Monday Morning, March 4th, 2002
Spring training games have begun, and we're getting our first looks at the 2002 Mets in action. Wednesday, Friday and Sunday's games will be on WFAN radio. Saturday's game will be broadcast on FSNY, while Sunday's game will mark the Mets debut on the MSG network.
Four weeks to go until the games count in the standings!
Let the Games Begin! - Fans were charged $4 admission to watch the Mets intra-squad games last week, but it was money for good causes. The proceeds from Monday's game went to the Brian Cole Scholarship Fund, while those from Tuesday went to the family of Nancy Sadocha, who lost her husband on September 11th. Mrs. Sadocha is the daughter of Jean Coen, the longtime executive assistant to former Mets general manager Frank Cashen. Any donations to this fund may be sent care of Media Relations Director Jay Horwitz, Shea Stadium, 123-01 Roosevelt Avenue, Flushing, New York, 11368.
The Mets invited members of the St. Lucie County Sheriff and Fire Department, the St. Lucie Police Department and the Fort Pierce Fire Department as their guests to the spring training home opener last Friday. The Mets also invited four families who were directly affected by September 11th, and eight children representing the NYPD and New York Fire Department threw out the ceremonial first pitch. As they did at the end of last season, for the home spring training opener the Mets wore caps commemorating the New York City agencies who lost personnel on September 11th, although the following day they went back to wearing traditional team hats.
Hitting for Mo Made Easler-y - Mike Easler, Mo Vaughn's close friend and batting coach, stopped by Port St. Lucie to check on Vaughn en route to his job in Sarasota as a roving minor league hitting instructor for the Cincinnati Reds. Easler and Vaughn have been close since their Red Sox days. Although the Mets prohibit players from working out with personal coaches in their facilities, Easler observed Vaughn from a distance and planned to give him an assessment afterwards. Easler will stop by and observe Vaughn at various times throughout the 2002 season.
Improving his Craft - Last month, Mike Piazza hired former Dodgers catcher Steve Yeager to coach him at the Bucky Dent Baseball Academy in Delray Beach for one week on the fundamentals of throwing out runners.
Meanwhile, Piazza is going to miss Wednesday's game because he is flying to New York to be honored at HELP USA's annual dinner. HELP USA is an organization that helps homeless people become self reliant, and Piazza has been a major fundraiser on their behalf.
Age-Gate Continues - It has been revealed that minor league pitching coach Bob Apodaca is actually 53 years old, instead of 52. Apodaca fibbed about his age 31 years ago, when he was signed as a free agent out of college by the Mets.
Who Do You Think We Are? The Pirates? - Wednesday was a day off for most Mets, but since Armando Benitez was late arriving to camp, he came in for a bullpen session that day. He approached the mound wearing a bandana and an earring. Manager Bobby Valentine was not amused by the look, and made Benitez take the items off.
Quote of the Week - After a rough outing in his first American intra-squad game last Tuesday, Satoru Komiyama told reporters that he was uncomfortable with having been compared to Greg Maddux and David Cone. "I'd like to apologize for that, because I really respect those guys," said Komiyama, through his interpreter.
Around the Dial - The MSG network will broadcast 50 regular season Mets games on Tuesdays and Wednesdays this year. WB11 and FSNY will also air about 50 games each, with the remainder being shown on Fox and ESPN. MSG will also show 10 Brooklyn Cyclones games this season.
Swinging with the Legends - The Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association (MLBPAA) has created the "Swing with the Legends" golf series in order to promote charity golf tournaments that feature former major league greats. Those in the New York area will be especially interested in April 25th event in Huntington, Long Island that features Met alumni Jerry Koosman, George Foster, Pat Zachary and Mike Torrez - click here. For the complete 2002 schedule - click here.
Surfing the Net - When mlb.com took over major league baseball's websites, it brought a certain sameness to them. However, in looking over the different sites, I have seen that there is a great deal of room for individuality within the uniform framework.
After my "Rant of the Week" in the February 18th column, I decided to look over the different major league sites to see how many of them publish the team's radio affiliates. I found that six teams list the radio networks - Cleveland, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Seattle, St. Louis and Toronto. It's nice that fans in these markets know how to follow their teams when they are not close to home. Many other team sites have Ballpark A-Z sections, providing fans with a lot of useful information about visiting their stadiums.
I noticed some other things as well. The Atlanta Braves use their site to publicize their Bravos Club - frequent guests at Braves home games earn points that they can redeem for prizes at Turner Field. The Angels use their site to promote their Kids Club program. Perhaps the most interesting use of Web technology is by the A's, who have their seven new television commercials available online for fans who may not be in the Oakland viewing area.
I was also interested by the Expos site, which is available in English or in French. That caused me to think that with the number of Spanish-speaking Mets fans, both in this country and abroad, perhaps the time has come when the Mets should consider having a Spanish version of their site. I would hasten to say that there are more Spanish speaking Mets fans than there are French speaking Expos fans, and it would be a great way to expand the team's loyal fan base.
The Mets should take advantage of the various available opportunities to make mets.com a stronger tool for team promotion.
Unless otherwise stated, these stories have been extracted from reports on www.nydailynews.com, www.nypost.com, www.nytimes.com, www.njo.com, www.newsday.com, www.bergenrecord.com, AP , www.metsonline.net, www.mets.com reports.
