213 Miles From Shea

Part 1 Can Be Found Here.

After our lunch break was over, which was about 1:50, we got moved to the upperdeck of M&T stadium for reassignment. My first assignment on the upperdeck lasted all of 5 minutes. The way the deck is constructed, the concourse is like a giant outdoor porch, which is very nice, the issue they have is people then going out of the bowl to smoke, and not standing in the right spot. So the job of myself and my friend was to stand 3 feet from the smoking fence, and if we saw anyone smoking in front of us, we had to tell them to smoke behind us. This obvisously does not sound like a job for two people, which the Supervisors figured out and five minutes later, I was moved into a section of the upperdeck with about 40 seconds left in the first half.

My intial job in the section was to watch the crowd and make sure that the fans from Philly didn't fight the fans from Baltimore. I phrase the statement like that because I was told to specifically watch the Philly fans, because they were already tagged as the problem fans just because they were the away fans. Personally, I agree with that statement to some degree. Trouble will be centered around away fans, but as I got to see first hand, its not always the away fan's fault.

As soon as the third quarter started, a Supervisor, and a few cops ran by me up to the top of the section, took an Eagle's fan out of the ballpark for fighting. I was then told to stand in the back of the section and basically babysit the Philadelphia fans. I was given a clicker which had four buttons on it. The first one called a supervisor, the second called a courtesy squad, the third called the police and the last one called the medics.

For the rest of the game I stood with the 40 or so Eagle's fans who kept on making their case to me that it was one of the Ravens fans who started all of the trouble in the section. They called me their babysitter, they talked to me a lot during the game. I had to break up a few arguments with fans during the rest of the game. That was when I was glad I have been a camp counselor for several years, if it wasn't for the conflict resolution skills I developed then, I would been sunk when trying to handle these arguments (basically I would have had to call the Supervisor for everything).

At the end of the game, the Eagles fans gave me an ovation and tried to get a cheer going for my first day on the job. What I found very interesting is that I was the first level of security for that section, and I have never been trained to be such. It was very easy for me to get trained personell if I needed them, but it makes you wonder when your at a game, how many people are trained secuity and how many people are just standing to look like security to make it seem like there is more security than there actually is. Its a very interesting dynamic because psychologically, one is less likely to cause trouble when it looks like theire are a ton of security guards.

Now I am not trying to bash the security system at football games From what I understand, in addition to the significant amount of cops in the stadium, there are a ton of undercover cops located all over the stadium to increase safety.

In the third installment of the series, I will discuss the end of the day, the stadium emptying out, and more behind the door things that happen at the stadium.

The way the MVP is voted for has always bothermed me a little. Its the same reason why the BCS bothers me. When the voting takes place at the end of the season, then the last games have the most impact on the voting. For example, a player like Delgado in my mind should never have been debated for MVP, because he started the season bad. The MVP to me is the best consistent player on the field that no matter the month is going out there and contributing. I am glad Pujols got it this year because he was one of those players. Wright was one of those players, not #1, but defintely not #7.

This is not me being bitter about Howard finishing number 2 either, even though he shouldn't have. What it comes down to is your definiton of MVP. I have already stated my defintion. There are a good number of people that explain the MVP is the player that gets the team to the next level. That spells clutch to me. While being clutch is important to being the MVP (which is why Wright should not, and was not the MVP of 2008), one cannot weigh the entire vote on being clutch, which is how Howard got votes.

Another important factor in being a MVP is the being the best player on the team. Or the team would look terrible without that player in it. That has been the argument used against the Mets in the last few years. Wright could not be the MVP in 2007 or 2008 because there is Reyes, Beltran, etc. My personal opinion is that while its important for the MVP to be a major factor in his team's lineup, it should not have to much weight as well. (In other words, I think that this argument is bogus as well).

