Your Weekly (but not every week) Mets Update

Given that we're only a scant nine days away from pitchers and catchers reporting in, a baseball related post of some sort seems timely, if not downright obligatory. Much has been made of late over the possibility of Citibank pulling their advertising dollars out of the Mets new stadium and leaving them financially adrift in a house with no name. And while we Mets fans have become all too familiar with catastrophic last minute collapses, we'd rather not see this sort of drama play out in our snazzy new ballpark. So allow Rickey to make a few recommendations to remedy the situation.

First off, what was wrong with carrying over the name of the last stadium? Bill Shea was the driving force behind bringing National League Baseball back to New York and Rickey sees no reason why the new stadium cannot bear his name. And they can always jazz it up a bit by calling it "New Shea" or "Shea II: Electric Boogaloo" if they want. Also, "Apple Stadium" has kind of a nice ring to it (your move, Steve Jobs). The Mets could simply name it "Willets Point Discount Mufflers Field" and call it a day. Or go for the easiest solution: change the second 'i' in Citi Field to a 'y' and stick with it until the Mets front office attracts a willing sponsor to replace Citibank. Bam, catastrophe averted.

What really grinds Rickey's gears more than anything else is the self righteous outrage over all this. We're more than a little disgusted by the public outcry over taxpayers getting ripped off by the Mets. Uh, hello? Welcome to the party, good townspeople. Kindly put down your pitchforks and torches. Pull up a chair. See, Rickey's been living with this shit for a few years now, and let him tell you, the sensation of being extorted by the Mets can be unpleasant at first, but over the years, you'll learn to live with it, much like gonorrhea. We just gave a pitcher with a 10-7 record, a 4.22 ERA, and 105 walks in 194 innings a three year 36 million dollar contract. Poor investments are in our blood (our owner was just swindled in a Ponzi scheme for christsakes...)

In all seriousness, Rickey despises all the whining from the media, the public, and the politicians about this alleged misappropriation of taxpayer funds. The outcry that Citibank be forbidden from advertising until they return to profitability is bogus. We're not legal experts or anything, but we're guessing that that Citibank and the Mets signed some sort of contract before the financial meltdown started. And unless there's a reasonable escape clause that makes sound business sense for both parties, the fact that joe six-pack and all these posturing politicians want them to break their contract is nothing less than a middling sideshow. Because call us nuts, but if there is one thing the government should be concerned about doing, it's enforcing lawful contracts.