Old Unis, New Results?

You know it's a slow season when, in the last week of the season, a 40-word blurb in a local scribe's online "notepad" about a potential uniform change generates more interest than, you know, the team itself ever has in recent memory.

But what about that report! "The Mets plan to go retro with their pinstriped home uniforms... [which] will change to off-white, as they were in the 1960s, from their current bright white," writes beat reporter Adam Rubin. No word yet from Omar on whether Rubin wants Charlie Samuels' job.

Either way, this is an exciting enough development in a go-nowhere season. More exciting still is word found in other reports that the rise of the retro jersey has been linked with the phasing out of the black uniforms.

Like many others, I'm not a fan of the Mets' black unis. I will say that a hint of black in the background of a helmet or a jersey can look good. Take Mr. Glass' helmet in the below, for example.

A hint of black isn't a bad look, but when it's allowed to dominate the uniform, then it becomes a problem. The team's colors are blue and orange, that should be the starting point.

So while I've always liked the bright white/blue pinstripe combo, I'm not against changing the background color to eggshell if it means eliminating the black home jersey.

What I really want, as described in an earlier post, is a new uniform that uses the throwback uniform the Mets used that one weekend against the Giants as its inspiration.

To reiterate, the jersey should not feature the massive NY, but rather the standard Mets logo on top of that cream coloring and the minimalist blue striping/lettering. It was a crisp, clean look, one that would signal, if only in a small way, the start of a new era so desperately needed by Mets fans.

But at the end of the day this is just fashion. You can change the uniforms all you like, but if the Mets start playing like the 1960's teams their uniforms emulate, well, it's going to be a long year in 2010.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Get Depressed

Yesterday the inevitable happened.

With their 100th victory of the season, the Yankees clinched their first AL East division crown since 2006. Last week they locked up their first playoff berth since... 2007 (2008, of course, was the first time they had missed the postseason since 1993).

Give the Yankees credit, they came into last offseason a flawed team and from ownership to management they had a plan to return to glory.

There was little art to that plan; it consisted primarily of signing every premium free agent they could find. C.C. Sabathia. AJ Burnett. Mark Teixeira. The Yankees did what they had to do.

The Mets, on the other hand, did very little. They made pains to shore up their most glaring flaw, the bullpen, which everyone at Omar's bagel shop knew was the undoing of the 2008 team. But unfortunately the fans at Omar's morning bagel joint didn't clue him in to the other holes that would end up getting exposed, fast, in 2009.

Like the fact that Mike Pelfrey wasn't ready to be a No. 2 starter. Or that Carlos Delgado couldn't be relied on to duplicate his 2008 season. Or that you can't simultaneously with with little to no production from the catcher, left, and right field positions (no disrespect to Jeff Francoeur, who's done a whale of a job since coming over from Atlanta).

I want to say the Mets made no effort to get a gold glove caliber slugging first baseman like Teixeira or balked at signing a credible No. 2 starter like Derek Lowe (let alone another front line guy like Sabathia) because of Bernie Madoff, but that doesn't square with everything we've seen from Omar, Jeff and co. the last few years.

When his tenure began, Omar said his goal was to turn the Mets into a latter day Atlanta Braves. When people thought of that year-in, year-out National League club that was always in the playoffs, he wanted people to think of the Mets.

Loaded with young superstars like David Wright, Carlos Beltran, and Jose Reyes, and backed financially by the largest payroll in the NL (which figured to expand due to the team's television network and new stadium), it seemed very likely that the Mets could make good on that promise. When they erupted for 97 wins in 2006, it seemed certain.

But no, here we are five years into the Omar regime and we have but that one champagne-soaked campaign to look back on. We remember it fondly, yes, but it was not the herald of a new age for the Mets. It was just a temporary respite from the gloom, and each year, the memory of 2006 grows a little more faint.

Acrosstown the Yankees celebrate their latest division title. From ownership to management to the clubhouse, theirs is an organization with a commitment to winning.

Indeed, the 9-year Yankees 2000 Curse has never been as imperiled as it is this year. It's a horrible prospect, but it's earned. The Yankees did the things they had to do to build a contender.

