This Day In Mets Infamy With Rusty: The “Bring Back The Curly Shuffle !” Edition

This sensation wasn’t just felt by me but by my estimation the majority of the fans in attendance. It felt at the time (and I guess it still does even though the Mets have been playing erratically of late) that team has the capability of being something bigger – something we haven’t felt since ’06 or  dare I say from ’84-’88.

Citi seems to finally turning into our home and not Fred Wilpon’s monument to his childhood. We have see some great baseball here so far this year including Juan Lagares showing that his is the best defensive center fielder in the game.

There is energy here, there is much needed passion again but this is not coming from the players but from the fans. But I would like to make one suggestion to whomever programs the music and video between innings at Citi Field- If you want to infuse some more energy into the stadium ditch at least 75% of the between at bats noise and focus more on the game. We don’t need to here the “Everybody Clap Your Hands” clip played ad nauseam nor do we need to try to pump up the fans with these fake “noise meters” . Let the team speak for itself by giving it everything they have on the field.

I say keep Lazy Mary – it’s a fan favorite, also the  Pepsi Party Patrol because who doesn’t want a chance to win free merch, but there is one thing I would like to see brought back from a bygone age when this team dominated the newspapers back pages – BRING BACK THE CURLY SHUFFLE !!!!

I remember in my early teens being at Citi Field when they would play the “Curly Shuffle” by the Back In The Saddle Band video on the old Diamond Vision and the crowd always got into it. You could always hear the fans yelling out with their best  Curley Howard impersonation at the top of their lungs. It was communal.

So why not bring back this one piece of nostalgia since it seems like we will never see another Old Timer’s Day or softball games between celebrities and the players wives. To paraphrase Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers movies: “Throw us a freaking bone here”

And in closing I leave you with this

And with that said…. HERE COMES THE INFAMY !!!!

Mets alumni celebrating a birthday today includes:

One time Mets play by play analyst (’83-’89), Steve Zabriske is 68  (1947).

One time player, coach, manager, bubblegum blowing champ, Bobby Valentine turns 65 today (1950) . I wonder if the fan base would still want to see Bobby V manage the Mets after the fiasco in Boston back in ’12.

 

Other transactions of note include :
The New York Mets released Rickey Henderson on May 13, 2000. Rickey – one of the few people on God’s Grey Earth  who could get away with speaking about himself in the third person, had struggled for the first part of the ’00 season after having a solid campaign that helped propel the Mets into the NLCS in ’99.

Mo Vaughn’s break dancing nickname was the “Electric Bugaloo” !!!