Last week I wrote about how the Mets need to find ways to entice the fans to come out to the ballpark in 2011.  Last week I brought up the idea of retiring 17 in honor Keith Hernandez.  I thought it would give Mets fans something to look forward to during the long season that 2011 will be and I thought that when looking back on 2011 it would be a fun thing to remember.

The Mets have not had an old-timers days since 1994.  Back in 2009 WFAN’s Evan Roberts stirred up a bit of controversy when he relayed a quote from a Mets executive in regards to old-timers day.  Roberts said his source told him that it was too much work hosting old-timers day and that is why the Mets stopped doing it.  Dave Howard tried to do some damage control by saying:

It was particularly unpopular as a promotion. We didn’t see an increase in ticket sales or interest from sponsors or even from people who already had tickets. It died of its own unpopularity in the early ’90s.

I don’t know about you readers but one of the only times I ever watch the YES Network for baseball is on old-timers day.  I enjoy seeing the legendary players such as Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Reggie Jackson, etc…  Even Darryl Strawberry has donned the pinstripes over the years for the Yankees on old-timers day.  I watch it to see some of the legendary players and it looks like a lot of fun to be honest, seeing these older players who retired long ago having some fun playing the game.

I know a lot of Yankees fans who really look forward to old-timers day and go every year to see it.  They always tell me how much fun it is.  Now I can understand how in the 90′s they didn’t attract a lot of fans.  The early 90′s were not especially kind to the Mets and their fans.  However as the saying goes, “that was then, this is now.”

We learned in 2009 after the Citi Field opened how passionate Mets fans are about their history.  As nice and shiny Citi Field was there was not much of the Mets history on display and the fans let the Mets know how they felt about that proving that this fanbase wants to acknowledge their past.

Just thinking about an old-timers day while writing this piece has me excited.  I would love to see Tom Seaver and Dwight Gooden pitch while Mike Piazza catches them in an old-timers game. I’m sure we all would like to see Darryl Strawberry hit in Citi Field.  I would love to see the Mets of yesteryear on the field, playing in a game.

I’m sure we all have our favorites whether they be Rusty Staub or John Franco or Bobby Valentine, Wally Backman, Keith Hernandez, Buddy Harrelson and many more favorite Mets on the field, playing in an old-timers day.

I know I would look forward to it as the season goes on and I’m sure if done right it will be a fun memory to have of the 2011 season.

In comments, let me know if you agree or disagree and for fun list some of the Mets you would love to see playing an old-timers day in the future.

Thankfully there are only 6 more games left of this horrible season.  That also means only 6 more games left of some jerryball.  Last year after the season ended the Mets did a bit of a media blitz that concluded with Jeff Wilpon, Omar Minaya and Dave Howard going on WFAN with Mike Francesa.  They made a bunch of promises and some excuses that for some reason had Mets fans hopeful for 2010.  I posted a blog here on this site the day after, which you can read here.  I didn’t like what I heard on Francesa’s show and I got blasted in the comments section. Unfortunately I was right to be skeptical as they lied to us.

Jeff Wilpon said the Mets were committed to building a championship caliber team and that spending would not be limited.  Well, after signing the bust that is Jason Bay the Mets didn’t spend much.  Gary Matthews Jr., Mike Jacobs and Frank Catalanotto were in the starting lineup on opening day.  For some reason Fernando Tatis and Alex Cora were still on this team.  I’m sorry but those guys don’t belong on a championship caliber team.

Omar and little Jeff said that there would be no more mishandling of injuries. Unfortunately that was a big old lie as well.  Look at how Jose Reyes’ oblique injury was handled.  Reyes was put into the lineup while suffering with oblique injury, and only allowed to bat from one side of the plate.  I don’t see how that is improving on handling injuries.  Jason Bay after hitting his head off the outfield wall in Dodger Stadium not only stayed in that game, he played the next one and then flew on a plane to New York and hasn’t played since.  Johan Santana’s injury was misdiagnosed as a pectoral problem.  Now I’m no doctor but I think the training staff might have missed human anatomy 101.  Plus Santana before being diagnosed correctly was allowed to throw and not even given an MRI.  They also promised to communicate better with the fans and media about the injuries.  Once Santana was diagnosed correctly, the Mets had a press conference where they tried to play down the severity of this shoulder injury by citing position players who came back from the same surgery.  They of course didn’t mention that pitchers who have had the same surgery as Johan has have yet to come back and throw a pitch in the majors.

