Not just a puff piece for Better Homes and Gardens about Interior Decoration!

Pray tell how does all your interior decorating help the Amazin’s huh?

Is it going to draw fans to the seats?

Really how many tickets have you bought to see a Statue in YOUR short lifetime?

And then you can go back and read the same discussions that take place every. single. day.

Building statues outside Citi Field doesn’t mean “well we couldn’t get a CF because we were building statues.”

They are enhancements. Enhancements that I feel since times are tough right now, add a little to the fan experience while you’re busying rebuilding the roster.

It’s not that difficult to understand. It’s not a distraction, it’s an addition. It’s while you’re fixing this you might as well fix that also.

What you FAIL to read is multiple times I have said – this won’t make somebody buy a ticket. It ADDS to the experience though. If you’re telling me the Mets are a few years away then adding to the experience of going to a game is a no brainer. Because it will start to make Citi Field feel like HOME.

Simple.

Not everything has to be a pounding fist on a podium moment for you.

You can;t complain that your favortie GM has no money to spend and then look for answers to chage it that don’t actually have one inch of influence on why people are not attending.

No one says the Mets suck but lets go anyway to see if they added a statue or two.
No one stays away because they have to see a jackie Robinson tribute when they first walk in the door!
People aren’t declining to buy Tickets because they are too confused when they walk in about which team they are about to see and if they are confused about it they are too stupid for big met logos being displayed to help them.

I don’t think anyone is getting it around here!
And I’ll keep posting it until they do!

(I will start my comment (extremely long comment most likely) by stating, everything I type from this point forward is in the shoes of Fred Wilpon.)

With that said, I shall start bantering my 2 cents. Many Mets fans such as myself and most of my fellow Mets fans in “MMO” had a special bond with Shea Stadium. It wasn’t a house that a single man built with a legendary career but a sanctuary that we as a whole constructed and placed are dreams in. We dreamed for a championship team, a dominant force of a team that even with a stare had it’s opposition shivering in fear and a memory that will last forever. Our first World Series win was in Shea (hence ” Amazin’ “), the 1986 Metropolitans of New York was the team that carried a city to the top in it’s moments of struggles and established the “New York attitude”; the type of attitude that demands respect and takes (not ask) what it demands one way or another. Last but not least the home run that the best offensive Catcher in my Mets eyes that ever lived hit on the first game since the tragedy that was 9/11. Mike Piazza’s home run was the real “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” during New York’s dire straits. Why am I bringing this up you might ask? Well simple, matter of fact, it’s elementary my dear Watson (who doesn’t love Holmes). Shea Stadium is where all these amazin’ memories happened and the best way to commemorate and celebrate all of these “Magic Carpet Rides” (ok I’ll stop with the witty humor, I just thought since Gary Cohen does it all the time, why can’t I?) is by putting Shea Stadium in Citi Field. Mr. “Jessep” said it best, “Jackie Robinson was never a Met” so why do we have a whole rotunda to his name and his accomplishments? Last I remember, every team in MLB has his number retired and framed inside their stadiums; might I add, the only active player still wearing his number is unarguably the best closer ever in baseball, Mariano Rivera. Heck you don’t see Alexander Cartwright Jr.’s face everywhere in MLB parks and he made baseball what it is now. I say sell that rotunda to Magic Johnson, I’m pretty sure it fits in his backyard and then some. I would love to see a William Shea rotunda which includes a huge blue and orange artistic portrait of the grand opening of Shea Stadium hanging above a bronze statue of Mr. Met with his arm around William Shea. Also at the top where those Jackie achievements are, replace that with a timeline with large colored pictures of all the important dates in Mets history (62-present) and have the time line finish with the words “Present Day – You, The New York Mets Fan”, I believe it would be welcoming to all the fans as if Citi Field is a tribute to the Met fans not just another baseball stadium.

