So Jason Marquis signed with the Washington Nats for 2yrs/$15 mil. It seems the Mets were adamant about Marquis signing for minimum of 5 yrs/$40 mil.

Of course if the Mets signed Marquis for the same deal it would have been very nice but let’s not make him out to be Don Drysdale, okay, he’s a plow horse who takes the ball every 5^th day and most days keeps his team in games.

The big problem for the Mets if John Harpers’ info is correct, the team has placed a priority on adding offense first then seeing how much is left in the bank account to go for pitching. If that’s the case, this Mets team is destined for doom.

Does it really pay to get mad anymore? I have no idea what the Mets plan is this off-season and I’m at the point that I couldn’t give a shit if Jason Bay signs here or not. In fact, my mindset for this coming season is of a late 70’s type mode. I see myself going to as many games as I can at $iti Field because for all the screaming, cursing and acting like baby bullshit I do here, I’m still a die hard Mets fan. I’ll be there (hopefully) on Opening Day and for a lot of other days/nights at $iti Field. So the Mets don’t have to do anything to appease me because even if they were still playing in our beloved Shea with it’s leaky toilets and broken seats, I’d still be there bitching and moaning but with cash and credit card in hand, wearing a Mets jersey, Mets cap, Mets socks (yeah that’s right I have about 5 pair of Mets socks) and standing and applauding when Alex Anthony says “And here they are your 2010 New York Mets”.  You say I’m a jerk and ass whatever but the bottom line is I love the Mets it’s the owner whose guts I hate.  Even Jimmy (Welcome to my Garden Party) Dolan laughs at Jeffey Skill Sets.

I don’t know about you but I’m getting a massive headache trying to decipher what the hell the Mets plan is for the off season.

Omar has gone on TV and print preaching pitching and defense and I scream at the TV YES OMAR YES! !!!  then I read the tons of minutia coming out of Indianapolis and everything about the Mets is contradictory.

The Mets are hot for Matt Holiday and John Lackey,

Then we hear, the Mets won’t be spending on big ticket free agents.

Luis Castillo has been offered to every team but Miguel’s Taqueria softball team. If you can’t move Castillo then you have to buy out his contract. I’m not a big Castillo fan and I would love to see him moved but you have to admit the way the Mets are treating him sucks. If my job treated me like this I’d at the union hall filing a fucking grievance. Either trade the man or grow a pair of balls Jeffey and buy him out you little shit.

Last night I watched Mets Hot Stove and the great Bobby Ojeda when asked by Kevin Burkhart what the Mets biggest need is this off season, Bobby O said “pitching, pitching and more pitching. Then when the cut to Indianapolis, and Chris Carlin interviewed Bobby Cox who was asked about his suplus of starting pitching. Cox said “you hate to move a starter because you never have enough pitching” Now they know that, I know that, you know that, all of baseball knows that. Do the Mets know that?

The last time I was this discouraged as a Mets fan, Lorinda de Roulet were trying to figure out how to clean baseballs and Bebe and Whitney de Roulet were strutting their debutant ass’s through out Shea trying out as ball washers.

Wayne Coffey in today’s Daily News has a great two page story on Dwight Gooden and his road back into baseball and leading a life free of drugs and alcohol. Coffey zones in on Doc’ 1985 season which is one of the greatest pitching season in baseball history. I love that Coffey mentions that the Gooden phenomenon back then has not been matched in this city.  No player in any sport in this city can match what Gooden and the Mets did back then. I remember that any start Gooden made was a must see event and as hard as this is to believe where I lived in Brooklyn we did not have cable. So when any Gooden starts were not on Ch 9 the choice was either get to Shea or get to a bar that has one of those huge satellite dishes to watch his starts.

I’m glad that Doc is back in baseball as he is working for the Newark Bears but with this new found thinking of management bringing back players who actually have a winning pedigree with the Mets in coaching positions, you would think there would be a spot for Doc.

I know I’m late with this but kudos to Mike Silva and Joe DeMayo over at NYBD for breaking the story on the hiring of Wally Backman by the Mets to manage the Brooklyn Cyclones. Not only is great to have Wally back in the family but to manage Brooklyn makes it even sweeter.

