The plan was simple. Go to Citi Field Friday night to watch the Braves take on the Mets. Watch Braves phenom Jason Heyward as he abuses the Mets pitchers with hard-hit line drives. Write a blog post about witnessing a can't-miss prospect play up close for the first time, comparing the Heyward experience with my first live glimpses of LeBron James, Andy Roddick and Sidney Crosby. Simple.
Let's just say things didn't go according to plan; Heyward looked confused (0-4, 3 Ks) and the Braves put on an embarrassing performance in their 5-2 loss. Mets arch nemesis Chipper Jones dropped two pop-ups to the delight of the home crowd (I've got to admit, I respect the consistency with which Mets fans have greeted Chipper with the same "Larry" chant during each of his ABs for more than ten years). Worst of all, it was Mets rising star Ike Davis, not Heyward, who had his coming out party, launching a 450+ foot homerun into the picnic area just in front of Shea Bridge in right center. It reminded me of a home run Mo Vaughn hit off former Braves reliever Kevin McGlinchy that bounced off the upper half of the Budweiser sign at Shea Stadium. Very impressive.
So, the Heyward "witnessing greatness" post will have to wait a bit. Instead, I wanted to comment on the first thing that struck me when I made my original visit to the new Mets ballpark in April 2009 -- there are A LOT of ads at Citi Field. I have no problem with in-stadium advertising; I realize that it's an important source of revenue for the club, and I even find that well executed promotions sometimes add to the fan experience. I liked the Verizon-sponsored promotion that lets fans text their vote for songs they want to played in between innings, for example (and the Mets fans got it right when they picked "Single Ladies" over "Girls Just Want To Have Fun"). That being said, Citi Field overdoes it. There are visual ads everywhere, and countless sponsored promotions being blared over the PA system at every possible opportunity. They're one step away from broadcasting QVC on the centerfield video board while the pitcher throws his warm-up tosses.
It's not really the number of ads at Citi that bothers me, though -- it's the quality. I'd be willing to cut the Mets some slack if I thought these ads were generating big dollars, but based on the companies paying for stadium signage I find it hard to believe. I guess the Goya sign to the left of the scoreboard is an upgrade over last year's ad letting fans know about a website that buys U.S. Coins, but the Arpielle Equipment Co. sign is unfortunately still up there; anyone in Queens in need of a lightly-used backhoe? The leftfield wall lets us know where to go if we want to hire New York Union Contractors for any large commercial construction projects we might have planned. My personal favorite, though, is the sign encouraging us to buy Planters' BIG NUT BARS, which is so (unintentionally?) hilarious that it reminds me of this recurring SNL sketch. Unfortunately I didn't snap a photo of it.
Citi Field is a beautiful ballpark, but all the signage definitely cheapens it a bit. It's like plastering a Bentley with bumper stickers letting us know your child is an honor student at James Woods High School or suggesting that we Save a Cow and Eat a Vegetarian instead. Anyway, that's enough for today -- this week I hope to write a little bit about my suggestions for speeding up baseball games (a hot topic right now), and maybe post something I wrote years ago on trends in uniform colors. For now, I'm off to grab a pair of Big Nut Bars.
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