The Mets Report

The folks at Maple Street Press were kind enough to send me a copy of the Mets season preview magazine from Maple Street Press (MPS). The magazine is 128 pages packed with Mets information to get you fired up for this season.

Before I get too deep into this I’ll tell you that this is not a paid advertisement from Maple Street Press. The magazine costs $12.99 and can be purchased at many newsstands and book stores in the New York area. You can also purchase a copy from their website at Maple Street Press. Also if you read this post to the end, you’ll see that MPS sent me two copies to give away to readers of The Mets Report.

Here are my thoughts on the magazine. For a Mets fan, it’s great to read a detailed season preview that’s more than just a couple of cursory pages about the team like the national preview magazines that cover every team. This covers everything from the last couple of disastrous seasons to historical teams and a lot of information about Shea Stadium and Citi Field.

The highlights of the magazine are:

• “New Home, Old Worries: Can The Mets Change Their Stripes at Citi Field?” by Greg Spira and Matt Silverman- This introduction to the magazine sets the stage for the 2009 season with all of the information about offseason trades and free agent signings. This is a great way to kick off the magazine. Very strong writing and coverage of the team. The one oddity of the article is that the authors specifically mention that the Mets have a new $800 million revenue stream called Citi Field yet are keeping their payroll at the same level it was a year ago. There’s absolutely no mention of the Bernard Madoff scandal that reportedly bilked the Mets owners out of several hundred million dollars. That was one of the biggest stories of the offseason and there’s not one word in the article about it?
• “There Are Some Words: The ’69 Teams Turns 40, But It Never Gets Old” by Greg W. Prince- In my mind, Prince is the most creative, talented writer covering the Mets today. Hands down. MPS did a great job of securing Greg to write an article for the magazine. I would’ve been disappointed if he wasn’t represented here. As always, Prince turns in a well written and unique description of a topic that we’ve read and talked about for 40 years. Not many writers can cover a story that’s been covered so completely with a unique take on it.

The lowlights of the magazine are:

• “Keys to the Citi: New Home Promises A Whole New Ballgame” by Tara Krieger- Unfortunately, Krieger turns in a very pedestrian story about Citi Field. Maybe it’s me, and I’ve already read too much about the new stadium and seen too many pictures. But I really didn’t get anything out of this article that I didn’t already know. I think that the hardcore Mets fan would want more than we get here.
• “Seconds Anyone? The Susan Lucci Playoffs” by Howard Megdal- This article was disappointing because Megdal is a pretty good writer. The concept of this article pitting historical Mets teams against each other in some sort of contrived playoff was poor. Honestly, I was bored after about four paragraphs. You can skip this part of the magazine and won’t be missing anything.

Overall, I recommend the magazine for purchase despite the lowlights described above. Remember that this is 128 pages packed with Mets information. The Krieger and Megdal articles only account for about 10 pages, so the success rate is really high. Reading about Doc Gooden’s outstanding early career brought back some great memories for me of his starts being must-see TV.

Lastly, as I mentioned earlier in this post I have two copies to give away this week to readers. Watch the site for a contest that will be starting tomorrow.