Friday, May 22, 2009

LETTER TO THE METS, #2: GET RID OF “SWEET CAROLINE”.

This is #2 in a series of letters I am sending to the Mets regarding things I would like to see changed at Citi Field. This next issue is by no means #2 on my list, but given the fact that we are heading to Fenway Park this weekend, it seemed timely to address it now.

To whom it may concern:

Please stop playing “Sweet Caroline” during the 8th inning “singalong”.

You may not realize this, or think we will come around, but you need to understand that most fans do not like the song - especially fans who are at the ballpark on a regular basis. In the Mezzanine at Shea, and even more so in the Promenade at Citi Field, the song is booed loudly for its entire duration. As you are no doubt well aware, the beat writers themselves have commented on the booing and wonder when the organization was going to take notice and do something.

The booing is not going to stop if you just keep playing it. In fact, the booing has gotten worse as the season continues.

Every baseball fan in the world - yes, the world - associates “Sweet Caroline” with Fenway Park and the Red Sox. There is no logical reason this song - out of all the songs in the history of popular music - has to be the song played during the 8th inning sponsorship opportunity. If there is some reason you need to pay royalties to Neil Diamond, go back to “I’m A Believer”. That song, at least, has some tangential thematic tie in with the history of the New York Mets.

I understand that the Mets organization wants to start new traditions at the new ballpark. That’s completely understandable. “Sweet Caroline” is SOMEONE ELSE’S tradition. Playing it at Citi Field during every game will not turn it into a tradition. Finding a new song that the fans enjoy might stand a chance at becoming a tradition.

I find it hard to believe that the staff in charge of in-game entertainment employed by a team of the caliber of the New York Mets cannot come up with another suitable song. I realize that it is challenging in this day and age to find something relevant and family-friendly. But teams all over baseball manage to accomplish this successfully without lifting a tradition from a neighboring team. I am lucky enough to visit out-of-town ballparks every summer and am struck by how original and fresh the music sounds everywhere else compared to my home ballpark. Given that New York City is still one of the entertainment capitals of the world, this is striking. No other team - besides the Red Sox - feels the need to foist “Sweet Caroline” upon their fans at every game.

The argument that “fans enjoy it” because they are singing along does not hold up. These are the same people who clap when you tell them to clap and yell “LET’S GO METS” only when Diamondvision tells them to. They would sing along to anything you put on the screen and told them to sing along to. (And let’s also point out that people at Citi Field do the wave when the team is down by two runs and the deciding run is at bat, so let’s not start judging correct behavior by the standard of “everyone else is doing it”. My mother stopped accepting that explanation when I was 7.) I won’t even argue that we don’t need an 8th inning singalong. I understand that this is about revenue. But there is no logical, cogent reason that it needs to be “Sweet Caroline”.

It is embarrassing to the Mets and to Mets fans that you insist on playing a song so strongly associated with another team under the guise of between-inning entertainment. Given that this is the opening year of our new world-class home, where the number of out of town fans and fans of other teams is likely to be higher than normal, there is no time like the present to make a change to this in-game advertisement. I urge you to strongly consider another choice of song before the 2009 season gets much older.

Sincerely,

Caryn Rose

No matter what your concerns are, I urge you to send your own letters to the Mets. If you send them a note, please let me know in the comments.

Send your own letter in one of the following ways:
Snail mail:
New York Mets
Citi Field
Roosevelt Avenue
Flushing, NY 11368-1699

Via email at : fanfeedback AT mets.mlb.com (replace AT with @)

See web form.

LETTER TO THE METS, #1: RESTORE BP ACCESS