By now you should have read this weekend’s press release: Mets Expand Club Presence at Citi Field
This is, of course, important news for all of us who have been waiting to see if the team was going to respond to one of the most significant reasons for fan discontent with the new stadium. It is good news to hear that the history, heritage, and symbols of the Mets will no longer appear to have been intentionally excluded from Citi Field.
As anyone familiar with my blog and books will anticipate, I won’t thank the Mets for commemorating important figures in Mets history by naming VIP entrances after them. The VIP entrances still stick in my craw. I don’t care what they call them. They can name one the M. Donald Grant VIP Entrance, another the Bernard Madoff VIP entrance, and the third the FOX News Fair and Balanced VIP Entrance for all I care. Since I will never spend more than $100 (in 2009 money) for a ticket to a regular season baseball game, I will be forever excluded from the status of a VIP when I go to Citi Field. I could live to be 110 and be the last person to remember the first Mets game, I could write 10 books about them, and I will not be a VIP. I will never be anything more than a P.
I do thank the Mets for naming the bridge by the old home run apple the Shea bridge. That’s nice. I am also jazzed (doesn’t take much to jazz me but it takes something) by the fact that those dreary staircases are going to be painted blue and orange and by the fact that there are going to be full-color banners and logos all over the place. That could be wonderful and it could drown out or at least compete with all the visual noise from the ads that have grown out of the attractive little stadium like alien fungi.
The really important news, of course, is that there is going to be a Mets museum. Not just a Hall of Fame, which we’ve been promised for a while, but a Hall of Fame and Museum. This is crucially important. And it is crucially important that the Mets do the museum right.
They might do it right and they might not. Those of us who care about such things need to watch what happens carefully. One reason I am hopeful is that Gary Cohen and Howie Rose have been put on “The Mets Hall of Fame Committee.” If I had to choose two individuals to serve as the custodians of the history and heritage of the Mets, it would be Gary and Howie. I trust these guys to make sure that Mets fans get something meaningful, rather than something corporate or cliched. What has me a little worried is that although the press release refers to the “Mets Hall of Fame and Museum,” all it talks about is the Hall of Fame. Talking about the Committee, Jeff Wilpon is quoted as saying:
“The re-formation of the Mets Hall of Fame Committee is central to our concerted efforts to better connect our present and future to our past,” said Wilpon. “It reinforces the organization’s and our fans’ shared desire to recognize our greatest players. With our 2010 opening of the Mets Hall of Fame & Museum at Citi Field, now was the time to bring this group together.”
The Mets should honor their greatest players, with information, memorabilia, sculpture, etc. I look forward eagerly to seeing a vital Mets Hall of Fame. But the Mets need to realize that if they just have a Hall of Fame commemorating important Mets, they will not have done enough. A museum needs to be more than a hall of fame. It needs to honor not only our heroes, but the experience of the millions of people, alive and dead, who have given a chunk of their lives to following the exploits of these heroes and all other kinds of players the Mets have had as well. The Mets are not the heroes. The Mets are the bond between the millions and the Mets, heroes and non-heroes. This is what needs to be commemorated in the museum. It has to tell the story not just of the Hall of Fame greatness of Seaver’s pitching and Piazza’s hitting. It has to tell the story of the people who hung the banners and marched with them on the field on Banner Day. It has to tell the story of the people who ran onto the field in the sixties, who knew it was spring when Bob Murphy’s voice told them it was, who stuck with the team when there was no rational reason to do so. It has to tell people about the Curley Shuffle, Jane Jarvis, the Sign Man, and Doris from Rego Park. It has to honor our songs and chants and apples and baseball-headed mascot. It has to remind us or teach us about the moments that will never be forgotten: Seaver’s almost-perfect game, Jones dropping to his knees, Tug’s September of Belief, the ball that found its way through Buckner’s legs, the Grand Slam single, Endy’s catch, the final ceremony at Shea: the moments that took our breath away and never gave it back. If the museum does not do this, it will not have done its work. Citi Field will still not be able to tell us who we are or why we’re here.
Please don’t just give us what used to be in the entrance area of the Diamond Club. Please don’t just give us statues and trophies. Please give us the history and the poetry of the Mets. Please give us the sense that we’re still the New Breed, we’re still the loudest most emotional fans of all, the ones who made the Upper Deck of Shea feel like an earthquake. Give the museum enough space. And fill it with care, emotion, and imagination.
Please. Mets fans deserve this. All of us.
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Please come and hear me read from The Last Days of Shea on:
December 1 at 7 pm at the Hillside Library in New Hyde Park, LI
December 2 at 11:30 am at the Hofstra Bookstore in the Hofstra Student Center
I’d love to meet you.
