Mar 21 2006 09:37 AM
For my Edgy birthday, my parents --- in a gift somewhat less inspired, though somewhat less labor intensive, than last year's collection of Mets pins --- bought me some fine casual-wear clothing, and a Mets Monopoly game, something appreciated, though I certainly wouldn't buy it myself.
For the expensive deep blue properties, they predictably have Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza. Piazza isn't our number two, but whatever, he's got a storng case.
Then for the deep green properties, (Pacific Avenue, North Carolina Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue), they go not for established great assets of Met history that have brought historic returns, but rather with with three guys they hoped for big contributions for last year --- Carlos Beltran, Kaz Matsui, and Doug Mientkiewicz.
Holy wishful thinking, Batman!
Now, putting aside how silly it was to produce the game based on projected values and not actual values, obviously the Mets have great hopes for Carlos Beltran having a long and productive career with the team. Perhaps, at the the beginning of last year, he had a 50/50 chance of becoming a top-ten all-time Met. Kaz Matsui, while hoping he could turn things around and stay healthy going into 2005, had perhaps a 50/50 chance of becoming a top-50 all-time Met. But Doug Mientkiewicz was, by all reasoinable expectations, a placeholder --- the bitter consolation prize in the pursuit of Carlos Delgado. Maybe he had a 15-20% chance of cracking the top 100, and here the speculators have him, forever immortalized as one of the top five Mets.
Apparently, the target audience for the game was nine-year-olds, for whom the current crop of Mets loom disporoportionately large, as well as my parents, who've long since stopped looking closely and critically at things containing Mientkiewiczes.
On a related note, here's a fine brief essay excerpt on the powerful asset that is North Carolina Avenue.
I think I'll re-tool the game to reflect the actual top Met assets. Or maybe distributed them proportionately, so Baltic and Mediterranean are circa-500 guys like Larry Miler and Kelvin Torve.Much like Park Place, North Carolina Avenue takes its victims by surprise and chucks them around the room until they're completely out of play money and completely devoid of a desire to go on living. Everyone knows to avoid the green properties when they're owned by another player, but it's something we often forget, as we're actually approaching them on the board. There are a few things to consider, here. First, when you're in around the red area, you're going to be more concerned with skipping past that "Go To Jail" space. And when you're really close -- in the yellows -- you've already established a massive fear of those hotel-engulfled royal blues. People constantly overlook the greens, but make no mistake: They'll kill ya every time.
#3 - NORTH CAROLINA AVENUE
North Carolina Avenue is the best of the three, since it's placed directly before the lifesaving "Community Chest" square --- your opponents will grow a sense of false hope before falling into your jade trap. With a hotel, North Carolina Avenue demands 1,275 bucks for accidental renters. 1,275 bucks buys a lot of railroads, you know.