As we look ahead to 2010, who among us is confident the Mets will do the same?

- A.F.O.M.G.

Omir Santos... 2010 Mike Pelfrey?

I remember arguing with somebody on a message board over at MetsMerized about Mike Pelfrey in the waning weeks of Spring Training.

To my counterpart, Pelfrey was a sure thing. He'd looked dominant for large swaths of 2008, and was ready in 2009 to be a 15-20 game winner.

To me, Pelfrey was the team's greatest gamble. He'd had a few good months in 2008 (you might have even called them great), but it was too small a body of work to start talking about the Pelf Man as a No. 2 or No. 3 starter. He was too untested, too raw, and, given the year-on-year increase in innings pitched, an injury risk.

There's nothing to gloat over as Pelfrey's misfortune has been my own, but retrospectively each of the things I predicted about the big guy, aside from injury, has come true. He wasn't a No. 2/3, and placing him in that roll amounted to little more than wishful thinking.

Which brings me to Omir Santos and the question of whether he can be the team's primary catcher next season. Santos has done a fine enough job this season, but his reputation is built primarily on a few clutch hits he got when he first came up.

Take those away and all you're left with is a guy hitting .259 with a .295 OBP and .295 SLG. Consider those stats and ask yourself whether you would ever, EVER, want someone like that in your starting lineup?

If the answer is no, then any concept of using Santos as a starting catcher is premised on an assumption that he could replicate his "clutch" hitting in 2010. The problem with that is that it amounts to cherry-picking previous results and projecting them on to expected returns. It doesn't work like that. Remember Endy Magic in 2006? Wasn't so magical in 2007 (RIP Endy).

I realize no final decisions have been made about Santos, and I also don't know if any better alternatives are out there. Indeed, it may well be that given his price and the team's general hopes for next season, Santos makes more sense than any alternative.

But as the Mets look at their team position-by-position, they need to ask themselves difficult questions about expected production irregardless of their hopes or fond memories for each player.

You can't be sentimental in player evaluations; if you could, the Red Sox never would have traded Nomar in 2004 and who knows what would have happened from there.

What is the most you could reasonably expect out of Omir Santos in 2010? I'm not sure the answer entitles Santos to the starting spot.

That's all I got, have good weekends everyone. Team 2 has a doubleheader on Sunday... hang on to your effing hats.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Shades of the '07 Mets

It was 1-0 after one. 8-2 after two. 10-4 after 3. We were cruising. The commish turned to me between innings and said that "Team 2" might have to be broken up.

But then, as suddenly as the season started to turn in 2007, everything began to change. Rallying behind a mandatory 1-inning pitching change, the other team began to close the gap. They worked deep counts, they had timely hitting; before we knew it they had taken an 11-10 lead en route to a 12-10 victory over the good guys.

Not since the 2007 Mets had a team looked as dominant as we did early or as punchless as we did late. It was a bitter way to begin the season.

But as me and Sip left the field Sunday morning, the sting of defeat was bitter but insufficient to overcome all the good vibes from our first game. More than anything, it was just good to be back.

I loved playing softball in college, but since I graduated in 2005 (salt), competitive sports just haven't been a part of my life. I grew up playing baseball and soccer primarily, and not having one of those, and not having anything else like them, has been difficult.

But 9am softball was just the start of another Sunday jampacked with sports. From there it was off to Bar None for the Saints (and the Jets), followed by the Pourhouse for the New Bears and Ravens. Finally it was back to Brooklyn Heights for the Giants, who almost gave me a heart attack but came away with a truly gratifying 33-31 victory over the Cowboys.

These Sundays are awesome but draining, and I say that as someone who's not even drinking right now. They take a lot out of me, but they're worth it.

Meanwhile, over in Metsville, the Mets really took it to the Nats this weekend. Suck it, Washington! All is not well for our Metsies, however, as over in Cleveland, the Indians, losers of 8 straights, are really making a bid in the race for the 3rd to worst record in the league.

