FAFIF

[willpie]

Edgy DC wrote: But no, it starts ramming itself down our throats in late July and by September, it's jumped offsides and into the valuable media space that should by rights be maintained 24/7/365 by baseball. Well, the "365" is kind of a contradiction. But Go, Greg, Go. I hate the NFL 24/7/365. Well, I guess I liked it when that Jets receiver decided to use his visiibility to call attention to molested children, but I hate so very much about the NFL, the list would just go on.

I've always found 24/7/365 (i.e. hours a day/days a week/days a year) to be on awkward construction anyway. I mean, 24/7/52 (i.e. hours a day/days a week/weeks a year) seems more consistent to me. And anyway, doesn't 24/7 already mean "all the time"?

[G-Fafif]

willpie wrote: I've always found 24/7/365 (i.e. hours a day/days a week/days a year) to be on awkward construction anyway. I mean, 24/7/52 (i.e. hours a day/days a week/weeks a year) seems more consistent to me. And anyway, doesn't 24/7 already mean "all the time"?

Let's see...seven days in a week, 52 weeks in a year...364 days. That leaves one day that if not specified may trickle into foul, non-baseball territory.

And ya can't be too careful.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Today Greg parties like it's 1995

Part 1


The Exciting Conclusion


Among other things, Greg recounts meeting Jace in person after meeting him through AOL first. This was five years before I started meeting Internet friends in person at Mets games (in our household we call them axe murderer friends, or axies. Let me explain - when I told friends of ours how we would be meeting Internet friends in person at Bank One Ballpark, they were aghast. "How could you meet people in person you only know from tthe Internet? What if they're axe murderers?" To which we replied, "That's ok - they wouldn't be bringing their axes to a baseball stadium." Ever since that time, we have referred to our Internet friends as our axe murderer friends. Kase was actually the first axie I met at a baseball game. I think I brought 3-year-old MK along with me for protection at the time - LOL).

[G-Fafif]

Today Greg parties like it's 1995 Part 1 The Exciting Conclusion Among other things, Greg recounts meeting Jace in person after meeting him through AOL first. This was five years before I started meeting Internet friends in person at Mets games (in our household we call them axe murderer friends, or axies...

I have to admit, years after the fact, that I held those same perceptions and reservations in principle, based on whatever scattered reports of such meetings I had absorbed. But Jason was not an axe murderer nor have the other dozen and some people I have come to meet this way (if they were actively axe-murdering on the particular day I met them, I guess I wouldn't be posting right now). I imagine there's still some reason to fear the unknown, but I don't even think about axe murderers, et al when I make let's-meet plans with cybersouls. But all I'm after is a ballgame.

Perhaps our forebears felt the same way about making the acquaintance of people by telephonic device.

The Greg-Jason big (or blog) bang was covered in detail on its tenth anniversary:

My perspective:
[url]http://mets2005.myblogsite.com/blog/_archives/2005/6/17/949407.html

His perspective:
[url]http://mets2005.myblogsite.com/blog/_archives/2005/6/17/950681.html

[Guest d'Kong76]

I've met 25-30 people in the seven years or so that I've been doing Mets
internet stuff (not including the first annual Mofo picnic) and the only in-
cident I had was a little red headed kid kicking me in the chin. Other than
that - all good. I've known most of my non-internet friends my whole life.
The Mets online thing has introduced me to doctors, teachers, lawyers,
writers, executives, entrepreneurs, and generally much more educated
people than I (or that I would meet) had it not been for being online Mets
fans. I'm babbling - but like I said, it's all been good.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Greg - this comment to your entry sums things up well

I resent the implication that I am not a knife-wielding stalker. I simply have not yet revealed myself.

Kase - I don't know who kicked you, but it wasn't my kid. IIRC he was too happy to show off the MLB Showdown game that he won at Fenway that day.

[MFS62]

Kase,
You're a big guy.
How did a "little" kid kick you in the chin?
Sounds like there's a story there.....

Later

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

My experiences with meeting other Mets fans in person after first "meeting" them in cyberspace have all been positive. I have come to the conclusion that Mets fans are not just highly discriminating baseball fans with fine taste in teams, but genuinely good people.

I look forward to the next opportunity for a road trip to tailgate with the fine denizens of this forum.

[Guest d'Kong76]

>>>I don't know who kicked you, but it wasn't my kid.<<<

You turned away. I never brought it up because he's been nice to me
ever since he found out I know Mr. Met.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

The full story of this meeting was kind of funny.

It was in July 2000, when the Mets were in Boston. We were there with the kids, and our friend Neil (who lives in Swampscott) and Neil's son. From the MOFO, Kase and I made plans to try to say hi at the Saturday game, but we were both too paranoid to give our seat numbers to each other (just the rows). I'm not even sure that D-Dad knew about my posting life at the time (if he did, it wasn't in any detail).

At one point I took the kids to meet Wally, the Green Monster, and that's where they had the wheel of luck (the older two kids won baseball cards, while MK won a set of MLB Showdown). I get back to the seats, when Neil tells me that some bald guy in a Mets jersey came over to say hi.

Later on, I see a bald guy with a Mets jersey, so I strike up a conversation. Of course, it isn't Kase. I go to the row where Kase is supposed to be sitting, but I can't find him.

Eventually, KB comes over, finds me, and I follow her back with MK in tow. Like somehow a guy with an axe wouldn't hurt me if I had a 3-year-old protecting me....

