Down time

The blog will be down for the off season, I'll start it back up in March during spring training...

- MP

Shawn Green Retires

Cross posted at Global Mets

As I had indicated might happen a few weeks ago, former Mets outfielder Shawn Green has officially retired.

Green played pretty well during April and May of last season before he was played on the disabled list with a foot injury.

Green had indicated that if he were to play another year, he would prefer to play for a West Coast team, unfortunately, most of the teams out west weren't interested.

It appears Shawn Green wont accomplish his goal of becoming the all time Jewish Home Run King. Green now retires just 3 home runs shy of Hank Greenberg on the all time home run list.

The Mets, Their Fans, and Their Tickets

Most "real" Mets fans can remember back a to the dismal early 90s up until the horrendous 66-95 2003 season when you could buy single game tickets to opening day or the Subway Series, the same way you would buy any other ticket. While this lead to fans over paying for games nobody wanted to see, take the Pirates in late September for example, it also allowed Mets fans the opportunity to go to Opening Day or the Yankee Series for a reasonable price. Those were the good old days.

Then all of that changed...

First came the "packs". I forget what year they first used them, but the general idea was the Mets would set aside x number of tickets for season ticket holders, which was understandable, then they would also set aside x number of priority seats for people who purchased a seven pack, which would always have some witty name like "The All Star Pack" attached to it. Basically what this did was say to Mets fans, "If you want to go to Opening Day or the Subway Series, you can get guaranteed tickets, so long as you bought tickets to six other specific games", which would often include games nobody wanted to go to, like a Wednesday afternoon game against the Expos.

Then came the whole "different prices for different games" system, which made some games cheaper, but made the majority of games more expensive, and made Opening Day and the Subway Series "platinum games". What this meant was that if you wanted to go to a weekend game, or to see a better team, or wanted to go to a "platinum game" you would have to pay higher prices for the same seats.

Yet, while everyone hated being locked into this system, one which is a questionably a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, it wasn't that bad, because the die hard fans like myself and many others were still given the opportunity spend a few hours calling into the ticket office or logging onto the website to try and land tickets to these "platinum games".If you were a real die hard, you waited in line at Shea Stadium the day tickets went on sale. Of course, you weren't given access to all the available seats, just the ones they hadn't reserved for people who they might trick into buying these seven packs.

Then in 2006 that too was taken away from the fans. "The ticket lottery", as it came to be known, was a system that would allow all the fans to register their email addresses in a random drawing, for the privilege of being given the opportunity to buy tickets to these "platinum games". Sure they did this to try to increase "fairness" but in reality it did no such thing.

First, not only did every Mets fan in the tri-state area register for this lottery, but so did every Yankee fan, because remember this lottery was for Yankee tickets. As a result, half the people being picked in this lottery were Yankee Fans, who then tried to take over Shea during subway series weekend. In addition, The die hard Mets fans who used to have the advantage when getting tickets over the phone or on the internet, due to the fact that they were more likely to know when tickets went on sale, and would spend more time trying to get through, were no longer given the opportunity to gain that advantage.

The casual Mets fan, or bandwagon fan was given the same chance to get tickets as the life long die hard who actually remembers guys like Joe Orsulak or Luis Lopez or Mel Rojas, who played for the Mets during the dismal years. Why should this be the case? Everyone should be given the equal opportunity to call in or log on and get tickets at the same time, not just the select few who were lucky enough to get picked by some dumb "lottery".

Then, just to add insult to injury, with Mets tickets becoming harder to get every year, the Mets announce that the new Citifield will have 10,000 less seats than Shea... How the hell does this even make sense? The Mets claim this was done so that the fans can be closer to the action. Once again this makes no sense. If the Mets sold no tickets in Shea's upper deck, that doesn't make the fans on the field, loge and mezzanine levels closer. It just prevents people from buying tickets. The whole reason why the Mets did this was so that they could claim they were selling out more games, and would then have the justification to jack up ticket prices. Thus allowing them to make more money while selling less tickets.

You know, considering the Mets refer to their fans as "The Greatest Fans in the World" you would think they would treat the fans with a little decency. Of course, if the Mets are terrible in a few years, the organization wont be turning to these bandwagon fans to try to sell tickets, they'll come back to the die hards who have been screwed every step of the way, to try to sell more tickets. And of course, because we love our Mets no matter how bad they are, we'll all, like a bunch of schmucks, be waiting in line to get these tickets.

Breaking down the 2008 Mets: Second Base

Continuing with our breakdown of the 2008 Mets, today we take a look at the situation at second base.

Second Base:

First String: Luis Castillo
Another no brainier here, the Mets just signed Castillo to a long term deal worth $25 million over the next 4 years. That's a hefty contract for a 32 year old second baseman with knee problems. Castillo certainly doesn't have the wheels he used to, but the Mets more than make up for Castillo's decreased speed with Jose Reyes and David Wright. Castillo still has plenty of speed and a good enough eye at the plate to be an effective number 2 hitter. He's a consistent .300 hitter who will steal 20 bases, score a lot of runs, and can take plenty of pitches to give Reyes an opportunity to swipe some bases. And his defense in the field is phenomenal. The only issue with Castillo this year will be staying healthy. He had arthroscopic surgery on his knee at the end of last season, and hopefully his knees will be 100%. Should Castillo's knee problems resurface, look for Ruben Gotay to be an excellent fill in on days when Castillo needs rest.

Second String: Ruben Gotay
Gotay showed signs of brilliance when given the chance to play every day following the injuries to Jose Valentin. During June and July when Gotay was given a lot of playing time he batter .364 and .397 respectively. Gotay was playing so well, that some Mets fans were actually upset when they acquired Castillo, because they felt Gotay lost the opportunity to prove himself. Expect Gotay to get plenty of playing time, both off the bench and to give Castillo days off.

Cross posted at Global Mets

Perez Wins Arbitration

Oliver Perez won his arbitration hearing against the Mets yesterday, and will earn $6.5 million this year rather than the 4.725 million proposed by the Mets. Score another win for Perez's agent Scott Boras who has a little experience in contract disputes.

Perez was the first Met to go to arbitration since David Cone did so in 1992, since then the Mets have signed all other arbitration players to contract extensions thus avoiding arbitration.

Unless the Mets sign Perez to an extension during the season, he will likely become a free agent after 2008, and multiple reports last week indicated that Scott Boras has every intention of getting Perez out on the free agent market.

Hopefully this whole process won't deter Perez from signing a long term deal with the Mets, regardless of what Boras wants him to to. Now that the drama is over, lets get down to baseball.

Cross posted at Global Mets

First Post

Welcome to Mets Are Life.

With the 2008 season upon us, I thought I'd start up a Mets blog of my own. I'll be spending most of the season posting here, and at Global Mets. So be sure to check back once I get the site up and running for all your daily Mets news.