But I also hope that somewhere along the way, in the last four+ years that I've been with you, that you learned a little something, no matter how insignificant a fact it is (c'mon, when have I ever written anything of any significance), I hope you took something from this url that has positively enriched your lives and prepared you to deal with the big bad world out there.
I know who hasn't learned anything by reading this, or any other blog, and that's the Wilpon family. They are notorious for never learning anything that involves putting their finger on the pulse of the fan. Proof? It came in an e-mail I received today from the Brooklyn Cyclones:
Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda is a baseball icon, and perhaps the most prominent ambassador of the game. His major league career began in 1954 when, as a 26-year-old lefthanded pitcher, he made his debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
On Sunday, August 16th, Lasorda will return to Brooklyn, and will be honored by the Cyclones in a special pre-game ceremony, starting at 4:30pm, in which he will be inducted into the Brooklyn Dodgers Hall of Fame. In addition, the first 1,500 fans (ages 15 and over) in attendance will receive a Tommy Lasorda photo baseball.
I'm lucky my head hasn't exploded at all the things wrong with this scenario.First off, since when is it the responsibility of the New York Mets to induct players into the Brooklyn F&%$ing Dodgers' Hall of Fame? Because we have a farm team there??? Heaven forbid we make an addition or two to our own Hall of Fame, dormant since 2002, probably because it's too much work ... like an oldtimers game.
But organizing Tommy Lasorda day, complete with photo baseballs for crissakes, isn't that much work at all ... naaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Also, if this organization is the keeper of the Brooklyn Dodgers Hall of Fame, couldn't we find a more deserving candidate than Tommy F&%$ing Lasorda? What was Tommy's great contribution to the Dodgers while they were in Brooklyn? Someone want to answer me that? It certainly had nothing to do with what he actually did on the field. Here are his statistics:
G - 8
IP - 13
ER - 11
And it took two seasons to put those numbers together. Thirteen innings, Hall of Fame. Makes perfect sense to me!
And my last point, which is really a continuation of the previous point ... TOMMY LASORDA?????
How is it that a team that is worried about image to the point that they'll have three press conferences in two days for the pure sake of damage control continue to feed the paranoia regarding this damn Dodgers fetish they have??? And it's one thing to yearn for the good ol' days of black and white newsreels and the sym"phony" and wait 'til next year and all that junk, and want to honor actual Brooklyn Dodgers that contributed something of note. Not that they don't already have their own franchise to do that for them but whatever. I get the point ... baseball in Brooklyn, bla bla bla. But Tommy Lasorda pitched thirteen freakin' innings for the Brooklyn Dodgers!!!
But he sure as hell did plenty for the Los Angeles Dodgers, didn't he? Sure, I saw it! I saw Tommy from the upper deck at Shea, Game 4 in 1988. Yup, there he was, dancing around on our field in the 12th inning, hugging Kirk Gibson, hugging Orel Hershiser, while I was in the upper deck wearing three coats in 15 degree weather wondering how the hell Darryl Strawberry couldn't hit Jesse Orosco's sweeping curveball three thousand miles.
MLB Network showed some Dodger retrospective the other day, and one of the first shots they showed was Tommy Lasorda in the lockerroom after the '88 series shouting at the top of his lungs "THEY SAID WE COULDN'T BEAT THE MIGHTY METS", and I shut the damn thing off. Couldn't watch another frame of that. These are the memories that I have of Tommy Lasorda. Not that he's an "ambassador to baseball", or a "baseball icon". My lasting memory of Tommy Lasorda is "THEY SAID WE COULDN'T BEAT THE MIGHTY METS". I'm sure Met fans born before say, 1976, have similar memories. And I'll go a step further: Game 7? Hershiser's 6-0 shutout? That happened on my 18th birthday. My welcome to manhood was getting eliminated by a team that had no business beating the Mets ... a team managed by Tommy Lasorda.
So what do the Mets do? F&%$ing honor him with photo baseballs!!! Are you kidding me???
The next promotion day should read thusly: "Fans attending the Brooklyn Cyclones game will be tied down and have their mouths peed in." Because that's what the Mets are doing. No wonder Mets fans feel like second class citizens. Not enough that fans are somehow still being separated by one another via the caste system printed on the tickets, but now they're inducting Tommy Lasorda in the Brooklyn Dodgers Hall of Fame for thirteen innings of pitching so stellar that it prompted the Dodgers to give some kid named Koufax a shot? (And even Koufax wasn't that good in Brooklyn.) Hell by that logic, they should be building a statue of Rich Kotite outside the new Jets stadium in Jersey for burning so many timeouts in the first five minutes of every half he ever coached that the Jets were basically forced to hire Bill Parcells.