The Mets' 2-game winning streak has really made things interesting in the battle for 6th worst, with the D-Backs hanging tough. It's going to be an INTERESTING final 12 games, wouldn't you say?

And it just hit me... just 12 games left. Wow.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Fixing Citi Field: 5 Action Items

Here at Y2K we're all about a bias to action. We see problems and we want to be part of the solutions.

That's why, when Jeff Wilpon asked, I could hardly refuse offering my top five actionable suggestions for enhancing Citi Field.

Let me be clear: I think Citi Field has a lot going for it. As a physical structure, as something you behold from the parking lot or the 7 train or the vantage point of a Goodyear blimp, it's a beautiful presence.

What needs fixing is what's under the hood. It all comes back to the same complaint that's been registered since the day Citi Field opened for business: to look at it you'd never know the Mets played there.

As an organization, the Mets seem to be sensitive to this charge; at the All Star Break the team mounted its championship banners on the wall in left center field, a welcome change.

What I'd like to do here is make suggestions for 5 other "welcome changes" that the Mets could implement. Some of these suggestions are novel, others you've heard before elsewhere; either way, I've then ranked each of them on a 1-10 scale of feasibility -- 1 being extremely difficult to implement, 10 being extremely easy to implement.

So without further ado and in no particular order:

1. Murals, placards, neon lights... Do something with the stairwells.

Exiting and entering the stadium or just walking between levels it never going to be anyone's highlight of going out to a ballgame. But as it is, the stairwells between levels are about the most depressing places at Citi Field.

They don't have to be. Rather than seeing Fuhrer-bunker gray all around you, why not do something with the vast swaths of empty wall?

Remember those massive placard photographs they had hanging around Shea Stadium, the ones with pictures of Casey or Piazza or the '86 Mets celebrating? Those pictures meant something to the fans; we'll never have the history of the Yankees, but those pictures told you you were part of something, something that had its own charm and mystique.

Not feeling the pictures? Why not use the neon light player cutouts that used to be on Shea's exterior? Or why not let school children come in and paint murals of happy children at the ballpark (like we had in the stairwell at my school growing up)?

The possibilities are limitless, and it might be the easiest possible upgrade out there. But please, ANYTHING would be better than what we have now.

Feasibility rating: 9.

2. Give the Security guards and field attendants blue, orange, white, or black parkas... anything but Phillie maroon.

This one is so obvious it hurts. When I ask who in the Mets organization is ensuring quality control, ask who the person is that signs off on all the key decisions, these are the things I'm wondering about.

Who in their right mind would have authorized the field attendents at the Mets' ballpark to wear the color of their biggest rival? It boggles the mind.

But put that aside. This is an easy fix. The Mets have not one, not two, not three, but four (!!) uniform colors to choose from. Personally my vote would be for blue-based parkas, but blue, orange, black (it's slimming!) or white, the only way they can go wrong on this one is if they keep it the way it is.

Feasibility rating: 10.

3. Make "Shea Club" boxes.

The Mets have 38 seating categories, including the Big Apple Reserved, Empire Party Suites, Caesars Club, Metropolitan Box Gold, and, of course, Ebbets Club.

The fact that there is no Shea Club is inexplicable. The Mets called Shea Stadium home for 44 years, what other criteria exists for getting a suite named in your honor?

More than semantics, it would tell the fans that you respect the place of Bill Shea and Shea Stadium in the team's history. Indeed, Bill Shea is the sine qua non of the entire organization -- he deserves that respect.

Particularly in light of the Ebbets Club (note, there is no Polo Grounds Club), the lack of a club in Bill Shea's honor is kind of disgraceful.

Feasibility rating: 10.

4. Establish a museum on the history of National League baseball in New York.

In a sense, this would be the ideal way to enter the ballpark. The Jackie Robinson Rotunda, while beautiful, doesn't feel entirely right today, and will feel even more bizarre years from now as more and more people with a memory of the Brooklyn Dodgers pass.

If you could have a do-over, a rotunda commemorating the history of National League baseball in New York would be, to my mind, a really powerful way to enter the stadium.