How would I change the MVP voting process? Well I would make the MVP voting process a monthly event. April, May, June, July, August and September. There would be votes cast at the end of each month for the MVP and they votes would not be released until the end of the season. I am sure that many of you out there will find flaws with this system. But in a way it does take out the beign the best at the end of the year situation and turns it to being the best during the whole year.

I know this has to do more with football than baseball, but I have always wondered what it is like to work at a stadium. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to work at M&T Bank Stadium where the Ravens were playing. They were hosting regional rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles in a sellout game.

My day started at 8:00 when I left College Park with a few others on our way to Baltimore to get into the stadium. We arrived at the employee lot, the Blue Lot at Montgomery Park, which is about a 30 minute walk away from the stadium. At the parking lot we boarded a bus (school bus) with other people working M&T stadium for the day. It was about 9:00 when we finally reached the gate where we were supposed to enter, and I where I got my first taste of the system. During check in, my last name was misspelled on my “badge” (a blue paper in side a baseball card holder with a clip) and I was told that when I was filling out forms for the rest of the day, that I had to use my new name. After signing in and getting checked by security, we were handed a clip on tie and told to go down to the changing rooms. We were all shuffled to the side of a ramp as we entered the underbelly of the stadium where we were given our dress shirt, jacket and hat for the day. The only part of the uniform we were required to bring was khaki pants and dark colored shoes. So now we all look the same, in the same color pants, purple dress shirts with the M&T logo on them, ties, jackets and hats.

Before going on, its important to note that most people there were like us, if they were not a supervisor, it was their first day on the job and they were working the game for fundrasing for different organizations (7 to 7.50 and hour per person for 7 hours of work brings in a lot money) but there were also a good number of people who do this as a job on the side as well.

Anyway now that we were dressed we had the chance to buy coupons that made food half off. Each coupon was 3 bucks, and it acted like 6. We looked at our time cards, my friends and I were all assigned to promotion hand out, giving out the promotion of the day which was a team photograph. We were briefed at Gate A where we also unpacked the boxes of photographs and programs and spread them through each terminal (For those keeping track of time, this was at 10:00, when we were officially on the clock). We were then split up and sent to our separate gates to hand out the promotions. At our stations, we were provided with hand warmers as it was about 28 degrees and dropping.

Handing out the photographs started slow, picked up and then dropped off. I have always treated people that work at the stadium with respect, but I know there are people out there who don't. Consider this, while you might be handed a program you don't want, if you decide to put it back, watch where you do it. It was frustrating as people kept putting their programs they didn't want in my boxes while I was trying to get photographs in them. It also makes cleaning up a bit longer. After the gates closed, which was about midway through the second quarter, and all of the photographs and programs that were left were taken care of, We got to take a 20 minute lunch break and then had to meet back at our gate to be reassigned.

In the next segment, I will be discussing my reassignment for the rest of the game, which basically made me a security guard for Eagle Fans in the upper deck that were getting into fights with the Ravens fans. It was probably the most interesting segment of the day.

The Nationals have also announced several major changes to their uniforms for the upcoming 2009 baseball year. Lets start with their new away grays. They used have a very similar print of their home jerseys and say Washington, now they are taking it back and they say Washington in script (red). It looks like the old Senator script and its very nice looking, for this design change, it gets the thumbs up. They also have a DC patch on the sleeve.

They also announced that they now will carry two alternative uniforms. The first is a red jersey that is very similar to the old green alternative of the Rays, when they were the devil rays. In the upper left chest area there is a white curly W and then there is DC patch on the sleeve. The second alternative jersey is more out there, and is a little surprising in terms of the amount of detail on it. It is a navy jersey and in the upper left chest area there is a DC, but the DC is filled in with the American Flag. The sleep has the Nationals logo on it. The stripes down the front around the button are white and red, so its an interesting looking jersey.

Here is the MLB shop page with the jerseys if you want to see them.

The Orioles have changed their logo, hats, jersey's and patches slightly this year, and it looks very nice. It has been rumored for a while that the Orioles were going to announce this offseason that they would change their away grays back to how the looked a while ago when they said Baltimore in Script on them, instead of just Orioles, and that is the major move they did.

