Mack - Opening Day

So, here it is again... a Mets opening day.

This is my 53rd. 

The opening day lineup was:

CF Richie Ashburn
SS Felix Mantilla
2B Charlie Neal
LF Frank Thomas
RF Gus Bell
1B Gil Hodges
3B Don Zimmer
C Hobie Landrith
P Roger Craig

The first was special. The Mets lost 4-3 but hope was born. 

Frank Thomas homered in the sixth inning and singled home another run.

Most runs scored on an opening day... 4-8-69: Montreal beat the Mets 11-10.

Worse loss... 4-17-84... Montreal 10, Mets 0 and 3-31-03: Cubs 15-2

Best win... actually last year vs. San Diego on 4-1-13: 11-2 Mets

Overall, the Mets are 32-20 on opening day with the best record against St. Louis (7-2) and Philadelphia (7-1).

Overall, the Mets are 2-50 in winning it all (1969, 1986)... 

They lost in the World Series two more times... 1973 and 2000...

And they lost in the NLCS three times... 1988, 1999, and 2006...

That's making the playoffs 7 times in 52 years, or, put it a different way... 7-45.

This year, it's one day before opening day and we don't even know what the opening day lineup is going to be...

The team went into the off-season with a glaring need at shortstop... which still hasn't been addressed.

In addition, the Mets were supposed to solidify who would be the starting first baseman. As of today, that's still a crap shoot.

Two of the Mets best starting pitchers have been assigned to the minors so the team doesn't have to pay them more in their last year before they fly the coop and go to work for someone willing to pay them what they are worth.

In the minors, a majority of the best players that should be playing at the AAA level, have been assigned one level down at the AA level, to make room for a bunch of players that have already failed at the MLB level.

And the bullpen... put it this way... the team has a manager that doesn't like to keep his starters in past the sixth inning, regardless of pitch count or who's winning the game, yet no time or money seems to be spent in signing or developing the relievers needed to close out the victory.

Folks, I write about the New York Mets. This is what I chose to do after prematurely retiring from my field of expertise. I don't do this for the money. In fact, this site hasn't had a sponsor in over two years. I do it because I love to write and I grew up a fan of the Mets.

Am I a fan now? Well, to be honest, you can't be one and be an effective writer. You can only go down one road at a time and I left being a fan behind.

The nanosecond after you do this, the Mets begin to come off as a team that is not only dysfunctional in their decision making, but also marginal in talent. 

Operation wise, Newsday printed out the income being generated for the past five years and, in one word, it's dismal:

REVENUE	2013	2012	2011	2010	2009
Retained seats*	$41,870.486	$43,977,037	$50,515,652	$64,454,784	$99,331,174
Advertising	$44,453,255	$44,151,422	$46,052,606	$47,953,712	$46,983,931
Concessions	$10,708,816	$11,373,728	$10,193,556	$13,613,475	$15,169,783
Parking	$6,911,838	$7,483,119	$7,274,281	$8,719,429	$11,053,417
Luxury suites	$8,932,903	$8,668,516	$7,744,900	$5,783,901	$3,755,457
Other	$6,363,669	$5,821,645	$5,134,413	$3,440,356	$4,102,459
Total	$119,240,967	$121,475,467	$126,915,408	$143,965,657	$180,396,221

 http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/mets-ballpark-revenues-drop-for-the-fourth-straight-year-1.7546323

An excellent job has been done to retain the levels of advertising revenue and monies received for luxury suites has actually skyrocketed, but it's the simple sales of baseball tickers and items that come along with them (concessions, parking) that have created the operating to be a losing entity.

But enough of that...

Let's go back to that bullpen management.

We seem to go through this same scenario every year. The Mets do an effective job of playing the first six innings of each game, only to lose the majority of games they were once either leading or tied when their starters were in the game. 

Nothing changed this spring training and a perfect example would be how the last two games vs. Toronto played out. The Mets starters made a writer proud to be associated with this team, only to be followed by ineffective pitching out of the pen.

This wouldn't have had the same result if the offense put, oh, let's say, eight runs each game on the board, but that's not going to happen either.

So, it's on to my 53rd Mets opening day. The odds say the Mets will win this one, but the past end results temper any dreams of playoff games, no less the World Series.

We'll keep trying to make sense of all this here at Mack's Mets so you can concentrate on rooting for your favorite team.

You better put your seat belts on though... this might be a bumpy ride.