The Mets have a huge number of promotions going for the 2013 season. It’s pretty obvious that they have to after several straight years of sagging attendance and below .500 teams. So it’s no surprise that the marketing team will appear somewhat desperate with near daily promotions going. We’re the benefactors, the hardcore fans that will go watch bad Mets teams play anyway.
The highlights of the schedule for this season are:
Now that the Madoff lawsuit is behind the Mets and their secret loan to MLB is paid off, it’s time to extend David Wright’s contract and make sure that he’s a Met for his entire career. The Mets paid off their bridge loan last week after the Madoff lawsuit settlement and closed on the sale of 12 shares of the team. So the financial “uncertainty”, as we’ve heard it referred to by the Mets, has been removed. They’ve started to settle their debts but they haven’t paid us back yet. The fans. They owe it to us to keep Wright with the Mets for a long, long time.
The Mets let Jose Reyes walk away for nothing because of that financial “uncertainty”. And they can’t let that happen again to Wright.
Wright deserves a similar extension to the one that Ryan Zimmerman signed with the Nationals last month. The former youth teammates should play with their respective teams for years to come. Zimmerman’s extension added 6 years/$100 million to the two years he already had left on his contract. The Nationals did the right thing with Zimmerman. Coincidentally, Wright has one year and a team option left now. Continue reading “Mets Should Extend David Wright’s Contract”
I know this post is a little late since the Mets announced that they’ll add John Franco to the Hall of Fame three days ago. But I wanted to make sure that I noted this event because Franco joined the Mets in 1990 so, presumably, there won’t be any more Mets from the ’86 team joining the Hall of Fame. But the importance is that Franco played 14 years with the team and closed for most of them. He could be shaky as a closer but he usually got the job done until he moved to set up relief in 2000.
Here’s the press release from the team:
January 26, 2012 – The New York Mets today announced that John Franco, the club’s all-time leader in saves and games pitched, will be inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame during the Mets Hall of Fame Induction ceremony presented by Citi Sunday, June 3 prior to the 1:10 p.m. game against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Franco saved 276 games for the Mets over his 14-year career (1990-2004) with the team, the second-longest in franchise history behind Ed Kranepool’s 18 years of service. The four-time All-Star compiled 424 saves during his career, the fourth-most in major league history and the most by any lefthanded reliever.
“It’s a tremendous honor to be elected to the Mets Hall of Fame,” said Franco, who is currently in his fourth year as a Club Ambassador with the Mets. “I would like to thank Fred Wilpon, Saul Katz, Jeff Wilpon, the Hall of Fame Committee, all of my managers and coaches and of course my teammates. My entire family is looking forward to June 3.” Continue reading “Mets Hall of Fame To Add John Franco”
I was at at the Mets-Cubs game last night with my father and I wanted to share a few images with you. As you know, it was another disappointing loss in a season filled with them so far. But the pre-game ceremony was more than worth the price of admission. The crowd was sparse as you would expect at this point in the season without playoff hopes. And the Cubs aren’t exactly a draw either.
There were representatives from pretty much every city service agency on the field before the game along with the kids from Tuesday’s Children. The NYPD and FDNY bagpipers and drummers were marching in a stirring ceremony that was filled with emotion. Continue reading “Mets September 11, 2011 Game”
Former Mets closer Johnny Franco called out David Wright and the Mets for lacking leadership from the players. Franco said he’s spoken to Wright about taking a more active role as a leader on the team but it hasn’t worked.
The interview was on Sirius XM Radio and covered the current state of the Mets as well as other topics. But Franco’s comments about the lack of leadership on the team, and Wright specifically are garnering national media attention.
“I tried talking to him and tell him to come forward and be that guy, but I think David feels that being that he’s such a young player and you have the [Carlos] Delgados and [Gary] Sheffields and veteran guys like that, he’s afraid that they’ll look at him like, ‘Be quiet and sit down.'”
Wright told reporters that he’s unconcerned about what anyone outside of the Mets organization says.
“With all due respect to Johnny, he doesn’t know what’s going on in this clubhouse,” Wright said Wednesday, after the Mets beat the Milwaukee Brewers 1-0 to stop a five-game losing streak. “I don’t feel the need to have to defend myself as a leader. If these guys in here respect me and think of me as a leader, that’s what I need.”
“I don’t worry myself about outside people saying what they’re going to say,” Wright said. “It doesn’t matter. What matters to me are these 24 guys in here and the coaching staff. Whatever anybody else wants to say, they can say whatever.”
This isn’t a new line of discussion. Every one of us that listens to sports talk radio in New York has heard this before. I’m a little surprised that Franco would come out publicly with this line of discussion after doing some work for the Mets this spring. I guess he doesn’t plan on doing any further work for them in the future.
My take on this is that if I was a 35 or 40 year old player on the Mets, I wouldn’t necessarily look at Wright as a leader on the team either. Sheffield has 500 home runs and Delgado is knocking on the door. Even Livan Hernandez was a World Series MVP. Beltran is a 4-time All Star, Rookie of the Year, with three Gold Gloves, and two Silver Sluggers. This just isn’t a team that every player is going to look up to Wright at this point in his career.
On a team with a different makeup, I could see Wright being a leader. On a younger team like the Pirates or Rays, I’m sure he would be a leader. But the Mets are a team with some veterans that have serious resumes. Franco should recognize that fact too because he was a veteran with a serious resume at one point himself.
Several media outlets are reporting that Johnny Franco will be back in a Mets uniform during the week of March 8th in Port St. Lucie. He’ll be doing a guest coaching gig for the week. It’s great to see Johnny come back, since he left the Mets after 2004 with some ill-will toward the team. He wanted to play one more year but the Mets didn’t see him as a fit.It turned out to be a good decision as he pitched in 31 games for the Astros in 2005 to a 7.20 ERA.
Franco is #4 all-time in saves and was the last team captain that the Mets had. He’s a tremendous leader evidenced by becoming a team captain as a relief pitcher. Generally, pitchers aren’t team leaders. It’s usually everyday players. Especially for a relief pitcher to become a captain is very impressive.
I’ve heard Johnny on WFAN occasionally and he does a decent job. But he should bring some terrific knowledge to the table for the Mets pitchers.
Franco is interviewed on Fox’s Best Damn Sports Show. It’s disturbing to have to look at David Wells sitting next to Franco but I tried to look past that. The highlights include talking about ordering pizzas in the bullpen at Shea and growing a garden with bullpen coach Joe Pignatano. BDSSP: John Franco saves the day
Several media outlets are reporting that Johnny Franco will be back in a Mets uniform during the week of March 8th in Port St. Lucie. He’ll be doing a guest coaching gig for the week. It’s great to see Johnny come back, since he left the Mets after 2004 with some ill-will toward the team. He wanted to play one more year but the Mets didn’t see him as a fit.It turned out to be a good decision as he pitched in 31 games for the Astros in 2005 to a 7.20 ERA.
The Mets Report 