The Mets announced that the front office staff will be moving into their new offices at Citi Field on September 18th. It’s the start of the transition that the Mets are making away from Shea Stadium.
That’s really exciting news. I know there’s a lot of sentiment out there about the demise of Shea. But moving into Citi Field is going to be a fantastic experience for those of us that sit in the stands.
Flickr photo courtesy of Joe Shlabotnik
Image via Wikipedia
The 2009 Major League Baseball preliminary schedule came out today and Citi Field will open on April 14th with a Mets-Padres game. The Mets will open the season in Cincinnati on April 6th, then go to Florida for a three game series before coming home to open Citi Field.
I can’t wait!
The AP ran a column by Ronald Blum detailing the ticket prices at Citi Field versus the new Yankee Stadium. Seats behind the plate will go for up to $495 compared to Yankees going for up to $2500. I found the most interesting piece to be the fact that only one luxury box remains for next season. They go for between $275,000 and $500,000. There are 49 total luxury boxes. Hurry up to buy yours now!
Image via WikipediaI read an interesting piece in the NY Times Opinion section today written by author Brian Biegel. Basically, he talks about having fond memories of the Old-Timers game at Shea Stadium and pines for it to come back again. I’ll tell you that I’m not a big fan of the Old-Timers games. They’re fine, just not that important in my mind.
Maybe the resurrecting the Mets old timers game will be more important next year at Citi Field. The Mets will become distanced from much of their history when Shea Stadium is torn down and we’re parking our cars where home plate used to be. Don’t get me wrong, I’m looking forward to going to games at Citi Field as much as the next fan. But there will, inherently, be a distance from the Mets roots at Shea.
The Mets, as an organization, seem to feel its important to keep some of the former players in the organization and on their TV network. If that’s important to them, as it appears to be, they should think about rekindling the Mets history at Citi Field with an Old-Timers game.
Biegel writes that the reason they don’t currently have an Old-Timers game is:
So what’s going on with the Mets? A team spokesman told me that having an Old-Timers’ game just didn’t make enough money for the club.
That seems like a lame excuse to me for not having an Old-Timers game. They could have it before one of the inter-league games against the Yankees when the stadium will be sold out anyway. Finances can’t be the only reason… The Mets had an operating profit of over $32 million last year.
I’m on board. Bring the Old-Timers game to Citi Field!
Image via Wikipedia
The New York Mets should continue the recent trend in baseball by locking up their young talent with long term contracts. The Mets have already done that with Jose Reyes and David Wright. So this practice wouldn’t be out of character for the team. Other teams have started getting in on this as well. Last month the Rays signed Evan Longoria to a six year deal.
John Maine deserves a long term deal now. The benefit is avoiding a contentious arbitration hearing where the team is forced into a antagonistic role of pointing out the players faults. The Mets have done a great job of avoiding that until this season when Oliver Perez beat the Mets in arbitration to earn $6.5 million this season. Continue reading “Mets Should Pay John Maine Now”
View this virtual tour of the New York Mets new stadium Citi Field, opening in 2009.
Photo displayed from Flickr-Jake Hall
Here are some links that I’ve found to public galleries of Citi Field pictures:
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The Mets Report 