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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Wouldn't this just be, well, just so very METS?
Posted by Jill | 6:41 AM
Some of you outside the Noo Yawk area may not be aware of the new stadium being built for the New York Mets to replace the aging but somehow charming dump that is Shea Stadium. The new stadium, like the new Yankee Stadium on the other side of town, takes elements from parks that preceded it; from both Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds.

This computer-generated flyby shows you what it's going to look like:





I guess they're going to have to go back to this version of the theme song, since the one currently used for Mets radio broadcasts mentions Shea Stadium, though there's something kind of sad about a theme song that talks about how the Mets are really socking the ball when Carlos Beltran is trying to bunt for a base hit and scrap-heap pickup Fernando Tatis is looking like Ted Williams by comparison to the rest of this sorry-ass team.

It would have been nice if the Wilpons had been willing to name the new stadium after Jackie Robinson, though they did deign to create the "Jackie Robinson Rotunda", wherein you can think about the man who sucked up the hate of white baseball fans to pave the way for Barry Bonds, and as far as I'm concerned, gave his health for baseball. But the lure of easy naming dollars was too strong, and Citigroup won the bid. And so the new park is going to be called Citi Field.

As if it weren't bad enough, and yet strangely fitting, that the Mets are going to be playing in a multimillion dollar, state of the art ballpark that is an unwitting South Park joke, now it looks like Citi Field may yet, before it's all over, be the second coming of Enron Field:

In the latest campaign to save its ailing self, Citi plans on ditching more than $400 billion of so-called legacy assets over the next few years, eventually cutting up to $500 billion off its books. Investors are still in the dark about what specific assets will be tossed, but Citi hinted most of the slimming will take place in the consumer banking and securities divisions, as well as running off real estate assets, which the banking industry has become particularly conscious of lately.

[snip]

One question yet to be answered is who on earth it plans on selling these assets to. While the two-to-three-year timeframe gives Citigroup room to let the market ease its nerves, the thought of selling nearly half a trillion dollars of assets in today's market at anything less than fire-sale prices is laughable at best.

At any rate, Citigroup will shrink, banks will continue their uphill battle, and the troubled real estate market will give the banking industry more than enough trouble to chew on in the coming years. The saga continues.


So given how the Mets are playing and the recent front office drama involving Willie Randolph, perhaps a giant megacorporation being sold off piecemeal really IS a more fitting testament to this team than is a man of courage, guts, and class -- despite last nights bench-player win.

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Blogger Steve said...
Having been able to see one of the last games ever played at Ebbets Field I am partial to the front entrance retro job.
As far as "Citi Field"?, well, it could be worse. (Think, USB.)
5/28/08, 11:38 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
not clear on what, if any, elements of polo grounds are going to be recalled at citi field. fred wilpon has a big thing, one might say a fetish, for the dodgers (he DID play high school ball with sandy koufax).

i too am sorry that they went with naming rights, but that 20 mill a year will offset much of santana's salary. i was really hoping that they could have come up with some double name like oriole park at camden yards, then use it to honor gil hodges.

the dodgers-mets linkage is most keenly felt through gil, who was part of the dodgers team that won brooklyn's only world championship, in 1955, then, 14 years later managed the mets to their first. he died, too young at 47, just before the start of the '72 season, and truly belongs in the hall of fame.

say, Hodges Park at Citi Field. wouldn't it be cool to tell a friend, hey, i'm headed out to the Hodge tonight, wanna come?
5/28/08, 12:47 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Hm. When I was a kid, growing up in Lawn Guy Land and the Mets were awful (most of the time, except '69 and '73), we'd sing it slightly differently: "Beat the Mets, beat the Mets / Anyone can beat the Mets..."

I'd hate to have to go back to that version, though it's looking more and more likely.
5/28/08, 4:53 PM  
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