Got $50? Johan Santana Ticket Stubs Are Up For Sale

Hello, everyone.  This is Studious Metsimus ace reporter, culinary expert and non-scalper Joey Beartran.  Earlier today, the Mets announced that they will be selling reprints of the tickets used for the game on June 1, 2012, otherwise known as the game in which Johan Santana caused Mets fans to claim that they could now die in peace.

You can click here for the Mets' official press release or you could just do your best Lazy Smurf impersonation and scroll down for more (courtesy of mets.com):

        Mets to sell tickets from Johan Santana's no-hitter

Fans Can Purchase Tickets From the Historic Game for $50 Each;
Season Ticket Holders to Receive Complimentary Reprints,
40-Game, 20-Game, 15-Game, 6-Game Plan & Pack Holders to Receive Discounts;
No-Hitter Ticket Offer Starts This Monday, June 11 at 10:00 a.m. on mets.com

The New York Mets today announced tickets from Johan Santana's no-hitter, the first in franchise history, will be reprinted for fans wishing to secure a pristine keepsake from the historic game.  Fans can purchase tickets reprinted on Season Ticket Holder stock for $50 each, plus order and shipping fees.  The tickets will be available starting Monday, June 11 at 10:00 a.m. on mets.com.

Mets Season Ticket Holders will receive complimentary reprints of every seat in their account. An order and shipping fee will apply.

Mets 40-Game, 20-Game, 15-Game and 6-Game Plan and Pack Holders whose packages included the June 1 game will receive a discounted rate of $30 per ticket, plus per ticket and shipping fees.

Plan and Pack Holders whose packages didn't include last Friday's game, will be able to purchase reprints for $40 per ticket, plus per ticket and shipping fees, through an exclusive pre-sale on mets.com starting tomorrow, Friday, June 8.

The Mets will reprint all 41,922 seats at Citi Field. There is a limit of four seats per order. Fans can select a seating category and receive the best available seat in that location.

Visit mets.com for more information or call the Mets Ticket Office at (718) 507-TIXX.

So as you can see, non-plan holders will have to shell out fifty clams PLUS shipping, handling, order, and other extra fees they can manage to sneak in.  Plan holders will get a discount on their tickets and season ticket holders will get free ticket reprints.  However, they're not really free because that dreaded order and shipping fee applies to the season ticket holders as well.

Please note that these are ticket REPRINTS.  They're not the ORIGINAL ticket.  They might look the same as the tickets actually used on June 1, but they are not.  Of course, if you would like to have an ORIGINAL ticket, one that would have gotten you in to the actual game if you would have had it in your possession, we have two separate eBay auctions that you might want to take a look at.

You can click here for one of the auctions and here for the other.  These are the REAL tickets, not those cubic zirconia tickets the Mets are trying to sell for $50.  Who knows?  You might be able to score the actual tickets from the game for less than the price of the reprints.

So what are you waiting for?  Start bidding!

Joey's Soapbox: Derek Jeter, Six Years Ago & If At Second You Don't Succeed

Greetings, fellow Mets fans! Winter will be officially over in a few days, which means two things.

First, I'll finally be able to finally put away my annoying poofball hat after a long, cold winter. But more importantly, it'll be time to hear the sweet sounds of Mets baseball at Citi Field, after what seemed like an interminable off-season.

Although my thoughts have turned to baseball bats, alternate caps and Shake Shack, there are still some things happening in the baseball world that I have to get off my hoodie.

I'm Joey Beartran and it's time for me to get on my soapbox.


Derek Jeter

Earlier this week, a recent poll conducted by the Siena College Research Institute named Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter the greatest New York athlete of all-time. Let me repeat that. In a town that seen Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Joe Namath and several outstanding thoroughbred race horses, Derek Jeter was the one who was named best New York athlete.

Who were the people voting in this poll, 14-year-old girls? I guess the same people who cast their votes in this poor excuse for a poll also voted for Kurt Rambis as the best Los Angeles athlete, Cliff Clavin as Boston's finest athletic star and Lazy Smurf as the top athlete of Smurf Village? Give me a break, people!




Six Years Ago

On this date in 2005, 'roids were all the rage in Washington, as Congress called for a special hearing featuring past and present baseball players to discuss the presence of steroids in baseball. It was during these hearings that Mark McGwire realized that he didn't want to dwell on the past, Sammy Sosa forgot how to speak English and Rafael Palmeiro gave the finger to Congress.

Six years later, all of these players are out of baseball and none of them has reached the Hall of Fame, as McGwire received less than 25% of the vote in each of his five eligible years for enshrinement, Palmeiro garnered the support of 11% of the voters in 2011 and Sammy Sosa has to wait until 2013 to see if he'll be able to pop the cork (no pun intended) on his Cooperstown Champagne.

So where are these players now?

Mark McGwire is now the hitting coach of the St. Louis Cardinals. That means a man who never hit 30 doubles in a single season and only finished with 265 more career hits than Ed Kranepool is now coaching Albert Pujols on how to hit. To have McGwire impart his hitting "wisdom" on Pujols is like having Kate Moss teach me how to eat chicken nachos. That's all I have to say about that.

After playing his last game as a member of the Texas Rangers in 2007, Sammy Sosa has done his best to stay out of the spotlight, disappearing from the public eye. The last time he was spotted in public, he was overheard humming Michael Jackson's "Black or White" as he was shopping for, as he called it, one of the most important works in American literature (see photo, right). His interpreter then corrected him by saying that a CD-ROM isn't technically a piece of literature.

When not complaining about his low Hall of Fame vote, Rafael Palmeiro has quietly become one of the country's premier hand models. The former Mets' eighth round draft pick's work can now be seen wherever hand sanitizers are sold.


If At Second You Don't Succeed

We've been getting conflicting reports from the Mets on who the starting second baseman will be in 2011. Terry Collins wants Luis Hernandez. Sandy Alderson wants an offensive-minded second baseman. That would probably eliminate Hernandez, who has eight extra-base hits in 265 major league at-bats, to go with a .286 OBP in the majors and a .302 OBP in the minors.

Brad Emaus and Daniel Murphy are still candidates for the position, but their defensive "skills" make former Marlins' second baseman Dan Uggla look like a Gold Glover at the position.

There is no truth to the rumor that Uggla traded in his old No. 6 uniform number with the Marlins for a No. E-4 jersey with the Braves.

Here's what I think. Wally Backman was promoted from Brooklyn to AA-Binghamton. Tim Teufel made the jump from Binghamton to AAA-Buffalo. I think they're just going to manage their respective minor league ballclubs until Labor Day weekend (the traditional end of the minor league season). Once their managerial duties are done, they will be promoted to the Mets, where they will compete for the second baseman's job. Terry Collins will be happy with the feisty Backman, while Sandy Alderson will take comfort that he has the bat of Tim Teufel. Is it a bad thing that I think a Backman/Teufel platoon would still be better than anything the Mets could throw out there right now?

I think I've worn out my welcome on the soapbox. It's time to get into mid-season form, which means I'll be sitting in front of the TV with a bunch of chicken nachos. Who knows what will happen before Opening Day? Will Carlos Beltran start the season on the disabled list? Will Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo be on the unemployment line? Will I get a tryout to play second base? Hey, if no else wants it, I'll take it (see photo below). Enjoy the last two weeks of Spring Training!