Blogging Mets

The Mets off-season got off to a rousing start on Monday, as the team announced long anticipated and much needed changes to the outfield wall. And for the first time in a long time, the Mets did everything right.

“We wanted to make Citi Field fair to both pitchers and hitters,” said Sandy Alderson said in an email the Mets sent out.

Indeed they did. First of all, the height of the wall has been lowered to a uniform eight feet. Gone is that idiotic 16-foot wall in left field (who signed off on that, anyway?!). Can you hear the cheers of Jason Bay? I can recall him hitting that wall at least a half-dozen times over the past two seasons, turning what should have been confidence-building home runs into disappointing doubles. The wall has also been shortened from 371 feet to 358 feet.

Also gone is the 415-foot power alley in right center, as David Wright’s glee echoes throughout the land. It will now be 398 feet. And the moronic Mo Zone nook? Also history as we knew it — the fence has been straightened out and moved in ten feet.

Here is a rendering of the new dimensions included in the email:

Here’s what left field looks like:

And right field:

You’ve probably noticed that the new wall is blue. That’s right — the Mets have apparently been reading the blogs on which we have pleaded with the team to make the wall a Mets color instead of black, which is not a Mets color despite those horrible uniforms.

“We decided to change the outfield wall from black to Mets blue, which many of our fans have wanted,” said Jeff Wilpon, perhaps the only smart thing the James Dolan wanna-be has ever uttered.

The new configuration even adds 140 new seats, 100 in left field:

And 40 in the revamped Mo Zone:

All in all, a fine job by the Mets. As Alderson said, it is now a fair park, like Shea was. The hitters will certainly be thrilled, and the pitchers probably won’t complain much as it certainly is not a bandbox like Citizens Bank Park. This could lead to more wins than any other move the Mets make this off-season.

I can’t believe I missed this one. From the folks that brought you the hilarious Mets “help wanted” ad, here is a plea from “John Ricco” to please, please buy Mets tickets. Even though it was taped prior to the 2011 season, it’s still fun to watch:

Well, that was a pretty good game. Did anyone else have flashbacks of another Game 6, you know, that game in 1986?

Just like in 1986 when the Mets were down by two runs and down to their last strike (except that was in the tenth inning), the Cardinals were able to score two runs to tie the score in the ninth. I thought for sure they would win it right then and there just like the Mets did, but they could not.

Then after Josh Hamilton’s two-run homer in the tenth, I thought the Cardinals were done. But they came back to score two more runs to send the game in the 11th, where David Freese would end it with a home run (below).

In many ways this was a greater comeback than 1986 — the Cards had to come back from two runs down twice. Now St. Louis has to finish things off in Game 7 like the Mets did. If not, this comeback will be the equivalent in Cardinal history that Endy Chavez’s catch in Game 7 of the NLCS is in Mets history — an unbelievable moment that extended things a bit but ultimately ended in a series defeat.

There has been a lot written lately about whether the Mets will trade David Wright this off season. I say he is not going anywhere, unless…

Unless Jose Reyes signs elsewhere.

The conventional wisdom is that if the Mets resign Reyes they might trade Wright in order to save money. I think just the opposite will happen. If the Mets resign Reyes they will keep Wright in an effort to win. If Reyes goes, the Mets could go into full rebuilding mode and trade Wright.

Regardless of what happens with Reyes, I don’t think the Mets will trade Wright. They really can’t go into full rebuilding mode because the fans will stop coming to games, and that will hit the Mets where they can least afford it — the bottom line. Any money saved in payroll would be lost to an empty stadium.

Also Sandy Alderson is very attuned to fan sentiment. He knows Reyes and Wright are the most popular players on the team. That’s why he will go to great lengths to sign Reyes and keep Wright. Of course those moves are also good baseball decisions — Reyes and Wright are pretty good players.

Americans used to be wary of the Japanese; something about a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor or something. People scoffed at those funny little cars that started filling up our streets in the 1970s, but they were eventually accepted. Now Japanese baseball players are commonplace on our shores. But I say teams should remain wary of these latest Japanese imports.

This is a timely warning because a report last week in The Mainichi Daily News (which of course I read faithfully) said that pitcher Yu Darvish (left) is expected to ask his team to make him available to the highest MLB bidder this off-season.

