Ultimate Mets Rum-Based Cocktails

[Benjamin Grimm]

I got a kick out of this, from Mark Simon's ESPN article about Eric Hillman:

Hillman, who lives in Denver and turned 45 on Wednesday, is self-deprecating about his career and his height. He noted that the best thing about being 6-foot-10 is being the first to know that someone else is balding. He also jokes that his company's product �is as natural as the tears Mets fans shed every time I pitched.� But he did go on the message board at the popular fan site �Ultimate Mets Database� when a couple of posters criticized his pitching ability. Hillman even contacted one who claimed that Hillman ignored him when asked for an autograph, and the two spoke at length on the phone. Hillman wants Mets fans to remember him in a positive manner, like one fan he met at Mets Fantasy Camp a few years ago, who thanked him for bringing him into the Mets' dugout as a little kid.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Plus, he left a nice note on Hojo's page:

Eric Hillman April 23, 2002 I played with Howard briefly for a few years. Briefly because I didn't last very long in NY. Coming into the clubhouse for the 1st time in 92 was pretty intimidating. Willie Randolph, Eddie Murray, Doc etc... Howard was wide eyed and greeted me with an open smile and handshake. He did it with everyone on the team and really tried to make the big leagues a little more relaxing for the new guys. I just saw him a few months ago when we both worked the Mets fantasy camp. He's still in great shape and yet again, still greeted me with an open smile and hand shake. Some guys were born to be Mets!

[G-Fafif]

Query for BG: When do you expect to add scorecards for 2011 games? I've been linking to them in FAFIF's The Happiest Recap series because they're more fun and tell a more visual story than box scores. The Game 28 THR selection was from 2011 -- the 14-inning "U-S-A!" game (a late switch, obviously) -- so I had to content myself with a box score link for that game.

Just curious. (Like 49 years of designer scorecards aren't enough to satisfy everybody.)

[Benjamin Grimm]

The scorecards are generated from the Retrosheet play-by-play data, so I won't have the raw data necessary for the 2011 scorecards until after the season ends.

Sorry!

[G-Fafif]

Thanks. History will just have to be a little patient.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Lotsa hits for Bobby Bonilla over the last few days. Gotta be due to the recent attention his long-term payout has been receiving.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Holy crap... yesterday there was a seven-way tie.

[Ceetar]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Holy crap... yesterday there was a seven-way tie.

weird collection too.

Dale Thayer needs a picture.

[Edgy MD]

Alejandro Pena came up recently as one of the pitchers Dillon Gee tied at 6-0.

It's also the name of a guy in a celebrated Brazilian human rights case.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I've approved a shitload of fan memories in the last few days. A couple of references to fans being intimidated by the steep angle of the Upper Deck seats at Shea. I remember the same feeling as a kid when I first sat in the Upper Deck, and I'd still get a glimmer of that feeling as an adult, right up to my last visit to Shea in September 2008.

[Edgy MD]

The link takes me to the source code.

[Benjamin Grimm]

It should look like an RSS feed. Looks good to me in IE and Firefox.

[Edgy MD]

Chrome bad.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Ron Hodges G. Breen, August 18, 2011 This guy was a bum. I didn't think so until I read Darling's book. Ronnie was a rookie and this consistent .220 hitter that was practially giving away the signs at the plate (ask K. Hernandez), spits tobacco juice on Darling's leg. I used to like him until I did some research. I'm glad he was a career back-up now. Jerry Grote lives!

Anyone read Darling's book?

[Edgy MD]

Read a few chapters of it. Got the part where Hodges spit juice on his leg --- sort of his way of hazing the rookie flush in the pride of his spotless uniform. Didn't get to (or don't recall) anything about his tipping signs.

I had a college rommate named Gerard Breen. Watched the World Series clincher with him.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Did he seem like the kind of guy who would research reasons to dislike Ron Hodges?

[Edgy MD]

There was something there.

My dad picked me up and drove me home to Long Island once, and Gerry tagged along for the ride. Dad was a beat cop and picked up a lot of New York history along the way, and was occasionally prone to historic factoids. We passed the location of the hospital where Typhoid Mary spent the last decades of her life in quarantine, and dad told us Typhoid Mary's story.

Jerry gave a shrug and said "Hmmm, we should have just given her all the money in the bank and put her on a plane to Russia."

[Willets Point]

"Hey Rook! You think you look like hot stuff in your new uniform? Come over here a minute, I want to show you something."

Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhcckk-PTOOO!!![/bigpurple]

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Classic

[Willets Point]

I like the old Sheffield Ron Hodges photo better but it seems to have been expunged from the internet.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I must have a copy somewhere.

[seawolf17]

I don't remember which of you used that as an avatar pic at the CPF II (Edgy? Lunch?), but whoever it was, it took me about a year and a half to figure out that wasn't you.

[Edgy MD]

Isn't declaring that somebody "...lives!" what you do when somebody dies, or in the case of Frodo, when they're fictional? Because Jerry Grote, last I checked, actually does live.

(And I half think that Hodges learned that tobacco-spit thing from Grote.)

[Benjamin Grimm]

Another fresh batch of memories posted today.

[Ceetar]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Another fresh batch of memories posted today.

Including a non-positive one on Seaver. blegh.

I still don't understand what the "Rum-based Cocktails" is in reference to. I feel like I'm missing something, and want a daquiri.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I think the original title of this thread was "Ultimate Mets Dataqueries" which sounds like daiquiris...

[Ceetar]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I think the original title of this thread was "Ultimate Mets Dataqueries" which sounds like daiquiris...

That does make more sense. It's like a game of telephone that I missed the beginning of.

[Benjamin Grimm]

More memories posted today.

I had been kind of neglecting them for a while so there's a bunch there.

[Ceetar]

April 26, 2008 at Shea Stadium SHALPIN, October 19, 2011 YAY! Gustavo Molina makes his Mets debut!

some good ones.

[Benjamin Grimm]

More UMDB memories posted today.