November 2011 – I’ve been stating for weeks and weeks now, ever since the season ended, that the “silence” about Jose Reyes is deafening. It’s so deafening that it tells all of us fans blatantly that the Jose-era is over.
It tell us that, without any surprise, the Mets probably cannot afford to pay Jose even a reasonable offer. I’m just going to hate to see him in another uniform and playing for another team.
There is one “wild-card” which no one may know about and can possibly salvage the whole situation – Jose may like his life in the New York City area. However, Miami, San Francisco and Dallas are large markets which offer loads of fun and excitement as well.
I have no idea about Jose’s night time and off-time activities. However, it would be okay with me if his relatives and friends living in the New York City area feel like calling Jose and reminding him how great it would be having him stay in the area.
Jose – how about if we give you a free “all you can eat anytime” card to Nathan’s in Coney Island?
October 2011 - I was sent this death notice today by Judie. I thought I would share it with everybody:
The Eulogizer: Pop song composer Ruth Roberts
By Alan D. Abbey · July 4, 2011
Ruth Roberts, 84, wrote 'Meet the Mets'
Ruth Roberts, a popular song composer whose work was sung by millions of New York Mets fans and the Beatles, among many others, died June 30 at 84.
Roberts co-wrote "Meet the Mets," the catchy and enduring fight song for New York's new National League team in 1961, even before they had played their first game. The song has been revised and revamped several times, but this writer -- who grew up singing the tune at Shea Stadium -- as well as others who noted Roberts' death tended to agree that the original version is the best.
In 1984, the Mets changed the tempo and rewrote the lyrics, replacing "Bring your kiddies, bring your wife / Guaranteed to have the time of your life," with "Hot dogs, green grass all out at Shea / Guaranteed to have a heck of a day." A 1999 version tended toward a rap/R&B style.
But none of the changes "ever eclipsed the original version. It's so stylized, it couldn't have been written in any other period but the early 1960s," said Bob Thompson, a professor of music at SUNY Purchase and the head of the Baseball Music Project. "It's one of the most charming, endearing parts of the Mets' history. It was about the honesty and the purity of the game. It turned the spotlight away from the players and onto the fans. It's so corny -- and that's what makes it beautiful."
The Wall Street Journal provides a detailed history of how the song came to be, as well as the complete lyrics, and reported that the Mets and ad agency J. Walter Thompson were looking in 1961 to build a new brand out of the ashes of the departed Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants. They created a contest for the new team's logo and also put out a call for a theme song. Roberts's entry was one of 19 songs considered.
The song, performed by the Glenn Osser Orchestra, was released to the public in 1963. It is still played at Citi Field, the Mets' current home, and versions are played during TV and radio broadcasts.
"I think it is the most nationally well-known theme song maybe in all of sports," said Mets broadcaster Howie Rose. The song was played at Citi Field before the July 1 Mets-Yankees game as a tribute to Roberts, who studied at Northwestern University and the Juilliard School of Music in New York.
A 2010 New York Times article, "Mets May Have Musical Edge on Yankees," compared "Meet the Mets" to the Yankees' theme song, and the article's headline gave away its conclusion.
Roberts wasn’t a one-hit wonder, though. The native of Port Chester, in suburban New York, sold her first song in 1947 at the fabled Brill Building in Manhattan. "The Moon is Always Bigger on a Saturday Night" was recorded by big band leader Orrin Tucker, who died in April at 100. Other artists of that era who recorded Roberts' songs were Arthur Godfrey and the McGuire Sisters.
But her songwriting even reached into the rock era. Buddy Holly included her song "Mailman Bring Me No More Blues" as the B side of his record "Words of Love." The Beatles, big Holly fans, recorded the same song, as did John Lennon in a solo performance. The Beatles' version was never released until their Anthology 3 collection in 1996, and the Lennon version has surfaced only as a bootleg. Videos of Holly, the Beatles and Lennon versions can be found by clicking here.
Other sports-themed songs were "Mr. Touchdown, USA," which Roberts co-wrote with two others; "I Love Mickey,'' about Mickey Mantle; and "It's a Beautiful Day for a Ballgame,'' which was played for many years at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Both songs offer ironic twists for someone so closely associated with the team that tried to fill the Dodgers' place or replace the Yankees in New Yorkers' hearts.