By the way all of the folks who are attacking Mike and Frank Russo over his report that Carl Crawford has asked out of Tampa need to grow up. What, you think Crawford is going to retire a Ray?

To me the biggest question of the off season is still how much power does Omar Minaya have, Joel Sherman shines some light on the subject:

Rival executives and agents described a man not fully in charge of baseball operations regardless of what Mets ownership says. One NL official said that lag time between discussing business with Minaya and the time it took him to respond suggested he had to run the information through a committee.

An agent said, “You might not like what Omar had done in the past, but he was always aggressive and decisive. He looked old, beaten and without a plan this time.”

Executives and agents said they thought Minaya has yet to be told a true budget by ownership, and that is leading to the belief that the Mets do not want to spend big. A second agent said, “The Mets are not a destination spot right now, especially if you are a hitter. You would be going to a questionable team playing in a huge park. So if you’re Jason Bay, why would you leave the Red Sox for the Mets unless you were blown away (financially), or if you were Matt Holliday, why would you leave St. Louis for the Mets unless you were blown away?”

If this info is right then the Skill Sets fucked up again by not firing Omar and not giving the job to either John Rico or going out and hiring a younger more aggressive GM. This is what bugs the living shit out of me with Jeffey Skill Sets, all along he states that Minaya has “full autonomy “ over the baseball ops but according to Sherman’s sources he has to run his moves though a committee so in effect you’ve cut Omar’s balls off. Great move Jeffey, you little shit.

I can’t let go so off I went to $iti Field last night. It was like a “Let’s remember the 70’s” kind of night at $iti. Parking was plentiful, concession stands were closed, the stands that were open and manned by incompetent “hospitality” staff and the stands half full. It brings a tear to my eye, when I think about the way we were.

You might have seen me on TV as we were sitting right above the Mo’ Zone where Garrett Anderson took Big Plef deep for a long double. Anderson ball was coming right at us and hit right at the orange line across the padded wall and bounce back to Jeff Francouer. In section 102 where I sat they have TV’s hanging off the over hang and as I looked up I could see on the replay a bunch of us in the section on the screen, and no I did not whip out my cell phone to call home.

I guess it’s time to send Big Pelf home for the winter. The guy is spent, done, kaput. Although I like that J-Man left him out there to get out of a jam in the 6^th with the bags juiced and 2 out, but his pitch count I believe was about 235 so maybe that’s not so good.

Just reading the quotes from Big Pelf kind of sums up the feeling of all of his teammates who I don’t think would be heartbroken if the organization forfeited the rest of the games. It’s pretty sad to watch a team with no hope or direction play out the string but when it’s the team you root for it hurts even more plus the fact knowing the bulk of the management team that put us in this mess is coming back and with limited financial resources makes me think next September will look a lot like this September at $iti Field.

Join us tonight at 9PM EDT for PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL on Blog Talk Radio. Our guests tonight will be Dana Brand, author of the book “The Last Days of Shea” and Rich Mancuso of NY Sportsday. If you can’t listen live you can hear it on out podcast on iTunes, our PBC site or right here at the Kranepool Society.

I see where J-Man has declared Omir Santos as one of his catchers for 2010. I’m ok with that as Santos has shown he can handle the catching part well and he hits….well he’s ok but the biggest part of the catcher position is defense and handling pitchers and even though we are all in love with Josh Thole the D and pitch handling part is still a work in progress. The best scenario would be to match Santos with a Molina brother in a catching tag team but knowing the Mets they would sign Fredo Molina.

I must admit, I didn’t watch much of the Mets-Giants game last night and from the looks of things I didn’t miss much. One thing I did notice and I kind of noticed this on Saturday, $iti Field is not exactly packed and jammed.

