The missus and I just returned from a short vacation which means that I could see no Mets games on either SNY or PIX for about a week. Usually that’s a REAL vacation.
But I see that while I was away the team dismantled the Atlanta Braves and pretty much stymied any hopes they had of making the playoffs. I can’t believe I missed that since I’ve been waiting for the Amazins to do something like that since Larry “Chipper” Jones was a teenager.
One thing I did keep up with was Metsmerized (and the other lesser Mets-themed blogs).
An article I found particularly interesting was written by Joe D. It’s a survey measuring how fans view their team in many different areas.
Just as pretty much no one remembers who finished second in the Miss America contest or lost the last Super Bowl (yes I know that some of you know that one) being 28th or 29th out of 30 is nothing special. The key is to be at one end, 1st, or the other, 30th.
So let’s see what the team can do to move those low rankings to the very bottom.
Ownership – Rank 28 – Honesty and Loyalty to Core Players
The two teams that “beat” out the Mets here are Miami and Oakland. That Miami is there is no surprise to me. I think we can beat Oakland here easily.
The key to getting that rank from 28 to at least 29 and probably to 30 is this. Traditionally the team has badmouthed its players on their way out, e.g. Justin Turner.
Once arbitration numbers are exchanged the team will surely find a way to detach itself from Daniel Murphy. And when they do perhaps they’ll leak what a cancer he was in the clubhouse or some other drivel. That should be enough to fly past Oakland.
It may not get them to Loria’s lead position.
For that Jeff Wilpon might have to spray paint the words “Child out of wedlock” on the side of Leigh Castergine’s car.
Fan Relations – Rank 29 – Openness and consideration towards fans.
Here the only team that fared worse, and not by much, was the San Diego Padres.
This could be a trickier one than you might imagine. I suppose some of you have read this, especially if you are regular subscribers to the Jewish Business Daily (phew, glad I didn’t let my subscription run out):
You see the Mets have been dealing with “crushing debts” and denying it to the fanbase for years. Who knew????
As the oft quoted line goes:
The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you’ve got it made.
So now it looks like the tactic is to admit what we all knew and try to stall through another few years with a substandard payroll.
Stadium Experience – Rank 28 – Quality of ballpark and game day promotions as well as friendliness of the environment.
Without even looking up who did worse in this category I think I know how we can get that rank to 30. I’ve often read that the ushers are rude and disrespectful to fans and will shoo them out of the lower seat areas even if the attendance is puny and no one else is down there.
All they need to do is arm these boors with cattle prods and surely the rank will hit rock bottom.
Player Effort – Rank 28 – Overall effort displayed on field and likability of team
Guess what. I think this ranking is a bit unfair. This is a difficult club to love but not impossible to like. There are just too many guys to like for a ranking this low. How many of us don’t like Jake deGrom, Daniel Murphy, Juan Lagares, Travis d’Arnaud?
And while I’m staunchly anti-Eric Young Jr. as a player I give him credit for running out ALL his feeble grounders and being willing to steal a base late in a close game which even the immortal Jose Reyes wouldn’t do.
I just can’t see this player effort thing dropping to 30th any time soon.
Leadership – Rank 29 – Overall strength exhibited by manager and coaching staff.
The only team that ranks lower here is the Kansas City Royals. Personally I don’t think Terry Collins is a particularly good manager but I also tend to doubt that he and his crack coaching staff are only better than one other major league team.
With the addition of fan favorite Wally Backman to the coaching staff I imagine this ranking is going to be going up, not down, in the immediate future.
So I don’t think the Mets can get a perfect 30 in all categories – try as they may.
