Baseball Books 2k22

[A Boy Named Seo]

Reading a book called https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/51312349The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball's Afterlife about an 80's kid, who at the age of 34, buys a pack of '88 Topps then hits the road to meet all of the "wax packers" and see what they're up to. Some former Mets in here including Gooden, Mazzilli, Garry Templeton, Vince Coleman, Gary Pettis and maybe a couple other dudes I forgot were ever Mets.



The book's currently clinging to a 3-star rating for different reasons, but the Coleman chapter was weird for a different reason. After he introduces the player, he refers to him the rest of the way only as "Van Go", a shortened version Vincent Van Go, a nick I'd heard for him a couple of times, but was never in cement for me like The Big Unit, The Crime Dog or El Presidente, etc. Is Vincent Van Go on the forefront of your brain when you think of Vince Coleman?



For the record, in the Gooden chapter, he annoyingly refers to him as Doc the entire time, even the little kid version who, c'mon, that's Dwight.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I thought the chapters on the lesser-known players, like the pitcher who invites him over for a BBQ, were much better than those on the big names. The Mazzilli chapter wasn't insightful enough. He did a good job with Rick Sutcliffe though.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Yeah, agreed. And he likes those guys more. The bigger name guys (Fisk, Gooden, even Vince Coleman) who are naturally harder to pin down, he seems to write less flattering about them. Jaime Cocanower was the BBQ guy. That was a pretty good chapter. Don Carman was great, too.

[Edgy MD]

A Boy Named Seo wrote: Is Vincent Van Go on the forefront of your brain when you think of Vince Coleman?

Tim McCarver was pretty committed to it as a Mets announcer during Vince's formative years with the Cards, but as Vince became a liability in the second half of his career, and McCarver moved on to other pastures, the nickname seemed to retire well before he did.



We had a poster around here for a short time named "Vince Coleman Firecracker," and as uncreative and unappealing as the name was, I think that's the typical first association folks have with the guy, certainly among Mets fans.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I also remember the time, when he was a Cardinal and, I think, during the 1985 NLCS, that he somehow got trapped under the infield tarp. (It wasn't deployed at the time, but still on its roller.)

[seawolf17]

I enjoyed that book quite a bit too -- it was a neat concept.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Edgy MD wrote: A Boy Named Seo wrote: Is Vincent Van Go on the forefront of your brain when you think of Vince Coleman? Tim McCarver was pretty committed to it as a Mets announcer during Vince's formative years with the Cards, but as Vince became a liability in the second half of his career, and McCarver moved on to other pastures, the nickname seemed to retire well before he did. We had a poster around here for a short time named "Vince Coleman Firecracker," and as uncreative and unappealing as the name was, I think that's the typical first association folks have with the guy, certainly among Mets fans.

Thanks. I'm also realizing I maybe didn't watch a ton of Mets games in the early 90s.

[Fman99]

Could any Mets fan associate Vince Coleman with anything besides the firecrackers?

[Edgy MD]

Well, there's also gang rape, as unappetizing an association as that may be to recall.

[MFS62]

=Fman99 post_id=84065 time=1641327873 user_id=86]
Could any Mets fan associate Vince Coleman with anything besides the firecrackers?

[kcmets]

The 'tarp incident' was the first thing that jumped into my mind

re: Vince Coleman. I forgot about the firecracker thing.

[G-Fafif]

Coleman led the Mets of the 1990s in stolen bases, with 99. Hojo was runner-up with 92.



Not the first thing that leaps to mind, but in between explosions, scandals and general letdown, he did deliver some semblance of what he was brought in to do.

[Willets Point]

My association with Coleman was that when he was a Card he'd always get on base somehow against the Mets and then steal 2nd and 3rd and then score, which drove everyone crazy. I wasn't following baseball when Coleman actually became a Met.