Remember back when the plans for $iti came out and it was announced that the seating capacity would be about 15,000 less than Shea and the outcry that fans would be shut out of games? Now there are tickets a plenty even in the beginning of the season the secondary markets were awash in Mets tickets. I’ve been to 10 games so far this season and I plan on going to at least 5 more. Sure it bothers me that the team is awful but what bothers me even more is winter. As bad as the Mets are right now, just think what it’s like in the middle of January with the snow, wind and cold and you have to wear three layers of clothes and a coat, hat and gloves. I can’t get enough days at the ball park to suit me. Besides the way the team is constructed right now, it has a nostalgic feel to going to a Mets game, very 1975-ish.

Is there a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel? First, the team started to listen to the fan base and has made improvements to $iti Field. The video screen in the RF corner came in handy on Saturday and the montage of Gooden, Straw and Hernandez looked great along with the banners on the outfield wall and even the cow in the promenade was cute. The place had a Mets feel to it, finally.

Then there were the Throwback uni’s paying tribute to the our NL heritage that the Skill Sets are finally embracing and maybe, just maybe the organization is realizing that blue and orange are our colors and the uniform we all grew up with is what we want. I’ll go out on a limb here and say that after this season the dreaded black uniforms will be no more.

But last night was the topper in this starting to feel better about my team. The Skill Sets actually went over slot money to sign their top draft pick RHP Steven Matz, by close to 400K. Now we’re talking here, let me give Jeffey and Freddy an ‘Atta Boy for that. See it’s not hard fellas.

Let me send out my hopes for a speedy recovery to Alex Cora who is having both thumbs operated on and is down for the season. The Mets should have let Cora take one more at bat so the fans could give him the ovation he deserves. Cora should have had his thumb surgery back in June but put it off due to the dearth of infielders to step up and play. Alex Cora is a gamer.

To fill Cora’s spot on the roster the Mets have resigned Teddy Martinez

At this point in the season, it isn’t really worth getting worked up over, but enough of Livan Hernandez already.

The Mets fan version of the Weather Underground will meet again a week from tonight at Two Boots Tavern 384 Grand St on the glorious Lower East Side. Come one come all we all need the therapy.

Highlander fans are starting to bloom in all their glorious doucheness over their teams recent run of good fortune. As I stated to my colleague who sits next to me at work, you can break balls all you want right now Highlander fans, but keep this in the back of your small minds, if you want to belittle the Mets and Mets fans and stick out your chests and walk around like it’s a foregone conclusion that World Series title 27 will come this late October you better hope it does, because if your Bronx Bastards fall short this post season. I WILL MAKE YOUR LIVES A LIVING HELL!!!!! Believe me it is very tough for me to hold my tongue when I wear my Mets shirts, shorts, cap, watch, and sling bag and get a bunch of shit from Highlander fans so you know I’m just waiting to attack and when I do it won’t be pretty. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Memo to Adam “The Bull”

You can kill the Mets all you want but remember your place at WFAN, you’re a benchwarmer . Come September you’ll be back in your proper place taking phone calls from Jerome in Manhattan at 2 AM.

I see I struck a nerve with my Billy Joel comments but like I say his is not the kind of music I listen to and it’s pretty weak to plat th elast concert at Shea and be a New Yorker and give in to Phillyfans by wearing thier colors.

Speaking of Philly fans there were a lot of them in the Magic Kingdom all of them in thier new Phillies cap andnew shirts all bandwaggon jumpers.

Tons of Rays fans as you wouls suspect and many Cardinal fans but the biggest group here are the English soccer fans with Everton the team most fancy.

GTG later

Can we just put Carlos Delgado on the DL already? what are the Mets waiting for? They’ve played three games now with a short bench, Delgado’s hip is still sore and won’t get better without rest. Please let’s not make him fly cross country and then DL him.

Great not only are the Mets wearing there miserable black unit tops but the Braves have decided to wear their Midnight Blue tops. Fucking stupid!

I guess Jose Reyes admitting that me made an awful base running blunder last night is progress.

Can’t kill J-Man on taking Big Pelf out in the 7th. He was in a zone and pitching great but the Mets have to be careful of over using him.

