Seriously, why are the Mets always looking for the cheap slogan to sell tickets. They are like the loser guy at the bar who asks the hot chick "come here often".  I don't get it, what is the point of "We Believe In Comebacks"?  Who believes?  The fans?  The ownership?  I certainly hope ownership believes this. 

I have a problem with this because there is no point to having a stupid slogan each year.  Here are some of the brillian one line slogans that the Mets have used over time: "Our Team. Our Time", "The Magic Is Back", "Amazin' Again".  Stupid, Stupid, Stupid.  What is the point?

Second, if a slogan was sooooo important to the Mets marketing guru's to sell tickets, why couldn't they put last year behind them and move forward with a more positive slogan.  When I read "We Believe in Comebacks" I instantly remember how shitty this club was last year and instantly think of all the holes ownership failed to fill. 

Hey Mets marketing gurus, catchy slogans do not sell tickets.  Having a baseball organization that competes each day, plays hard, shows loyality to its fans and WINS sells tickets.  Loyality begets loyality, not some silly bullshit slogan. 

Sigh...I thought you were better than that Mets.

I read the following article online about a dude who stole a bunch of stuff from Shea, this guy is a clown:

"A Brooklyn man who worked as a security guard during the demolition of Shea Stadium has pleaded guilty to stealing Mets memorabilia.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Gerald Tacopino pleaded guilty to petit larceny on Wednesday.

Tacopino was fined $500 and sentenced to a conditional discharge, provided he pays $842.50 in restitution.  He also was ordered to stay away from the new Mets stadium, Citi Field, for one year.

The district attorney said various stadium items were recovered from Tacopino's apartment in December 2008.  They included Mets security jackets and shirts and seat bottoms and backs.

The 44-year-old man was hired to prevent looting of items that were being removed from Shea Stadium to be sold as memorabilia."

Hmmm, interesting.  Read an article from Peter Gammons today about the Rays moving to potentially New Jersey or Connecticut.  I am very interested in this prospect from the standpoint of fan base and loyality.  I can see less than 1% of Yankee and Red Sox fans changing their affiliation to the NJ/CT Rays and over 15% of Mets fans changing sides.  I am not saying this as a knock against Mets fans, I have been one my entire life.  I think that this feeling is more from the feeling Mets fans have towards how the organization treats its fans and its team's history. 

For the past three years the Mets organization has left its fans high and dry, from underperfoming teams to a new stadium that leaves the die-hard Mets fan searching for its identitiy.  I can honestly say that we would see a massive "jumping ship" mentality with Mets fans to the NJ/CT Rays.  How much more can the Mets fan take? How many more years of missing the playoffs, failed player acquisitions and mediocre play?

I have to think that this article by Gammons has some truth to it being that Gammons is respected and has his pulse on MLB.  Would it ever happen or would the NY/Boston/Philly market allow it, is another questions.  There is no doubt that the owner of the Rays, Stuart Sternberg, would love to move his fledgling team to a more robust market.  There is no doubt that Sternberg has connections to the Tri-State area as he was born and raised in New York City and made his money working in New York City.  Heck, it is noted that he is a fan of New York baseball, growing up in Brooklyn and watching Sandy Koufak.  Why wouldn't he want to come back to the area with his professional baseball team and try to dominate the market. 

I think it is very interesting, the whole idea of a new team in our area.  I would be interested to see if it could be pulled off.  I would be interested at how many fans they have and which teams they would pull them from.  I find it all very speculative but so damn interesting.  I would support it because maybe this would be the wake-up call the Wilpons would need to start treating the Mets organization with the respect it deserves.  If not, I can see many Mets fans donning the hat of the newly implated NJ/CT Rays. 

We have made the decision to not renew our season tickets for 2010.  Since 2004 I have been buying season tickets with my brother and this year we decided that it was not worth it.  Call it a boycott, call it a good business decision....the bottom line is that we will not be giving the Mets our money again until we start to feel that the return on the investment is worth it.  I will utilize the secondary market in 2010, I am sure I can get fantastic tickets on Stub Hub, Craigslist and eBay.  In fact I am positive I can as for the past 5 years I sold my tickets well below face value in these venues. 