Now, I have never seen Darvish pitch and perhaps he is the greatest pitcher of all time. His statistics are just sick — in seven seasons he is 93-38 with an ERA around 2.00. This season the 25-year-old was 18-6 with a stunning 1.44 ERA. He is the highest-paid Japanese player at around $6.5 million per season.

Teams will be tripping over each other to pay him even more, and that will be after the mega-bucks payment to his Japanese team just for the right to negotiate with him. And that, in my opinion, would be a mistake.

According to Wikipedia, 43 Japanese players have played in the majors through the 2o10 season. Just one of them, Ichiro Suzuki, can be considered a superstar (according to me, not Wikipedia). While several players have had nice careers, the only other one who could even be called a star is Hideki Matsui. Only eight have appeared in an All-Star game.

There is always a drop-off of performance. Matsui was called “Godzilla” in Japan for his home run prowess — he hit 50 in his final season there. Here in the United States he has topped 30 just once in nine seasons.

How many players came over here with high hopes and even higher contracts? Let’s not even discuss Kaz Matsui. The Cubs gave Kosuke Fukudome a four-year $48 million contract because he was a power-hitting .300 batter in his native land. Here he’s averaged ten homers a year and cannot even sniff .300.

Then there’s Daisuke Matsuzaka (left), who came over with just as much hoopla as Darvish. The Red Sox won the bidding with their famous $51,111,111.11 offer, then gave him a six-year, $52 million contract. Matsuzaka had one really good season, but overall he has been injury plagued and mediocre.

And what about the Yankees signings of Hideki Irabu and Kei Igawa, the latter perhaps the worst contract in the history of baseball? For their $26 million bid and $20 million contract, the Yankees got 16 games, a 2-4 record and a fitting 6.66 ERA out of Igawa. He’s been buried in the minors for the past three seasons.

I’m not saying Japanese players should not be given a chance to play in the majors, but their gaudy statistics should be taken with a grain of salt. They should not be given multi-year, multi-million dollar contracts until they prove themselves in the U.S. Until then, they should be treated like international signings or draft picks — given a signing bonus of a few million dollars, then the MLB minimum for at least their first season. If their skills translate, then give them the big bucks.

The track record for Japanese players in the U.S. has not been good, yet teams continue to lavish them with big contracts. How often do teams have to be burned until they change their ways?

As we continue to justify another Fall Classic without the Mets, I decided to take a look at the World Series appearances of every team in the league since 1969 to determine just how bad us Mets fans have had it. I chose 1969 not because it was the first Mets World Series appearance; rather, it was the beginning of division play where a team had to win a League Championship Series to advance to the World Series. Here are the results:

Yankees: 11
A’s: 6
Cardinals: 6
Braves: 5
Dodgers: 5
Orioles: 5
Phillies: 5
Reds: 5
METS: 4
Red Sox: 4
Giants: 3
Blue Jays: 2
Indians: 2
Marlins: 2
Padres: 2
Pirates: 2
Rangers: 2
Royals: 2
Tigers: 2
Twins: 2
Angels: 1
Astros: 1
Brewers: 1
Diamondbacks: 1
Rays: 1
Rockies: 1
White Sox: 1
Cubs: 0
Expos/Nationals 0
Mariners: 0

When you look at it this way, the Mets haven’t done so badly — only eight teams have appeared in more World Series than the Mets. That means the majority of baseball fans have suffered far more than we have. Sure, this is a lame justification for mediocrity, but that’s all we’ve got.

On this first night of yet another World Series that does not include the Mets, let’s take a look back at the four Fall Classics in which the Mets did participate:

1969
As a Mets fan I wish I had memories of that World Series. Of course, that would make me older than I already am, so no thank you. But what a magical time it must have been. The Mets were pretty much the worst franchise in baseball history when they came out of nowhere to win 100 games and beat a heavily-favored Orioles team that won a staggering 109 games. How good was that ? At the time, only four teams had ever won more than 109 games in a season.

The series produced so many “Amazin” moments that are part of baseball legend — the two catches by Tommie Agee that single-handedly saved five runs in a 5-0 Mets victory in Game 3, Ron Swoboda’s incredible diving catch to save Game 4, and of course the shoe polish incident.

This series will live on forever in baseball lore, not just in Mets history.

1973
This is kind of the forgotten series, probably because the Mets lost. As a ten-year-old at the time, I only have vague memories of this series, but I do remember one thing — the reception for my brother’s Bar Mitzvah was unfortunately scheduled for the Sunday afternoon of Game 7.  At one point I wandered into an office to check on the score, and the employees were watching a football game and had no interest in baseball! I got home in time to see the Mets lose.