I don’t know what is higher on the douchebag meter the streaker or the asshole taking the video screaming “that’s my boy, that’s my boy” I will say nothing is as funny as over weight security guards risking a heart attack chasing a guy on the field

The Mets Police has done it again and exposed the Skill Sets as clueless. First he reports that he paid $25 bucks for ar $15.00 seat at the $iti Field box office (this is a Marx Brothers Night of the Races scenario as Chico sells his tuti fruty ice-a cream at the track ) and then shows the gall of the Mets to charge Ron Hunt the first All Star in Mets history $869 for two seats from Shea that he asked for.

The Clueless Skill Sets strike again.

I will say I was impressed by the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. I love the look with the hanging light fixtures and the words of inspiration on the walls and marble floors that surround the area. But what made the biggest impression on me  watching an African American family taking pictures on the steps leading up to the stands and then down at the big 42 in the center of the Rotunda.  The Dad was beaming telling his two kids about Robinson and how he changes not just the landscape of baseball but the country and it reinforced to me why the Jackie Robinson Rotunda is the Jewel of $iti Field.

There was one drawback to the JRR that left me dumb struck. There are two escalators leading up to the field levels. My son and I were in deep conversation and just walking to the escalator closest to us. As we ready to step on the moving stair case a “Hospitality Agent” asked to see our tickets. When she saw Promenade on them she smirked and said “this escalator is for Club Members only”  so in this grand entrance dedicated to a man who fought against  prejudice and for inclusion of all, there exists segregation of the fans The escalators  might as well be marked “SWELLS” and “GREAT UNWASHED”

As we made our way up “our” escalator, more signs of the haves and have nots were present.  There is enclave known as the Ebbets Club that is manned by a security guard whose job is to stand at the entrance to make sure none of  us street urchins go near the door. The windows of the club are also blocked by murals of $iti Field or wait I’m sorry they are murals of Ebbets Field. I get them both confused.   My son pleaded with me to please stop staring at the Ebbets Club as he feared the security/ bouncer would take me in for questioning.

We got to the ball park early (yes it is a ball park Mets fans our Stadium is just a pile of rubble next door) with more than enough time to walk all around the place. The concourses are very wide and you can see the field as you stroll. We stopped to watch the Brewers take batting practice and to watch Willie Randolph have a catch with Bill Hall. To digress a bit, Randolph was in his right element as a coach. I always said his biggest strength is as an instructor than a field manager.  Okay back to my $iti Field stroll.

As I said you can stop and watch BP but you cannot go down by the field unless you have a ticket for that section and since you either have to be a pimp , drug dealer, or a CEO of a failed Fortune 500 business to be able to afford tickets in that close to the field  we  just keep walking.

We made our way to the Centerfield Taste of New York Food Court area and this is where we made our $iti Field experience rookie mistake. We should have had our Shake Shack burger and shake and our Box Frites fires then instead of coming back in the third inning. The lines are long and if you go during the game you miss at least two innings of the game and as good as that burger, fries and shake were it wasn’t that good that I should miss two innings of Johan Santana pitching. But live and learn.

The food court area reminds me of the San Genareo Feast . Wall to wall people, plenty of beer and greasy food.  As great as the food areas are in this Taste of New York Food Court it’s really nothing you can’t get any day of the week in NYC.  The Shake Shack burger? It was very good but I’ve had as good if not better at any bar in Bay Ridge (Pipins Pub and Skinflints to name two) the Taco stand? I can go to Port Richmond here on Staten Island and have real Tacos made by real Mexican cooks.  Pizza? Are you kidding ?  Look I guess if you live in the ‘burbs these gastric delights are unique and I’m not saying it was n’t delicious but I wasn’t  blown away. Next week when I go back for the Mets-Nats on Sunday I’m going to the World’s Fare Market to get a sandwich at Mama’s of Corona. When I went in there to look around I was very surprised how little foot traffic there was there, and a Mama’s Turkey and Mozzarella on semolina hero kicks the Shake Shack burgers ass.

Our next stop was the Pepsi Porch. If it were up to me I’d have stayed up there for the rest of the game but my son wanted to go back to our seats. The PP reminded me of the Right Field Pavilion at Fenway Park with the large concession stand and vast walking area. The security guards were nice as they said we could stay and watch but please don’t block the aisles. That kind of pleasantness will get you fired mister!

