .

Quote of the day goes to Dwight Gooden who had this to say about Kirk Radomski's claims that he took a urine test for Gooden back in the day:

"I’ve made mistakes through the years, and I’ve admitted them, but that never happened. And the way the tests were administered, it couldn’t have happened. I’ve done enough wrong on my own, I don’t want to get blamed for something I didn’t do.”

I always feel sad when I read about Doc, but that's a pretty mature quote.   Before we all throw stones at Gooden, be honest with yourself - if you were 19 years old in the big city and making a few million dollars, trouble may have found you too.



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So nobody wants Manny Ramirez?

He's that bad of a guy that absolutely nobody wants him?  Ok, maybe the Dodgers and their book writing manager do, but nobody else wants him?

Nobody wants Andy Pettitte?   Sure he's not 26 and his arm might fall off - but nobody wants him on their team?

Bobby Abreu?

Ken Girffey Junior isn't good enough to be the fourth outfielder on your team?

Was Pudge Rodriguez that awful that he can't catch on Sundays?

This is starting to remind me of 1987.   In 1986 Dave Kingman hit 35 home runs in the pre-steroida days when 35 was an awful lot of homers.  Heck, 40 led the majors and Kon's 35 were the third highest total.   Folks like Kirk Gibson (who had lots left), Tom Seaver (not so much), and Carlton Fisk all had odd situations.  Baseball even decided to play with 24 man rosters.

So here we are in January 2009.   I don't know what team you root for, but (money aside) can you tell me your team wouldn't be improved by Manny in left, or Andy as the fifth starter?  Bobby Abreu's .296 20 and 100 isn't good enough to make your team?   I'm a Mets fan, all three would make my team better.  All three have proved they can handle the big city.

To be fair, some of these folks turned down arbitration, and some turned down actual deals, but you begin to wonder if maybe something else is going on.


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On another quiet morning in Flushing, I thought I'd take a look around the internet to see what's out there:

Hotfootblog correctly observes that just about every Mets fan now wants Manny.  Why would a franchise not want to offer the customer the player that the customers want?  It boggles the mind.  It would be very easy for all parties to show up at the press conference and say "we heard how much you wanted him, here he is" and Manny can stand there in a black #99 jersey with a lame patch and I'll keep my mouth shut.

Forbes magazine also thinks the Mets need to grab Manny.

The Subway Sqwakers blog and the Daily News both observe that as much sense as Manny makes for 2009, he may make even more sense for 2010!

Not surprisingly the Mets are upping their offer to Oliver Perez.   I don't think any of us are shocked that this is happening.

Craig Swan is 59 years old now and has a dog powered scooter.

My favorite piece out there is from the Amazin' Avenue blog which has a collection of Mets Sports Illustrated covers throughout the years.   The young Dwight Gooden makes me sad.   It's a very cool collection, check it out!

Meanwhile in the Bronx, they haven't signed Manny yet (who will be surprised when they do?) but the great River Ave Blues blog has this virtual tour of Yankee Stadium (and here's one of Citi Field - what's up with the yellow hat on the scoreboard).






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Bloomberg is reporting that Jeff Wilpon says Omar Minaya hasn't asked ownership for Manny Ramirez.

“I know the perception out there again is that ownership said no,” Wilpon said today in an interview at Citi Field. “I don’t have the opportunity to say no because Omar hasn’t brought it to me as an option. Omar and the baseball staff aren’t interested.”

The future captain David Wright told the Post:

"I would be on board with Manny 100 percent assuming that he comes in and puts the team first and wants to be part of this thing and wants to win,

Wilpon's quote is very interesting.  Omar hasn't brought it up.  Omar isn't interested.

Assuming Jeff Wilpon understands Omar's feelings correctly, then Omar must think this team has enough big bats in the lineup and that the team wouldn't be better with Manny Ramirez in left than some combination of Tatis/Murphy/Pagan/Whoever.

That leads to the assumption that the Mets are worried about clubhouse.  Way back when they were worried about Kevin Mitchell in the clubhouse and what a bad influence he would be on Strawberry and Gooden.   Mitchell won an MVP and the other two never lived up to their potential.    That was a different time and a different regime, but as a Mets fan it still bothers me.   Living in the here and now, let's play out the worst-case Manny scenario:

Manny signs with the Mets.  The Mets get the front and back page and control of sports talk.   The Mets sell some tickets.  

Some time in March Manny suspiciously sits out a game and gives a bad quote to the media.  Sports talk goes bananas, columnists write "told ya so" articles.  So what.

April comes and it's game time.   Even in your worst fears do you think Manny would dog it in April?  Adding  Ramirez to a lineup of  Reyes/Wright/Beltran and hopefully the good version of Delgado seems to me like a good addition and increases the likelihood of a good start.