TOMMY LASORDA???!?!?!??? I mean, is anybody home? Is this part of the acknowledgment of Mets history that was promised to us? Is anybody out there keeping track of all the comments that red-blooded Met fans are making about this Dodger obsession? Seriously, go to any blog ... go to this blog and type "Brooklyn Dodgers" in the search box. You'll see all of the comments that the paying customers are making regarding the Dodgers. Check the rest of the blogs and message boards and articles that talented people are writing about how Citi Field doesn't feel like home. And now their farm team is honoring Tommy Lasorda? Who's next, Tony La Russa? Nobody in the front office sees this as a problem? Does anyone even hear it? Or are the glass walls in the Acela Club soundproof?
Will they hear you if you all go to Brooklyn on August 16th and boo Tommy like there's no August 17th? How's that for an idea???
Ooh, I know, let's induct Kirk Gibson into the Brooklyn Dodgers H.O.F. next season! He only played 8 less games than Lasorda, yet teamed up with him in 1988 to beat the Mets! Another splendid idea.
P.S. Gibson is now a coach for the Diamondbacks, who beat the Mets on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I have very little fury left for Livan Hernandez, Snoop Manuel, and the rest of the crew. I'm still wondering how Frankie Rodriguez could walk Kyle Blanks ... and, uh, how Tommy Lasorda could be honored by a Mets farm team.
13 comments:
Tommy Lasorda being honored for his accomplishments as a Brooklyn Dodger should make Citi Field safe for a Mike Scott statue. After all, he started his career as a Met and was almost as good in Flushing as Lasorda was in Flatbush (I can just hear marketing's explanation: "You said you wanted us to honor a former Met connected to 1986...").
The Berroa rotunda, the utility player theory and now this. You sir are as hot as the Mets are cold. But what you are mostly is right. This is, in the context of baseball promotion and fan pulse fingering, extraordinarily tone-deaf and not a little on the vile side.
It truly boggles the mind.
Unreal. Also, somehow Tommy Lasorda beats Casey Stengel into the Brooklyn Dodgers Hall of Fame. Stengel's first managing positiong was with Brooklyn and his induction would have quite a bit more meaning with Met fans now that there is this odd Dodgers/Cyclones link.
I wouldn't have much of a problem with the Cyclones having a Tommy Lasorda day if the Mets brass did ANYTHING to honor Mets history. I was the first to defend them from the "there's no Mets stuff at Citi Field" complaints when it opened, but now? No Met Hall of Famer since 2002?!? This is embarassing.
Or is it just another reminder to us fans that baseball is a business and those in the front office (as well as many in uniform) couldn't give a hoot where they end up in the standings so long as they've increased their bottom line?
i'm speechless, really. before this season i loved the legend of the old dodgers. now i'm starting to hate them, and that's really the fault of our terribly misguided owners.
The Wilpons need to sell the team, recoup their Madoff losses, and hand over the reins to somebody who actually cares about the Mets and their history. 'Course, with our luck, what they'd probably is sell the team, recoup their Madoff losses, and hand over the reins to George Steinbrenner. Or maybe Tommy Lasorda.
W. T. F.
Absolutely disgusting...i really wish i had an extra billion dollars lying around my house just to buy this team. Within about a week, we'd have an entirely new FO and training staff, a few more retired numbers (31 and 17 would quickly be put up there) and many more HOF inductees.
...oh wait...did i say an "extra" billion dollars? right...i don't even have like a thousand dollars, let alone an extra billion...but it is nice to dream.
okay, no...it's totally sad to dream about this. thanks wilpons...you have now made me sad and ruined my day.
Fred and Jeff Wilpon are absolute boobs. I don't think they've ever had an original idea in their lives. "Hey Dad, let's build a new stadium!" "Ok, we'll make it look just like Ebbets Field!". "Hey Dad, let's make it quirky!". "Ok Jeff, we'll copy the right field porch from old Tiger Stadium". "How can we get the Met fans jazzed up in the later innings Dad"? "Let's play 'Sweet Caroline' like they do up at Fenway!".
