Wednesday, July 15, 2009
I Think We Had The Yips.
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"I think I had the yips." — Mike Pelfrey, May 17
I think this article just about sums up the kind of year it's been for our fabulous, furry Amazins so far.
So, since we'll be watching a fourth place team the rest of this year (and maybe next), here's my advice to Fred Wilpon and his boy on how to putter around the yard to make their family business better for us, the paying fan.
Fred, it's time to Metsticize the Mets. It's been a very interesting experiment, watching you try to twist them into some sort of Fantasy Brooklyn Dodgers team, but no, they really are the New York Mets, with their own history and legacy, stars and moments. So, it's time to lose the Wilpon White ersatz Dodger uniforms and give the fans back the original blue pinstripe Mets home unis, and drag out the Mets image that you've seemed to have stored in the utility closet ever since you bought out Nelson Doubleday's share. Go ahead, sprinkle some Mets Dust around the park. It could only help.
Two, yes, you've got a very nice stadium toy — although most of us won't be going to it, especially to watch minor league ballgames at bigger league prices. No, the bulk of your fanbase is now a TV base, just like the NFL.
Well..., I have to tell ya honestly, Mr. Wilpon, from the couch you've got yourself something totally unremarkable.
Folks used to complain about all those circular, multi-purpose stadia — of which Shea Stadium was among the first — calling them "cookie cutter." They had a point, but I was always amazed how much you could individualize a basic round, concrete bowl. Now, with the rush to build all of these "legacy" fields around the majors, baseball owners have inadvertantly done the exact same thing people blamed the old parks for. Using the same architects who designed and built the bulk of these new parks for your new field was a very bad idea. Your new park is chock full of already-used ideas from these other new fields.
With the exceptions of Camden Yards and the ballpark in Houston (whatever it's called this week), which were among the first, and that new Yankee park thing uptown, on TV these parks are just as cookie cutter as the old bowls were. With the bowls, there were always some unique visual feature of Shea, Dodger Stadium, old Busch, Three Rivers Stadium, Veterans' Field, etc. which told you immediately where you were. With all these new "old" parks, it's become obvious a fan needs to be in the stadium itself to discern what makes it unique. On TV, I can no longer tell your new field apart from ones in St. Louis, Colorado, San Francisco, Arlington or Philadelphia, or a raft of other fields which have the same general color scheme, same brick and bridgework design.
You will argue that, I'm certain. But sit and watch the film. Sit and watch 50 MLB games strictly from camera angles and you'll see the Arena Football-ness of what we've been left with. The unique features the architects tout are all above the tight camera angles needed of the play on the field. So, on TV, all these stadia look to be the same arena-esque playing field. I would guess no more than 30%-40% of the action takes the camera high enough to show you a McCovey Cove, your touted rightfield overhang or any other spiffy feature of a new park. It's increadibly boring. Boring, as in dull, as in "Who's got the remote?"
You can now change this. One downside to your new park is that it has no personality. It simply looks like any other in this new line of stadia product. Nothing there screams "Mets" when you view basic TV camera angles the way Shea always did. Whether the old, original behind-the-plate angle which showed the Queens skyline over those green walls, or the distinctive Mets Blue walls and screening and runway behind the plate from the centerfield cameras. Or the panarama cameras which showed the bullpens then either the Queens skyline or the 7 train tracks. On TV, every angle screamed "Mets, this is OUR yard."
On TV, the new field looks as person-less as the wrestling matches in old Sunnyside Arena, which was always dark, so you couldn't see it, or god-forbid, that ugly, cavernous concrete warehouse the Rays play in in Tampa.
So, forget fixing the team on the field, it doesn't really look possible this year. You can do something different with it for next year, and we'll start over.
But, right now, today, you can protect your investment by finding ways to keep us from switching the dial towards some other Must-see TV this summer. Do this by, first, scouring and studying every TV angle in your new park, and gussying up and Meticizing what the camera is looking at in every shot. Every shot should have a Mets identity, a Mets statement. Then, this will slowly become the Mets' home field, not just another cookie-cutter fad. THAT we would watch, as FANatics do, no matter what was on the field. This is Brand protection, pure and simple.
Oh, but if you COULD do anything about that boring rag-tag army you send out there every night over the next 2 1/2 mos., that would be nice. Thanks!
posted by Gotham 11:54 AM
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