Then the summer comes and Manny decides to be bad-Manny.  He decides his back hurts when they play the Yankees and sits out.    Maybe he stands at the plate and doesn't swing all night.   Maybe he throws a ball into the stands on purpose and steals K-Rod's car.  The Mets lose a game.   Fans go bananas, they boo, they call radio stations, and yet TV ratings go up.  This is when the manager earns his keep.  

The manager is there to manage the personalities.  Give any one of us - you, me, the guy sitting next to you - the Mets lineup and a professional pitching coach to handle pesky things like pitching mechanics and we'll pilot a game just fine.   The trick is being able to manage personalities and manage the media.   I think Jerry can handle it.  It took him one batter in his first game to set the tone with Reyes.  I'm willing to wager the season that he can handle Manny.

If he can't?  Let Manny sit on the bench.  Play with 24 and sent him to Stephan Marbury's house to watch the game.  You'll still have Tatis/Murphy/Pagan to catch the fly balls and you might even have an eight game lead.

Minaya hasn't brought it up as an option to discuss?  I'm having trouble believing that.  They have the money.  Go for it.


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Forbes has the list of the most valuable franchises in sports.

It amazes me that Manchester United is #1, because when you look at the Premier League being just within the geographic size of Britain, it's kind of like FC Yonkers being the #1 team in the world.

The next three are the Cowboys, Redskins & Patriots.  I'm surprised the PSL Sellers aren't higher on this list.  The blue ones (#8) not the green ones (#9).  Oh by the way Forbes lists a 25 year season ticket waiting list, so the PSLers win in the end.  

Then some more soccer teams (again this would be like Corona United and Suffolk being in the top 10).   Finally, the Texans of all teams come in at #10.

No mention of the Mets in the article I read.  Who was #5?  It's a baseball team.  You can guess which one - a hint, they own their own network and have a new stadium, but never dress in black softball uniforms during the regular season.

Now in a related article from December, Forbes listed Brett Favre jerseys as the second most sold in the wolrd with 450,000.   Maybe the Mets good sell some Manny merch and move up the list of franchise worth, although to be fair no baseball jerseys made the Top 10.



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Manny Ramirez.

He's still out there.

I keep reading that the Mets want to keep the payroll down, under $140 million.

According to the Ledger the payroll is at $116 million.

They want Ollie to take $10 million.   That gets you to $126.   (Or the same $10 for Pettitte/Sheets/Whoever).

Manny Ramirez declined 2 years and $45 million from Los Angeles.  Let's bring that up to $25 million.   Yes that's obscene.  Yes Manny is a jerk.  Yes I have sold my soul. 

$126 plus $25 is $151.    The Mets would be one or two million over the artificial cap.   With no facts and just a gut feeling, I imagine there's one or two million dollars worth of tv ratings, jersey sales and hot dogs that Manny would bring to Taxpayer Field.

So I wonder what this is all about - and I think it's the same thing that's it is always about whether you are the Mets or the Marlins.  Not just make money, but make as much money as you can.

The Mets have the fanbase believing that the team could win.  So we'll buy 4 million tickets or whatever Taxpayer Field holds.  It's a new stadium and a good enough team, so we'll take the bait and show up.

Maybe the Wilpons have run some numbers and find that's it's a better business if they finish second and play before 3.7 million fans.   Then next winter they can splash one free agent and fool us again.   Over time this will diminish (see Baltimore) and they'll have to go all in and bring in a whole bunch of free agents (see the great Eddie Murray & Willie Randolph teams of the 1990's).

So Fred, I ask you - do you actually want to win, or would you be just as happy being the Marlins?  You know what, I take that back, at least the Marlins have two rings since 1987.

As for that image in this article, check out this.







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Pure genius!

The Mets and the Wilpons outfoxed us all this week.  We all took the head-fake and didn't look at the man behind the curtain.  Well played.

First they felt us out with "Baracklyn."   A few loudmouths like me took the bait but most of you kept your heads and focused on the real story - Derek Lowe.

When Baracklyn didn't work the Wilpons unfurled their secret weapon: The Patch!

The blogosphere went nuts.   The internet went nuts!  For a few hours The Patch was one of the most ridiculed things in the world (thanks to Yahoo).

(Oh and by the way we didn't sign Lowe)  Yeah how about that stupid patch!!!!!!

Well played Wilpons.  You distracted us all, but we're back now.

We don't care about The Patch anymore.   We don't care about Bernie Madoff and financial rumors.  We don't care about banks and signage.  We care about pitching, left field and second base.

This team is not ready to win the east, never mind the World Series.   There's one ace starter, two guys that seem like they might be good pitchers, nobody starting the fourth game of the season and a so-so pitcher from the Nats on Day 5.  

Where's Manny?   Where's Ollie?  You have the money ($40 of it is mine, thanks again for that "order charge" on my partial plans.)...or maybe you don't?  Could this Madoff rumor be true?   Or do you just not like pitching?  

I know, stop asking questions Mets Police - keep your eye on the patch, and The Apple and the black uniforms.



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