For the past three days, strong winds have blown trash onto the field at Citi Field, forcing the grounds crew to run out to collect it. This is not a new phenomenon for a baseball stadium, one of the few places where casual littering is totally acceptable. But did you know it’s also an encouraging sign of a healthy business? Says Dave Howard, the Mets’ executive vice-president for business operations: “It’s sort of good now that there is debris to be blown out there. It shows people are spending some money and buying food and drink and enjoying themselves.” Faith and Fear in Flushing has some suggestions of other things Howard should try spinning into a positive (global warming, civil wars in Africa), in case he chooses to ignore their true request, which is that he stop making the Mets look “smarmy and pathetic” whenever he talks to the press. [Bats/NYT, Faith and Fear in Flushing]