I love the idea of the Seaver, Piazza and Jesse statues but I would also love to see another statue. A statue of Doc and Straw together in their rookie year. Imagine Doc with his arms crossed and Straws forearm hanging on Docs shoulder, with Straws bat hanging on his left shoulder. I would really like this statue because these two great Met teammates revolutionized this franchise as a whole. They were New York itself. They were claimed to be HOF players before everything was all said and done. Also you can’t forget Cleon on one knee which changed this franchise forever with it’s first World Series championship in it’s history. I would really like to see a statue of Cleon on one knee waiting for the ball. The locations I would place these statues would be in separated parts within the Citi. I would put a statue of Seaver’s delivery in front of Citi, parallel to the apple so all the fans, young and old can remember what man represented the Mets franchise the absolute best. I would place the statue of Piazza by the Shake Shack because the old symbol that was above the diamond vision screen is there and it is also one of the most popular sections in Citi. The Doc and Straw statue I would put by the kids section (I’m drawing blanks on the exact title of that section but I hope you guys understand where I’m talking about) because most Met fans know Doc and Straw were kids at heart and was the real youth of the team in the 80′s. Now here is where it gets tricky; I would put the 69′ World Series flag on the left side of the Pepsi Porch (towards where the apple is if you guys are wondering what left I’m talking about) and place the Cleon statue underneath the 69′ World Series flag and the 86′ World Series flag to the right of the Pepsi Porch and locate the Jesse statue there.

This other change is going to be short. Change the Citi Field seats blue and orange. I’m sorry but the dark green seats are extremely dull. Blue and orange seats in my opinion is vibrant and looks alive. Almost hits home wouldn’t you say? How I would do this is by having 3 rows blue and the following 3 rows orange all around the stadium.

Now to the financial aspect. “Jessep” said that the ticket pricing is expensive and I agree with him without a doubt. Lets face facts folks, the Mets have had 3 straight years of below .500 baseball and most likely by the end of this season it would 4 straight years of under .500. Where you play doesn’t make a difference on how much your tickets should cost. Mets have been a horrible ball club since 2007 and there really is no two ways around it. The ticket pricing for Outfield Promenade would even make a rich man flinch because you are paying $25+ to see a bad team from the worst seats. Until the Mets are in the thick of it in September I would lower all the tickets by 15% and then 20% in September. If I want to make money from this team I would have a small booth around every section selling Mets merchandise such as caps, jerseys, shirts, wristbands, necklaces, wallets, glasses, beer holders, so on and so fourth. The way this would work though is let’s say Mets are down 1 run in the 9th against the Phillies, 2 outs, man on first and Ike is up and Papelbon is pitching. Ike hits a bomb and a walk-off. When people are overwhelmed with joy they feel filled with jubilation and excitement, and when people feel these certain feelings of joy they don’t think with their heads but with their hearts; so a young Met fan decides to buy Ike jerseys and shirts and now you just made up some money. Another way to make up money would be host a lottery once a month (on the 10th of a month, e.g. 4/10, 5/10, etc.) where only 10 selected of all the participants are permitted to join their favorite players on the field for 10 minutes all at once and a ballot number is $10. This lottery is started the 11th of every month and ends the 1st day of every month. You can call it “The Lucky Minute”. “$10 is too much” you might be suggesting but I prefer to differ for the sole fact being that $10 isn’t a whole much because most people spend a $10 minimum collectively a day on various objects (coffee and lunch alone for the working man/woman is around $10) and with Citi field constantly having around 20K fans a game, just multiply 500-1K or so in every home game, which would average around 10-11 home games through that span of eligibility and plus the additional fans that can enter via the Mets website, which can be around 200 a day or more; now do the math, 200 online participants X 20 days minimum during the span of 11th-1st of the months = 4000; 1000 home game participants X 10 days = 10,000; 14000 X $10 = $140000 made in a month. These are all minimum amounts of participants each day, now just imagine the potential at it’s full.

