Marketing the New York Mets Greats

I liked this marketing I found in the team shop on the main level.  Of course they were in the corner past the Dodgers stuff. but hey it’s a start.

I do feel like I am seeing more 1986 era jerseys than in the past.  16, 17, 18 and the occassional…

Mets Police Celebrates 3rd Anniversary (Ron Hodges Night)

It was April 15, 2008.  I was watching the Mets game when the entire team took the field wearing #42.

For years and years I had emailed my friends daily about the Mets (and before email we talked about the Mets in the schoolyard) and all the stupid things they would do.

For whatever reason, the #42 thing sent me over the edge.  Not that I am anti-Jackie Robinson day, but because of my preference to have uniforms without names on the back, especially at home.

Any self-respecting Mets fan knows who number 5 is.  If you’re at the game and can read his name on his back you either are rich or have tremendous eyesight and should be playing.  If you are at home, the graphics people will let you know who 5 is.

However, on April 15th the Mets took the field all wearing #42 with no names on the back.  THAT MAKES NO SENSE.  Are the names important or not? If you’re going to have names doesn’t it make sense to have them when everyone is wearing the same number?

If you listen to games on Jackie Day you’ll notice that even the announcers get confused, especially when figuring out who is up in the bullpen.

So I grabbed my gmail address that incorporated my dog’s name (gmail being tied to the Blogger website) and suddenly Shannon Shark was blogging about the Mets.

The blog needed a name, so I used two of my favorite things.  A baseball team and the band from the 80’s that had Sting as a singer.  Mets Police.

I didn’t set out to be some avenging angel.  No plan at all really.  Mets and Police were two words.  I just started typing.  I settled on this weird mix of fan advocacy, team history and oddball stuff.  I left the game stuff to the other blogs.  And people found the site and liked it.

As the years went by I have made some friends and gotten to know some people. I don’t want to name too many names for fear of leaving anyone out – but if you are wondering if you’re who I am thinking of, yes you are.  A few bigger bloggers (double-especially Matt) helped me get an audience. Randy from the Apple hooked me up with some images.  The local papers mentioned the site in stories.  Folks started sending things in!

Then one day I was invited out to Citi Field by the actual Mets!  I’ve gotten to know some nice people out there, and even Dave Howard (who I usually refer to as Dave from Flushing) has said he reads the site even though I will use him as my straw villain about once a week.  I gotta admit, it was very strange standing on the field in Queens with a credential.  Very cool but totally a sense of “whoa..how did I get here?”

Oh, Dave we still gotta talk about this:

That’s from a seat in 504 and I didn’t stage the photo.  Just admit “fire codes” or whatever…

Along the way the site got an incorrect World Series fanbrick fixed, compiled a photo gallery of Obstructed Views at Citi Field, maybe influenced some incorporation of team history at Citi Field, suggested meeting the Wilpons in a subway car, and complained about the black uniform more times than anyone can count.

My mission is to try to steer the Metsiverse toward Nirvana.  Some day we’ll go to a stadium where every thing is fairly priced (from hot dogs to parking to tickets), the Mets are dressed in beautiful blue pinstriped jerseys (looks like we’ve made progress with VH Day declared), and the fans behave like adults (unless they are children, then they should act like children and grow up to be big Mets fans.)

We may disagree on some of the particulars, but in a nutshell I think all parties can agree it would be great to have a happy fanbase enjoying a nicely dressed team roll off multiple championships.  It’s not too much to ask, and together we can achieve our goal.

April 2011 will be the site’s biggest month yet, surpassing March 2011 which surpassed February. Thanks for reading, and thanks to Osh and Dan and Media Goon for helping out on the site.

The Shark passed away a while back, but I keep using her name for the blog and I like keeping her memory alive so Shannon Shark it is.

There is plenty left to do…from restoring the Bob Murphy Broadcast Booth’s name on the radiocasts to, of course, the remaining war against black road uniforms.

If all goes well the Mets will win the World Series in nice uniforms and then I’ll shut down the blog. Until then…here we go for Year 4.

Thanks for reading every day, and enjoy Ron Hodges night.

Major Victory in War On Black Mets Uniforms (VH Day)

With the Mets taking the field in pinless uniforms with blue caps this makes a complete non-black homestand.

The Mets wore blue caps for each game and either the pinstriped or pinless uniforms.  No hybrid caps were seen, nor were the black jerseys.

It is believed this is the first such occurrence of this century.  There is still a war on the road to be won, and black could always show up next homestand…but for now we celebrate in the streets and cheer the name of Kevin Kierst.

VA Day (Victory in Away Uniforms Day) and total victory will not be won in 2011, but this is a major victory on the homefront.

Enjoy VH Day!

Mets 24: meaningful games in May?

Not really too much to say.  This homestand was a disaster.  4-9 means you’re a 5 game winning streak away from .500.  It’s hard to be excited tonight unless you are a Boston Red Sox fan with a #7 jersey.

At least we had the black-less homestand and tomorrow is Ron Hodges Day.  25,578 in case you’re wondering.

And so the nightmare 24 (and a half) hours ends.

7:29:57

7:29:58

7:29:59