Gridiron Mets

[G-Fafif]

Two Mets-related football notes I picked up over the weekend:

1) University of South Florida quarterback Bobby Eveld -- true freshman walk-on who led the Bulls to their glorious victory over Miami last week after an injury to starter B.J. Daniels -- was the Mets' 50th-round and final pick of the June 2010 amateur draft.

Athletic enough that he was drafted by the Mets as a catcher, he chose football and USF, liking the coaching staff and the chance to play close to home, but still on a major stage.

Had the Mets still trained in St. Pete, I don't see how he could have passed up baseball.

2) Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum long ago played a role in grooming Mets minor leaguers...or at least their path to stardom.

Tannenbaum's career path began one mile up the road at Wahconah Park with the Class-A Pittsfield Mets of the New York-Penn League. He raked the infield, put cheese on the nachos, and did just about anything else as an unpaid intern. He worked through the night so that he could work all day for free.

His night job was at the post office. When he figured out precisely the moment he had made enough money to reimburse a local family for the $200 rent he owed them, he slotted his last letter, and walked out.

According to UMDB, the only future Met on the 1991 Pittsfield club -- the team for which Tannenbaum interned -- was Ricky Otero, but two others made the bigs: Hector Carrasco and Quilvio Veras. Also on hand was future Met minor league manager Tony Tijerina.

[Guest Edgy DC]

A lot of guys, it seems, have to choose between catching and quarterbacking.

Mike Piazza: not one of them.