Introducing a new site feature – The Garden

Those of you who know your Mets history will recall that Joe Pignatano used to have a garden behind the outfield wall in Shea Stadium. According to legend, a tomato plant came up unexpectedly during the 1969 season and Pignatano – the team’s pitching coach and a recreational gardener – considered it a good omen. He kept it up for the remainder of his tenure in Queens.

Before he left the team, the garden was known throughout the league and contained not just tomatoes but squash, zucchini, radishes and other treats.

In an homage to this piece of team history, today we formally introduce “The Garden,” a new section of the site which we hope grows into a thriving community of its own. The Garden will serve several purposes, including a chance for me to post non-baseball stories as well as a chance for people who are not regular writers at the site to have a platform to share their Mets stories, too.

It will serve other purposes, as well, and it’s possible that stories might move from The Garden to the main site and vice versa.

If you view the site on a laptop/desktop and perhaps some tablets – you’ll find The Garden in the right sidebar. If you view on your phone or other mobile device, The Garden will be located beneath the regular stories on the site. You’ll have to scroll a bit to find it.

Our first post for The Garden is one moved from the main site. It’s my piece on N.C. State’s win in basketball over the Evil Empire in Chapel Hill. If you haven’t read it, please go check it out.

If you would like to contribute a Mets article (sorry, no non-Mets stories will be considered) for publication, you may submit it to mets360 @outlook.com – eliminate the space – and if it’s not profane or offensive in any matter, we’ll publish it within a week – probably much sooner – if you provide your full name.

Hope everyone is enjoying the quick start for the Mets! Please come join us in the Game Chatter tonight as the Mets look to sweep the Phillies at 7:00 p.m.