Promotions, I have a couple of Ideas I would love to share. I was thinking “Poster Appreciation Day”. “P.A.D” (take your mind out the gutter guys, we’re all adults…I hope) is a promotion that carries once in every home stand where fans can bring creative posters to Citi Field and for the people who do bring their posters get prizes varying on how creative their posters are. Varying the creativity of a poster, the prizes can be winning a Mets baseball card to winning 2 free Pepsi Porch tickets for selected games (and no it doesn’t have to be against the Cubs, maybe the subway series). Another promotion can be “Dogging Dingers”. The D-Backs have this promotion where if 6 runs are scored everyone in the game gets free tacos, so why can’t the Mets do the same thing but with a little New York flavor into it? Whenever the Mets hit 3 home runs everyone in the crowd gets free hot dogs. Also this promotion “Dogging Dingers” is carried every home game. My last promotion can be “Wacky Wednesday”. Since A’s fans are as hardcore as they get with all those costumes they wear to the games why can’t the Mets reward their fans who do this? “Wacky Wednesday” would be a day where Mets fans dress wacky for the Mets and they get to appear on the big screen with Mr. Met during the 7th inning stretch singing “take me out to the ball game” in harmony every home game on a Wednesday. Mr. “Jessep” said it best, we aren’t the Yankees so why fool the fans into thinking we are.

Last but not least, the real reason people watch baseball, the team. The Mets are now a punchline for Yankee fans and an embarrassment for NY media. It’s tough to win games when the talent isn’t there to support your young core. In 1986 Doc had Bobby O and Jesse while Straw had Keith and Kid, 2000 Fonz had Piazza and Ventura while Hampton had Lieter and Armando had Franco, 2006 Wright and Reyes had Beltran and Delgado while Maine had Glavine and Feliciano had Wagner. You get where I’m going? Talent in baseball isn’t cheap because it doesn’t only help your odds for a championship but it compliments the players they surround themselves by and at times it’s even more expensive to obtain in NY, just ask the Yankees how O’Neill, Cone, Clemens and Tino worked out for them because I’m pretty sure they would love to tell you. I like to look at baseball as life, it’s a complete puzzle and by the time you start to figure it out it’s too late because life was on the express 7 train while you were waiting for an empty wagon. This free agency is way more deeper and younger than last years off season. Some Mets fans would like to obtain Napoli while others are looking for the white lion in the bunch, Josh Hamilton. I respect peoples opinions but I’m sorry, I believe those guys are out of the question. Both are very streaky players but i can’t deny that when their hot their worth every penny that will come their way but Hamilton is a left bat with virtually no speed and Napoli is just way to inconsistent to be depended on so the last thing we need are ailing players who 4 years down the stretch would have us missing Castillo. I say dream high but start slow. Jason Bay has to leave and he should understand the cause for that action. I like Bay the human being but the hitter I just can’t bare to watch. I know 16MM is a lot to eat but to move forward you have to cut ties with whats holding you back. Good luck in life and I mean this with all my heart, I really hope he gets back to his old form with another team and finds great success. Now the signings; BJ Upton is popular in Mets discussion for various reasons and understandably so. BJ is great friends (from what we know) with Wright and Wright has stated that he wants to win in the near future preferably with Flushing but if he doesn’t see winning card in Fred’s hand then he will leave and when I say leave I mean