I was perusing the Internet to see if i could find any type of Mets related trade new or rumors – but instead I found this gem on the Mets.com website.
FLUSHING, N.Y. — The New York Mets today announced plans to expand the presence of club history at Citi Field next season in a variety of ways including renaming areas of the ballpark after Casey Stengel, Gil Hodges, Tom Seaver and William A. Shea.
                                                                                  
      Â
                                                                                     ”  Lets Go Mets !! ”
                                                                  Â
The Mets also have re-formed the Mets Hall of Fame Committee, and will increase the number of visuals commemorating great players and moments both inside and outside the ballpark. The Mets previously announced a 2010 opening of the Mets Hall of Fame & Museum at Citi Field.
RENAMING OF AREAS IN BALLPARK The Mets will rename and visually theme Citi Field’s VIP entrances and outfield bridge after individuals who made an indelible mark on the club. First Base VIP will be named after Hodges to honor the manager who led the Mets to their first World Championship in 1969. Third Base VIP will honor Seaver, the Hall of Fame pitcher and Mets leader in wins, earned run average and strikeouts. Left Field VIP will be named after Stengel, the first manager in Mets history. The outfield bridge will be dedicated as Shea Bridge, honoring the legacy of the man who was the driving force to bring National League baseball back to New York after the departure of the Dodgers and Giants. You see this is what us Mets fans have been screaming about … You would think that either Dave Howard or the Wilpons would of had the foresight to have implemented these names before last season had began !
METS HALL OF FAME & MUSEUM & HALL OF FAME COMMITTEE The centerpiece for Mets memorabilia will be the Mets Hall of Fame & Museum, located adjacent to the Jackie Robinson Rotunda and accessible from both inside and outside the ballpark. A re-formed Mets Hall of Fame Committee will evaluate potential inductees, and is comprised of a combination of media members with a long-standing connection to the club and Mets front office staff.
In my opinion the first two players to be inducted should be Dwight Gooden & Mike Piazza followed by Choo Coo Coleman and Ed Glynn ( hey most of our players were scrubs – so why not include some in our hall of fame – it would set us apart from the Yankees !!)
Media members on the committee are: Marty Noble, the Mets.com beat writer who is entering his fifth decade covering the team; Gary Cohen, the New York native and voice of the Mets on SNY who has been a Mets broadcaster for 21 years; and Howie Rose, a Queens native and radio voice of the Mets on WFAN who has covered the team for 21 years on radio and television.
Although I am not a fan of Marty Noble , I do agree with him on the is committee because he does have a sense of Mets history and his opinions do deserve merit . Spot on with having Cohen and Rose on this panel !
The Mets committee members are: Dave Howard ( BOO!), executive vice president, business operations who has been with the organization for 18 years; Jay Horwitz, vice president, media relations who just completed his 30th season with the team; Tina Mannix, senior director, marketing who has been with the Mets for nine years; and former Mets pitcher Al Jackson, a pitching consultant who is entering his sixth decade with the Mets. Chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon serves as ex-officio.
( I guess they felt that Al Jackson needs to justify drawing a paycheck as seems to be the case with Dave ” I Don’t See Any Obstructed Views” Howard and Jay ” Omars Handler” Horowitz - kidding Jay and Al just kidding)
“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.”
( consensus of the Mets fans – THANKYOU JEFF WILPON !!! IT’S ABOUT FU*KING TIME !!)
Candidates will be evaluated on their impact on the field while in a Mets uniform, how they represented and affected the organization and their place in Mets history.
( I guess that means neither Vince Coleman or Karim Garcia will not  make the cut. )
The Mets Hall of Fame was established in 1981 with an inaugural class of Joan Payson, the first Mets owner, and Casey Stengel, the first Mets manager. The Mets Hall of Fame has 21 members including former players, managers, front-office executives and broadcasters. Tommie Agee was the last person inducted in 2002.
The following is the list of Hall of Fame members in order of the year they were inducted:
Joan Payson (1981); Casey Stengel (1981); Gil Hodges (1982); George M. Weiss (1982); William A. Shea (1983); Johnny Murphy (1983); Ralph Kiner (1984); Bob Murphy (1984); Lindsey Nelson (1984); Bud Harrelson (1986); Rusty Staub ( poppa!) (1986); Tom Seaver (1988); Jerry Koosman (1989); Ed Kranepool (1990); Cleon Jones (1991); Jerry Grote (1992); Tug McGraw (1993); Mookie Wilson (1996); Keith Hernandez (1997); Gary Carter (2001); and Tommie Agee (2002).
                                                         
                                               ” Induct him in the Mets Hall Of Fame !! ”
The Mets will announce further details about the Mets Hall of Fame & Museum in the coming weeks.
IMAGERY & TEAM COLORS Next season, fans will be greeted by Mets colors as they approach Citi Field with full-color banners of Mets players on Mets Plaza in front of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. Mets logos will be added on entry points to the parking areas and on the light poles in the parking lots. The addition of team colors will continue inside the ballpark with staircases painted with blue and orange and more Mets logos throughout the ballpark. Flowers in the gardens at Mets Plaza in front of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda will also be blue and orange.
“These additions amplify our commitment to better recognize our team’s heritage and honor the players and memories our fans cherish,” said Howard. “Ownership is acting upon our fans’ desire to see more Mets around the ballpark. We hear our fans loud and clear and these additions continue the process that started last season.”
So in summation : Both the Mets ownership and their executives are scared sh^tless that us Mets fans are going to stay away from Citi Field in droves so they figured they would clean the proverbial wax out of their ears and start trying to make this new stadium more about the Mets than the Brooklyn Dodgers . I say thankyou to Fred and Jeff Wilpon for finally listening to the fans , NOW PLEASE FIELD A WINNING TEAM AND REDUCE TICKET PRICES SO US BLUE COLLAR FOLKS CAN ATTEND MORE THAN A HANDFUL OF GAMES IN A SEASON !?!?!
                                                            
