Met-Loving Big Shots 2010

[ashie62]

Not sure she is qualified but she is a Metsie.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Sawx rookie Felix Doubront, making his Gotham debut this weekend in the Bronx, fessed up to being a Mets fan while growing up in the Dominican Republic.

[seawolf17]

Add Julian Casablancas, leader of The Strokes, to the list?

http://www.gigwise.com/news/57852/The-Strokes-Julian-Casablancas-Wants-To-Write-New-York-Mets-Theme

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Yeah, I think Casablancas has been confirmed for a few years now, at least. Even roped in a bunch of the bandmates for a while, I think.

[metirish]

Updated pix of bigshot Mets fan holidaying in Hawaii

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I don't know, but I think it's possible this guy may be a Mets fan.



Bonus fun fact: He's "E" of EPMD, which stood for Erick and Parish Making Dollars.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

He's a Long Islander, so it fits.

Incidentally, I would so not mind "Don't Sweat the Technique" discplacing TCB as the Citi victory moozak.

[G-Fafif]

[crossout]Jeff[/crossout] James Blake, representin' after first-round U.S. Open victory.



When I'm cursing out the tennis tournament for usurping Flushing Meadows, he is excepted.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Jeff or James?

[G-Fafif]

Shoot, even I knew he was James Blake. Must have had Frenchy on the brain.

Also, the little sign that says JAMES BLAKE is a tremendous hint.

[HahnSolo]

Looks like a young Omar nervously answering a query from the NY media.

[G-Fafif]

LaDainian Tomlinson spotted wearing one of these on Hard Knocks.



Rex Ryan did not walk by and comment, "Nice fuckin' hat!"

[bmfc1]

From Adam Rubin:

Here's an interesting press conference turn with James Blake at the U.S. Open by Citi Field ...

You have the Mets cap on. Should Manuel go?

"Man, I don't know. I don't want to start a feud with them."

Talk as a fan.

"As a fan, I'd love to see some change because the last couple years have been rough. I like the guys. [Jose] Reyes, [David] Wright, [Carlos] Beltran, [Johan] Santana has had a great year, just such hard luck. He has no run support. I think it might be time for a change. Hopefully they can have a better year next year."

Who do you see as manager?

"I don't know. I'm a tennis player, not a baseball player. I don't know who is the best candidate. But maybe it's time for a change. We'll see."

[G-Fafif]

Roughly the same answers Wally Backman gave the Post.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Is he in the doubles draw with Dykstra this year?

[G-Fafif]

Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce head of accounts Pete Campbell in Lane Pryce's office:



CFO Lane Pryce:

[G-Fafif]

Aging MLB stars who grew up adoring the Mets edition. Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo modeled his leg kick on the ace of his favorite childhood team, Dwight Gooden. Knew about A-Rod, didn't know about Damon.

