In a move reminiscent of the Coca-Cola Company’s decision to introduce Coke Classic after the poor reception afforded to New Coke, the New York Mets issued the following press release :

“The New York Mets today announced the launch of the “Meet the Mets Sing-A-Long” during home games throughout the 2006 season at Shea Stadium. The new Sing-A-Long will debut tomorrow night as the Mets begin a three-game homestand against the Atlanta Braves.

“Meet the Mets has been the original, often imitated, never duplicated Mets’ official song and anthem for more than four decades,” said Dave Howard, Executive Vice President, Business Operations, New York Mets. “We’ve had great fan response to other Mets songs throughout the years but thought that the time was right to do something new with Meet the Mets as part of our expanding in-stadium entertainment programming. We simply are responding to the outpouring of love for this Mets classic.”

I challenge Mr. Howard to produce one individual that offered “great response” to “Our Team, Our Time”. And members of the Steve “Boogie” Brown family aren’t eligible.

Keith Hernandez and Gary Cohen celebrated the reintroduction of “Meet The Mets” in the bottom of the 14th this evening.

Actually, Keith mentioned grabbing some popcorn in the middle of the inning, but it appears he stopped at the souvenir stand, instead.