Good Old Days at Shea

In a random act of procrastination I came across a few old Mets Weekly videos from back when the Mets called Shea Stadium home. I love Citi Field, I really do, but for a fan like me, pushing 30 now, I wonder if it will ever feel like home the way Shea did.

People say all that's needed to make it feel like home is a great season with some playoff series' thrown in. That's possible. But I wonder if my mind's eye image won't always find it more natural to see those groups of seats in orange, blue, green, and red, or for, ahem, ALL the walls to be blue, or for anything else that made you instantly recognize Shea. 

In the videos I saw David Wright dig into the batter's box with all the familiar trappings around him; even the fish net behind home plate looked familiar. I saw Jose Reyes dive into home then clap his hands jubilantly as he raced toward the old home dugout. It just felt right.


It's nothing against Citi Field; I honestly mean that. As I get older and fewer and fewer friends live and breathe the Mets the way I do (at least in the good years; I concede that down years are less interesting to me than they once were), having a stadium that casual spectators can enjoy is more important to me than ever.

For as much as it felt like home to me, Shea was decidedly uninviting for the casual fan. With it's open promenades and great dining options, Citi Field is a fun place to go and an easy sell when I try to get groups of people out to the ballgame.

Still though, sigh. For all its charms and everything it has going for it, one thing Citi Field will never be is Shea Stadium. There's a lot of good in that, but we lost a lot in that transition, too.

As if you needed to be reminded of that. 

- A.F.O.M.G.

Someday

Wow... long time, right?

It's weird to be back on the blog but figured the loss of Jose Reyes deserved a mention. As longtime (i.e., former) readers are aware, my blog handle, A Friend of Mr. Glass', was inspired by our injury-prone former sparkplug.

Like so many others, Jose Reyes was my favorite Met. The excitement surrounding him on his way up and through those first few seasons, and then again this past season, was breathtaking at times.

You never had as much fun at Shea/Citi Field or at home watching on the tube as when Reyes lashed one into the gap. That's the way we'll all remember him. Dreadlocks bouncing in his wake, careening full throttle for third and diving in amid a plume of dirt.

Beyond the sheer enjoyment of watching him play, Reyes was, and will remain, a symbol of a very exciting time in my life -- the end of college and my life back in New York. Those first few years out of college are pretty great; you have no real responsibilities, you have a little scratch in your pocket, and if you're a sports fan, you can watch basically any game you want.

Back in 2005 and 2006, I wanted to watch basically every game, so sure enough I did. Reyes is a big part of those memories, right there with D-Wright, Pedro, Uncle Cliff, and so many others. He was very much the poster boy for an era of Mets baseball.

* * * * *

Guys, it didn't take Reyes signing with Miami to make it clear that era is over. The Mets were bad last year, bad the year before that, and bad the year before that.

I love Reyes, but look at this team -- what are we holding onto? Was there any combination of moves that would have made us a contender in 2012? No; no question about it, full stop.

I hate to lose Reyes because I think he's awesome and fun to root for, but he wasn't going to make this team great again; if he was, he'd have done it by now.

It's time for a new generation of players to lead the way. The Mets won't be good again until guys like Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler, and on and on are contributing at the big league level, and that's not happening until 2013 at the earliest, 2014 more likely.

And that's OK. We don't have to win every year; we don't have to win every 25 years, evidently, because they haven't and here we all are just the same. People say they at least need to "try" -- "trying" is what we did the last few years, it didn't work.

It's time for a new model. It's time for new players. We won't win in 2012, won't win in 2013. But if we follow through on this process, someday, maybe, it will be worth it.

So goodbye, Jose; goodbye, old friend. You were awesome. We had a lot of good memories, and those aren't going anywhere. Others may boo when you return, but I'll be cheering for you.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Good News (Rapture Edition)

OK, more than a month without a post? It's been a pathetic run for the Glass Man. No excuse, just bad blogging on my part.

As we all know, today is Judgment Day (beautiful day for it!). If there was one thing that was going to break me out of my hiatus, it was the onset of the end of times.

I'm not making any predictions one way or another as to what happens to me. If the Big Guy wants me, well, I think I'm deserving enough, but I appreciate that there are a lot of inputs and, like a manager before Opening Day, there are a lot of difficult choices to make. 

What really concerns me is what is the Rapture going to mean for the Mets? After all, after Judgment Day, all of us sinners have 6 months before the apocalypse which means one final season of baseball.

After looking at the roster, I'm pleased to predict that the Mets are going to be OK on this one. R.A. Dickey and Carlos Beltran are DEFINITELY getting saved, so we'll lose them, but I'm pretty sure that'll be all. David Wright is probably in similar territory to me -- it could go either way, but more likely than not is he's still with us after 9pm.

This is a tricky science, and an inexact one at that. I feel very certain that Francisco Rodriguez is NOT being saved. Poor Ike probably prays to the wrong god on this one. If you want to make a case for the rest of them though, I'll listen.

That's all I got. Good luck today, sinners.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Al Trautwig Sounds Broken By Life

And I don't blame him. That was an awful, awful loss for the Knicks in Game 1.

Mike D'Antoni sounds pissed. I don't blame him either. Again, truly awful loss.

It's the same story we saw all season long in Knicks-Celtics games. The Knicks play the Celtics tough but can't close them out. Or maybe that construction doesn't give the Celtics enough credit -- they're a great team and they find ways to close out wins. That's what great teams do.

Anyway, in a series where the Knicks have to win one on the road, they really missed a golden opportunity to win one here tonight. Up 12 points at the half. Up 3 with 35 seconds left. The alley-oop to Kevin Garnett. The offensive foul by 'Melo on their second to last possession. Not going to Amar'e when he'd been so unstoppable in the second half.

Earl Monroe is talking about how this is the kind of game that gives a team confidence, even when it ends in defeat. I can see where that would be true. But I think when you couple it with the other four losses the Knicks have suffered against the Celtics, all hard-fought games, the real takeaway is that the Celtics just find a way to win games against the Knicks.

Now Amar'e is on. When asked what his emotions were before the game, Amar'e responded, "Domination." Not typically an emotion; big part of why I love Amar'e.

Side note: my DVR just messed up a bit, sending me back about 20 minutes in the Knicks postgame show. This reminded me of Walt "Clyde" Frazier, who looks and sounds almost comatose. Zombie Clyde needs to call it a night, as do I.

Ah well, it's a missed opportunity. They'll try again Tuesday, I guess.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Abandon All Hope

Another day, another Mets loss. Granted, the Rockies are a good team and the Mets are not.

What's disorienting though is that if it's possible I think I might have forgotten what it's like to root for a team with absolutely no hope for success.

That doesn't mean there's nothing to root for. Root for big seasons from Ike or Jon Niese, the Mets' two relatively promising (not in a Jason Heyward or Mike Stanton kind of way, but you know) youngsters. Root for another strong year from R.A. Dickey, their man of letters. Root for productive seasons out of Beltran and Reyes so that we can actually get something decent for them at the deadline.

And root for ownership to finally realize that this team is farther away than they've ever wanted to acknowledge, and that to address that you have to make broad, sweeping changes.

I don't know. It's easy to be negative when you're 4-7 and have lost six of your last seven games. They're not as bad as they've looked during this stretch. They're right when they say they've been a pitch away or a hit away from winning each of the games they've lost, with the exception of a game or two here or there.

The point is, what seems clear is that this year they'll lose more games than they win because they deserve to. Because they're not that good. It is what it is.

- A.F.O.M.G.