Met Fact and Opinion III

[metirish]

opinion: Reyes should NEVER be mentioned along with Jeter until he has won at least four WS rings.

Fact: Willie Randolph is in the last year of his contract.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Opinion: Listening to my sister's mook boyfriend try to spin Met success as a reflection on the Yankees because Randoph is the manager was excruciating.

Excruciating: Almost qualifies as fact.

Fact: Tom Hausman was the first player ever signed by the Mets as a professional free agent.

[G-Fafif]

Opinion: As bullpen roles were evolving, Tom Hausman's contribution to the midsummer surge of 1980 made him that team's MVP. Hausman was Turk Wendell without the crazy.

Fact: In addition to tickling the ivories of the stadium organ, Jane Jarvis often played in Shea's Charcoal Room after games in the mid-'60s for the entertainment of season-ticket holders.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Opinion: A swinging jazz chick must have been quite bored playing "Charge!" fanfares and other ballpark fare all those years.

Fact: The Mets took righthanded pitchers with their first five picks, and five of their first eight, in the 2006 amateur draft.

[Willets Point]

Opinion: It would help if those pitchers are ready to succeed in the big leagues right quick.

Fact: Yogi Berra's middle name is Peter.

[stevejrogers]

Opinion: Tom Seaver's politicing his way to a Game 6 start in the 1973 WS very well may have cost Yogi Berra his job

Fact: Phil Mankowski was sports talk show host (and sleazebag) Sid Rosenberg's favorite Met growing up

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Fact: Phil Mankowski was sports talk show host (and sleazebag) Sid Rosenberg's favorite Met growing up

[Guest Edgy DC]

Rewind. Just a bit of editorializing in your facts there.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

="Edgy DC"]Rewind. Just a bit of editorializing in your facts there.

Oops. Sorry about that. Jeter hype in a Mets forum freaks me out.

Fact: Future Yankee mascot Don Zimmer was the Mets first third baseman and was quickly banished.

[Guest Edgy DC]

metsguyinmichigan wrote: Oops. Sorry about that. Jeter hype in a Mets forum freaks me out.

I hear you. Irish gets a pass... for now.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Opinion: Zimmer's probably a decent guy, but took the loyal soldier act too far and came to regret it.

Fact: On team rosters for much of the Spanish-speaking baseball world, a player's batting and throwing preferences are listed as "D" for "Derecho" or "Z" for "IZquierdo."

[RealityChuck]

Opinion: English speaking fans will probably have to know that fact in the future.

Fact: If one particular voter hadn't split his vote between the two, and had voted solely for him, Jerry Koosman would have shared Rookie of the Year with Johnny Bench.

[Guest iramets]

Opinion: Thus saving the voters from having made another choice where they elected an inferior lifetime performer.

Fact: Koosman was one of the last pitchers to have won 20 and lost 20. Now its rare that a pitcher does either in a career.

[G-Fafif]

Opinion: Either Jim Bunning and Jerry Koosman should both be in the Hall of Fame or neither should be in the Hall of Fame. Given their relatively close careers, it confounds me that one won consistent support and eventual induction while the other garnered all of 4 votes. I don't think either should be in, but the wide disparity between the respective consideration given each man is what really gets to me.

Fact: Carlos Beltran hit 5 ninth-inning home runs in the 2006 regular season.

[Willets Point]

Opinion: I would have settled for one ninth inning home run in the 2006 post season. Or even a double.

Fact: Tim Teufel is the only Met born in Greenwich, CT.

[stevejrogers]

Opinion: Tim Teufel may have been the happiest of all Mets when Bill Buckner essentially let him off the hook in Game 6

Fact: Tug McGraw's son married a woman who's first name is essentially a one word description of Ya Gotta Believe

[Guest cleonjones11]

Opinion: Philip Humber is not ready for 150 innings plus at any level in his first full injury free season

Fact: Randy Tate pitched a one-hitter for the Mets

[dinosaur jesus]

Opinion: Either you're confused or you're shitting everybody.

Fact: Randy Tate never pitched a one-hitter for the Mets.

[RealityChuck]

No, but Tate did carry a no-hitter into the seventh inning before losing it (August 4, 1975).

Opinion: Tate was just another in a long line of prospects the Mets brought to the majors before they were ready.

Fact: The day before the 1969 season started, Newsday published an article predicting the Mets would be World Champs.

[G-Fafif]

Opinion: The silliest thing in baseball is the preseason prediction that offers complete records for every team in the Majors and then how each postseason series, down to the number of games required, will be determined seven months into the future.

Fact: David Cone (1992), Bobby Bonilla (1995), Rick Reed (2001) and Armando Benitez (2003) were each traded in the same season that they were chosen as Met representatives on the N.L. All-Star team.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Opinion: the reasons behind those trades aren't altogether unrelated.

Fact: In 1978, Rusty Staub became the first player to log 162 games in a single seaason at DH.

[stevejrogers]

Opinion: Thanks to Interleague this is no longer possible, even if it means David Ortiz 14 or so times at 1st!

Fact: There is probably more stuff available (card sets, postcards, books, ect) about the 1969 Mets than any other Met squad, with that 1962 one coming a close second

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Facts have to be more solid than that. Probablies are for Opinions.

[stevejrogers]

Fair enough

Fact: There are more books and tribute card sets out there on the 1969 Mets than any other squad in team history, with the 1962 Mets behind them.

[Frayed Knot]

="SteveJRogers"]Opinion: Thanks to Interleague this is no longer possible, even if it means David Ortiz 14 or so times at 1st! Fact: There is probably more stuff available (card sets, postcards, books, ect) about the 1969 Mets than any other Met squad, with that 1962 one coming a close second

Your opinion is a fact and your fact an opinion.
Therefore, I'm stealing this one.


Fact: "In 1978, Rusty Staub became the first player to log 162 games in a single seaason at DH."

O: Met fans of the early '80s who lobbied for the NL to institute the DH because we had Rusty on the team annoyed the shit out of me. Either it's a good rule or it's not. It's not good or bad based on whether it'll help your team this particular season.

F: Julio Franco is the oldest ML player to hit a HR
(you may have heard of this one recently)

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Opinion: Julio Franco is a good guy, but he shouldn't be on the Mets active roster.

Fact: The Mets were one of only two organizations (the Orioles are the other) to have seven farm clubs in 2006. All other organizations had six.

[G-Fafif]

Opinion: It will be very strange having the Mets' top farm club not in Norfolk, not in the International League, not in the Eastern time zone, but I doubt it will make a great deal of material difference in terms of player development, New Orleans' unique status among cities (pre- and post-Katrina) notwithstanding.

Fact: A field level box seat to a Mets game at Shea Stadium thirty years ago was four bucks.

[stevejrogers]

Opinion: Even considering the rate of inflation ticket prices today are sky high, though still the most affordable of the four major sports.

Fact: Last season was the first time since 1979 that all televised Met games were done by the same crew