The New York Times mentioned the Mets' awful attendance at Citi Field last week. It was in the front page of that newspaper.
Last night, the Yankees helped the Mets get their second sellout crowd of the season by making an appearance at Citi Field for a weekend series. There's a good chance the Mets will sell out tonight and tomorrow night.
The Yankees inspire people to show up at other stadiums when they go on the road. That's why many American League teams want the Yankees to come to their town often.
As a result of their appearance, the Yankees provide revenue to those teams. The Mets are no different than any other AL teams.
The Mets will be happy to pocket that money for the entire weekend. This is as good as it's going to get for them this year.
This is embarrassing. It's nothing to be proud of. Only losers enjoy this.
The Mets should draw well because their team is good and exciting. The Yankees' presence can not have anything to do with the jump in attendance.
When Yankees fans do most of the cheering last night for every great play the Yankees made, that should make the Wilpon family wretch.
When Yankees fans cheer whenever the Mets make an out, that should tick the organization off.
The Mets are not a good team, but they put on a professional effort out on the field. The players deserve better than to hear Yankees fans revel in their failures at their own park. This should never happen.
It's easy to go blame Mets fans for not buying the Subway Series tickets. It's easy to say Mets fans should not sell their tickets to Yankees fans.
Mets fans are smart to stay away from Yankees fans. Who wants to be associated with stupid people?
It's the organization's responsibility to convince the fans to come. The Mets must field a good product.
That hasn't been the case for a long time now. The Mets had a brief success in 2006 when they made an NLCS appearance, but since then, the team has disappointed by failing to win September games in 2007 and 2008. The Mets had a losing season last year in what was an injury-filled season.
It isn't just the losing that's been a problem. A couple of stars have not played well. David Wright struggles to hit these days while Jose Reyes might be finished as a Major League ballplayer.
Wright strikes out on a consistent basis. Reyes can't hit past the infield anymore.
When those two are getting worse as players, it does not bode well as an organization.
Stars bring people to the games. Right now, the Mets' stars are causing people to react with horror.
If the stars can't excite them, there's no reason for fans to pay attention.
This Mets team is unwatchable. They play hard, but no one wants to watch blue-collar players play and lose. Alex Cora is a good example to this theory. He plays hard, but he is not an impact player that help the team win.
Management does not have a clue how to run a baseball operation. They can't scout guys who know how to play the game. They can't develop players.
Those factors play a role to why the Mets can't draw at their one-year-old stadium.
For fans that watch the game last night, they saw an unexpected pitching duel between Javier Vazquez and Hisanori Takahashi. Both starters pitched six shutout innings. They were relieved in the seventh inning.
The fanbase expected something to happen late in the game. Yankees fans had a good feeling they would leave Citi Field happy. Mets fans knew it would be another heartbreak experience.
It turned out to be true. The Yankees found a way to get couple of runs in the seventh inning. The Mets continued to scuffle at the plate.
There was hope the Mets could get to struggling Mariano Rivera in the ninth, but Mets fans know better. The Mets couldn't drive the second run in after scoring the first run of Rivera, and the Yankees closer earned another save on a predictable out by Wright to end the game.
When fans expect their own team to lose, there's no incentive for them to go out to the stadium. They can find other better things to do.
Who knows if it's going to get better? There's no evidence it will.
Sure, the Mets can hire a new general manager and a new manager. They can sell to the public that things will get better, but history shows that's not the case.
As long as the Wilpons own the team, the fans know things are not going to change. The Wilpons are the constant to the team's losing fortunes.
The only way change will happen is if the Wilpons sell the team, and that Rays owner Stuart Sternberg becomes intrigued about owning the Mets.
Maybe then, the place will be filled every homestand instead of once in a year with the Yankees' arrival.
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