OH BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Looks like Frank McCourt is looking to unload the Los Angeles Dodgers of Brooklyn as he can’t afford a baseball team and an ex-wife. Oh the possibilities here.

Could Freddy Skill Sets pull an O’Malley and head West to own his beloved Dodgers ? Think about it. Or how desperate is McCourt for some scratch that he would sell the DODGERS name to Freddy? Or just the trademark name Brooklyn Dodgers ?  Then he can get Jay Horowitz to legally change his name to Happy Felton

I was an 11 year old 6th grader at P.S. 105 in Boro Park Brooklyn. Our teacher, Mrs. McGuire, brought in the big ass city issued black and white TV so we could watch part of Game 5 of the World Series with the New York Mets one win away from completing one of the greatest seasons in baseball history. 

Last night on PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL, Lenny Nesslin of LenNYs Yankee blog and Rich Mancuso of NY SPORTSDAY were our guests as we discussed the Highlander-Angles ALCS. At one point during our discussions Myself, Joe Mc Donald and Rich, three big time Mets fans, wondered if the worst day of our baseball life, a Highlanders-Phuck Phaces World Series comes to fruition, who would we’d root for or in other words what is the best case scenario for Mets fans?

Between the three of us, it was unanimous; there is no way in world that we could ever root for the Phuck Phaces. Now it’s not like we are going to be donning “SWISH-O-LICIOUS t shirts or lighting votive candles in Monument Park but the consensus was the Highlanders were the lesser of two evils. Now if it’s Highlanders-Hollywood Bums, then there is no question that we will join our owner in rooting for the former tenants of Mc Keever Pl, in fact we are hoping if the Brooklyn Dodgers of Los Angeles win the World Series we can get a good seat at $iti Field for the raising of Dodgers World Series flag on opening day and the unveiling of the George “Shotgun” Shuba statue outside the RF gate.

Back to this date in 1969. It’s times like these that I feel bad for the younger generation of Mets fan. Believe it or not kids, the Mets were THE TEAM in town once upon a time. As a young gutter snipe growing up in Brooklyn, Highlander fans were mocked and ridiculed. It was all Mets all the time in the papers, the NY Daily News ran COLOR front pages just for the Mets. COLOR FRONT PAGES!!!! The moon landing didn’t get a COLOR FRONT PAGE!!!! ( I guess you realize that COLOR FRONT PAGES in the Daily News were a HUGE event)

I remember hearing Curt Gowdy calling Game 5 and hearing the fans screaming in that last inning. But the images that stick with me as I watched on TV was Cleon Jones making the catch in LF and dropping to one knee and the fans pouring out of the stands and covering the field. The next day the stories were of fans tearing up the sod and digging up home plate and the pitching rubber. Where are those artifacts today?

The post game celebration was legendary not just for the new World Series champs but for me as well. The site of Seaver, Kossman, McGraw and my man Kranepool pouring beer and champagne on each other led me to the kitchen where my mother was making dinner. (Mom was never a big sports fan but with three sons the woman washed more uniforms than most clubhouse personnel in fact she excelled in getting grass and blood stains out of white uni tops) and to the fridge to grab one of the old man’s Rheingolds. My mother then screaming at me “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” and me telling her, “Relax Ma, I’m not going to drink it, I’m just going to pour it on my head like the Mets. They won the World Series Ma! They’re World Champs!!!!!

I was very lucky as I went to a ton of games as a little kid and many were during the season of ‘69. My brothers being 20 years older than me, took me to games and most of the time we sat in box seats in the field level. Whenever I’m asked about my fondest memories of Shea Stadium the memory that always sticks with me are the Friday night games I went to when the Dodgers or Giants came to town. There was a Madi Gras atmosphere at Shea. Mrs. Payson was always stationed at here seat next to Mets dugout. There was a Dixieland Band that would roam the stands, fans would yell LET’S GO METS thru their Mr. Met megaphone, and in between innings Jane Jarvis would entertain us with melodies on her Thomas organ. No awful teenybopper music screeching from the sound system, no one talking on their phone or checking their CrackBerry during a second and third no out jam, no racing garbage trucks. None of that, just baseball and baseball fans enjoying both their new found love, the Amazin’ Mets and lamenting the love their loss, the Bums and ‘Jints.

Rumor has it, that Freddie Skill Sets has been begging The Used Car Salesman to order the Trolly Dodgers to play their home World Series games at $iti Field.

That was the mirror

It made everything clearer

That you’re more beautiful compelling and stronger

It didn’t take much longer

Just for me to realize I love all the little things

And the beauty that they’re gonna bring

I dig your little laugh and I’m lovin’ your quick wit

I even love it when you’re faking it

And it might sound a little strange for me to say to you

But I’m proud to be you

And I’m slowly turning into you

And I’m slowly turning into you

And I’m slowly turning into you

And I’m slowly turning into you

The more I see of $iti Field the more I’m coming around to the fact that this will be at least from a structural point, a baseball palace.  From looking at the pictures that Joe McDonald took while on a tour of the new ballpark the first thing that strikes me is the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. It is magnificent. I know there is alot of anti-Brooklyn Dodgers sentiment among Mets fans and the naming and the reproduction of the Ebbets Field rotunda of $iti Field has been debated as some segment of Mets fans feel the Mets should honor their own and other part of the fans base wants the New York Giants/Polo Ground element to be added and both sides make fine arguments but to bash the design of the ball park and to be upset that the rotunda is named after Jackie Robinson is ridiculous in my view. In fact I wanted the ball park named after Robinson but I know that is just a pipe dream.

Any way not just the rotunda is breath taking up the view from the section show that Mets fans will have that up close and personal feel and be right on top of the action. I also LOVE the forest green seats which will give the park that old time feel.

Maybe it’s the cold weather and wishing it was 80 degrees and sunny or maybe it’s the Rangers getting the ass handed to them last night by Les Habitants that has me getting antsy for spring training and then opening day at the new place. (We have to come up with a better name though as I’m still going to use $iti Field so if you have any suggestions for me pass them along through the comments or e-mail sinymets@aol.com )