Newsday’s Ken Davidoff on some new information that somehow didn’t figure into this letter.

The Mets, coming off a historically crushing end to their 2007 season, are increasing their ticket prices by “on average, about 20 percent,” Dave Howard, the team’s executive vice president of business operations, said Saturday.

The median ticket price will be “in the mid-30s” per game, said Howard, who said exact ticket prices will be released to the general public Monday.

Mike Weinstat, a Port Washington resident, told Newsday the season tickets he shares with a friend — located in the loge boxes right off home plate — are increasing 24 percent, from approximately $71 per game per ticket to approximately $88.

“There’s a saying in business, ‘If you’ve got ’em by the — — , squeeze ’em,'” Weinstat said Saturday in a telephone interview. “The Mets are run like a great business. They are squeezing the customers. They know that everything is going to be in huge demand for the new ballpark.”

Citi Field, the Mets’ new ballpark, is on schedule to open in 2009. If he didn’t renew his seat, Weinstat said, “Someone else can take it, just so they can get it for the new ballpark”.