With the inclusion of the redesigned Away Jersey, the Oriole itself and the Orioles primary logo has been altered. The Oriole itself now has perched feet, and outline and a puffed out chest (to look more like an actual Oriole), the primary logo now says Orioles in script, and the Bird is sitting on top of the “i” dot. (This logo is not on any hat or jersey though, but will probably be on all of the Oriole's new publications in the upcoming year).

In terms of patches, the right arm now has a small patch that says Orioles in script while the right arm has a circle patch that along the outside reads Orioles Baseball and in the inside has the Maryland Flag (If you have ever scene the Raves arm patch, think that style, just in a circle now, or if you know the University of Maryland's academic logo, think that).

To see the pictures and read the article, click here.

When the clock struck midnight about 9 and half hours ago, and the calender flipped from Thursday the 13th to Friday the 14th, the planets realigned themselves and it was time for the Sport Superstar agent to make lots of money. All joking aside, this is the day we have been waiting for because although we have seen some surprising trades over the last few days, the majority of trades are really going to happen based on what happens in the Free Agent market, and the stars have decided to keep it busy by not resigning with their old teams yet. There are a lot of prizes out on the market this year, including CC, Manny, KRod and more, and now is the time we will start to see how serious teams are about getting the player of their dreams.

Will the Yankees start with a contract bigger than Santana for CC?
Will Boras try to insult other teams by telling them their offer is not “serious”?
Will the Mets go with Krod or Furentes or Trade?
Where will Manny be Manny?
With the Yanks with Swisher, are they out of the Texeria derby?
Will the Orioles or the Nationals make a surprise in the Texeria derby?
Will the Braves spend money this year and bring in pitching by big trades and big signings?
Where will Burrel land?

These are just a few of the questions that are being asked now. Its the start of Free Agency! Its the hot stove! Its we really want March and April and the 2009 season to start already!

We live in a day and age where the avid Baseball fan can know a trade or a signing 24 hours or more before they happen thanks to the rumor mill. However, that system was shocked today thanks to two trades that no one was expecting to happen (one involving a surprise team and the other one just not expected at all).

The first involves Holiday being sent to the Athletics for Street, Gonzalez and Smith. This news comes only a day after the Cards deal to get Holiday was deemed dead and is really a surprise to me. I don't know why the Athletics went out to get Holiday, but they do have a lot of talent thanks to the trades they made last offseason. On the Rockies side, the question is now what to do with Street. On one hand, they need a closer because they will not be resigning Fuentes. On the other hand, if the Rockies decide to enter a full rebuilding mode, then they trade Street, flip him for more talent and hope for success down the road.

The next trade was completely off radar. The the Marlins sent Olsen and Willmingham to DC for Bonifaco, Dean and Smolinski. There is a lot going on in this trade in terms of what it means for the both of these NL East teams. For the Nationals, they have been buidling talent in their system for a while, and have a good amount of OF as well. They trade some of the young pitching talent like Smolinski for an “ace” for their staff in Olsen. Willmingham is a good player but with Dukes, Milledge and Kearns already out there, you have to wonder if they are going to move Kearns to another position of ship him off more players and to get more pitching. There have been murmors this week of the Nationals being in pursuit of Texaria, in that case they are going for a winning season. Whether they make the playoffs this year on those moves is doubtful, but it seems like if they bring in Texeria, then they are setting themselves up for another big offseason next year and try to do the “Mets Two Step” of 2005 and then 2006.
For the Marlins, this trade, with the inclusion of the Mike Jacobs trade, suggest that they are back in firesale mode. Uggla, Gregg and others might be the next to ship out.

The last few days have been crazy in terms of the amount of rumors. I know that the hot stove gets active, and when it gets active, it gets very busy, but does it seem to anyone else that its getting very active very early? I felt the energy in terms of rumors didn't hit this high until a week or so before the Winter Meetings last year. Anyway here is some of the news, in case you missed it.

