Leave it to Jeff Wilpon to mess up an announcement of “Free-Shirt Fridays.”
At lunchtime, the Mets chief operating officer spoke to reporters covering baseball’s general managers meetings this week.
After commenting that free agent asking prices are “a little scary,” Wilpon told members of the media that the team was working on something and there could be an announcement later this afternoon.
When I saw the story at lunch time, I figured it would be something minor… maybe the Mets were ready to announce that LaTroy Hawkins had re-signed.
Turns out, that was even dreaming too big.
As the afternoon went on, reporters spoke to GM Sandy Alderson:
Sure enough, just before 3 p.m., the team sent out an email outlining 2014 promotions, including “Free-Shirt Fridays,” Saturday post-game concerts by Huey Lewis and the News (July 12) and Boyz II Men (August 16), fireworks dates (July 4, August 2 and September 13), and “Family Sundays” with kids themed giveaways and a postgame “Mr. Met Dash.”
Honestly, the promotions sound like fun and maybe they’ll entice a few more people to buy ticket plans.
But I’m not interested in talking about Mets promotion dates yet – I want to know that the 2014 team will be better (or at least look different) than the one I saw on September 29, 2013.
Jeff Wilpon should be smart enough not to bait-and-switch reporters, and by extension, fans… even though at least one reporter took the blame for misunderstanding his comments.
PaulHadsall.com 