World Series I-S-T

[Willets Point]

SteveJRogers wrote: Which is odd since NYC has a bunch of colleges in the city, hell Queens does have St. Johns for crying out loud, and you would think the media would lap up and over blow a minor "incident" around an NYC college.

New York is so big it swallows anything up. I don't think anyone refers to it as a college town or even part of the city as "the student ghetto" just because there's so much else going on. In Boston, a much smaller city, there are whole sections of town dedicated to the housing, feeding, and entertaining of students, recent graduates, and other people in their late teens/early 20s. Again, I can't speak for Philly.

SteveJRogers wrote: Was Game 7 of the 1986 World Series the last time a sea of humanity rushed the field for a baseball championship?

No one rushed the field after the 86 World Series because the field was rung with cops on freakin' horses. This was mainly in response to the field storming that occurred after the Mets clinched the 86 NL East title which resulted in much damage to the field.

[G-Fafif]

]"A lot of things were made in the offseason, we can talk about the New York Mets. They brought in that great pitcher, Johan Santana, but they forgot that it takes more than one player to bring home a championship." --Jimmy Rollins to the Phillies fans

Obsessed much? That's just strange.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Still and all, it's kind of one of the things fans tend to want in their players --- that they care as much about the rivalries as the fans do.

[Met Hunter]

SteveJRogers wrote: Something else is interesting, and I've asked this before but to no response. Was Game 7 of the 1986 World Series the last time a sea of humanity rushed the field for a baseball championship? I thought for sure that Philly's Phinest couldn't contain a few hundred yahoos from rushing the field. Granted MLB/FOX had the on-field trophies and awards set up, but still.

It wasn't game 7, it was the divisional clincher versus the Cubs. I missed that game due to work. My brother and I were at Game 7 and weren't allowed on the field. We didn't want to destroy it, just run out there like everyone did in '69. The field did get pretty messed up that night vs. Chicago, and I can't remember anyone ever having an on field celebration like that ever agin.

I do remember people celebrating outside Shea after Game 7. Some guys even leaned into our car to hug us as we sat in bumper to bumper. No car flipping, no burning things with the outside pretzel vendors. Just alot of yelling and hugging.

[Guest themetfairy]

I was on the field September 17, 1986. It was raucous, but good natured.

After Game 7, the Upper West Side was abuzz. Car horns honking, lots of cheering - it was like a big old street fair. The same when the Giants won the Super Bowl and the Rangers won the Stanley Cup.

It's not that New Yorkers never riot. But they riot when they're pissed off about something. Moments of great happiness don't inspire riots in the City.

[stevejrogers]

Met Hunter wrote: It wasn't game 7, it was the divisional clincher versus the Cubs. I missed that game due to work. My brother and I were at Game 7 and weren't allowed on the field. We didn't want to destroy it, just run out there like everyone did in '69. The field did get pretty messed up that night vs. Chicago, and I can't remember anyone ever having an on field celebration like that ever agin.

Hmmm, for some reason I seem to recall a small group of field rushers mixed in with the players.

Ehh, could just have been clubhouse personnel and such.

[Guest Edgy DC]

="G-Fafif"] ]"A lot of things were made in the offseason, we can talk about the New York Mets. They brought in that great pitcher, Johan Santana, but they forgot that it takes more than one player to bring home a championship." --Jimmy Rollins to the Phillies fans Obsessed much? That's just strange.

Same to you, Buddy.