Anyone have opening day tickets?

Wow, I didn't realize how long it was since my last post.  Happy New Year to everyone!  I guess over the past few months I have been following in the steps of David Wright; staying out of the press and keeping a low profile.  My lack of blogging didn't come from a lack of interest in the Mets, more a sit back and wait and see the big picture approach. I would rather see the work of art rather than the individual brush stokes.  I still am not ready to comment about the off-season because there are still so many irons in the fire: Castillo, Delgado, Molina, Harrang, Sheets, Phillips, Pinero and so on. 

As for the lost season of 2009, I am happy it is over.  It was a painful year and one that was tough to swallow for all Mets fans.  I do not need to open old wounds here, I am going to let them heal, much like I hope all of the Mets injuries did from 2009. 

A clean slate?  Not so much.  A new year and fresh start?  Absolutely.  I am excited for what Omar will do over the final weeks leading up to Spring Training.  I am hopeful for all the injured Mets to come back strong. 

Back in June I wrote about my intention to run the Chicago Marathon and raise money for the David Wright Foundation.  After months and months of training and spreading the word about the David Wright Foundation I am now only three days away.  This Sunday I will be hitting the streets of Chicago to run 26.2 miles with 30,000 other nutters.  I must be crazy to be doing this again, but I am also very excited and proud. 

As for the David Wright Foundation and money, I ended up hitting my goal and raised over $2,000 (you can still donate if you want).  I did second guess my decision to run for a "Mets" related charity around August, I thought that I may have jinxed myself with the injury bug.  But, alas, I was fine and continued to train and promote to everyone David Wright's fantastic charity.  Here is the article that was written about me and the foundation.

This is my second Marathon in as many years, and I am so proud to have picked the David Wright Foundation as my charity to run for.  Now all I have to do is run for over 3 hours straight without getting infected with the "Mets" injury bug before I cross the finish line.  Wish me luck!

Unreal, for the past two years the Mets have been man-handled the last game of the season.  All they had to do is win the last series or win the last game of the year.  Figures that the 2009 Mets would go out and sweep the Astros this year in dominating fashion.  Unreal!  I much rather they got swept, it would be much more consistent with how the last few years have gone.

No more disgrutled fan here.  I will be positive this off-season.  I will try to at least.  I have been known to be somewhat "militant" as proved with my rants about the obstructed views at CitiField and petition I posted before the season started.  Well, it must have worked to some degree because I was surprised yesterday to find that that LED board had been lowered a good 20 to 24 inches.  I have to be honest, it had been since July that I visited CitiField (I boycotted the Mets and refused to give Wilpons any more money), so it came as a shock when I noticed that this change had been made.  This season ticket holder was impressed, but only for about 10 seconds. 

I will take the LED as my one positive victory from the 2009 season.  I only hope that the Mets tend to the other issues that plague this uninspiring and unhealthy organization. 

Happy Off-season.

A few years ago I was at a client's art auction and one of the lots they were selling was a Lee Friedlander photograph titled "My Entire Team Sucks".  I thought about buying it but later thought it was a bit silly for the time as the Mets were in the middle of their 2006 dominance. 

Now that I look back I wish that I did purchase it because the M.E.T.S acronym is very appropriate and it might have turned out to be a better investment than putting my money into buying Citi stock. 

I love the description of this photograph, and I quote:

Printed early 1990s. Lee Friedlander presents an oblique often refracted vision of the social landscape in America. Here he fixes on the rude and rueful lament of a New York Mets fan etched into a soaped shop window. The bleary upper levels of the tripartite composition reflect three rows of windows in a tenement façade opposite. The work is a wry tribute to the perennial disappointment of the sports fan.

Haha, that is fantastic!  Oh well, *sigh* at least I accept that my entire team sucks. 

