It's the Gesture That Counts

I’d hoped the Mets would make tickets available at 1962 prices at least once this year, and they did…twice! It was a limited number with limited notice, but I love the gesture for three reasons:

1) Tickets (if bought at the service charge-free Citi Field windows) cost $2.50, which sounds like what an upper deck-type ticket to a Wednesday afternoon baseball game in April should cost. When those sold out, the idea was applied to Tuesday night’s game, too. Can’t say the price isn’t right.

2) The 1962 angle. A first-place team can unabashedly embrace its roots; the Mets should do it no matter where they stand across 2012. The 1962 club lost its first nine games and a half-century of shall we say mixed results ensued. The second half-century begins with three consecutive wins. With a cleaner start to these fifty years, who knows what greatness awaits us en route to October 2061? (Expectations, like quantity of specially price tickets, are limited.)

3) Unsold inventory for an upcoming game despite the magic of dynamic pricing? Fill ‘em up! The Mets have gotten the hang of reaching out with deals and discounts in the last couple of years. Anybody on the fence (and I don’t mean Party City Deck) about going to a Mets game now have a reason to consider reaching out themselves.

And speaking of reaching out, maybe reach out to these links:

• Sharon Chapman is off and running once more to support the Tug McGraw Foundation‘s ongoing fight against brain cancer. Her next run to raise funds comes at the end of April, in Nashville’s Country Music 1/2 Marathon. When Sharon runs with Team McGraw, it’s always for a good cause in the name of a great Met. Find out more (and maybe contribute if you can) here.

• We missed being part of the Maple Street Press and Amazin’ Avenue season previews this year because neither of them published, but we are happy that one Met-centered publication is available online. It comes from the good folks at Mets Merized Online, with a portion of every sale going to the Gary Carter Foundation. Check it out here.

• Nolan Ryan speaks! And Kris Benson gets in a word edgewise! The Kiner’s Korner podcast recently spent time with a pair of Met righthanders of diverse vintage. Hear them talk about their Met lives (if not necessarily their Met wives) and what they’ve been doing lately here.

• Writer James H. (Jim) Burns celebrated Opening Day with a couple of essays, one on how baseball used to be, the other on what might make baseball better by their absence.

• Ted Berg wrote an awesome column during Spring Training, before we knew how awesome the Mets would be, but it’s still an awesome piece by an awesome writer, awesomely linked to here. (H/T to Ted Berg for making me appreciate the word “awesome”.)

• Dennis Bennett, who pitched briefly for the Mets in 1967 — he started the game of June 27 against the Pirates, the one in which Shea served as setting for the Bill Mazeroski triple play scene in The Odd Couple — passed away on March 24 at the age of 72. Learn more about the seven-year major league veteran’s life and career here.

• And don’t forget, coming April 26 to 28 to Hofstra University is the Mets 50th Anniversary Conference. Learn more about it here and register here.