The inaugural season of Citi Field in New York, one filled with injuries and losses, has been one that the Mets and their fans would like to end as soon as possible, so everybody can forget about it and move on.
But along with the seemingly bad luck, the new stadium seems to possess special powers.
Not only can it suck all the power out of David Wright's bat, it also picks up the tendencies of the life that inhabits it: much like the Mets roster, Citi Field is already falling apart.
NEW YORK -- There was a moment Monday night when the script felt so perfect. It was the bottom of the fifth inning, Mets down three with two men on base and David Wright at the plate. The count was full. The crowd, which had started booing starting pitcher Mike Pelfrey three innings earlier, suddenly realized something was up. Everybody stood. They roared. And Wright delivered.
The Mets' third baseman hit a three-run home run -- the first official homer by a Met at Citi Field -- to tie the game and send the paid crowd of 41,007 into a frenzy. This was it. This was the defining moment of the new ballpark, on its very first night. The face of the franchise had authored the comeback, and all of the ghosts of miserable Met seasons past could just stay buried under the rubble of Shea Stadium, a parking lot away.
NEW YORK -- Only the bobbing Home Run Apple beyond the outfield walls seems familiar, which is probably just as well. There wasn't much anyone wanted to lug from the festering dump next door -- not the roaming feral cats, not the stench of overflowing toilets, and certainly not the wretched string of September collapses and dashed hopes.
Good riddance to Shea Stadium, now a pile of rubble.
Earlier today, blogsmith Dan Graziano (Dugout screen name: LeavesOfGraz) web logged about visiting Citi Field, the new home of the New York Mets, and reported back that all of the stadium's food is limp-wristed in nature. Excuse me, "limp-wristed in nurture." But no, the food has a faux-hawk and thinks its better than us, and I for one am not going to stand for it! I will not be attending a Mets game this season out of protest (also, I live in Ohio)!
I hope Citi Field has a big slogan on the outfield wall reading "THE STRENGTH TO EAT THERE." Tonight's Dugout is after the jump.
NEW YORK -- It's a pleasant spring day here -- the kind of day that makes us think/hope/pray/beg to somebody that this most miserable of winters might soon, finally, at long last be over. So in the spirit of spring, I went to a ballpark.
Specifically, I went to Citi Field, which is the new home of the New York Mets. (They've got two new ballparks set to open in New York in the next couple of weeks, in case you hadn't heard.) They didn't have a game at Citi Field today, but they did have the next best thing you can find at a ballpark -- food.
Considering that Citi Bank was one of many banks on the receiving end of some of the $45 billion that the government had given as part of the TARP bailout, there were a lot of people who took offense to the fact that the bank was still planning on using $400 million to put their name on the new Mets ballpark, Citi Field, for the next 20 years.
Even Congress got in on the act, as well they should considering they approved the bailout, saying that the bank should pull out of its sponsorship of the stadium. On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported ($) that Citi was thinking of backing out of the deal, which has been refuted by both the Mets and Citigroup.
Next Big Thing is MLB FanHouse's look at emerging teams, trends and stars in 2009.
In 2009, the Mets will debut Citi Field: The House That Bernie Madoff Built.
The assumption is that Citi Field is going to play like a pitcher's park, as Shea Stadium did. Its dimensions support that, indicating it will be more of a pitcher's park than Citizens Bank Park, one of the parks that Citi was modeled after. But will it be the type of kryptonite for hitters that Petco is?
I guess this counts as politicians doing their part to give back during these trying economic times. But New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his administration, against a backdrop of economic turmoil, are giving up their luxury boxes in both the new Yankee Stadium, and Citi Field.
Senior Bloomberg aides had fought hard to get the luxury boxes, describing the perk in internal e-mails as "a big issue to the mayor" during negotiations with the teams in 2006. (...)
Bloomberg spokesman Andrew Brent said the new agreement means the city will receive cash payments for the use of its Yankees box. Future mayoral administrations will have the option of using the box or being paid for it. (...)
State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, who accuses the city of conducting the stadium negotiations behind closed doors, said the Bloomberg administration is clearly worried about how it looks to be haggling over luxury boxes now that the city is grappling with dramatic budget cuts, job losses and tax hikes.