You can see the similarities between the personal drama of Lenny Dykstra and the New York Mets organization.  Both have fallen from the ugly try, hard and fast and have hit every branch on the way down.  Now Nails is selling some of his personal Mets memorabilia to the highest bidder at an upcoming auction, from this fans perspective I hope the Mets continue to follow the Lenny Dykstra lead and sell off many of the parts who play/work/own this Organization.  Actually, the Mets shouldn't be called a Baseball Organization, they should be called a Baseball Chaos. 

That's about all the energy I want to spend writing and talking about the Mutts. 

It is official, Mets season is over.  I have, and will continue, to wait to write my overall feelings about the 2009 New York Mets.  As for now I am not going to give any more of my hard earned money to the Wilpons and will not be going to anymore baseball games.  I actually read something funny recently, a reader of another blog has been calling the Wilpons the "Coupons".  Hahaha, that is great. 

Anyway, the DL is the black hole for this Mets team.  How this organization recovers from the injury "plague" and what they do to address the major issues in their line up will be very interesting.  I have said before, the Mets are a Mickey Mouse organization and this year has been the ultimate Disney disaster.  I fear that the Wilpons will not do enough to address front office and other organizational issues.  I fear that the Mets are heading towards another 5 years of mediocre baseball.  I fear that the Wilpons will raise season ticket prices again. 

The Wilpons need to make one of two decisions:

1) Sell the team to an owner or group of investors that is committed to providing a quality product that makes smart baseball and business decisions all while having an organization mission to not make fools of themselves.  From font office to the 40th man.
or
2) Admit that they are finanically strapped, make some swift and quick decisions about front office staff, coaching and lay out a conicise plan that will help put this team back together. 

Get your shit together, Wilpons. 

Nice little hot streak, playoffs?  Hmmm, interesting thought.  I wonder how it will all play out with the deadline, wild card and winning streak.

Tonight's game was a special one, not because of the 4-0 victory, or the 6 1/3 innings of dominant pitching by Mike Pelfrey, or David Wright's hot hitting, but because I had my entire family at the game.  Not just my Dad and brothers, but my Mom, my sister from Florida, my brothers wives as well as all of my awesome nieces and nephews.  Molly, Abigail, Max, Hanna, Elizabet, Riley were all at the game tonight.  Catherine was even a trooper and made it to the game. It was a great evening of Mets baseball and the Miles family. 

I had the honor of sitting with the birthday girl, Molly, and we had an awesome time.  We talked baseball the entire game and over served ourselves with ice cream, pizza, soda and anything else we could pack away in a 9 inning game.  She is an amazing girl and I was very impressed with her knowledge of baseball .  She is a huge David Wright fan, surprise surprise, and she got so excited every time he came to bat or made a play in the field. 

This picture of our family is awesome! 

A friend sent me this picture, and I think it is just so funny.  Does He really love the Mets?  He certainly does not love Mets fans.

Well, it was nice to see Manny in town.  I wonder how different this season would have been if the Mets had signed Manny.  I think it would have been a much different season.  Anyway, no use it playing that game.  Turns out the Mets throw out a pathetic line-up, they keep slipping from contention and the fans are started to care less and less.

Tonight I went to the game with my buddy Brian.  His parents were are the game and had scored some pretty money seats, so we ended up watching the game with them.  I would have to say that this was one of the most uninspired played game by the Mets I have ever seen.  I left the game early, wasn't even worth hanging out at the stadium.  I kinda refuse to give this organization any more money.

Oh well, got to see Manny and a Mets 11-2 loss. 

Woo-Hoo!

Well, another subway series, but this time around in my eyes it lacked any emotion.  The Mets are terrible.  I mean, this team is just terrible to watch.  My brother Dave and I went to the game and we had a good time.  There was some rather large guy that was sitting in the seat next to us.  I think the stadium should allow the same rules as airplanes.  If you can't fit in your seat, you need to buy 2 seats.  Security wouldn't move him as there was no open seats, so they say.  Anyway, it didn't really matter,  the Mets loss again, 9-1 and this season continues to spiral out of control.

We had some great hecklers in the row behind us.  Some classic, classic stuff coming out of their mouth.  I swear, if Johnny Damon could hear us, he may have hid his head in shame. 

