The Mets are one of many teams that has decided to use cardboard cutouts of their fans to fill up the seats in what would be an otherwise empty Citi Field, giving first dibs to season ticketholders.
Those cutouts don't make noise, though, and one creative solution some teams have tried to disturb the sounds of silence in an empty park is pumping in fake crowd noise.
A great idea to many, and one the Mets tried during their workout on Wednesday, but count one big dissenter out: Mets first baseman/outfielder Dominic Smith.
"I'd rather play in 100 percent silence, because that manufactured sound was awful; we tried it yesterday and it just gave everyone a headache – like when you wake up and your brain is buzzy," Smith told Moose and Maggie on Thursday. "It tried to be like crowd noise, but it was terrible."
Smith actually had an alternate idea, if the fake crowd wasn't authentic enough.
"I'd rather play in complete silence, where you can just hear the game," he said, "or if we could play music like the NBA does, that would be fine. Or get some better crowd noise, because it didn't sound authentic at all."
When Maggie mentioned that current Yankees reliever Zack Britton called playing a game in front of an empty stadium a "terrible experience" a few years back, she also mentioned to Smith that silence means you can also hear things like the broadcasters in the background (assuming they won't be as hushed as MASN's Gary Thorne was in that Orioles game."
And finally, Smith relented.
"If I could hear the broadcast going on, that would be pretty annoying too," he laughed.
Smith spent more than 20 minutes with Moose & Maggie on Thursday, also dishing into what his role for 2020 may be and expectations around the Mets. You can check out Smith's entire segment below, and as always, you can check out more on-demand audio from Moose & Maggie, or tune in every day to the WFAN.com livestream of the show!
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