I’m sure once this season is over the Mets will do another media blitz.  They will say things that sound good but in reality it will only be more cheap talk and hollow promises.

2009 was just awful to be a fan of the New York Mets.  Injuries and incompetence ran rampant and by July we were out of playoff contention.  For me October 4^th, 2009, the last regular season game, could not come fast enough.  The day after the season ended we all know how Fred Wilpon, Omar Minaya (who may or may not be the General Manager) and Dave Howard did a media blitz promising that 2010 would be different.  The mistakes handling injuries would not happen again the 3 Stooges promised us. They also promised that they would spend what was needed in improving the season.

Well, it’s February 9^th, 2010, and before the new season even starts the Mets already have already embarrassed themselves and us with the handling of Carlos Beltran’s knee surgery. As usual, the Mets made their one traditional big move by signing Jason Bay, and then filling in the rest of the blanks with a bunch of backup catchers, reclamation projects and overpaying bench players like Alex Cora because he’s a nice guy. It’s the same tired script we’ve seen again and again under the Minaya era.

The truth is I wasn’t expecting the Mets to make good on the promises they made after last season ended. My blinders are off, but I was hoping they would prove me wrong.  I sit here and see how nothing has really changed from the 2009 season and it fills me with despair and hopelessness for 2010. Will the Mets lose 90 games if everyone stays healthy?  Most likely they won’t, but I don’t see them winning over 85 games this year and it’s hard to envision them making the post season.  The way this team is currently operates, just doesn’t seeming like a recipe for success.

The Mets are going into the season with two backup catchers who will log more playing time than they deserve, Daniel Murphy who will keep first base warm until something better comes along, an immovable second baseman that the club doesn’t want but refuse to dump his contract, and their fourth outfielder will most likely be their everyday centerfielder on opening day. The problems with the rotation are well documented.

You can call me negative and say that it’s only February, but we were saying a lot of the same things in early 2009.  The Mets have alienated me, my hopes aren’t high for 2010, but because I love this team I will be watching and going to games, hoping that they prove me wrong.

Howard vehemently denied some of the charges that Arvedlund made in her book which claims that the Wilpons lost $700 million in the Madoff Ponzi scheme, and that it will force them to sell all or a part of the Mets.

To watch the full video, check it out here courtesy of Brian Costa.

The author claims that her source was a Mets front office employee who has been with the Mets for two decades, a claim that Howard called “bogus and untrue”.

Howard made it absolutely clear (with no wiggle room) that the Mets are not for sale now and will not be in the future.

“The Mets are a family owned team that will remain that way for a long, long time.It’s a passionate long-term investment. There’s no need to sell. There’s no reason to sell. There will be no sale and I can’t state it any more definitively than that.”

I believe him, and I must say that the author seemed unwilling to defend her book and her claims when she had the chance. All she kept saying was, 

“It’s my opinion based on my research.”

Howard went completely ballistic on her at times calling her claims “outrageous, unfounded and grossly irresponsible.” He also added,

“The figures she’s thrown out are inaccurate and substantially overstated. The losses incurred from the Madoff fraud have not and will not affect the operation of the Mets.”

Dan Duquette, also appeared on the show and stepped back from comments he made on his Sirius Radio Show that the Mets shutdown their fall instructional league due to cost-cutting measures. He said that when he levied that charge he was unaware that the Mets had shifted that operation to the Dominican Republic so that they could compete against many other teams that had academies in that area. I actually ran with the original story and inaccurately made the same assumption as Duquette. I apologize to the Mets and retract my statements.

It is my belief that the Mets could make things so much easier if they simply communicated the extent of their losses so that these charges and assumptions would simply go away. They have a right to keep that information to themselves, but I feel that if they just came clean on this, the truth will supersede all the speculation that is running rampant out there.

As a privately owned company, the Mets are not subject to the same disclosure rules that public companies have to abide by, but in this case it would certainly do more good than harm. The Mets keep saying we didn’t lose $700 million, and if so then great. Come out and say it was only $400 million, or whatever it is, and lets move on already. We have been dealing with this issue for nine months already. It’s not simply going to rise up and walk away.

Anyway, I still see some evidence of financial woes in their actions, and until I see otherwise I will continue to believe there are tough and lean times ahead.

I do believe that despite the $30 million dollars in savings from the departures of Delgado, Putz, Wagner, etc., that the Mets will slash payroll from $145 million to $120-125 million. Prove me wrong…

And as the author said in the final words of her interview, “Only time will tell.”