By the way, CC is just nasty. 

I just had my birthday and went to this game with my father, it was a celebration between Fathers day and my birthday.  Well, terrible game, only good thing was being there with my dad.  It brought back great memories of being a kid and being surprised with Mets tickets for my birthday.  Mets loss 3-1.

I don't know if I should be mad at my dad for raising me a Mets fan.  What do you think?  Certainly seems like a cruel thing to do. 

Happy Father's day.

GET. ADAM. DUNN. 

Omar should have signed this guy in the off-season.  I will never know why he didn't.  Parnell and one of our prospects, get it done Omar!  He would be a great fit in CitiField's massive gaps.  He was the solution this off-season and he is still the solution now. 

Yes, I know I am crazy but I have decided to run another Marathon, this year with a little more of a Mets twist.  I've chosen to run the Chicago Marathon which will be on October 11, 2009.  Even though I have an automatic bid, I've decided to run for a charity and have chosen the David Wright Foundation to help raise money for their programs for children in need.

I have pledged to raise at least $3,000 for the David Wright Foundation.  The funds raised will provide aid and assistance toward the health, emotional development, and education for children in need. Through programs and annual events, the David Wright Foundation strives to enhance the quality of life for children of the New York, Tri-State, and Norfolk, VA metro areas.

Some levels of giving which may be of interst to you include:

$26.20 - One dollar for every mile on October 11th.

$77.50 - .00001% of David Wright's 2009 salary.

$345 - The time in hours/minutes I hope to finish the Marathon in.

$101 - The number of years since the Chicago Cubs won a World Series

$5 - David Wright's number

If you would make a donation to the David Wright Foundation on my behalf, go HERE.

To read about the David Wright Foundation, go HERE.

Last year I ran the New York City Marathon and raised money for the Team For Kids.  It was a challenging and rewarding experience and one that I forward to again. 
 

DC is an awesome city, but DC is also hot as balls.  After a night out of drinking we turned it around quickly for a day Mets game.  Here is something that is very sweet at Nationals Park.....we had to catch a flight home and needed to check out of our hotel, so our bags needed to come with us.  We called the stadium before we left and we were told that they had a bag drop.  I instantly called bullshit on this, there was no way that a stadium had a controlled bag drop location. 

We made it out to the stadium easily again with mass transportation.  The subway system in DC is so clean, imagine standing on a platform in NYC waiting for a train in a clean and air conditioned setting.  True bliss.  Once out at the stadium we went to find our other friend who had the tickets, sweet season tickets about 10 rows off the field.  We asked around for the "bag drop" and after going through the gate we were directed to guest services.  We walked in to this office and had the nicest lady tell us that there was no problem at all, we could leave our bags in this clean, climate controlled room at no cost.  Wow, nice. 

The start time was 1:35 and I had not eaten anything since the night before when I chugged a Gatorade and stuffed my face with a box of Entamens cookies.  I was about to put on a an eating fest.  Sausages, ice slush, hot dogs, chicken fingers and nahos....dominated it. 

Our seats were fantastic, right behind the Nats dugout, but directly in the sun.  I spend $4 a pop for water, unreal, let me say that again $4 for a water!  Prices at Nationals Park were definitely more expensive than CitiField, another reason to love the Mets new home.

If I asked if a 5-1 record with a 3.88 ERA was All Star worthy, what would you say?  If I also told you that this record belonged to a 5th starter named Livan Hernandez, would you believe me?  Livan has been spectacular so far this year, even though a bulk of his starts have been against the Nationals, Pirates, Marlins and other sub .500 teams.  He has been a pleasant surprise.  The Mets offense got off to a hot, hot start, scoring 5 runs in the top of the first.  A much, much better line-up was put out on the field today, including the return of Ryan Church.  In my opinion something still seems off about him, but I guess only time will tell if he is fully back to strength, and I am talking about all the way back from pre-concussion. 