"This whole thing has been an embarrassment," Brodsky said. "I think they were scared about the public reaction to this entire fiasco."
Any chance that money the city is getting could be put towards a halfway decent transit system so my fare doesn't go up to five bucks per round trip? Yeah, I thought that might be too much to ask. With my luck, that money will probably go towards a new flat screen television so the mayor can enjoy baseball in the comfort of Gracie Mansion so he doesn't feel so bad about losing his luxury box.
When news of Citigroup's financial woes broke last week, I assumed the Mets' new stadium would end up having a different name than Citi Field. It's been common knowledge for quite some time that Citi's paying the Mets $400 million over the course of 20 years just to have their name plastered on that enormous facade.
Unfortunately, it's better for business to advertise than it is to care about real people's jobs. Citigroup is still going to sponsor the new stadium, and is planning on picking up that colossal tab over the next two decades. Some other feathers in the cap of the corporation?
-- Earlier in the week announced it was going to let go of 52,000 workers by early next year. -- Saw its shares on the stock market lose more than half their value. -- May have to sell parts of the company or merge with another company. -- May require a massive government bailout to stay in business.
Before the season started, the New York Mets thought they could boost season ticket sales for 2008 if they promised buyers awesome seats at Citi Field in 2009. The catch was that you had to buy season tickets for both the 2008 and 2009 season this year, which could get pretty costly.
Mets fan Judd Burstein was one of those fans who bought in to the Mets promise, and he dropped $17,000 on tickets for this year and next. Burstein, who is a celebrity lawyer (as opposed to a poor person lawyer), has four field level seats between first base and the outfield this season at Shea, and he was pretty sure he'd have similar seats next season as well. Well, he won't, as he recently found out that his season tickets next year will be in the upper deck of left field.
Of course, since Judd is a lawyer, he can think of only one response. He's suing the team.
"They picked the wrong person to cheat," said Burstein, whose clients include boxers Oscar De La Hoya and Lennox Lewis, as well as advertising mogul and talk-show host Donny Deutsch.
In the suit, which Burstein will file today in Manhattan Supreme Court, he claims he got a letter last year urging him to renew his tickets with the promise he'd get "priority" seats at Citi Field.
The inaugural season of Citi Field in New York, one filled with injuries and losses, has been one that the Mets and their fans would like to end as soon as possible, so everybody can forget about it and move on.
NEW YORK -- There was a moment Monday night when the script felt so perfect. It was the bottom of the fifth inning, Mets down three with two men on base and David Wright at the plate. The count was full. The crowd, which had started booing starting pitcher Mike Pelfrey three innings earlier, suddenly realized something was up. Everybody stood. They roared. And Wright delivered.
NEW YORK -- Only the bobbing Home Run Apple beyond the outfield walls seems familiar, which is probably just as well. There wasn't much anyone wanted to lug from the festering dump next door -- not the roaming feral cats, not the stench of overflowing toilets, and certainly not the wretched string of September collapses and dashed hopes.
...step right up and EAT the Mets!
NEW YORK -- It's a pleasant spring day here -- the kind of day that makes us think/hope/pray/beg to somebody that this most miserable of winters might soon, finally, at long last be over. So in the spirit of spring, I went to a ballpark.
Considering that Citi Bank was one of many banks on the receiving end of some of the $45 billion that the government had given as part of the TARP bailout, there were a lot of people who took offense to the fact that the bank was still planning on using $400 million to put their name on the new Mets ballpark, Citi Field, for the next 20 years.
Next Big Thing is MLB FanHouse's look at emerging teams, trends and stars in 2009.
I guess this counts as politicians doing their part to give back during these trying economic times. But New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his administration, against a backdrop of economic turmoil, are giving up their luxury boxes in both the new Yankee Stadium, and Citi Field.
Before the season started, the New York Mets thought they could boost season ticket sales for 2008 if they promised buyers awesome seats at Citi Field in 2009. The catch was that you had to buy season tickets for both the 2008 and 2009 season this year, which could get pretty costly.
