More on the Amazing Morons

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The New York Mets gained the moniker “amazing” after they went from a string of last-place finishes to a 1969 World Series Championship, but the only thing amazing about the current-day Mets is their stubborn refusal to closed-caption their broadcasts on SportsNet New York (SNY).

Closed-captioning has been commonplace since the early 1980s, but the Mets continue to stick out like a sore thumb while they flash a different finger at their deaf and hard-of-hearing fans.

As noted in my previous post, the Mets could caption an entire game for what they pay Johan Santana to throw 1/4 of one pitch, but they cling to an FCC exemption that gives new TV stations four years to begin captioning. The Mets launched SNY in 2006, so it could be another two years before we see captioned Mets games.

I was a Mets fan for 40 years and went to Florida last month to see them in spring training, but my fandom ended a couple of weeks later when I turned the TV on to catch the season opener and saw that once again there were no captions.

I had been quite outspoken about the issue during the off season (see Karma is Cause of Mets Collapse) but SNY had never responded to my concerns.

Saturday of opening week, I spent several hours sending letters to people who I thought could help. Here’s who I contacted:

The Hon. Charles E. Schumer, US Senator
The Hon. Hillary Rodham Clinton, US Senator
New York Governor David A. Paterson
New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
Mr. Charles Prince, Chairman and CEO, Citi Group
Mr. Fred Wilpon, Chairman & CEO, New York Mets
Mr. Donald Trump, The Trump Organization
Mr. Andrew M. Cuomo, NYS Attorney General
Ms. Helen M. Marshall, Queens Borough President
Mr. Willie Randolph, Manager, New York Mets
Mr. Michael Lupica, The Daily News
Mr. Bart Hubbuch, The New York Post
Mr. Mike Vaccaro, The New York Post
Mr. David Hinckley, The Daily News
Ms. Verena Dobnik, Associated Press
Mr. Charles Odum, The Associated Press
Mr. Jeremy Cothran, The Star-Ledger
Mr. David Lennon, Newsday
Mr. Ben Shpigel, The New York Times
Mr. Gary Cohen, SportsNet New York
Mr. Ron Darling, SportsNet New York
Mr. Keith Hernandez, SportsNet New York
Mr. Scott Pitoniak, Democrat and Chronicle
Mr. Terence Rafferty, President, Time Warner Rochester
Mr. David Wright, New York Mets
Mr. Johan Santana, New York Mets
Mr. Carlos Beltran, New York Mets
Mr. Jon D. Litner, President, SportsNet New York

It has been three weeks since I mailed the letters. Here is a list of those who have responded to my concerns:

(nobody)

If you ever want to know why deaf people can be prone to depression and anger and sometimes feel bitter and hateful toward the hearing world, this incident sheds light on where those kinds of feelings can originate.

I’ve checked SNY a few times this month, just long enough to see that the games are still not captioned, and I looked at the standings and saw that the Mets are off to a lousy start. This brings me great pleasure.

I just wonder how long it will take Flushing’s Amazing Morons to realize that nothing good will ever come to them as long as they insist on dissing the deaf.

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