quicker than you can flush your toilet because that’s what the Mets will need as soon as Wright leaves so they can flush their crap. I believe 4 years – 32MM (13′ – 5MM, 14′ – 8MM, 15′ – 9MM, 16′ – 10MM) would be a range BJ wouldn’t mind looking into with the Mets. I would like BJ on the Mets because his ceiling is great. He hasn’t quite reached it yet but he basically has it all, very good bat, great speed, very good glove and a nice arm but only flaw is that he is lazy. I believe playing with Wright will do nothing but compliment this guy, also he bats right and if you think right handed bats isn’t important for this team just count how many right handed bats there are in the outfield and you tell me which is a starter in 80% of every MLB teams. I would also offer Victorino a 3 year – 21MM (13′ – 4MM, 14′ – 8MM, 15′ – 9MM). Before you guys light the torches and let the leashes loose on your german shepherds I really believe this guy can help this team immediately and fill our empty voids as soon as he puts on the blue and orange.The contract I would offer him figures to be possible to obtain him for the fact being that he is having a bad season but Victorino fits what we need with the black holes we have in speed and a switch hitter. Victorino as we know is a tiger on the base paths, he’s clutch, very passionate, great clubhouse guy, can hit you 15HR consistently, can be depended on to hit around .275ish, amazing defense, great arm, gets on base a lot, lead-off? But most importantly stays relatively healthy through a season so 142 games can be depended on and I would place him in Right Field because of his arm. I would also sign 1 more OFer for depth purposes, Jonny Gomes to 2 year – 3.5MM (13′ – 1.5MM, 14′ – 2MM) contract. Gomes is just an OBP guy, I mean literally amazing OBP number but what I like about him is that he is a great guy in the club house and mashes lefties (at this point I’m letting Hairston go because I believe he might have priced himself out of his role) also this guy has a knack of coming up big and one more thing, did I mention he’s a right handed bat?. Also call up Duda again and place him in Left Field permanently. For the Bullpen I would sign Pelfrey to a 1 year – 1MM contract, Joel Peralta to a 1 year – 2.5MM, Mike Adams to a 2 year – 9MM (13′ – 4MM, 14′ – 5MM) and J.P. Howell to a 2 year – 4.5MM (13′ – 2.25MM, 14′ – 2.25MM). Peralta has been very reliable through the recent years of his career, Howell is a 2nd lefty that can give Edgin some tutelage, also Howell is very good as of late entering his prime and Adams is as solid as a set-up man can get but what all these signings for the Bullpen arms, intrigues me is that they are all coming from hard hitting divisions in the AL (Howell & Peralta – T.B., Adams – Texas). Also my decision on signing Pelfrey is because I look at him as nothing more but depth in starter pitching in case Gee struggles. Now the catcher position. Thole just doesn’t deserve to be a starting catcher, maybe a platoon at best but that’s it. What I would do is trade Mejia and possibly Kirk just in case Mejia doesn’t get the deal done for Jarrod Saltalamacchia. From all that I read about him, the Red Sox were willing to trade him this deadline and are still willing to move him this off season and with this trade the Red Sox get a major league ready starter to help their ailing rotation and a OFer with potential to help contribute to them once Ellsbury leaves. Jarrod in my opinon is a typical old school catcher, hits for power, drives in runs, good behind the plate and can throw runners out but can’t hit .280 to save their career. Now save the best for last, give David Wright a 6 year – 110MM extension and Dickey a 3 year – 25MM extension. With all that said. these acquisitions should have an opening day active roster that would be the following:

CATCHERS – Jarrod Saltalamacchia & Josh Thole

INFIELDERS – Ike Davis, Daniel Murphy, Ruben Tejada, David Wright, Justin Turner & Jordany Valdespin

OUTFIELDERS – Lucan Duda, B.J. Upton, Shane Victorino, Mike Baxter & Jonny Gomes

STARTERS – R.A. Dickey, Johan Santana, Jon Niese, Matt Harvey & Dillon Gee

BULLPEN – Mike Pelfrey, Josh Edgin, Bobby Parnell, Joel Peralta, J.P. Howell, Mike Adams & Frank Francisco

LINE-UP: RF – Victorino (S), 2B – Murphy (L), 3B – Wright (R), 1B – Davis (L), CF – Upton (R), LF – Duda (L), SS – Tejada (R), C – Saltalamacchia (S) & Pitcher.

BULLPEN ROLES: Long Man – Pelfrey, RH Specialist – Parnell, LH Specialists – Edgin & Howell, 7th Man – Peralta, Set-Up Man – Adams & Closer – Francisco.

I know you guys are killing me right now for sticking with Frankie as the closer but he is the only BP arm that has any real experience.

Now if all these moves were to come to fruition then the Mets payroll for 2013 would be around the lines of $103.4MM. The only 3 players that have double digit salaries for 2013 is Santana (25.5MM), Bay (16MM) and Wright’s option (16MM). Currently the Mets payroll is $93,353,983 for 2012. Fred Wilpon will have to invest roughly around $10.05 and I’m pretty sure that even in Wilpon’s terms $10.05 is not a huge stretch. So now I believe Sandy should ask Fred for an extra $10.05MM to invest into team that can possibly contend in 2013.

(Deep breath) Ok now I’m done. I spent a lot of time on this but it was fun. So what are your thoughts on my opinion?

I like many of your ideas regarding Citi Field and so glad you pointed out the price discrepancies compared to other teams. I don’t know if anything could be done to rectify that for Citi Field was built with the idea that less patrons paying more would result in more profit than more patrons paying less.

You are right – it would have been best had the Rotunda been originally planned to honor the franchise with a special Jackie Robinson Museum where the Met Hall of Fame was built – a year later in response to fan outrage about the lack of Met history in their own ballpark. But to do so now would be disrespectful to Jackie Robinson by diminishing what was indeed originally built in tribute.

I agree with you but hope you recognize the problem is with more than just one individual. There are a few guilty of insults, attacks and coy remarks to belittle rather than conducting good hearted debates. I have been personally called a bullshitter, liar, condescending due to my age, one who claims to attach non-existent links, the recipient of coy smart alack remarks and I child and crybaby when I bring these issues up. All I have asked is to disagree with my opinion as much as one wants but to just not attack my character. I will admit there have been times when I stooped to the same as gut-reaction.

So instead of properly addressing this issue to just one individual, I hope you will expand that and address it to all those who are guilty – whether they be anti-Sandy, pro-Sandy, saberist, traditionalist or anything in between. As you might know, Jessep and I don’t agree on practically anything yet not to long ago he was kind enough to mention my name as an example of how cordial we are with each other.

Since many of those individuals might indeed be parents, I wonder how they would feel hearing their children address others in the same manner.

Unfortunately, I have never been to Citi Field as I moved to Arizona in 2006. Because, I am still one of the “faithful” I know all about the ballpark and it’s Brooklyn Dodger themes etc.

No disrespect to Jackie Robinson or his family but this ballpark is for Mets fans. I want to see the statues mentioned honoring our greatest players….

Just thinking about a statue out front of Tom Seaver’s famous delivery or Piazza’s launching of that homer in the first game after 9/11 would send chills down the spines for most Met fans and joyous tears for all….These are Kodak moments and memories of things we lived through and will never forget!

Are you listening, Fred Wilpon?

FOCUS! Do not DISTRACT from what needs fixing!
Stop PROCRASTINATING!

Stop Beating around the bush and try to fix the problem by looking for any solution but the one that fixes the problem!

You know what the fan experience is going to be like if they do everything you want them to do but don’t fix the team?

It will be akn to the experience they have in thier Living room which is where they will be watching the games drinking a Beer that cost them less than 50 cents and a hnd made sandwhich that cost them a dollar!

The only thing that will fix the problem here is to fix the tam not the ledger, not the ancillary crap around the problem!

An you do that by fixing the team!

A Stadium with no team will NEVER draw!
So building that does not mean they will come.
Build the team however and they wll come!

And you can’t do that by buying 10 guys no one wants to see hoping to replace the guy you let go because he cost more but people DID go to see!

This is the point you missed in the Reyes discussions, The point you missed on going after Beltran, The point you missed when you thought some scrap heap Bullpen arms who cost less combined as Wright himself gets paid was a good thing!

This team has not filled a single hole yet and it looks likemore holes will need fixing before a singlehole DOES actually get filled!

Fix that problem and no one will care who is featured in a rotunda or what statue is outside the stadium!

Because they won’t even notice those thngs as they are busy racing to thier seats to see their team give them a good competitive game with a chance to see them win!

Give the fans HOPE, Give them a TEAM
Not baubles and Golf Games, Statues and new decorations.

Cause not a single person has ever bought a baseball ticket based non those things!

EVER!