The Zeitgeist

   

A stack of Mets Tickets and folks lining-up to buy them at CitiField. 

Yes, I Bought Met Tickets

I just couldn’t help myself. When it comes to the New York Mets I’m kind of like an abused spouse who keeps coming back for more, or a crack addict who just can’t shake the addiction. So help me G-d, I love baseball and I love the Mets. I’m even watching Spring Training games on WPIX and SNY. Though more often than not utterly unworthy of my affections, this is the team to which I pledged my troth at the ripe old age of five or six. My blood runs orange, blue and black and I’ve never been able to wrap my hands or my heart around Bronx pinstripes. This is a team very much on the ropes from just about any and every perspective imaginable – financially, the team owners were mauled by Bernie Madoff (as were quite a few other innocent people I know) and are now being persecuted and prosecuted by the Madoff Trustee, Irving Picard who is trying to force the Wilpons to fork over something like a zillion dollars. The team is weighted down with some very expensive aging players of diminishing worth (like Carlos Beltran) and some just plain stupid acquisitions by former General Manager Omar Minaya that is tying the Mets’ hands on finding some new blood. The pitching staff is dominated by wounded warriors, ace Johan Santana won’t be back probably until July (if at all) and for sure he won’t be the guy he was a few years ago. Some of the new pitchers just came off Tommy John or other kinds of surgery and heaven knows how long they’ll last before throwing out, breaking or tearing something. Mike Pelfrey, the Vice-Ace, is inconsistent. It’s all going to be up to thirty-something R.A. Dickey and his knuckleball and Jon Niese who exudes potential but hasn't become a star just yet. On offense, we’re a grade “B” team with very few guys hitting for real power compounded by a huge home field that makes home runs as scarce as water in the Sahara. One bright spot is Scott Hairston who has been swatting homers left and right in Spring Training and is a fair bet to fill in for Beltran in right field.

Some have asked me why I remain devoted to the Mets? That's like asking fans in Baltimore why they stick by the Orioles, or Bostonians how they stuck with the Red Sox for a nearly 90-year drought from the World Series, or Chicago Cubs fans who have been left unrequited for over a century or the folks in Cleveland or Oakland. Being true to your team is about one's character as a man -- its about loyalty to things big and small and loyalty to people. It's about knowing how to win and how to lose with class like a man and about perseverence and stick-to-itiveness which are all metaphors for life. In a two-team town like New York, one's choice of team allegiance also says a lot about how a person sees themselves and conveys this to others around him for better or worse. It's also about geography, I'm a Long Island guy and The Bronx is two bridges (or two trains) and light years away in every respect.

What the Mets have this year is a realistic expectation of playing .500 ball and ultimately ending up in the second or third spot in the National League East. There will be no getting past Philadelphia as that team has probably the best starting pitching rotation in all of baseball and as solid an offense as there is along with playing at a ballpark that’s a homerun bandbox. What the Mets also have is a roster of young up and comers who are hungry to prove themselves in the big leagues and get the big bucks down the road if they can. Hopefully this scrappiness will lead to some aggressive ball playing which could be a lot of fun to watch. The Mets also have been freed-up from the pressure of championship expectations from 2006-2009. Most fans I talk to don’t expect anything. That is a liberation, not only for the players but also the fans because anything good that happens this season is gravy and contention for the Division will be the cherry and sprinkles on the sundae. The Mets have National League ball which means classic baseball where pitchers bat. The Mets also have the nicer, more comfortable and more fan-friendly of the two New York ballparks. The food and drinks are better and a whole lot cheaper than in The Bronx, the parking is easier (though not inexpensive) and the ride to my house after the game is just 20-25 minutes. Beers are half the price of Yankee Stadium, which makes alfresco semi-inebriation much more cost effective in these recessionary times.

So to slake my desire to wear my Met player jerseys in public, I succumbed to the blandishments (and serious price reductions) of the Met ticket office and bought into a 5-game flex pack. The Mets lowered ticket prices considerably versus two years ago when they were flush with “irrational exuberance” and with their flex packs are also offering free games. On the five-game pack you get a sixth game (against a non-contending team) gratis. Best part of this is you get to pick one of the Yankee-Met games as part of the package, which are my favorite “color war” type games to go to. Thanks to lower prices, I’m sitting on the field level between third base and home, right near the Kosher Sports hotdog and burger stand and not too far from the imported beer shack out in Center. So, once a month I’ll be back at the ballpark chomping kosher dogs and downing them with the $6 Brooklyn Lagers or $7.25 Leffe Belgian Wheat Ales. With Omar Minaya gone and a bunch of 60-somethings now running the team, I think we fans are going to have some fun and with zero expectations should come zero frustrations. Still nothing like a day at the ballpark – the paradigm of the American cultural experience. Everybody clap your hands!

Citibank Shea Spot and Other Cool Spots

Citibank (for whom CitiField is named) has been running a commercial for months now showing an older couple who’ve relocated to Istanbul (of all places). Narrated by their loving son (who we never see) we are informed that the couple manages to settle-in wonderfully in Turkey except for missing their beloved Mets. So, the son buys them their old seats at Shea Stadium, “Row C, Seats 5 and 6” and we then see the parents sitting in these orange seats in Istanbul, watching a game, presumably by satellite. Here’s the cool thing about the spot for me – those were my seats! I sat in Loge for years at Shea in Section 6, Row “C,” seats 5 and 6. How ever did the folks at Citibank know that? View the spot here:

La Quinta Inns is running kind of a snarky, subversive spot where they promise traveling road warrior salesmen that by lodging with them one will be empowered to in fact actually sell ice to Eskimos. Hilarious:

Chutzpah Spot of the Year – Chrysler featuring Detroit rapper Eminem in their commercial “Imported from Detroit.” Great attitude and right in your face. Here’s the one minute version but Chrysler is running the 30-second spot a lot now but I can’t find that one on YouTube. This kinda, sorta makes you want to buy an American car and it also doubles as a great spot for Detroit, the city:

•••••