Arroyo�s Leg Kick Reaches Back to �86 By TYLER KEPNER As the Mets play out the schedule of another forgettable season, their younger fans might not realize just how dynamic, and influential, their team was in the mid-1980s. For proof, they can look at three stars of today. The Detroit Tigers� Johnny Damon wears No. 18 because Darryl Strawberry wore it for the Mets. The Yankees� Alex Rodriguez wears white spikes in every All-Star Game because Keith Hernandez and other Mets did so in their day. And the pitcher with one of the most unusual deliveries in baseball, Bronson Arroyo of the Cincinnati Reds, said he learned his signature leg kick by trying to imitate Dwight Gooden. Like Damon and Rodriguez, Arroyo grew up in Florida before the state had major league teams. The Mets� games were broadcast on cable � Channel 9 � and often shown on NBC�s game of the week. Arroyo caught the bug. �Living on Big Pine Key in �86, that was one of the few teams we could see once in a while,� Arroyo said. �My parents loved the Mets, and I already knew that Dwight Gooden was from Tampa. It�s weird, when I first played for the Red Sox, I was thinking back to �86 and how happy my family was, and I had no idea the devastation that was going on up there.� Arroyo, 33, was a steal for the Red Sox, but they lost him just as easily. Three years after grabbing Arroyo off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2003, the Red Sox traded him to the Reds for outfielder Wily Mo Pena. Arroyo has been a standout for Cincinnati, where photographers often capture him at a freakish point in his delivery. Arroyo lifts his left leg like a Rockette, as if it is the minute hand on a watch pointed at 10 o�clock. Gooden lifted his knee high, but the stiff-leg move seems to be uniquely Arroyo�s. �I really didn�t realize it was such a different leg kick than anyone else�s until I started seeing it on film in the rookie league,� Arroyo said. �Like in high school, I knew I had a decent high leg kick, but in my mind my foot is not out there. In my mind, my leg is in the same place everyone else�s is.� Arroyo is 6 feet 5 inches, and his foot reaches about head high. He acknowledges it is not the kind of mechanics one would teach a young pitcher, but he is athletic enough to pull it off. Also, Arroyo said, his father would have corrected him if he had noticed Bronson rocking back when his leg went up. In Class AA, Arroyo said, a coach tried to make him lift his leg like everyone else, keeping the knee bent. The concern was that Arroyo would not keep his back straight and lose his balance, which would throw off his arm slot. But the alteration did not take. �By the third inning I was absolutely toast,� Arroyo said. �Because without realizing it, I could just use the momentum of my foot and it�s totally relaxed. Other people have to use their hip flexor to pick up their leg, but the momentum of my foot takes my leg up and down, and it relaxes and just falls. It�s less effort than what a lot of other people are doing, but it looks like it�s more effort.� The photographic evidence would contradict that, right? Who else but Arroyo can contort his leg into that position while delivering a pitch? Arroyo has seen the photographers� snapshots, but he tries to ignore them. �Oh, they take �em all the time,� Arroyo said. �It messes with my head.�

[Benjamin Grimm]

Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce head of accounts Pete Campbell in Lane Pryce's office: CFO Lane Pryce:

I just watched that episode last night. During that scene, my eyes were riveted on that banner. Dig that crazy font! Given Mad Men's reputation for attention to details, I suppose that's a real style that was available in 1964.

Lane Pryce is a Brit. Imagine a time when people would move to this country and root for the Mets. Now the world is blanketed in Yankees caps.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I think the Mets banner in Lane's office was a clue that he'd been hanging out with Ken Creswell. What's his name who hates Ken is obviously a MFY fan.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Lane Pryce is a Brit. Imagine a time when people would move to this country and root for the Mets. Now the world is blanketed in Yankees caps.

Mr. Grimm? There's a Mr. Irish for you on line one. Shall I take a message?

[Benjamin Grimm]

I know there are exceptions... but Yankee fandom has infested the planet.

[G-Fafif]

Ken Cosgrove attended at least two Mets game we know of in Seasons Two and Three. The meeting in Lane's office regards Ken coming to the new firm. which is why Pete Campbell, who considers Ken a rival, appears so pissy. My theory is Ken and Lane schmoozed about it at Shea (early May of '65) using Birdseye's seats and then retired to the Charcoal Room to toast their tentative deal.

From Leonard Koppett's The New York Mets: The Whole Story:

As the list of subscribers grew, the Charcoal Room on the fourth level at Shea became a nightspot in its own right. After a night game, it became the scene of an impromptu party [...] In addition to the stadium organ, there was one in the Charcoal Room, at the end of the long bar, and Jane [Jarvis] would play that for a while after the game. The sing-alongs would echo far into the night sometimes...

As for the pennant, I have a display board of miniature Mets pennants from (mostly) the 1960s and the first one is the one in Lane's office, listed on the board as representing 1962. Would the Mets still be selling it in 1965? Or maybe Lane bought it downstairs from Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce's Time & Life Building offices at a 30 Rock gift shop that sells NYC trinkets. That's where I purchased my favorite 1986 World Champions pennant.

Important thing is Mad Men captures the Zeitgeist of its period correctly: The Mets.

