Coca Cola no longer MLB sponsor

From Foxbusiness.com

The Coca-Cola Co. has ended its sponsorship of Major League Baseball after three seasons.

“Following a review of all Coca-Cola North America marketing assets at the conclusion of 2019, we made the decision to end our national sponsorship with MLB,” company spokeswoman Kate Hartman said in an email Wednesday. “We will continue to support 16 MLB teams at the local level.”

More here. 

I see the Mets Coca Cola corner staying with the status quo. The SF Giants and Atlanta Braves would definitely be two teams I can think off of the top of my head. In the bigger picture of things is this corporate America seeing that baseball might be a sinking ship? This might be something to think about.

METS SELECT OUTFIELDER PETE CROW-ARMSTRONG IN THE FIRST ROUND OF THE 2020 DRAFT

METS SELECT OUTFIELDER PETE CROW-ARMSTRONG

IN THE FIRST ROUND OF THE 2020 DRAFT

FLUSHING, N.Y., June 10, 2020 – The New York Mets today announced that the club selected outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong from Harvard-Westlake High School (CA) with the 19th overall pick in the first round of the 2020 First-Year Player Draft.

Crow-Armstrong, 18, was ranked by Baseball America as the 17th-best player in the 2020 Draft. MLB Pipeline has the high school outfielder ranked as the 20th-best prospect in this year’s draft class. Per MLB’s rankings, he is the seventh-ranked outfield prospect and the sixth-ranked high school position player. MLB Pipeline lists his speed and fielding as his most refined tools, giving each a 60 on the 20-80 scouting grade scale.

The high school senior entered the 2020 season on the Perfect Game Preseason All-American First Team. Before his senior season was halted, the left-handed batter and fielder was hitting .514 through 10 games for Harvard-Westlake, striking out just once in 42 at-bats. In his junior season, he batted .426 with three home runs and five triples.

The Sherman Oaks, California native has played for Team USA several times, suiting up for the 18U National Team in 2018 and 2019, the 15U National Team in 2017 and the 12U National Team in 2014. In 2019, he was named the U-18 Baseball World Cup All-World Center Fielder. He earned a gold medal as part of the 18U team that won the 2018 Pan-American Championships.

The six-foot, 175 pounder is the latest first-round selection from Harvard-Westlake High School. The program has also produced former first-round picks and current major leaguers Jack Flaherty (St. Louis), Max Fried (Atlanta) and Lucas Giolito (Chicago-AL).

Little Leaguers want MLB back.

From the NY Post.

PLEASE PLAY BALL.

Former Trooper Yadriel Mateo, 1B/P, 13, fan of Javier Baez, Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor: “Even though we might not be able to go to the games, we’re just gonna have fun watching it also, so …

“Please give us an MLB season.”

Trooper coach Jairo Labrador remembers breaking the heartbreaking news to his defending Mid-Atlantic Region champions that they would have to put the bats and balls and gloves away.

“It was pretty crushing,” he said.

Former Trooper Jayden Capindica, CF/1B/P, 13, fan of Mookie Betts and Christian Yelich:

“Us not playing, it’s already sad because we trained all winter, and then now the major league not happening, it’s just really sad.” When innocence trumps the bottom line business of sports, kids can sometimes make more sense than grownups.

James Catalano, SS/P/C, 11, Harlem Little League Baseball, Brett Gardner fan:

“I would just say to them that they should stop arguing over money, ’cause like if you’re gonna play baseball, you should do it for the love of the game, not for the money.”

The death toll and the unemployment rolls have knocked the country, now in the midst of awakening to the plagues of racial injustice and inequality, to its knees. No one, least of all a teenager, wants to believe that baseball cannot play a part in helping all of us back up.

Read more here.

Is this where the MLB loses the kids permanently? Will kids care about baseball anymore if they don't play a season this year? It's funny how these kids can even see the money aspect being squabbled over right now vs folks out of work and how silly it looks.

How many Mets Cornhole boards need to be available for sale?

I am bored as hell and I decided to peruse lids.com and stumbled into what seems like a 1000 corn hole boards.

This is a nice cheap vintage one, nice and simple, and at a good price point.

This one looks like it left out a little bit in the sun and the bean bags scratched it up. Regular price is $319.99? Come on!

This one looks like you might play this a lot. $319.99 is still pretty hefty. Even the discount at $223.99 is crazy.

Nice and simple. Nice colors. Pricing!!!

Night time Cornhole?

This seems like it should be $75.00. Doesn't look well made.

The one on the right looks good but I have feeling it is shoddily made.

deGrom Board? I wonder how many folks bought this at the price point.

Former Met Cleon Jones and the the racism he has dealt with.

Cleon Jones from when TWO BOOTS Pizza first named a slice of Pizza for him at Citi Field 

This paragraph hit me hard. Mets fans. Fans of the team that Cleon played for. The team that today is playing in Queens which is one of the most diverse places in NYC. I just don't get the hatred folks have for people that are different than them. Even today there are folks in the stands that yell out derogatory things  at players, think it is part of the game, and don't realize that they can be hurtful.

Throughout his professional playing days, a big-league career that spanned across 13 years, Jones remembers how difficult it was to push himself to play baseball. He was called several racial epithets by Mets fans; he was spit on; things were thrown at him. None of this was easy for Jones, a black athlete in the 1960s and ‘70s playing baseball for a majority-white audience. Jones took society’s hatred of him, however short-sighted and foolish it was, to heart.

“I wanted to go up in the stands and just cry, just feel bad,” Jones recalled of the pain he felt then.

This from the Daily News.

When Cleon Jones first heard about George Floyd’s killing by police, he was transported back to Mobile, Alabama, in 1977. The former Mets outfielder was driving home while his wife, Angela, was doing so in another car. She made it home safely. Jones was stopped by a white police officer who claimed his turn signal was broken.

“Thank you officer, but I didn’t know it wasn’t working,” Jones said.“Where’s your license?” the officer asked.

“In the other car,” Jones told him.

“OK. Hold on a minute,” the officer said.

“I waited and waited and waited until finally I asked, ‘What’s going on? How long do you want me to wait?’ A couple of seconds later, more police vehicles showed up and another officer approached me,” Jones said. “We’re going to whoop your ass,” the officer said.

Moments later, a brawl ensued. Jones, a year after he retired from baseball, wrestled with police officers on the ground in his own neighborhood when suddenly, he was hit with a club.

“Finally, my mind said get away from here,” Jones recalled in a phone conversation with the Daily News. “I was right in front of my place of business at that time, so I ran around the block.”

Except, that didn’t work. The police trailed Jones and soon, began beating him up again. His neighbors came out of their homes and started shouting Jones’ name. Eventually, the officers stopped. “They didn't realize who I was at the time,” Jones said. “When people started calling my name, the white officers realized they picked the wrong individual. And this happened in 1977! God knows what happened before then, because I know for a fact it happened to other folks.”

Read more here.

1977! A year after I was born and situations like this are still going on.