You might have read or heard that Americans do not agree on much of anything these days, and New Yorkers certainly are no exception.
Then this news arrived from the Mets on Wednesday: Apparently, they conducted a survey through which they learned that nearly 90% of those responding would prefer that Saturday home games be held in the afternoon rather than at night.
The reason: “In order to bring kids, family and large groups to games,” the team said in a news release.
Really? Who knew, other than . . . everyone?
The Mets recently have favored Saturday night games, even though folks who like that sort of thing – generally those between ages 18 and 30, I suppose – can have prime time experiences on weeknights and when ESPN has the Mets on Sundays.
But Saturday afternoons are most people’s choice. The Yankees mostly go that route, and now the Mets are on board, too.
Saturday games at Citi Field between March 28 and May 25 will begin at 1:40 p.m. and from June 1 to Sept. 21 the start time will move to 4:10 p.m., both of which are civilized options.
The Mets buried this good news at the bottom of a release that led with their promotions schedule. OK, granted, there were some fun items on that, too.
Like a Hello Kitty light-up bobblehead on July 12. And a pickleball paddle on July 25, because, well, why not?
There also will be number retirements (Dwight Gooden on April 14 and Darryl Strawberry on June 1) plus four fireworks nights – all on Fridays, naturally.
Because, well, they can’t be on Saturdays. Not anymore.
Here is what makes this Saturday afternoon thing particularly notable: It is a rare instance in 2020s sports of favoring in-person fans over those watching on TV.
Generally, media executives favor prime time and ticket buyers favor daytime.
This is especially so in the NFL, where the abuse of in-person fans reached new levels of absurdity this season with the advent of flex scheduling for Thursday and Monday night games.
It turned out that no Thursday games…
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