They seem to have specialty shops of every kind at the shopping mall surrounding the diamond at Citi Field. For example, I’ll bet you never knew there was a Mets Kids Store at Citi. Or maybe you did, but I sure didn’t — at least until my good friend Mike, a devoted Mets fan, had his first daughter three days before my first trip of the year to Citi Field.
Note — With the videos below, you might want to use headphones. The audio came in a bit low.
In response to Ed Randall’s question on Tuesday night about potentially adding another Wild Card team to the playoff scenario, Sandy Alderson furrowed his brow and said, “Well, I haven’t actually given it much thought…”
He paused, and a wry smile crept in at the corners of the Mets’ new general manager’s mouth.
“Given our situation, I think I’d be in favor of it.” Fifty or so baseball fans nodded and chuckled.
For a guy who highly prefers a masterful pitching performance over an inartistic slugfest – and who has a pair of Tim Lincecum jerseys in his closet – the first two days of the baseball playoffs were truly a treat.
Ed. Note: The following was written by unabashed Yankees fan and longtime friend of the site Tim Whitman for the original iteration of SportsAngle on Dec. 28, 2002, and is reposted by request of the author as a tribute to George Steinbrenner, who passed away this morning. I don’t necessarily agree with everything here, but Tim – who used to work for longtime Braves general manager John Schuerholz – theorized that the Boss wasn’t what was wrong with baseball’s economics, and could call attention to its ills and institute change by manipulating the system.
Yes, Red Sox fans, Mets fans and fans of those small market teams out there, you read that right. George Steinbrenner will save America’s favorite pastime. And yes, for the record, I am a die-hard Yankee fan and a proponent of Mr. Steinbrenner’s business acumen.
After being impressed with Yankee Stadium during the Cotto-Foreman fight last week, I wanted to see it for its designed purpose: a baseball game. So I made my way to the Bronx for my first Yankees game at the new Stadium in a World Series rematch against the Phillies on Wednesday.
Unsurprisingly, my opinion was much the same as it was for Citi Field, which I found to have none of the soul of Shea but 10 times the commerce, and therein lies the flaw in the “event” culture they’ve created:
You can sell the experience, but you can’t control the outcome of the game.
The least shocking sports news in recent memory came across the other day, when NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Brian Cushing was suspended after testing positive for hCG, which is a female fertility drug that’s often used post-cycle to stimulate testosterone levels. It’s the same one Manny Ramirez tested positive for.
This was unsurprising for a lot of reasons, but primarily because I’ve heard explicit stories about Cushing’s proclivity for using steroids for quite some time.
Five years, to be exact.
Despite the fact that I’ve been a Mets fan since I was nine, I waited 21 more years to attend my first Opening Day game of any sort, as an appetizer for Duke’s national title game that night. Being jaded, I never saw the need to get to an Opening Day game, but I have to admit it was pretty cool. And since Johan Santana pitched, the Mets actually won. After going through some pictures I took that day, I figured I’d share some images from Citi Field.
The saddest part about Dwight Gooden’s latest setback is that I’d like to say it’s not even sad anymore. You see that Doc’s in trouble again, and it does just sort of make sense at this point.
Note: This is an addendum to my Nomar piece from earlier today, written by frequent SportsAngle contributor and conspirator Frank Pepe of Trumbull Island. It’s brilliant, and as a Knicks fan who views even their finest mid-90’s glory days as being tragically flawed, it resonates. I get it.
My friend Esoteric was curious about Boston’s love for Nomar Garciaparra, a player who flamed out, left acrimoniously and was overshadowed by his shortstop contemporaries and the franchise who would eventually win it all without him. Nomar, though, was — and still is —loved by Red Sox fans for his glory days, and for what he represented. Esoteric asked why: I think, as a Red Sox fan, I can give a bit of an answer.
So I woke up today with Red Sox fans – and everyone else – treating Nomar Garciaparra like some conquering war hero because the guy came back to retire with the Red Sox. I just don’t get it. I understand there are some players that fan bases just come to love unconditionally, and there’s no doubt he put up big numbers there, but if I were a Boston fan, there’s no question I would still have a bad taste in my mouth from the way things ended up.