All those silly games and video clips they play between innings at Citi Field are filmed during the early days of spring training, as Tim Rohan recounts here. This often features a fan participating in some game or contest for the opportunity to win a prize. This is where we've typically been treated to Mets answering random trivia, Wright or Wrong, Professor Reyes, fans trying to identify a player’s favorite food, or Daniel Murphy quoting famous movies. So based on Tim’s hints, what do Brandon, Alexa, and the Citi Field crew have in store for us this year?
Wilmer Flores twirled a Hula Hoop.
Sure, okay, the Hula Hoop crazy died out more than 30 years ago, but maybe it’s making a revival at Citi Field. I bet the fan bets on which player can keep it going the longest. Hopefully no one’s going for the world record, which is 74 hours and 54 minutes. Again, I think Tim spoiled this one. Flores said he twirled his Hula Hoop for about 20 seconds. He could have kept going, he said, but someone told him to stop. This is absolutely begging for a GIF.
Added a dramatic effect with a smoke machine, using it with Jenrry Mejia.
This one’s interesting. Are they going to have all the relievers come in via a spoke-fueled video like they’re professional wrestlers? This would tie well with the wrestling match they’re hosting at Citi Field this season. Maybe this is only because Mejia is the closer, but what if he doesn't remain the closer all season? Did they film one of these for Parnell?
Josh Edgin caught popcorn in his mouth.
Oh! This is smart of the Mets to jump on the A-Rod bandwagon; that’s good for ratings. Clearly Cameron Diaz is going to be throwing popcorn to Mets players. If the fan guesses which player catches it, he’ll win the prize. I think Tim may have spoiled this one though, pick Edgin!
The players were asked to write a word backward.
This is tricky. Are fans supposed to guess the word, or guess who can successfully write backwards? Will they use a mirror to determine who wins? I’m detecting a stupid human tricks feel to this season’s games. Let’s see what weird things we can make major league baseball players do! I bet they only use baseball words too, like ‘baseball’, ‘home run’ and ‘Citi Field’.
Restack cups without dropping them.
I’m not sure what this means. Is this like the carnival game where you throw a ball at the milk bottles? How big are we talking here? Is it a simple 3-2-1 stack? Maybe they should just have had them play Jenga.
In still another, a take on the game Pictionary, they were asked to draw something. Most players said they were awful. Noah Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud claimed to be decent.
Oh, great. These guys are baseball players, not artists. Seeing how horrible they draw is going to be more fun than trying to guess what it is. I hope they have to draw animals. My personal experience with Pictionary is that animals are the hardest to draw and the most ambiguous. I hope they show them drawing at 10x speed rather than just pop up the drawing on the scoreboard.
John Mayberry Jr. is quoted saying, "I’ll just say if a person is able to identify what I was trying to draw, they’re a borderline Nostradamus."
Challenge accepted!
Michael Cuddyer, another new face, did a magic trick before the cameras, using Curtis Granderson as his guinea pig.
This one was the most talked about on Twitter by the beat writers, but I didn't realize it was part of the video board rotation. I hope Cuddyer makes some good defensive plays this year so we can call him ‘the magician’. Maybe this is part of a Kids Club promo and I wonder if it was card tricks, or did he pull a bunny out of a hat? Maybe he sawed Granderson in half? It would've been neat if they’d filmed this with visiting players. Watch Cuddyer blow Giancarlo Stanton’s mind by picking his card out of a deck!
Bobby Parnell seemed irked that all the songs in a music guessing game were from before his time.
Parnell was born in 1984. Expect a lot of classic rock I guess. It’ll probably be the same seven or so songs everyone always uses. At least it’s not Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus? Could this be the return of Sweet Caroline?
During one video feature, the players were asked to tie a tie. Syndergaard, a top pitching prospect, and Matt Harvey admitted they did not know how. Harvey asked to be excused, although Syndergaard played along.
In my perfect world, no one knows how to tie a tie because we stop equating tying a piece of fabric around our necks as ‘formal’, but it’s no surprise these guys don’t know how. Unless you wear one every day you never gets the reps in to really remember how and just fire up YouTube when you need it. My guess is this is part of some sort of how-to video series the Mets are attempting. Maybe they tackle putting on cufflinks and how to dance, as well.
The Mets have upgraded their scoreboard, and they’re trying to fill the between-innings space with videos to make you aware of it. I hope they make use of the super slow-mo cameras for some of these, particularly guys trying to catch popcorn in their mouth. Some of the contests do seem a little more interesting than what we've seen in previous years, but I still miss the airplane race.