But what's done is done. I still think an installation on the history of NL ball in New York would be a really cool addition to Citi Field.

For one thing, it would give the New York Giants their due. No matter what the Wilpons might want to believe, the heritage of the team contains the Giants as well as the Dodgers, and as a fan of the Mets, I'm intereted in that history, too.

But more importantly it would create a living, breathing space to commemorate the history of the Mets. Again, there's a really compelling story there, one that Mets fans want to know about.

Is it possible? Good question. I wonder if some of the office space in right center field could be converted into this museum. If there's a way to do it the Mets should look into it.

Feasibility rating: 4 (?).

5. Please, paints the seats blue and orange and the outfield walls blue.

In my role as a blogger I often have to look for pictures of Mets players. What strikes me as I look through the options presented on Google images is there's a major difference between pictures of the Mets at Shea and pictures of them at Citi Field.

When you look at a picture of a Met at Shea (one of him swinging the bat or high fiving another player), you can tell he's at the Mets' home park. There's blue on the walls all around him, and the seats you can see through the fans are orange. You know immediately. It's home.

With none of those flourishes, Citi Field does not immediately situate you in the home of the Mets. Really, it could be any team's ballpark, the Mets just happen to play there.

Come to think of it, that's the source of this entire exercise to begin with.

Feasibility: 10.

* * * * *

So there you have it, my top 5 ways to enhance Citi Field. Are you picking up what I'm putting down? Did I leave any great ideas off the list? Curious as always for your thoughts.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Uncharted Territory

This disappointing season for the Mets has turned into a a year of firsts for the Glass Man. Never before had I been able to channel my sports enthusiasm away from baseball during the regular season. That was the backdrop yesterday on a beautiful mid-September day as I dug in for 12 hours of pure non-baseball bliss.

It all started with my debut in the Eastern Athletic Softball League. I'm not one to boast, but I was a bit of a stud softball player back in my college days, and ever since I graduated and my days of softball ended, I've felt like something was missing; I think ultimately it was just the sense of competition that sports provides.

Anyway, the league seems great. Good competition level, good people. Best of all, Sip and I are doing this thing together; he couldn't make it yesterday but beginning this coming Sunday it'll be Y2K in the building all over that league. Cot damn.

When softball was over I bounded home for a shower and a change. After scarfing down Little Miss Shea's homemade chicken wings, the two of us headed for Court Street looking to find a neighborhood sports bar with a satellite package. Cody's and Downtown Bar and Grill did the honors; neither has any of the immediate charm of Blondie's, but they both have things going for them (the nachos at Cody's, for one thing, are a hell of a lot better than at Blondie's).

Realizing there was no chance either bar would interrupt the football to devote a screen to the US Open, we headed home after the Jets game so that we could flip between the Giants and the Federer semifinal.

Young Elisha looked good; you couldn't help but feel like the Giants should have put up a lot more than 23 points, but at the end of the day they did what they had to to win the game, and that's not the worst thing in Week 1.

As for Federer, Djokovich gave him a run for his money, but ultimately Fed did what Fed do.

Exhausted but excited, we hit up the 7 train and headed for Flushing where we had tickets to the Women's Final of the US Open. In a showdown between Mega Mom Kim Clijsters and Turbo Teen Caroline Wozniaki, it was Clijsters who took home the trophy. It was an altogether "eh" kind of final, but it was the first championship game of any sports that I can recall ever seeing in person, so it's a good memory in that respect.

* * * * *

In the midst of this orgy of sport the Mets played a doubleheader against the hated Phillies that meant absolutely nothing.

In the 10 minutes of live baseball I saw, John Maine looked fine. As with the return of Carlos Beltran, seeing Maine out there just gives you a sense of longing for what might have been this season.

In the nightcap, well, Pedro sure made us look foolish for thinking he was the done, didn't he? I mean, I'm glad we didn't sign him, but it does drive me a little nuts that he signed with Philly. Couldn't the Dodgers have used him?

Oh well. Yesterday wasn't about the Mets for me, it was about entering the uncharted territory of embracing other teams and other sports well before the end of baseball season.

