5 Things Mets Fans Can Do For The Mets

A couple of days ago I posted 5 Things the Mets could do for their fans. Here’s what we can do for the Mets.

5 Things Mets Fans Can Do For The Mets

1. Love Citi Field.

Enough with the worn shitty field and taxpayer field jokes. I’m yet to meet anyone who thinks Citi Field isn’t a great place to watch a ball game.

The Mets delivered us the best park in New York City and even managed to set the bar high on concessions. You get some really good food for your money at Shake Shack and Smoke Joint, and the better beer at better prices goes down easily. Compare what you can get for $20. At Citi Field with what you can get for the same amount at any other sporting venue in the New York Metropolitan area and you will be impressed.

Bottom line, the Mets knocked it out of the park with their new park, even Yankee fans agree.

2. Stop behaving like Yankees Fans

Unfortunately, appreciating Citi Field is one of the few things Yankee fans do well.

By and large, Yankee fans are not good baseball fans. They may be great Yankees fans, but they see the world through Steinbrenner’s dark glasses, and their win now, win always world is not pretty. Let’s give our players some support. Let’s try to see the bright side of things. Get over the idea that postseason baseball is an entitlement. Baseball is about the journey. If you’re lucky, really lucky, once in a great while that journey ends with winning the world series. Appreciate the rest, even the pain.

3. Stop Behaving Like Imbeciles

Enough with the ridiculous “Jeter Swallows” chants. The Mets would be lucky to have a player who is half the leader he is (and this coming from someone who hates the smug look on his face). Enough with “Yankees Suck”.

Focus on our team, on our guys. Try supporting a player when he’s down, or even when he’s just doing ok. Luis Castillo is hitting .285 with absolutely no protection in the lineup. Notice the good.

4. Check out the Mets Foundation

The Mets have some interesting community service initiatives going on. Consider donating some time or money to one of them.

http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/nym/community/index.jsp


5. Your suggestion here

I’ve run out of ideas. What do you got? What can Mets fans do for their team?

5 Things The Mets Can Do For Their Fans

For all we know, in a few days, the Mets may be about to embark on one of the greatest second halves in baseball history. 6.5 back at the break is nothing to be happy about, but team’s have come back from worse deficits with a lot less season to play. Unfortunately, neither Mets fans nor the organization have to look too far to find examples.

That said, this may not work out all that well for the Metsies, and the second half may not be very much about winning. For a fan base that's come to think a bit too much like Yankees fans when it comes to winning, this is not good news, and if the fans are not happy, that’s not good for the organization.

Fortunately, as with many relationships, there is a lot of room for improvement. New York Mets, here are five easy ways to reach out to the fan base and improve our less than stellar perception of your organization. Mets Fans, there’s room for us to improve too. I’ll post 5 things we can work on in a day or two.

1. Metsify Citi Field a bit.

Citi Field is a wonderful place to go to a ball game, just wonderful. While it certainly plays as a big park and some don’t like that (I do for the most part), the one thing that most fans I have talked to don’t like about it is the lack of Mets specificness it has.

The good news is that this is something that can easily be improved as time goes on. More Mets logos and pictures from Mets history are no-brainers. Naming something after Bill Shea, Joan Payson, or Gil Hodges is a pretty good idea too. Paint somethings blue while you’re at it. Get the fans involved in the process and you'll probably receive some great ideas (along with many hare-brained ones)

2. Bring Back Banner Day

I don’t believe I ever went to a banner day or ever took much notice of it back in the day. Nevertheless, it is a part of Mets history and quite beloved. This is another easy thing to do for the fan base. Along those lines, though lesser known, was the New York Road Runner’s Run To Home Plate at Shea Stadium. I’d love to see that on the calendar next year please. It means something to the fans to get a change to play on the field, even if it's just a stroll on the warning track.

3. Reduce some medium priced tickets to something closer to $25., particularly for weekend games

Over the course of the first half, it seems like getting promenade reserved (the cheaper seats) tickets for a weekend game became nearly impossible. Find some way to make some seats more affordable. The Mets offered discounts on some tickets via the Flushing Flash emails several times during the first half, but this largely resulted in tickets priced above $50. plus significant fees.

It was a good step in the right direction, but the goal should be getting more sub $25. tickets into people’s hands. That’s the magic number now.

4.Reach out to the season ticket base and the group ticket buyers in meaningful ways.

The trinkets are nice, but something meaningful (meaning of real value) is better. Give us a free seat upgrade sometime, or some discount coupons for the concessions. Have an event for us in one of the areas of the park we may not otherwise get to go to (or an on-field event). I realize logistically, this may be difficult, but so it coming up with the money for season tickets in mid-december.

I do like that we still get the media guide, though, one friend of mine called the gift we received this year, “A Citi Field Tombstone”.

5. Represent Better

As an organization, sometimes the Mets...don't put their best foot forward. Don't micromanage, but manage yourselves better. I'm not sure why, but PR has never really seemed a focus for the Mets, it should be. It's tough to like an organization that seems to be constantly in crisis and rarely accentuates the positive.