You own this Los Mets jersey: Heilman!

Ceetar from Optimistic Mets fan was kind enough to let me pick from his (much better than mine) photos from the other night.

You know how I do this “You own this Mets jersey” series?  This guy is gonna be tough to beat.  It’s LOS METS and Heilman.

Who buys either one of those never mind combine them?

To beat this guy you’re gonna have to get a BLACK Los Mets Heilman jersey.

This really truly does exist.   Here’s the proof:

I’m tempted to call it a day and just start the A’s Police. How the hell are we gonna top that?

If I do pack it in just check out Ceetar’s site – he posted some pictures from The Night The Bloggers Landed including a great one of Fred Wilpon. Also check out On The Black where Kerel also posted photos. Wait until you guys see my blurry lens iPhone pics…they blow Kerel’s away!

Behold: video of 1980 Mets games!

Thanks to Kevin for sending this over.  Wow wow wow.

Look how small everyone is.  That’s the baseball I remember before everyone started taking vitamins in 1995.

Ralph Kiner in his 80’s: charming.   Ralph Kiner in his 50’s wasn’t so good. Sorry.   Murph appears later – sounds great.

Who is that bum managing the team?  He’ll never make it in the bigs.

So good to hear the old Shea Stadium announcer.

The Mets are only 5 back!

This tape is so old it features an MLB team that no longer exists!

This incarnation of the pinstriped uniform had strayed from looking great.   Got sloppy in the late 70s.  The nameplates are awful.

You kids will notice NO picnic area and this is pre-Diamond vision.

These are MY Mets.  Watch this video to understand me.  I was probably at half these games.  Stearns, Youngblood, Mazzilli, Flynn…my guys!

The best part is at the 1:55 mark of course.  The 4 minute mark isn’t bad either.

Comments about Topic X

Honestly, Mets Police is gonna be awesome today.   Wait until you see the “You own this jersey” for today, and the video that Kevin sent me….just wait.  That goes live at 9.

I thought I would begin the morning by catching up on some things left in the comments section:

Paul writes:

Are you suggesting that because 35,000 (about 85% capacity) showed up to see a .500 team on a week night validated David Howard?

No.  I sometimes think better than I write.  I was impressed by the 35,000 and thought it validated DH’s comments that attendance would go up when the weather got warm.  Since Dave has been right (so far) about tickets/history this week I figured I’d point out other things he is right about.

On the same night you got to go for free, in great seats, and hit the field beforehand (something not many people get the opportunity to do) and you’re critisizing there only being 35,000?

Again no, and I didn’t mention the on field to show off.  So much of this blog is about my experience as a Mets fan, and damn right the time the Mets invited me over for dinner is a big one so I’m gonna write about it.  I hope they invite everyone, but this week I got a thrill, so I mentioned it.   If Lee Mazzilli and I ever hang out and play Nintendo I will blog about that too.

I actually am going Sunday (despite it not being in my Sunday plan) and forked over $200 to take my girlfriend and her parents (got Big Apple seats off stubhub to sit somewhere different than my Prom infield plan seats), but I’m not going to blame *anyone* who feels that’s too much effort for a franchice that despite throwing some plaques up, seems to have no interest in improving the on the field product.

The object should be to create new history too and instead the primes of Wright, Reyes and Santana are beign wasted while a smaller market in Philadelphia (who charges an obscene amount less for tix) goes out and does what it takes.

Seeing as how the Phillies got Oswalt and as I type this on Thursday night the Mets haven’t gotten anything, I can’t argue with you.

I will be curious to see how this affects Phillies ticket sales on the secondary market.  As many of you know, I have a Phillies package which I use to subsidize my Mets tickets.   The Phillies playoffs alone paid for all of 2009 everything (I also have a small Yankees package which I use for enjoying baseball and taking my staff).    This year I have had to sell a few games at a loss, and last week couldn’t dump my Phillies tickets at all – that was a first.

Thanks Paul.   Here’s Ed:

Just left the advance ticket window @ Citi. Spent over $2K on tickets and did not buy tix for Sunday. I don’t want to get all melodramatic but as a 15 year old kid in 1986 I LOVED that Mets team. As a 13 year old in 1984 I REALLY loved Gooden. His troubles following the 88 season (well they started well before then but I didn’t know about them till around 89 or later) were quite a blow. It might sound ridiculous but I think Gooden’s human failures were as big a blow to me as my parents’ divorce, maybe not but it sure felt that way. For that reason, and some others I’m choosing not to attend Gooden’s induction.

I was thinking I would go and try to just remember the thrill of 86 but I can’t separate the two. Enjoy the game. hope it’s sold out. When there’s a 2000 celebration, I’ll be there.

Randy has some wisdom:

I say we compromise. Lets sell out the Promenade. I can’t seriously hold it against people to not wanna pay the prices for the other sections.

Sal:

There is something very different about this incarnation of the organization. The culture is garbage and it reeks of dysfunction.

I didn’t feel this way towards the 93 team when they only won 50-something games. This has been more painful than simply having a bad team. It is time for a change, in faces, direction, and what it means to be the New York Mets. I’d rather be a loser than an embarassment.

Bpalm:

I have been to many of the history honoring events over the years at Shea. Unfortunately this year I decided to scale back how much I spend out of my pocket being a met fan. Usually I purchase a few jerseys, a boatload of other merchandise and go to at least 8 or 9 games. Doesn’t make me any less of a fan that I decided not to do that this year. The economy sucks right now and the electric and food bills come before the Mets bill. I think a lot of people on here have lost sight of that.

Brian:

I’ve been saying forever that while a championship is the ultimate goal, the enjoyment you get out of a season is living through the ebbs and flows, relishing the hard fought victories and agonizing over the gut-wrenching defeats. if it ends in a division title or a wild card berth or maybe even a near playoff miss, the ride is the fun of it, NOT the result. we all want to see a winner and we all should encourage the front office to strive for one, but if at the root of it you don’t love the act of putting a ballgame on the tv, or listening to one on the deck in the sun or making the pilgrimmage to citi field, then you’ll never get anything out of this team no matter how many championships they win.

Good discussion.  As I said the other night to one of my fellow bloggers – my opinion on any of this is no more important or “right” than any of yours.  I’m just another fan.

FYI we’ll be doing another podcast Sunday at 6:30pm if you’d like to chime in.