In other years everything else had to take a back seat. If the Mets were in a playoff run, football, tennis, everything else was just background noisee. But as we know too well, 2009 isn't like other years.

Oh well. Seventh worst record in the league and counting.

- A.F.O.M.G.

It Was All So Exciting, Once

On paper last night had a lot going for it. Beautiful weather that contained a hint of chillier fall air as the hours grew later. Great seats courtesy of Nails. A late season series with the hated Marlins. Hell, I even caught a ball (OK, it bounced, but I kept it in front of me so the guys in the booth would have appreciated my fundamentals).

Nevertheless, there I was some time around the 7th inning when I had a look around, turned to Nails and said, "man, this place is like a graveyard."

Needless to say, I didn't need to go there to know that the fun had already been sucked out of this season, but the calamity of 2009 hit me an altogether different way last night.

It made me think of the past few Septembers. No matter how things ended in 2007-2008, September in those years packed all the drama a baseball fan could ask for. September 2006 was about clinching and gearing up for the postseason.

Even September 2005 was fun because you felt like you were watching something that was on the up and up. David Wright and Jose Reyes still felt so new, the whole team felt that way, it felt like you were at the start of something new and exciting.

Zoom forward to 2009 and nothing about this team feels new and exciting anymore. Instead, at the end of an altogether dreadful season with essentially zero redeeming qualities, all there is is a pervasive feeling of dread that the next few years will carry more of the same because the guys in charge don't have their act together.

These aren't new thoughts; we've written about them before on this site and you can read about them elsewhere. But yesterday I was reminded of what we lost.

There are no white knuckle games this September. No rush of victory, no agonizing over defeat. No need to get the guys together to watch the Mets or Phillies. No need to watch baseball at all, really.

It used to be so exciting; it's not anymore, not this season at least.

* * * * *

Later, inexplicably stuck in 10:30pm traffic on 2nd avenue, we heard the call of Derek Jeter collecting his record-tying hit. We heard the crowd erupt, and it reminded us that not too far from where we sat yesterday, exciting September baseball was alive and well, and with it, the attendant hope and anticipation of October baseball as well.

Oh well. Mets games are still good for catching up with old friends at least. Nails, thanks again.

- A.F.O.M.G.

Yet Another Reason the Mets Are a Complete Joke

You know things are going bad when the best that can be said about you is that, in spite of everything, you're still not as bad as the Knicks. But the news in this morning's Post about a creaky Citi Field is really just the cherry on top of an altogether miserable season.

Courtesy of Post scribe James Fanelli, we now know that "shiny" Citi Field has a nickname at the organizational water cooler: "Shitty Field -- that's what we call it," reports a team insider.

That's not Nails or some pissed off fan in the blogosphere talking, it's a TEAM INSIDER. As in, people involved with the organization call it Shitty Field.

In case it's not clear to Mets brass (which I know is reading this post), let's turn it over to Urban Dictionary for a definition of Shitty Field (which uses "Shiti" as it's spelling of choice):

"In 2009, the New York Mets baseball club opened up a new stadium. Due to the poor quality of the design and the fact that the Mets are known for being a second rate team that chokes every year to the Phillies or any other team, the stadium was named Shiti Field. The idea is to reflect this shiti nature of the team."

Wow.

Well, why shouldn't people call it that? Signs falling in the field-level promenade during an off-day? Clogged drains in the Mo's Zone? Air conditioning and heating in the maintenance crew's locker room that hasn't work since DAY ONE? The fact that there's ONLY ONE electrical socket in the team's laundry room so they have to use a surge protectors?!

It defies belief; how the eff don't they know that they'll need, you know, more than one outlet for all of their washers and driers? This is a brand new ballpark that cost $850 million to build. But forget that -- you don't need a great contractor for some of this stuff, all you need is common sense. How is this possible?

Who in this organization is responsible for quality control?

What a bunch of jokers. Tone deaf, completely out of touch, and clearly incapable of recognizing flaws, both on and off the field.

Saddle up, everyone. It can get worse. It does each day.

Happy Labor Day!