                                                       ” My wife is getting me this for X-MAS !! ( SHOULD I TAKE A HINT?”)
17 comments
CaseStreet
11/21/2009-4:05pm at 4:05 pm (UTC -4)
excellent job jr. love the commentary. And I’d let the dog taste your food first.
It all sounds pretty good to me.
Kingman 26
11/21/2009-4:39pm at 4:39 pm (UTC -4)
Geez, I am really having a hard time getting used to your new picture there Case!
CaseStreet
11/21/2009-4:43pm at 4:43 pm (UTC -4)
figured I’d change it up an use Mr North Jersey’s pic from the Dirty Eleven.
Kingman 26
11/21/2009-4:36pm at 4:36 pm (UTC -4)
Absolutely wonderful news.
Thanks again Rusty!
And folks, go ahead and slam away, but is is sad and pathetic that this was not one of the very first things the Wilpons planned when first drawing up the new stadium….this is fantastic, but too bad that it came after being sure that Subway, Dunkin Donuts, Acela, Harrah’s, Fox News, etc. festooned the stadium with the kind of decor the Wilpons REALLY prefer.
Now, when kids go to the stadium with their parents, they can instantly learn about club history as I did in the 1970s at Shea.
metfreak
11/21/2009-6:15pm at 6:15 pm (UTC -4)
A little off the subject but is anyone else had enough of these stupid rumors that the Mets are not going to spend this winter ? I am giving them a chance but these writers and those clowns on the Fan makes it like the off season is coming to an end
fongy2
11/21/2009-6:46pm at 6:46 pm (UTC -4)
Agreed.This off-season is already starting to feel as
long as this past season was.
And spot on Brock(as usual).
Almost ten years and a billion
dollars in the planning,contruction and opening of the Mets(and their
fans) new park AND…THIS stuff
,the team’s history wasn’t the
first …Or one of the first
things thought about and planned??
See….THIS is the stuff that
just drives four decade,die-hard fanatics who have supported the team through
thick and thin, good and bad
times CRAZY.
It would have been one thing
if it wasn’t address at all
BUT making it worse was the fact that it obviously WAS.
See: Jackie Robinson this and Ebbetts Field that.
There was never any excuse for
what the did(or really didn’t)
BUT at least now it’s being
address.
Better late then never!
fongy2
11/21/2009-6:50pm at 6:50 pm (UTC -4)
Sorry, was a little
distracted………
That should have read,
There was never any excuse for what they
did(or didn’t) do
BUT at least now it’s
being addressed.
Better late then never!
fongy2
11/21/2009-6:52pm at 6:52 pm (UTC -4)
Later fellas!, off to Volleyball!
Hopefully,when I return in about 4 hrs
we’ll have traded for Doc Halladay,
dumped Castillo and signed Polanco!
CaseStreet
11/21/2009-7:20pm at 7:20 pm (UTC -4)
and fired Omar?
GravediggerHebner
11/21/2009-8:26pm at 8:26 pm (UTC -4)
Good. The people that were concerned with such may now switch from complaining that it wasn’t there to complaining about how long it took to put it there. From reading the comments above I see they already have. 8)
Kingman 26
11/21/2009-9:00pm at 9:00 pm (UTC -4)
Yeah, I guess all I ever do is complain.
Another salient point.
It would be far better if every last nook and cranny in the stadium was instead a tribute to Dunkin Donuts and Fox News—I stand corrected once again.
I sure wish I could have learned more about corporate America in the 1970s as a child at Shea instead of being polluted with pictures of John Milner and Jerry Grote and Wayne Garrett and Casey Stengel.
trs86
11/21/2009-9:32pm at 9:32 pm (UTC -4)
Hey what do you got against Donuts and The Truth?
Kingman 26
11/21/2009-9:58pm at 9:58 pm (UTC -4)
Oy.
Kingman 26
11/21/2009-9:59pm at 9:59 pm (UTC -4)
Someone correctly reprimanded me last time I discussed politics on here, and I respect him too much to err again.
trs86
11/22/2009-9:51am at 9:51 am (UTC -4)
LOL.
Kingman 26
11/21/2009-9:13pm at 9:13 pm (UTC -4)
Alright, I am sorry if that was harsh, but I just for the life of me cannot understand how anyone could oppose the stadium being a tribute to the team and its history.
I learned Met history from my trips to Shea in the 1970s as a little kid, and why should today’s little kids only learn to memorize corporate logos? Isn’t the country saturated enough with that?
Sorry Grave, this issue bugs me, as it obviously does you.
metsfan4decades
11/22/2009-12:18am at 12:18 am (UTC -4)
Well, I haven’t made it to Citi Field yet, but have saw enough pictures and read enough to know it wasn’t exactly as most Met fans envisioned in that it didn’t have enough Met history, memorabilia, colors.
I’m with other, such as Fongy, on this. There really was no excuse for that.
How hard would it have been to have had those names honoring past Met lore, Met banners, Met colors and the like?
I mean, are the Wilpons that out of touch with the passion of the average Met fan?
You just have to wonder….