From The Desk… Ben Aybar, Baseball Comeback, Kim Ng, Sleepy Fan, Meteorology Of A Fly Ball

Good morning.

Meet the New York Teenager Who Created the 'Mets Are a Good Team' Super PAC –

The FEC’s paperwork made it appear like the work of one person, someone named Ben Aybar. He’d listed himself as the chairman, treasurer, and custodian of records. The headquarters was a residential address in the suburbs of New York City, and the organization’s listed preferred bank was nearby. There weren’t any of the typical signs of organized activity—there weren’t multiple people involved, there weren’t any office buildings or P.O. Boxes, the headquarters and bank were in the same state. Instead, it seemed like… well, it seemed like it might actually be one person who thinks the Mets Are A Good Team. I reached out to the email listed on the form, asking if he’d be willing to talk. Sure, he said. The next day at 10 a.m.?

Can baseball make a comeback?

      

     With strikeouts piling up, scoring plummeting, attendance falling and games often descending into all-or-nothing bores, it's no wonder that some people are calling for radical change to baseball.

The sport faced a similar challenge 50 years ago, dogged by a scoring depression and lagging fan interest. In response, baseball's rules committee lowered the pitcher's mound 5 inches and tightened the strike zone, making it harder for pitchers to dominate the game. That sparked more scoring the next season — and more exciting games for fans.

Joel - @JoelMetsNY

 I can’t take any Mets fan seriously who would say no to Machado. Sorry, I don’t want to spend an entire summer watching Todd Frazier hit .220

Mack – I don’t know why we keep talking about this guy. It’s not like he’s going to sign with the Wilpons.

Mets historic GM candidate Kim Ng has a big fan in Joe Torre –

        

   “She’s very well prepared in whatever she does,” Torre said at Miller Park on Saturday. “She’s way over my head when it comes to all the knowledge she has about a lot of aspects about the game.

She’s very bright. She knows her baseball. And she’s, how do you put it? I don’t want to say sure of herself, but s  he’s very bright and a very brave woman. She knows baseball and she doesn’t hedge on stuff. She attacks things head on. That’s the best way to put it.”

J.D. McNugent - @JDMcNugentMets

 A 70 year old corpse who has waited his whole life for a GM opportunity turned down the Mets job.  If that is not the clearest sign that MLB needs to force a sale I don’t know what is.

Confessions of a Very Sleepy Baseball Fan -

      

     It is October, which is to say it is playoff baseball season. This is a cause for joy, if you enjoy the national pastime, which you should; this is a cause for debilitating fatigue, if you live on the East Coast, which increasingly I would not recommend. Because this is not just October and not just the opening day of the World Series: This is the era of the never-ending postseason game, and if it’s not 1 a.m. Eastern then it’s 2 a.m. Eastern, and the baseball is so good and the hour is so late and maybe a position player will pitch soon and no one has any backup catchers and oh Jesus Christ is that Clayton Kershaw and please, oh please, Los Angeles and Boston, I say this with love: Make your games snappy.

Understanding The Meteorology Of A Fly Ball May Help Baseball Teams –

           

You may recall that Tim Tebow hit a home run in his first at bat with the Fireflies. That day the weather helped carry that ball by roughly 15-18 feet and it cleared the fence by a few feet. So. without the weather, it would probably have been a warning track out. Last June we installed our technology in an MLB park and we are now in the final stages of completing an agreement with them for the 2019 season.