I wish I knew how the Mets are counting the attendance here at $iti. The Skill Sets were criticized at Shea for announcing crowds of 40 or 50,000 when there were maybe 30 or 35,000 yesterday I’d have sworn the game was sold out a solid 42, 000 and change on hand but the announced attendance was a shade over 32,000. That brings me to the empty seat scenario.

I sat in Section 511 in the Promenade at this seems to be the part of the park where the die hards are. From my eye it looked to me the whole level was full. When you look down to the lower bowl there were pockets of unoccupied seats that have been the talk of the town this week.  Why would you be surprised that the corporate fat cats would rather sit at a bar and drink Martini’s and talk about how they got their bonus out of government TARP money and the great rental in South Hampton rather than get up close and personal with the best pitcher in baseball and watch him dominate hitters with a fastball/change-up combo not matched in the big leagues ? You reap what you sow Skill Sets.

With all that, I really like $iti Field. I think. I love the architecture. I love that it looks like Ebbits Field. I love the dark blue exposed steel girders especially the ones holding up the bridge that leads you into the Taste of NY Food Court.  I love the deep green seats. It is a beautiful ball park but there are some things that need improvement.

If you were blindfolded and brought into the park and plopped in a seat, then had the blindfold taken off and told if you can guess the team that plays here you go free if you can’t, BANG you’re dead. Chances are you’d better say your prayers as there is more Brooklyn Dodgers feel to the place than Mets and that is a major problem. I hear you Freddie, BROOKLYN RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But this is Queens and these are the Mets and we are Mets fans and you need to make the place more Mets-ecentic. It’s embarrassing.

The scoreboard sucks. All the adds on the board are so low rent –Buy your Gold Jewelry, Used Cars Dealers (Bud Selig?), Construction Equipment (Tony Soprano) Free Credit Report and Cesars Casinos-they only business missing up there are Madam Marie’s Rub and a Tug and the Canarsie Indians Tax Free Cigarettes Shack. The old board at Shea , kicks $iti’s ass everyday of the week and twice on Sunday. When you walked into Shea the first thing you checked was the day’s lineup. Not on the $iti board until game time. Out of Town Scores?  At Shea right in front of you.  At $iti? Up high near the lights plus you need Lasix  surgery to see it properly. Thank God for the Black Berry.

And what is with these metal guard rails on the seats? And the Plexiglas on the railings next to the seats?  If anyone can tell me what purpose they serve please e mail me or leave a comment because the only purpose I can see them serving is to annoy the shit out of me.   

I’m sure $iti Field will grow on me and seriously I hate being negative about the place like I said it is a beautiful place but I just wish the Skill Sets would stop catering to the corporate assholes and start making the real Mets fan happy. There is a real venomous vibe coming from a segment of Mets fan base that I have never experienced before in all the years I’ve rooted for this team. There is an unbelievable disconnect between the owner of this team and it’s loyal fan base.  I understand it is a business and the Skill Sets are hurting since the Madoff scandal but this organization is at a cross roads now. 

Always remember Skill Sets the people in the Delta, Acela, Ebbits, Excelsior or whatever swanky club you  have at $iti won’t be there when times are tough, it’s the Promenade folks who will keep you solvent during tough times but don’t take us for granted. If you think it can’t happen give Lorinda de Roulet a call and ask her about the mid and late 70’s.   

I then met up with glitterari  of Mets fandom and blogdom. Charley Hagerly, Taryn Cooper, Zoe Rice, Greg Prince, Mike Silva his brother Chris and From SNY/Bronx Banter Alex Bleth 

I’ll just leave you with this quick thought on $iti. It has some flaws. Flaws that can be corrected and it will take a bit to get used to. There are things that annoyed me and things that were great about the place and I’ll go into detail on that tomorrow.

When the 7 train pulled up to the Shea, errrrrr Mets/Willets Point Station I go a bit weak in the knees seeing a pile of rumble that we used to call home but then I saw the shinny new house and I said to myself  time to let it go move on I think we all should Move On it’s a new era in Mets baseball