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Listen folks, you need to understand a few things.

1) This (the Mets) as is, are not acceptable in this market. But they aren’t THAT bad. They aren’t the Cubs who are 20+ games under .500 and haven’t won a WS in 100+ years. They aren’t the Pirates who haven’t sniffed .500 in 18 years. This is a franchise who was in the WS this century and has been competitive almost every year since. Yes, it’s not acceptable the way they are now but it’s not tragic.

2) 1 or 2 players will not fix this. I’m hearing all this BS about trading Wright and/or Reyes and/or Santana, etc. You have a better shortstop? a better 3B? a better SP? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

3) People are mixing up the things that are ‘wrong’ with the Mets. There are numerous things, but some need to be seperated out. The fact that they are the only team that does not offer their “plan” holders any discount, or the fact that I’ve been a ‘plan’ holder since 1985 and the best row in my section that they will offer me is 13 (out of 17) or things like this are DIFFERENT than what’s wrong on the field or in the ‘front office’. BTW, these things NEED to be fixed and I think the Mets need a new Marketing/Fan dept – but that’s another rant.

4) Why did the Mets win in 1986? Remember where they were in 1980 when Wilpon/Doubleday bought the team:

1977: 63-99, 1978: 66-96 , 1979: 63-99, 1980: 67-95

81=strike year

1982: 65-97, 1983: 68-94, 1984: 90-72

Why the turnaround? Yes the new owners spent money that DeRoulet would NEVER do, but they did 1 VERY important thing: They hired  a ‘baseball’ guy to run the show. Frank Cashen ‘fixed’ this team. Period. End of Sentence.
Jeff Wilpon may be a nice guy (maybe), he may be a ‘former Minor League catcher’. He may know business. BUT THEY NEED TO GET A GM AND LEAVE HIM ALONE! Set a budget (whatever it is), and enjoy the games from the box.

This team does NOT need to be gutted. I can even live with Frenchy and a .250/15/65 season IF you get production from somewhere else (ie: Dan Uggla at 2nd). I’d say 80% of the pieces (players) are here. You CAN win a WS with Wright and Reyes. To make a trade for the sake of making it, or for the sake of shaking up the team is foolish at best. Get new players (at any position) when they make your team better. Keep an eye on what you have and move quickly if you feel they are better (read: why was Ike Davis in AAA in April and why was GMJr on this team at all?) Keep some $$ in reserve for a push when you need it. Be flexible.

The 2010 Mets aren’t a playoff team (most likely) and when you play in NY and spend their budget dollars they should be, need to be and must be. BUT trading players and getting rid of front office people just for the sake of change isn’t the answer. This ain’t 1979. They’re not 63-99. Let’s all come in off the ledge.

-a

I love instructions from companies outside the US who “translate” their work into English. Here’s one from my annual gift from the NY Mets – a floating (magnetic) “magic” baseball:

So, the other week Matt Cerone at Metsblog.com (a great site, BTW) mentions that former Met, Art Shamsky has redesigned his website. As it was my cousin’s 50th Birthday coming up, I thought a signed picture by Art would be a great gift.

So, I order the picture from the site and there’s a place to leave a message if you want it personalized – which I fill out.

The day before the birthday party, the picture comes but it’s not personalized!

It’s too late to do anything, but I fire off an email expressing how unhappy I am.

Art’s assistant gets back in touch with me and here’s how they “fixed” it – and they went above and beyond.

Today, my cousin and I had a private meeting with Art Shamsky and my cousin, where he personalized the photo, gave me one, and took time to have a great chat about the ’69 Mets, the Mets of today and baseball in general.

Companies can learn a lot about customer service from Art Shamsky!

Updates at the other site – findpaulzangre.wordpress.com

Youtube video

New Phone # if you have any info:  ask for Linda. The direct line is 619-531-2390

(added at 3:50pm)

More info:

His address is 5240 Siore terrace. Apt 302   San Diego, CA 92190.

He hasn’t worked for a few months now and the company he did work for was called Health markets in San Diego.

He didn’t do much at all while he was there, just worked on his own for this company. He had only a couple of friends there that the detective had spoken to. They were the ones that reported him missing. But they said he was very quiet and kept to himself.  He only went to the beach alot.

Not sure about last known sighting, but I am sure it was at the apartment with his old roomates.

The only thing that we are concerned about is that the roomates he was with didn’t get along with him. He had to call the cops at one point. Well they were scheduled to go back to Korea the end of November   The detective tried their numbers, but are dissconnected. So they are gone and around the same time my brother dissappeared. Thanks

They didn’t see his wallet or phone. We called the phone company an they said there’s been no activity since the 24 of Nov. All of his luggage, comp, personal items are in the apart