Fred Wilpon Does Not Care About Black People

...or white people, or Latinos, and so on. As we mentioned in a previous post, the Mets have decided to shaft the more diehard fans of their organization and do away with advanced single game ticket sales to ticket plan holders. I have been able to put this injustice on the back burner the last few days - what with the news of Ambiorix Burgos' spring training dominance - however today, in a flashback to my college application days, I received my official digital "Fuck You" from the front office. Much like Syracuse and Skidmore before them, the Mets have told me that they want no part of me or my money.

The more I think about this, the more pissed off I get. The "fairness" argument is total garbage, but that's not why the Mets did this anyway. Those who support the ticket lottery are generally those who do not have a ticket plan. This makes sense on a basic level, but in the end it amounts to nothing more than pinko pussy communism. I'm as left leaning as they come, but I also believe that not all Mets fans deserve an equal chance to get hot tickets. Granted, some fans are more financially able than others, but if you really want seats for good games, you make sacrifices. I, for example, am poor. My most recent trip to the grocery store netted me six packages of Ramen noodles for $1. The building I live in frequently has it's hot water turned off because the homeless guy that takes out our garbage turns off the boiler so that he can get head in the basement in exchange for crack. I could probably be living at a much more ballin' level, but I do not. Why? Because I make sacrifices. Sacrifices that include two Mets ticket plans, jerseys, t-shirts, hats, and my officially licensed Pedro Feliciano cockring. My family had a season box for eight years. I have had a partial ticket plan for going on six years. I firmly believe that this level of diehardness entitles me to special perks.

However, despite whatever naive notions of "fairness" that the rubes who support this ticket lottery may harbor, fairness is not why the Mets have resorted to this level of buttfuckery. When the Mets started offering these ticket plans, it is because they blew. Fans did not want to lay out money to watch Roberto Alomar's surly ass. So the way they suckered fans in was to offer them little bonuses like guaranteed access to Opening Day, Subway Series, and playoff tickets. Like a battered wife who is convinced she can change her man, I kept coming back. Now that the Mets actually have a team worth watching, they decided that these small luxuries are no longer necessary. Seven packs no longer include Opening Day and a Yankees game - you get one or the other. Weekday and weekend plan holders no longer get presale access to single game tickets. I have had a better taste left in my mouth after my last hot carl.

Fred Wilpon and Sterling Equities are certainly not short on cash. I understand that business is business, but this motherfucker is already wealthier than most fans could ever dream of being, operates a successful professional sports team in the biggest market in the country, owns his own television network, and will soon be pulling in $20 million per year off of the CitiField sponsorship alone. A little loyalty to those who have supported his team through thick and thin is not too much to ask. I hope he enjoys a stadium full of Yankee fans come this May.

The Mets have not heard the end of end of this grave injustice from Out In The Wilderness. Details to follow.

Mo Food Helps Mo' Families In Brooklyn

Good story about Mo Vaughn and his post-baseball ventures at I Dislike Your Favorite Team today. A shady landlord in Professor Reyes' home borough was attempting to evict his tenants in order to convert his building into an "emergency homeless shelter" in order to suckle $6 million off of the government teat. Mo and his business partner, who have been very active in preserving and promoting low-income housing in the metro area, stepped in, and, with the help of the tenants, purchased the building for $21 million and promised to invest millions more to make renovations. Besides being a heartless fuck, the landlor is named Abdur Rahman Farrakhan, so you know he is funding terrorist activities somewhere out there.

To read the New York Post story, click here.

2007 Opening Day Ticket Sales: Box Office Hose Job or Egalitarian Triumph?

While we were respectively working and sleeping this afternoon, attempting to ignore the fact that a man who looks like a grown fetus was the MVP of the 2007 Super Bowl, we received some very disturbing news via email from our New York Mets: we were cordially invited, along with every other dickwad who has ever given their email address to mets.com, to register for our only chance to purchase single game tickets to Opening Day. Immediately perturbed by this, we called the Mets ticket office to confirm.

"Hi, I'm a Saturday ticket plan holder, so I'll get my usual presale opportunity to purchase Opening Day tickets before all of the other assholes, right?"

"No, sir."

"But, but, the last four years that's how I've gotten my Opening Day tickets!"

"Sir, everyone has to register for the ticket lottery this year."

"Really?"

"Really."

Fuck.

Having briefly discussed this with two of my fellow Mets fans, and perusing the comment section of the thread dealing with this issue on metsblog, we quickly realized that Mets fans fall into two camps on this, with virtually no exceptions: "Plan Holders Who Feel Like They Just Had a Souveneir Bat Shoved In Their Urethra" and "Those Too Cheap To Pony Up For a Ticket Plan Now Basking In The Possibility To Get Decent Opening Day Seats." We fall into the former category.

After initially purchasing our Saturday Plan in 2001 with the intention of getting guaranteed playoff tickets for what we assumed would be a decade of Mets dominance (God did that backfire), we also came to love our mini-plan because it gave us the opportunity to purchase single game tickets, for any game, before the rest of the general ticket buying public. While we were not extended such outstanding perks offered to season ticket holders, such as the opportunity to tour the Kiner's Korner "studio" in the bowels of Shea Stadium, we were more than satisfied with this B-list VIP treatment.

It is understandable that a lot of people would bitch about this practice. The typical complaint is that the Mets, and most professional sports teams in general, are simply catering to the richer fans who can afford to buy season tickets or a partial ticket plan. We can sympathize with these cheap fuckers to an extent, but at the same time, ticket plan holders should receive some perks besides a crappy stadium tour in the dead of winter or leather mouse pad (yes, our reward for purchasing three seats for thirteen games last year was one leather mouse pad). Ticket plans are relatively inexpensive ($103 for a 7 Pack in the Upper Deck) and provide some insurance against fair weather fans scooping up all of the tickets to good games. For example, by opening up "Platinum" games to anyone with an email address, the Mets are all but inviting Yankee fans to load up on Subway Series tickets. By offering single game Platinum tickets to ticket holders first, Mets fans can be sure that Shea will be packed with (mostly) other Met fans come May.

As much as this new policy may blow, we have hedged our bets and purchased an additional ticket plan that includes an Opening Day ticket, bringing our game count for this year to twenty. We expect our mouse pad to be shipped shortly.