Pete is old New York money (though his father went through it all before dying in a plane crash). Other than pestering Hollis the reticent Negro elevator operator over what kind of television he bought (it was Pete's clumsy attempt at market research) and Pete protesting that you must watch baseball, he's never betrayed any particular team allegiance. It would be easy to assume Pete would have MFY leanings (though he's the only consistently forward-thinking character on the show), but he's never mentioned it one way or the other. Of course going back as far as he does in Manhattan, it's quite possible he comes from a long line of old Giants fans.

Or, better yet, Cubans fans. See, Pete's mother's family is the Dyckmans, the uptown aristocrats who gave us the Dyckman Oval, onetime home of the same Negro League team whose uniforms the Mets occasionally sport as an overdue tribute to one of their NYC predecessors.

[G-Fafif]

Politico New York beat reporter Maggie Haberman does not wish to be portrayed as a criminal and is illustrated, instead, as a decent citizen of Gotham.

[bmfc1]

From Survivor, it's Rob Cesternino:

http://www.hallofverygood.com/2010/09/friday-5-rob-cesternino.html

[Frayed Knot]

Also writer John Feinstein. Claims he's always been one.

[G-Fafif]

Jim Thome loved a Met, even if he came to him between Met stints.

Call him Kong79...

There was no other route for a kid who grew up loving Dave Kingman. The Thomes of Peoria had lived for baseball for two generations. Jim's father, Chuck, hit line drives; teams paid Chuck a few bucks under the table to smack liner after liner in the old fast-pitch softball Outlaw League. The Thomes were avowed Cubs fans (in Peoria it was Cubs or Cardinals), and Chuck was strictly a Bill Buckner man. Buckner almost never struck out and he almost never hit home runs�he cracked line drives that split outfielders and rolled into the ivy walls. "Watch Billy Buck," Chuck would tell his youngest son when they made the trip to Wrigley Field. "That's a hitter." But the youngest son did not want to watch Billy Buck, not when King Kong was out there. Dave Kingman was everything that Bill Buckner was not. He was enormous (6'6", 210 pounds) and he struck out unapologetically, and he almost never hit line drives. Instead he hit towering home runs that were like tourist attractions. "I don't know," Jim says when asked why Kingman was his favorite player. "I didn't really hit home runs back then. I wasn't really all that big then. I mean, it was just cool to watch the way he hit those long home runs out onto Waveland Avenue. That's all. I guess I didn't think about it too much." There's an oft-told Thome parable, about the time his family took him to a Cubs game, and he wanted only to get Kingman's autograph. Kingman was not available�he seemed to take pride in his rare talent for not being available when little kids wanted his autograph�but eight-year-old Jim was not the sort to give up easily. He somehow wandered into the clubhouse in search of Kong. A few minutes later Cubs catcher Barry Foote carried Jim out of the clubhouse and back to his parents. "Is this yours?" he asked. The story is usually told with the obvious lesson�Thome has been one of the most accommodating of players throughout his career. He signs autographs, and he is endlessly patient with requests and always has time for teammates. But Thome insists that his brush with Kingman didn't teach him to treat people the way you would want to be treated; he learned that from his family and from the people in Peoria. Watching Kingman taught him something simpler. Swing hard. Don't overthink. Don't fill your brain up with stuff. Jim Thome learned from Dave Kingman that it must be a lot of fun to hit long home runs.

[Guest Edgy DC]

That's not, strictly speaking, a parable, so much as an anecdote.

[G-Fafif]

Homer Simpson, from last night's baseball-themed Simpsons episode, "MoneyBART".

�The �69 Mets will live on forever, but do you think anyone cares about Ron Swoboda�s wife and kids? Not me � and I assume not Ron Swoboda.�

[G-Fafif]

Don Draper, called in for an interview at Citi Field, possibly getting the Mets account.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Promoting his new movie, Billy Joel does some dubious tapdancing.

"When I was a kid, I was a Dodgers fan," Joel says. "But when they left for L.A. I became a Yankees fan for a while. Then when the Mets came, I went back to the National League. And you know, it's easier to be a Yankees fan than to be a Mets fan. To be a Mets fan, you really need dedication and commitment."