Mets put in-person fans over TV for once by moving up Saturday start times

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 were flexed this season, but the very notion of them is an affront to the customers who pay the most money to see games.

Throw in night games in January at below-zero temperatures like the one in Kansas City in the wild-card round, and the NFL could not make it clearer that the health and happiness of ticket buyers is simply not a relevant matter.

For years, the Jets’ and Giants’ incompetence meant plenty of 1 o’clock Sunday starts, so there was at least one positive to the teams stinking.

This season, we got prime-time games thanks to Aaron Rodgers and the Giants making the playoffs last season and we got bad football — a lose-lose combo.

But at least everyone understands that football exists mostly for TV purposes, its ratings continuing to demolish all other programming of any genre.

Baseball still likes to think of itself as a relaxed, summertime outing that caters to folks showing up in person and enjoying the company of friends and relatives, including those who are children.

That is much easier to accomplish at a day game, and Sunday should not be the only option for those who work and/or go to school during the week.

Well, those people have spoken, and the Mets have listened.

Now more fans might be inclined to stick around for the ninth inning of Saturday home games, perhaps to see Edwin Diaz back at work. Sound the trumpets!

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.