Prominent Mets Fans Thread (Revisited)

[Guest Rotblatt]

A.J. Pierzynski, ChiSox lightning rod, grew up a Mets fan, and like any true Mets fan, he fucking hates Roger.

]The topic of this day was facing Roger Clemens, Houston's Game 1 starter and perhaps the greatest pitcher in baseball history. Asked for his first memory of Clemens pitching, Pierzynski said: "Maybe the 1986 World Series. My family comes from New York and we were Mets fans, so we watched those games. "And '89, in the playoffs, when he wore eye black to pitch. That was a big deal." Pause. "He got kicked out of that game, I believe," A.J. said. How about a personal experience facing Roger? "I hit a home run off him in a playoff game a couple of years ago," he said. "And last season with San Francisco, we faced Roger in Houston, and he had a strike zone this big." Pierzynski held his hands a yard apart. Why did Clemens have a strike zone so generous? "You'll have to ask the people in charge of the strike zone," A.J. said. It was mentioned that "intimidating" is a popular description of Clemens. "The day it comes down to me being afraid to come up and face somebody, that should be my last day in baseball," Pierzynski said.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/508/5683435.html

[metirish]

Good stuff, I've gotten to like Pierzynski this post-season, he's a decent player.

[Frayed Knot]

Piersynski's roots are on Long Island's east-end, making him the 2nd best Polish player from that area.

[Elster88]

Pierzynski is apparently one of the biggest pricks in baseball. We're talking third behind Bonds and Kent.

[Guest Edgy DC]

The original thread was called "Met-Lovin' Big Shots."

[Guest sharpie]

Kent mostly got that rep from his time with the Giants
Pierzynski's bad-guy rep got a huge boost from his one year with the Giants, also.
Bonds has been with the Giants for many years.

Is there something up with the Giants press corps that they are eager to spread the word about the prickishness of various players?

[metirish]

]Pierzynski's bad-guy rep got a huge boost from his one year with the Giants, also.

Pierzynski on what went wrong with the Giants

]"Contrary to what people believe, I actually got along with a lot of the guys there," Pierzynski said. "The one guy (he was referring to Brett Tomko, who was quoted in the story), I had a problem with. But other than that, I got along with a lot of guys great. It was a bad time for me because of what happened with (Tomko). The other guy (Matt Herges, who also was quoted) came up to me and apologized, and I respect him a whole lot more for doing that than (Tomko)."

[Guest Edgy DC]

I thought also about the Giant connection.

Perhaps their corps is distorting sub-prick behavior. Or perhaps they're heroically less willing to cover up the general prickishness that is going unreported in other clubhouses.

[MFS62]

sharpie wrote: Is there something up with the Giants press corps that they are eager to spread the word about the prickishness of various players?

It was either Jim Brosnan (The Long Season) or Jim Bouton (Ball Four) who said something like (I paraphrase):
San Francisco sportswriters write with all the accuracy of a three year old fingerpainting on a wall.

Later

[Guest Rotblatt]

]Pierzynski is apparently one of the biggest pricks in baseball. We're talking third behind Bonds and Kent.

If only those statheads could come up with a metric for that . . .

How about

instances of Prima-Donna like behavior
+
instances Roid-like agression
+
Ignorant andoffensive public statements
--
demonstrations of Chill behavoir
/
number of total prick-like or chill instances--or total Karmic choices
=
PRICK

So, for example,

Roger Clemens misses 32 road games because he can't be bothered to travel when he's not pitching in a series = 32 P points.

He flings a bat shard at an opposing player once. His head noticibly swells twice, and he upends five bucket of balls in the dugout, a bucket of bats once, and a batboy twice = 11 R points.

He calls the Yankees the "best team ever" 3 times, despite playing for the Astros = 3 I points.

He gets shelled during the All-Star game--again = 1 C point

All in all, Roger would be given a PRICK factor of .978.

Compare to David Wright:

1 P (for arguing that takeout slide call)
0 R
0 I
30 C (I'm estimating here, but I suspect y'all will agree that he earned a lot of these)
31 K

PRICK factor of -.935

I can't wait til ESPN starts putting this up there next to OBP during games.

[Elster88]

MFS62 wrote: ="sharpie"] Is there something up with the Giants press corps that they are eager to spread the word about the prickishness of various players? It was either Jim Brosnan (The Long Season) or Jim Bouton (Ball Four) who said something like (I paraphrase): San Francisco sportswriters write with all the accuracy of a three year old fingerpainting on a wall. Later

That may be true, but IIRC, Pierzynski's prickness was well demonstrated on the Twinkies and the Pale Stockings.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Forgive my ignorance of the American League, but how?

[Elster88]

I don't remember specific incidents. I could look it up, but that would require work. I'm being the prick here, by saying mean things and not backing it up.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Josh Pettite -