Dana, well said. I remember asking (somewhere, to someone, really don’t remember specifics) what would be enough to satisfy each of us. I saw this item yesterday and got excited, but I remembered that it came from the Mets, and I’ve conditioned myself NOT to get my hopes up at news from the desk of Jay Horwitz. Right now, I won’t be happy until I can walk around and see everything they talk about on the price of any Mets game ticket. I may be getting worked up over nothing, but then again, if it’s what we’ve really been asking for, I’m eager to see it.
Dana,
Great blog as usual. I think the Mets are headed in the right direction by listening to us. We are the franchise. We have enjoyed and suffered throughout the years. We are the ones who grew up at Shea and have introduced our children to the Mets. Needless to say the first year at Citi Field was a disaster. From the injuries, to the plays on the field, to the not-so-at-home feel of our new home. While we have to add 3-4 good players to the team (and I think we will) and stay within the realm of normal health we are well poised to make make year 2 at Citi the beginning of the new era. Hey, I wish Shea was back. I wish they never replaced it, but they did. We might as well make the best of it. Who knows, we may even like Citi Field at some point soon. At least our team did not move to California or even worse, New Jersey.
I have two other suggestions for the Wilpons which I will be surfacing in a letter. The first is relatively cheap and full of common sense. The security guards cannot wear red jackets. Red is nowhere in our past nor our future. Red is absurd. Go with either orange or blue. Duh. The second suggestion is simple in concept but something tells me that management will dismiss the notion. Paint the outfield wall Met blue. It currently looks like the SF Giants colors. Met blue is also easier on the eyes/friendlier. Please let me know if you agree.
This is our stadium and our team. We don’t pass through here like a ballplayer will. We have a voice. Let it be heard.
Thanks for your great work Dana and Lets Go Mets in 2010.
I agree with you. I think its excellent that Rose and Cohen are on the committee, because I think that will help assure that its Mets-centric (rather than spending excessive time brooding over the Dodgers.) In addition, both of those guys are also objective and candid. To me, the idea of a Mets Hall of Fame is a little funny in the sense that the team is not a particularly storied franchise in terms of success. However, the Mets occupy a unique (sometimes oddball) place in terms of pop culture. So for my money the museum should not only acknowledge, but flat out revel in the 1962 teams’ antics. I also agree that it should acknowledge and discuss non player characters like Sign Man, Jarvis, etc.
One challenge, though, is to try and make sure that the museum is of interest to those who aren’t neccessarily Mets fans, but baseball fans. By way of example, people who hate the Yankees or Cardinals nevertheless find their history compelling and enjoy seeing the exhibits and museums at their stadiums. I think the Phillies did a nice job with their exhibit on Philly baseball history by the bullpens. The Maryland Sports Legend Museum at the old Camden Yards train station is fantastic. In the case of the Mets, its harder to see how that will have traction (frankly, even as a Mets fan I don’t know that I want to spend oodles of time looking at exhibits celebrating Joel Youngblood’s prowess, or the Mo Vaughn experiment). I think it can be done, but because the team only showed up in 1962, and hasn’t had a tremendous number of storied seasons or players, its challenging. Trying to position it as some analogue to the Yankees museum cross town sets it up for ridicule. I think the best approach is that Dana alludes to – keeping the focus on the relationship between fan, city, and team, rather than team exploits themselves. (The Museum of the City of NY did a great exhibit along those lines a few years ago concerning the Golden Age of Baseball in NY)
Finally, my own suggested style change to Citifield would be to attach some of the old blue and orange panels that adorned Shea pre 1980s makeover to the exterior. I think that pop art touch can gibe with the stadium, picks up (from a thematic perspective) on the remaining World’s Fair architecture in Flushing Meadows park, and is (or can be) iconic. Plus its blue and orange.
JD
After fans screamed in their faces about how they could spend two-plus years on a stadium and screw up the most basic points–like honoring the team that will play there. When it comes to players and fans complaining that we should be the new Yankees, the Mets should turn a deaf ear. We don’t know squat about that. Listen to the FAN–or most hosts–and it’s pretty obvious. What we do know about is why we root for this team. They’ve never had a real Museum and it’ll be interesting what they dig up/throw together. Can’t wait to see how this turns out. And even if they build a Mets version of the Louvre, one thing you can count on will be that someone will complain. That’s where Mets fans truly excel.
What makes the fans of the NY Mets so special is their undying loyalty to the possiblility of achieving the impossible. In a world filled with negativity and second guessing, the NY Mets fans remain steadfast in their belief that hope reigns supreme. It doesn’t really matter if the statistics suggest that the team might have last place sewed up by the Fourth of July, true blue blooded Mets fans will contine to support their team until the dog days of September. I consider it a blessing that my husband and I had the honor of interacting with the great fans of NY for a greater part of the second decade of the ’70’s. Mets fans and Mets players have always marched to their own drummers. I hope the Hall of Fame will venerate the likes of the Lone Ranger of Shea Stadium and Joe Pignatano’s organic bullpen vegetable garden in its tribute to the unique character of the NY Mets fan.