The Cardinals are trying to get Holliday by possibly putting Ludwick in the deal. Holliday is one of those players who can make the Cards a really dangerous team. Personally, I would like to see Holliday go to the AL, if he's not going to the Mets, but its better than the other possibiliuty which the linked article points out that the Phills really want Holliday. This isn't making a leap, but expect Holliday's homer numbers to drop, deep flys to increase, and double line drives to increase, once he leaves Coors field.

Peavy rumors getting hot as the Cubs and the Braves are battling for the Ace. There has been some news recently saying that the Padres might keep him. Olney says that the deal, if it happens, will happen before Thanksgiving.

Finally, the Brewers set up an offer to CC, Manny was offered 2 years 45 mil from the Dodgers. If these two teams keep their players, this offseason will be a little quiter (although still looming as one for the ages without these guys anyway), if these teams don't resign these guys before December, there will be a lot of activity in the rumor mill this year.

Over the last week, there are four pitchers that have been attached to becoming New York Mets in the pen, Fuentes, Cordero, Cruz, and Beimel. At the same time, there are three Mets who are being shopped around; Heilman, Feliciano, and Schoenweis. The three that are being shopped are slightly older than the average player that could be possibly brought in (when you see the numbers, Schoenweis raises the aveage for the Mets trade pieces, and Codero lowers the average age of the new guys possibly coming). There is a correlation with the ERA's. The Mets bullpen ERA have been going up over the years, and for the new guys it has been going down. Before the analysis, lets look at the numbers (age in 2009 in parenthesis and ERA's go in order for 2008 to 2006 (2005 for Cordero)):
The Mets Old Pen:
      Heilman (30), 5.21, 3.03, 3.62
      Feliciano (32), 4.05, 3.09, 2.09
      Schoeneweis (35), 3.34, 5.03, 4.88
The Possible New Mets:
      Fuentes (33), 2.73, 3.08, 3.44
      Cordero (27), 2.08, 3.36, 3.19, 1.82
      Cruz (30), 2.61, 3.10, 4.18
      Beimel (32), 2.02, 3.88, 2.96
The first that worries me about the New guys coming in that a lot of them just had a recently good year (mainly directed at Beimel, who beyond 2006, had a good number of average years). Ar the same time, we don't need a bullpen of Cy Youngs, we need a bullpen of average to above average guys who can close out, hold onto games that the Mets are winning, tie, or still in it. When you look at that the critcized guys in the Mets pen, they are all in the middle of slides in their careers. Feliciano is the real interesting one because he put up worse numbers than last year before he came to the Mets, and then with the Mets he started off amazing, and then started to slide.
Overall, the most important thing here to me is it looks that age is not only the problem, that the actual pitchers themselves are the problem. Its not just that the Mets pen is old, its has middle age players (middle age as in between young and old, not 40), who are having problems keeping their careers sailing, and it might be time for them personally to change their scenory and work things out and time for the Mets to move beyond and look for better pen pitchers.

I really want to limit posts about Philly fans, but this happened to me today, and I have to post it. I was walking to class today, and I was in a rush, and I was also wearing a Mets shirt. A guy walking the opposite way on a side walk wearing and Eagles Jersey was on his cell phone, saw me and said basically this, “Wait hold on a second (now looking at me) HAHAHAHAHAHAHA you're a Mets' fan!”

If I wasn't in a rush, I probably would have said something that later on in the night I would have regretted. But honestly this supports the that aspect of Philly fans that they are obsessed with Mets fans. If we beat out the Phillies to make it in the playoffs, at least speaking for myself, if I passed a Philly fan, I would not say what he said to me.

I don't know if he is a recent Philly fan, who is now glad to flaunt it because of their recent status, because I do have a hard time believing that fans of a team that understand cycles in baseball would act that way.