Other things of interest:
- Adam Dunn is huge.  I mean, he is like Sasquatch huge.  I was in such favor of the Mets signing him this off season, all he does is consistently put up 30 HR and 100 RBI.  I know hindsight is 20/20, but signing him would have solved our gap at 1B. 
- D Wright looked dialied in this series, he went 2/3 in this game with 2 walks. 
- At CitiField they have the t-shirt launch, well the same thing happens at Nationals Park, however, later in the game they stuff the t-shirt cannon with sausages and fire them into the upper tank.  I love it, CitiField Pepsi Patrol, get on that!
- James caught a t-shirt, of course it was a triple XL.
- Did I say it was hot, and did I say I was hung over?
- After the first inning the game went pretty silent for the rest of the game.  Livan and the Mets staff shut down the triple A Nationals and the Mets bats went quiet. 

After an awesome Saturday day and night we saw a great Mets win, 7-0, taking 2 of 3 from the Nationals.  It was a great weekend and as I have said in the past I love DC, it is my second city.  It was good to be back.  Road trips are always a blast and this one was no different.  Lots of laughs, drinking, memories. I highly suggest that you look at the Mets upcoming scheudle and plan a road trip, it awesome seeing a new city and the Mets play in their road uniforms.  The five of us had a sick time, can't wait to do it again.

Emil Brown!  What the F!  You are telling me that you would rather have EMIL BROWN hitting second and playing RF rather than give at bats to F-Mart.  Manuel is really not going to start F-Mart because there is a lefty pitching?  Are you kidding me?  Also, Murphy isn't playing first base?  All because a lefty is on the mound?  Both of these kids are the future of the ball club and are up here to get at bats and battle.  Manuel is babying these guys way too much. Emil Brown!  One more time, Emil Brown is your starting RF on this night and is hitting second, protecting Carlos Beltran.  Why not Jeremy Reed?  I would much rather battle the Nationals lefty Lannan with people not named Emil Brown.  Well, as it turns out the Mets paltry line-up made Lannan look like friggin' Cy Young as he tossed a complete game, 1 run, 4 hit ballgame.  He had the Mets off all night long.  On the flip side, John Maine looked off and as we would later find out he was battling after being sick last week.  He didn't pitch all that bad after the first inning.  He lacked zip on his fastball and couldn't command his off speed stuff. 

Here are some notes from Saturday:
- Our flight on Friday night was delayed from 8:00 to 11:00, so James and I decied to take the train, we ended up getting to DC around 10:00 and we would later find out that the flight didn't get in until 1:05 am.
- I ran the Komen Global Race for a Cure on Saturday, way, way too early in the morning.  I did well finishing 114th overall. 
- We rented bikes and rode the entire city, must have covered 12 miles from the National Mall, to Georgetown, to Arlington Cemetary.  All along the way we saw hundreds of people decked out in Mets gear. Hats, t shirts, jerseys, you name it, all over DC.  I find it very strange that in 2008 the Mets didn't have a weekend series in DC. It is such an easy and enjoyable trip and it looks like many Mets fans made the haul.
- The stadium was packed with about 75% Mets fans, it should have been a home game from them.
- We paid $60 a ticket for 25 rows off the field, lower section.  Great bang for the buck. 
- Beautiful stadium, not as nice as CitiField, but way nicer than Yankee Stadium.  Sightlines, vending options, fan friendly. 
- Fastest game I have ever been to, 2 hours!  Let me say that again, 2 hours!  We were at the Bullpen bar just outside the stadium at 9:05.  All games should be played this quickly.
- The area around Nationals Park reminds me of CitiField and the chop shops.  This was once an area of DC that had nothing.  They are building it up with condos, restaurants and bars.  It was a small look into the future of what CitiField and its surrouding are would be like and I must say I like it. 

Bad, bad Mets loss, 7-1, however it was great being back in DC and the five of us had a hell of a time on Saturday night. 

Hi everyone.  I just posted to eBay an auction for a Four Game Pack which Includes the Yankees, Rockies, Cardinals and Marlins at CitiField.  If you follow my blog you know that I have 2 great seats that are unobstructed, Row 1 Promenade 427. 

Click HERE to bid on the no reserve auction which stats at $5.00.