="Newsday"] Mets' Wright issues challenge to NL East BY DAVID LENNON | david.lennon@newsday.com November 2, 2008 David Wright has a message for Jimmy Rollins: I don't like you guys either. Wright, the star attraction at yesterday's Topps baseball camp inside the Hofstra bubble, was aware of the Phillies' latest volley of verbal attacks, which included Rollins and general manager Pat Gillick flatly stating that the Mets are hated by every NL East opponent. Wright's reaction? Bring it on. "I don't like those guys," Wright said. "I know they don't like us. There are guys that I respect on that team. I respect them, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I'm going to be friends with them. My whole career, I've tried to stay away from that. I'll shake somebody's hand and say hello, but I'm not going to be buddy-buddy with anyone before the game. "I'm not a big fan of the teams in our division just because we play them so much. I would hope as a competitor that you would have that edge, that you would have a genuine interest to go out there and beat them by as much as you can." Rollins made his initial comments during the World Series, then took one final swipe at Friday's victory parade by suggesting the Mets were not much beyond Johan Santana. "They forgot that it takes more than one player to bring home a championship," Rollins said. In Wright's mind, however, the Mets are every bit as capable of doing what the Phillies did. They went 11-7 against the world champs during the regular season and finished only three games behind them in the division. "As far as the Phillies winning, I'm not bitter about it," Wright said. "I'm disappointed that we didn't cash in on the opportunity to get into the playoffs. It's something where they deserve it. They played their best baseball at the right time of the year, and that's something we weren't able to do the last two years. It's a simple formula. "This might be the optimistic side for me, but it makes it more of an attainable goal for us. Seeing a team from your division that you've played 18, 19 times, that you've played well against, go on to win the World Series, it hits a little closer to home. "It's a silver lining. It's a positive. But that was my first thought when the Phillies won the World Series. I was like, 'Wow, a team from our division going on to win the World Series.' So why not us? Why can't we do that?" Wright also was not surprised by the talk radio drumbeat that called for the Mets' core - namely Wright, Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado - to be broken up during the offseason. Not that he heard the public debate firsthand, but Wright was kept informed by friends in the city. He doesn't see that as a solution, however. "I don't think there needs to be a shakeup," Wright said. "I think that we need to be better as a core both on the field and as leadership figures in the clubhouse. I don't think there's any necessity to trade the core players. But if we want to continue to be core players and produce and be successful in New York, then we need to find a way to win. We have to find a way to get better and to elevate our game up a notch because the last two years haven't been good enough."

[Willets Point]

]They went 11-7 against the world champs during the regular season and finished only three games behind them in the division.

Hey, you know what. This is true. The Mets are a pretty good team. I'm psyched for 2009.

[Centerfield]

G-Fafif wrote: ]"A lot of things were made in the offseason, we can talk about the New York Mets. They brought in that great pitcher, Johan Santana, but they forgot that it takes more than one player to bring home a championship." --Jimmy Rollins to the Phillies fans Obsessed much? That's just strange.

Someone needs to put him on his ass next year.

[metirish]

I saw the video of tis on the News yesterday , very lame but not surprising.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

This is almost funny. Jocks say stupid unsupportable things all the time. And the writers lap it up, feed it to other jocks, then gleefully report back.

If Wright refuses to take the bait it's:

DAVID WRIGHT IS A PUSSY

or if they get what they want it's

WRIGHT TO ROLLINS: SUCK MY DICK

then back to you, Jimmy.

[Zvon]

I think this is just what the Mets needed.
A lil motivational kick in the ass.

I would have thought 2007 was enough, but not so.
I would have thought Santana would make the difference, but not so.
I would have thought a managerial shakedown would kick start em....almost.
I hoped for Shea Stadiums last season they would step it up,....nope.

Now if the team can focus and stay focused, and Omar does his job and fills in the gaps,
I do believe we knock the Phils off their lil perch next year.
Personally, for me, this scenario is the only thing that could quite possibly make the last two season endings bearable experiences.

[stevejrogers]

Edgy DC wrote: Still and all, it's kind of one of the things fans tend to want in their players --- that they care as much about the rivalries as the fans do.

In part that is because in some variations of various rivalries, that actually was the case. There were several instances where the Red Sox players truly hated the Yankees, and vice versa. Ditto Cardinals-Dodgers, Dodgers-Giants, etc.