They are clueless. They are so disconnected with the average Met fan it's not funny. Joan Payson was a New York patrician, but she dearly loved the old NY Giants and transferred that love to the Mets. She was like one of us. She gave a damn and did what was needed to make the team better and make the fans happy. Her only indulgence as a Giant fan was to bring Willie Mays back to New York to end his career in '73. Was that so bad?! I swear, it's only a matter of time before the Wilpons cut their ties with Port St. Lucie and move into new winter quarters at the vacant Dodgertown, but they are so smitten with Brooklyn and so deaf to their fan base that they will likely keep the name "Dodgertown", complete with honorary mayor, Tommy LaSorda. I damn near puked last night when I heard the WFAN promo for this obscenity. LaSorda is more associated with Spago's and the beautiful people on the left coast who arrive late and leave early for baseball games. I've had the opportunity to be near him when the cameras are off. He is a foul-mouthed, mean spirited, arrogant little prick. This "Ambassador of Baseball" status is a load of crap. I was at all 7 games in 1988. I hated him then, I hate him now. And if you are a Met fan and remember that time, you probably feel exactly like I do.
Dykstraw beat me to it. I used to admire the old Dodgers. Now I'm just sick to death of them. Sick of all the nostalgia, the stories, sick of Ebbetts, sick of the Jackie Robinson fetishism. Screw the Dodgers, and everything about them. They abandoned New York and their devoted fans 50+ years ago. Wilpons, wake up: we don't share your obsession!!!
When the Dodgers left Brooklyn, I basically was taught by my Dad to hate them. Then when he Mets came along we jumped aboard.
The average Met fan has NO connection with the Brooklyn Dodgers and it just appears that our owner is more of a Brooklyn Dodger fan than a New York Met fan. I bet he can list the starting lineup of the 55 Dodgers before the 69 Mets!
Disgraceful.
I was uncomfortable enough with the Jackie Robinson rotunda. (I do not deny his legacy but really it should have been built at Chavez Ravine -- he was, after all, a Dodger.) And this lack of regard for Mets history has been appalling. And even naming decks in the stadium "ebbets club" is disgusting. Why not "Shea Club" or even "Polo Grounds Level". You know, something that actually has to do with our beloved team.
The Wilpons are terrible stewards of both this ballclub and the game. They are almost as bad as the late Carl Polhad in MN who only cared about the money and not the team or the game.
They seem to be confused about what team they own. Mrs Payson cared about the club and was proud to own the Mets and worked very hard to establish something NYers could be proud of. Nelson Doubleday gave a damn, too. How I wish he did not sell his interests to the Wilpons. He cuold have reined this madness in. If not for Doubleday the Mets never would have pulled the trigger on Piazza. If they want to own the Dodgers, sell the Mets and make a bid.
Because I am tired of ownership ignoring us in favor of their own daydreams.
Tom Seaver is nowhere in the ballpark, except for his number.
How do you have a big old Mets baseball palace and not pay huge tribute to the Franchise? So many wonderful players have played for this team and you would think they never existed.
Tommy Lasorda Night.
Sometimes I think that Fred Wilpon had a nervous breakdown when he lost his money. Because that is the only possible excuse there could be for this anti-Mets attitude in our very own ballpark and in our NY based minor league team's stadium.
Now Metstra, "come down out of that tree"????? Oh to the comment about Steinbrenner from one of the bloggers....you'd be damn lucky to have him as an owner because he is committed to winning (obsessed with it)....something the Wilpons are not. He/They spends money and for the most part has gotten decent results and won pennants and world championships and that's what its all about. Mets have the 2nd highest payroll this year and look where they are and look what its bought you over the last three heartbreaking years. For all the madness and meddling, I'm grateful that Steinbrenner saved the Yankees from CBS in the early 70's. The Yankees and their network are probably worth more than the network today and are the most valuable franchise in the world. Its also made him and his sons millions...and they weren't snookered by Madoff.
And yes, Lasorda is ornery and signs autographs begrudgingly. He does it though. I respect his passion for the Dodgers and for baseball...but this Met HOF thing is horrific.
Bill Buckner wore a B on his cap...and actually.....was responsible for a Mets victory....Let's induct him into the Brooklyn Dodger hall of fame...and the Mets hall of fame too...a much better choice than Lasorda...
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