Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Second-Class Citizens (Flushing University)

If a baseball stadium is supposed to be a shrine to its tenants, then the Mets have fallen short with Citi Field. It is a shrine to a franchise that no longer exists – and to a man that never suited up for the home team. Read more here ...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Citi Field is what it is - a carefully researched marketing tool designed to increase cash flow to its owners. Anything else (basebal, fans) is a far second.
The best hope is that the hucksters have misgauged the customers and they'll be some corrections to follow.
- YD

Mack Ade said...

Frankly, I'm quite done with all the Jackie Robinson tributes... does anyone remember that Larry Doby entered the majors, like a month later?

Robinson was a great man and a great baseball player, but he was never a Met... the rotunda should celebrate the Mets

Mack

James Allen said...

More than a few long time Mets fans I've talked to feel pretty much the same way. The Brooklyn Dodgers obsession in Citi Field is nauseating, and heck knows why; what demo are they gunning for here anyway? Is there a huge call for Brooklyn Dodger nostalgia in 2009?

Seems to me that Mets ownership have an inferiority complex: they see the Yankees and their new stadium and all their history and in order to "compete" with them they have to appropriate the history of another franchise, Jackie Robinson being the key to this appropriation. It's tremendously cynical, is what it is.

And I agree with Mack above that the breaking of the color barrier in MLB is a much more complex and interesting story than just focusing on one man. Honoring Robinson is good thing, but when did it start going so over the top?

Jack Flynn said...

YD - I think those corrections will be coming sooner rather than later. The economy won't sustain the cost and the on-field product won't create enough buzz to ignore the cost.

Mack - LD has become a forgotten name to many, which is a sad thing.

James - Good to have you back! I agree with you and Mack that integration is more than just one man's story. I also think that the Jackie Robinson hero-worship is done at the expense of a critical look at the declining number of black major leaguers in the game today.

James Allen said...

I also think that the Jackie Robinson hero-worship is done at the expense of a critical look at the declining number of black major leaguers in the game today.Ah, yes. I've seen and read many reports about this subject, and although it does have something to do with the increasing attractiveness of the NFL and NBA to American born athletes, it also has more than a little to do with the explosion of baseball in Latin America, and the relative cheapness of hording hispanic talent the process of which is incredibly corrupt.

Mack Ade said...

Hey... I love tributes to great players... and I thought the first time Jackie's wife came out on the field with Bill Clinton, in crutches, was long overdue... and we should remember the great ones of all races... Roberto Clemente, in particular... but baseball needs to get past the singular issue of the first black man playing baseball, and start worrying more about who and when will have the last one...