So, thanks to KB, Kase and I finally do meet in the late innings that day. The rest, as they say, is history ;)

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

BTW, this column has a passage that sums up the bandwagoning MFY mentality wonderfully -

The Mets were playing the Reds. Although the staff was tense over our impending sale, most everybody came, including our new art director Robert. He was a quiet guy from the Bronx, coming along because everybody else was going. Hadn't said much about baseball before the twinighter. He sat, watched the early innings and then leaned over to me to ask a question. "Hey Greg, do the Mets play the Reds in the second game of the doubleheader, too?" He wasn't kidding. He didn't know. That's no crime, except that in short order, Robert from the Bronx would let everyone know that he was a Yankees fan, baby. Come 1996, he would be very vocal about his favorite team winning its sport's world championship. But late in the 1995 season, he was clueless about that very same sport. One wonders how much of that was going around.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Piazza's Last Stand is a lovely and appropriate farewell to a true Mets great. Nice work Greg!

[Elster88]

Everyone is assuming he is leaving the Mets next year.
_____________________________
This post had the designation 144) Elliot Maddox

[Willets Point]

"Dwight Gooden pitched for a team in the American League whose name escapes me. "

The Cleveland Indians, duh!

[G-Fafif]

Willets Point wrote: "Dwight Gooden pitched for a team in the American League whose name escapes me. " The Cleveland Indians, duh!

[Sound of palm slapping forehead.]

Of course! The Indians. What could have I been thinking?

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

I'm making my way through Greg's three-part 2000 flashback, and I wanted to comment that I'm amused how he referred to Jace as a "non-axe murderer." I'd like to think that came from last week's discussion

[G-Fafif]

ScarletKnight41 wrote: I'm making my way through Greg's three-part 2000 flashback, and I wanted to comment that I'm amused how he referred to Jace as a "non-axe murderer." I'd like to think that came from last week's discussion

Anybody who wades through three parts deserves a shoutout.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Well, thanks. I feel honored :)

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

[url]http://mets2005.myblogsite.com/blog/_archives/2005/10/7/1285371.html

Great stuff!

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Holy hell. I missed the 2000 writeup and spent the last 45 minutes reading it.

1) OH SHIT! TIMO DIDN'T RUN! IF HE HAD, THERE'D BE NO RELAY! 2) We're screwed. We're gonna lose the World Series to the Yankees

This is precisely the series of thoughts I had, followed immediately by:

3) Be careful, JD, your right foot is periously close to the edge of this bar stool.

I drank way too much beer generally in 2000 and on this night, especially, trying to cool off the anxiety and the hot wings. Timo's goof was basically the first and last thing that mattered that entire series and I knew it right then. I stayed till the end of the game but from that point recall mainly noise, humidity and doom until I got outside onto 44th street, some young Yankee-fan looking guy on a bicycle saw a Mets hat atop what must have been a defeated and exhausted expression, said 'Hah-hah' and rode away as if I were going to go chase him.

That was the worst loss in Met history. I don't think any other comes close.

[Elster88]

How do I find the 2000 write-up?

[Edgy MD]

2000

In three-part harmony.

[Elster88]

This says it all about the Yankees for me:

I hated their fans more than I disliked any individual player or manager or owner.

I have only actively hated two Yankees in my lifetime: O'Neill and Clemens. I can't cry about Steinbrenner when the Mets have the third-highest payroll. But I hate the team because of the fans. (except silver, of course).

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Excellent ALDS reading.

The leader of this notorious band of thugs, Angels, is this man: Joe. Joe is as lugubrious as he is discomfiting. He can't hurt you with a bat or a ball or even a glove. His method for murder is an endless series of whiny complaints. He will try to make you believe that only his notorious band of thugs is inconvenienced by rain, that only his notorious band of thugs has to travel from one end of the continent to the other, that only his notorious band of thugs finds the starting time to be a disadvantage. Your mission, Angels, will be to drown Joe out with very loud bats and very accurate strikes.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Greg Opines On The Stupidity Of Two Playoff Games Being Played Simultaneously

Great column, as always. Here are my thoughts about it -

1) I'm in total agreement that the games shouldn't go head to head, and that 4:00 games should be scheduled instead. I have a kid who loves baseball, and it would be nice for him to be able to watch some of the championship games to the end;

2) It's times like this when I love having picture-in-picture on my television. That option was worth every penny.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Greg - would you please pass these thoughts along to Jason about today's column

1. Nice column. An interesting way to look back at who joined the team this year.

2. I have two boys who would gladly teach him how to play MLB Showdown. In fact, the little guy (the one you met) routinely collects Showdown cards.

3. He should come over and join the Pool. The water's fine, and we talk about the Mets all year long!

[Willets Point]

the two World Series rosters

Shouldn't there be four World Series rosters?

[G-Fafif]

Willets Point wrote: the two World Series rosters Shouldn't there be four World Series rosters?

I believe he meant the World Series rosters from the championship years though I seem to recall in the wake of 2000 seeing a special section devoted to those National League champions, but only the WS roster. He excluded Rey O for being on the DL and Derek Bell for going down in the LDS. He's a stickler for his own rules.

Greg - would you please pass these thoughts along to Jason about today's column 1. Nice column. An interesting way to look back at who joined the team this year. 2. I have two boys who would gladly teach him how to play MLB Showdown. In fact, the little guy (the one you met) routinely collects Showdown cards. 3. He should come over and join the Pool. The water's fine, and we talk about the Mets all year long!

SK, I'll pass along your appraisal, your offer and your invite.

Truth be told, I don't think I named The Holy Books. I merely equated viewing them with facing Mecca. Or Metta.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Greg - when in 2001 were you at Pac Bell and Oakland?

We were there late June/early July that year.

[G-Fafif]

ScarletKnight41 wrote: Greg - when in 2001 were you at Pac Bell and Oakland? We were there late June/early July that year.

July 5 at the Coliseum (Angels beat the A's), July 6 at Pac Bell (Giants beat the Brewers). It was very hot for the first one, very cold for the second one.