Sure some of that were during the pre-union era (the 70s Yankee-Sox rivalry may have been the last of the pure hatred by players on both sides) and all, but fans, or at least those who know the history of the rivalry, know at one time the players on both teams despised one another.

[Zvon]

I read this letter in my local newspaper yesterday:

]A win brings out some fans' inner beast Published: Tuesday, November 04, 2008 I leapt for joy as strike three sailed into Carlos Ruiz's mitt. I clapped and hugged and shed a tear. Like everyone else, I have bragging rights in baseball and civics for the next year, and I own a memory to cherish for decades to come. But I'm 41 (the Phillies being kind enough, in fact, to gift me this championship on my birthday). I feel no compulsion to destroy. As the throng of revelers spilled deliriously onto Broad Street, many remained generally well-behaved, intensifying their yells at each exploding firecracker or sporadic piece of tickertape. But a celebration a quarter-century in the making quickly became a reason for many to unleash their id and uncork years of anger, frustration, and anonymity. One man repeatedly dips into a Hefty bag at street side and tosses garbage as high as he can, grinning as if he's the greatest litterbug in history. Several risk their spine climbing lampposts, some to rip down banners adorning them, others just for the thrill of defying gravity. An overzealous 20-something shakes a can of Miller Lite and makes it froth over those in immediate proximity, then launches the still-half-full container into the crowd like a grenade, completely unconcerned that it might well land on someone's skull. Many circle around trash set ablaze, as if they've never before sat in front of a fireplace. What is it about the lax authority of sports celebrations that elicits pyromania? Is it the remote memory of congregating around fire in our ancestral past? It must be, for one partier hangs by his right arm from a tree on the sidewalk as if he were a shaved version of Australopithecus, while others try to shake him down like a coconut. More than a few succumb to such primal urges, striking parking signs as if the slabs of metal had insulted their mother. One inebriated soul repeatedly runs shoulder-first into the transparent, plastic side of a bus stop, egged on by onlookers. A roar suggests that he eventually broke the pane. A parking meter felled. A luggage store looted. Padlocked bicycles smashed and twisted. Cars overturned - one with the driver still inside - as the perpetrators are cheered on like heroes. For the rowdies who had to go to felonious lengths to make their celebration worthwhile, the Phillies victory was merely a trigger on a starting pistol for civil disobedience, a sanction for low-level anarchy. Particularly in Philadelphia, it's easy to realize how important sports is - we live and breathe vicariously through it - but it's harder to realize that sports ultimately isn't all that important: It doesn't tangibly alter our condition. It just gives some of us the opportunity to indulge our inner beast. Had the 1986-87 Flyers - a team I lived and died with as a 20-year-old - won Game 7, perhaps I may have indulged some adolescent need to wreak havoc. But then, how much long-suppressed anger and frustration can a 20-year-old truly have? From what I witnessed, a lot- although many of these disturbers of the peace were far too young to feel the full brunt of life's traumas and frustrations. I certainly have a lot more to be angered and frustrated by at 41 than I did in my 20s. These post-game shenanigans had nothing to do with the local baseball team winning the World Series and everything to do with bloodlust. Because, for some, sports isn't about entertainment - it's about anger, frustration, and anonymity. Maybe I'm too old to revel in the moment, but the most satisfying instant of public celebration proved far less dramatic than all of the screaming and burning and vandalizing: Returning to my car, another fan, also donning a Phillies cap, walked toward me. Without breaking stride, we spontaneously and silently high-fived as we passed. That split-second felt more genuine and worthy of the moment than any of the run-amok antics of Broad Street. Randy S. Robbins lives in Margate.

A tip of my hat to Mr.Robbins

[Guest Edgy DC]

I hope his car isn't overturned in its Margate driveway this morning.

[Zvon]

Edgy DC wrote: I hope his car isn't overturned in its Margate driveway this morning.

I deny everything and demand proof.

[Willets Point]

Sorry, this is Phillies related, but this is hella-cute.