There’s no shortage of quality blogs about the New York Mets. So many, in fact, that the old joke about “wouldn’t it novel to meet a Mets fan who didn’t have a blog?” seems like less of a gag with each passing day. But with all due respect to the quality sites listed to your right, I maintain a soft spot deep down inside for Steve Keane’s Ed Kranepool Society. Not only does Keane’s effort predate most of the nuevo breed, but he recalls no other columnist (with the possible exception of The Weekly World News’ Ed Anger) in his uncanny ability to go positively batshit over the sort of minor annoyances most persons are oblivious to. Much like Al Goldstein’s “Fuck You” segments on “Midnight Blue”, Keane raises life’s petty injustices to the level of war crimes with the sort of tone that makes me genuinely fearful for his family and neighbors.
In short, he’s the closest thing to a role model I’ve had in years.
Yesterday, he surveyed the state of the Mets’ SportsNet NY. (link swiped from Repoz and Baseball Think Factory) This isn’t the first time Steve’s done battle with the forces of cable television, and I doubt it will be the last.
As much as I hate to say it the YESSSH Network runs rings around SNY. As far as programing goes. It™s a real head scratcher how the Highlanders can show games from the 70™s and early 80™s (as does MASN with Orioles Classics) and all SNY can come up with is Game 6 and 7 of the 1986 World Series. There has to be archive over at Ch. 9 in Seacaucus that has footage of Lindsay Nelson™s sports coats or of John Matlack giving up Roberto Clemente™ 3,000 and last hit ever or Willie Montanez and his stutter step home run trot, or George Theodore and Don Hahn colliding in the outfield or of stud pitcher Craig Swan or how about a rookie phenom named Dwight Gooden. How could there not be any tape of Gooden™s incredible rookie season?
What™s the saddest part of the SNY fiasco is how elated Mets fans were when we found out œwe were getting our own network. Little did œwe know that the œwe who should be happy are NY Jets fans as the Jets get more air time than the Mets. Fucking incredible!
Whoever is in charge of programing has to have a last name of Wilpon or Katz or maybe even Mangini because anyone else would not only be banned from programing a TV network they would be banned from ever getting possession of a remote control.
Where is coverage of Winter League Baseball? Why not have a live call in show? How about hiring anchors who are actually alive? Make a deal with ESPN for the rights to Home Run Derby. Give Petey his own show kind of a Dominican Joe Franklin Show. How about a show that features Mets players of the past and by past I don™t mean the 1986 Mets. A kind of Where Are They Now. I want to know what Don Bosch, Ken Boswell, Wayne Garrett and Duffy Dyer are up to these days. How about a reality show that features Keith Hernandez trying to find his way home after a night on the town?