People forget the Mets were up three games to two heading back to Oakland. Manager Yogi Berra made the fateful decision to start Tom Seaver in Game 6 on three days rest when he could have used a well-rested George Stone, who was 12-3 in the regular season. Seaver let up two early runs in a 3-1 loss. Jon Matlack, also on three days rest, started and lost Game 7. What if a well-rested Seaver had pitched a Game 7, if it were even necessary? We’ll never know.

1986
What a crazy series that was! The Mets dropped the first two games at home, then came back to win the next two at Fenway. And then Game 6 — one of the greatest moments in baseball history.

I remember Game 7; the Mets fell behind early 3-0, but I was not even a bit worried — after the way they won Game 6, there was no possible way they were going to lose the series. And of course they didn’t, exploding for eight runs late in the game to finish off the Red Sox.

2000
It was the Subway Series for which all Mets fans had been waiting all of our lives, and I scheduled a date for the night of Game 1. I was prepared to miss the game (ah, the things we do for love and other things) when the girl, who was not a sports fan, said everybody was talking about the series and she wanted to see it. So we went to a restaurant that had a TV.

We sat at the bar as Timo Perez didn’t run on what he thought was going to be a Todd Zeile homer in the sixth, getting thrown out at the plate for what would have been the first run of the game. We watched Armando Benitez blow the game in the bottom of the ninth, and I was back home (alone) when the Mets lost it in the 12th. If only Perez had run… If only the girl had come home with me…

That game set the tone for the entire series. I don’t think I was alone in thinking the Mets had no chance against that powerful Yankees team. It was a thrill just to be in the World Series; sure, I was upset when they lost, but I was not surprised.

By the way, I was not too upset when things didn’t work out with that girl. Sure, she wanted to watch the World Series, but she was crazy as a loon!

A 1986 WWOR Mets promo, urging the team to “Bring it Home.” Hey, they did!

Fan favorite Wally Backman didn’t get the Mets managerial job last season, and now he may be headed to another team where the road to finally becoming a big league skipper appears easier. The New York Post reports Backman may leave the Mets and head down to D.C. to be Davey Johnson’s third base coach with the Nationals.

A Mets source said Johnson would likely groom his former player to take his place, much like Bobby Cox took Fredi Gonzalez under his wing to succeed him in Atlanta.

It would be a good move for Backman. The Mets are obviously happy with Terry Collins — they’ve already picked up his 2013 option. The 68-year-old Johnson, who came out of a ten-year retirement to take over the Nats during the season, probably won’t want to manage for the long haul, so this would be Backman’s quickest route to the big job.

If he stays with the Mets, he is in line to be the manager of Triple-A Buffalo. He is apparently not in consideration for the open bench coach job on Collins’s staff.

It must be frustrating for Backman; he thought he was getting his chance after the 2003 season, but only days after being named manager of the Diamondbacks he was fired when his past legal and financial problems emerged.

Now eight years later he’s still waiting. This would be good for Backman but bad for the Mets. Collins did a good job for the Mets in 2011, but I think Backman has the potential to be a special manager for years to come.

Let’s see, the Mets need a closer, Francisco Rodriguez will be a free agent; could a reunion be in the works? Shockingly, the Mets say it is a possibility.

“We haven’t ruled anything out,” a team official told ESPNNewYork.com. “We need a closer. It is a long way down the road. We haven’t had those meetings yet. But, for us, I wouldn’t rule anything out.”

After K-Rod’s tumultuous two and a half seasons in Flushing you’d think neither side would want anything to do with each other again. But Rodriguez said that is not the case, at least as far as he is concerned.

“I don’t have no hard feelings for nobody,” K-Rod said. “They did what they had to do. They needed to unload a lot of money and I was making too much money. But you never know what’s going to happen one year from now, two years from now.”

But don’t drag your K-Rod jersey out of the mothballs just yet.

“A lot would have to line up for it to come true,” a second official said.” He didn’t leave on the worst of terms. We made the trade more because of money. It is not an absolute no. It is possible, not probable.”

Which means it will never happen. Aside from the fact that Rodriguez was not exactly a fan favorite, he would like cost more than the Mets have budgeted for a closer. That’s why someone like Jonathan Broxton or Brad Lidge — players coming off injuries who could be had relatively cheaply on a one-year, incentive laden contract — is more likely.