- A.F.O.M.G.

First Frenchy, Now Thole

Say what you want about the years of despair awaiting the Mets, Jayson Stark, but at least we have two certifiable dudes to share the misery with.

First we rejoiced when Jeff Francouer gave the first of his now-daily post-game interviews, jacked up, excited, smiling, and just seeming like he loved life. Sip quickly dubbed him "Chips Francouer," about as high an honor as Young could bequeath.

But hold up, who just saw Josh Thole's first big league press conference? The kid went an auspicious 2-for-5 in his major league debut, then he wowed 'em with his general gregariousness during the press conference.

The press asked if he'd kept the first ball he hit for a single, he had. They asked if he'd kept the first ball he'd hit for a double, he had. Was he missing anything? "I don't know, we didn't get that first passed ball, did we?" he asked, drawing laughs from the media swarm. It was as if he was joking with some frat brothers circled around a keg.

Smiling ear to ear, laughing with the press, it's not easy for everyone. Just ask Mike Pelfrey (Mr. Dear in Headlights) or John Maine (Mr. I Hate Myself and Want to Die) or just about any member of the 2007-09 Mets not named David Wright, Johan Santana or Billy Wagner.

Francouer and Thole may not be the answer in any long-term sense, but at least they're enjoyable personalities; based on the early returns, they're the most dynamic duo the Mets have had since the days of Robin Ventura and Todd Zeile. Are they good clubhouse guys? I've got no insight there, but affability can't hurt.

I mean really, if we're going to spend the next few seasons (or 6-8 seasons, in the estimate of one of Stark's contacts) like it was 2002-2004, we might as well have a few meatheads who know how to have a laugh.

- A.F.O.M.G.

The Plan: Building Blocks of a Better Organization

With the Mets dead and buried, much of the conversation around the team has shifted from "what happened last night" to "what can we do about next year".

I find that more often than not the suggestions I read in the blogosphere are pie in the sky type hopes with little basis in reality. I also have a reluctance to suggest trade ideas as I have zero insight into the dialogue Omar has with other GMs. The way I look at it, I don't know who's available at what prices on other teams, so it's not really worth me proposing something.

But one thing I can make suggestions on is organizational structure. I don't know how the Mets run their shop, but I'm confident there are a variety of simple methods they could implement to improve their fortunes.

Today's suggestion is to create an environment in which "feedback" is replaced with "feed-forward", as Marshall Goldsmight might say.

It should be a yearly requirement that each employee in the organization create a list of 5 goals that, if acheived, would improve the performance of their unit within the organization. This goes for the guy in the General Manager's office on down to the guy running the mail service. They need to come up with a list, deliver it to someone they have regular contact with, and receive a non-threatening performance review on those 5 objectives 6-12 months later.

It would encourage an environment where communication and initiative is valued. But it's only a first step.

I would also make it a requirement for each employee (and maybe a few fans and bloggers), to submit 3-5 recommendations for improving the quality of the team's on- and off-field offerings. Some ground rules: These recommendations cannot be of the "fire the General Manager" variety (because theoretically he's the one encouraging the survey), and they need to have a "bias to action" (it's not helpful writing "trade for Albert Pujols").

Suggestions for the off-field product could be painting the seats orange and blue or encouraging more Met legends to follow Doc Gooden's lead and write their names on that wall they designated for the signatures of Mets greats (you remember Gooden-gate, don't you?). It could be suggesting they get rid of the black unis and replace them with those sweet cream-colored ones they rocked during throwback weekend.

As for the on-field product, suggestions could be that they work more closely on fundamentals, or that they make a big-hitting first baseman their primary offseason priority.

The point is to compile opinions and, hopefully, stumble upon ideas no one in the executive office had thought of yet. Innovation can come from all levels -- the Mets need a system to capitalize on the next great idea that each of their employees could hold.

So there you have it, step one to building a better organization. Maybe the Mets are doing a lot of the above already -- somehow I doubt it.

Got some suggestions to improve the on-field or off-field quality of the organization? We want to hear about them on the comment board.

- A.F.O.M.G.