IGT 8/2/2011: FLA @ NYM: A Fish Best Served Reheated

[Guest Edgy DC]

Problem with leading off with Paulino is that he's your baserunner now.

Beats not having a baserunner, of course.

I don't know if we're going to pinch-run for him, but I'll plotz if we sent up a pinch-hitter for Nickeas just to order a bunt.

[Frayed Knot]

OK, now I go Murphy for Nickeas then hope Pridie can keep it alive for Reyes.
If Muffy gets on I'd even OK a sac bunt with Pridie


Most logical PR might be Niese which you could do since Thole is still unused.
Might wait until he moved up a base or two first before I pulled that.

[Piggiestomatoes]

Murphy's still on the bench.

[Fman99]

Good call, Niese runs for Paulino and Thole is standing by to catch if needed. Pridie in the on-deck circle.

[Fman99]

Aw, dang.

[Frayed Knot]

Of course if you're going to tap back to the pitcher all the strategy in the world won't matter.

[HahnSolo]

Why the fuck can we never beat the Marlins?

[Guest themetfairy]

Stupid Mets....

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

HahnSolo wrote: Why the fuck can we never beat the Marlins?

They're better than we are.

[Fman99]

Well that fucking sucked.

[Piggiestomatoes]

The Not Ready for Prime Time Players - 2011 version.

[bmfc1]

Four awful games in a row. All could have gone either way but the Mets found a way to lose each one.

[Gwreck]

This one was pretty atrocious. Turner's play was to home and he is rightfully the goat (even if he got the 1 out, the game would probably still be tied), but as Lunchbucket rightfully said, walking and hitting guys with a 1 run lead in the 9th doesn't lead to good things and Isringhausen has a lot to answer for.

I'm sure we all would like Isringhausen to get that 300th save but we are playing for the future here and I see no reason why Parnell shouldn't be closing games to get experience in that role, for whatever that's worth.

---

On a side note, at the end of the last homestand, I was struck by how, following the seventh inning stretch Mr. Met and the "Party Patrol" just stood around, clapped and waved to the fans. I knew something was "off" about it but it took me a second to realize that what they are usually doing at that point is throwing and shooting T-Shirts into the crowd. Since it was a one-time thing, I thought: maybe they ran out of shirts. Maybe they forgot to fill the CO2 canisters for the t-shirt guns.

Yet tonight, the same thing happened. Given the Mets' financial situation, I don't think it's unfair to ask if they stopped shooting t-shirts in the 7th inning because they're too cheap to do it twice a game.

[Guest themetfairy]

Last night there were Mets employees throwing t-shirts on the Excelsior level by hand, without a gun.

I don't know if any shirts were distributed on other levels.

[MFS62]

Frayed Knot wrote: Of course if you're going to tap back to the pitcher all the strategy in the world won't matter.

Wayne Hagin's call of that play was pure torture, all (what seemed like) 6,000 extraneous words of it. It ended with what I thought sounded like "and Murphy is caught at first".
Memo to Wayne: It wasn't a fucking tag play.

Later

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Took some new-to-baseball NYC visitors to the game along with a few of my in-laws, and ended up sitting for most of it in the BJ Clubhouse (our flies stayed buttoned) next to a couple of visitors from Tampa (who were surprised to be impressed by Pagan's play, and the arms of Acosta and Parnell).

That Izzy came out for the ninth at all seemed more than a little ridiculous to all the Met fans in our party, considering that both Rocket Boy and Beato were available, and that Izzy had gone long and badly the previous night.

All in all, a great night of baseball and baseball conversatin' (teaching rules to my left, talking Metspectations and Tampa's blueprint-for-the-future to my right) spoiled by the baseball.

[Lefty Specialist]

themetfairy wrote: Last night there were Mets employees throwing t-shirts on the Excelsior level by hand, without a gun. I don't know if any shirts were distributed on other levels.

I think they've quietly dispensed with the guns. After the Texas incident, they don't want anyone falling over a railing trying to get a crummy t-shirt. They're just throwing them now.

[Gwreck]

They still shoot them in the 5th inning.

[Ceetar]

Lefty Specialist wrote: themetfairy wrote: Last night there were Mets employees throwing t-shirts on the Excelsior level by hand, without a gun. I don't know if any shirts were distributed on other levels. I think they've quietly dispensed with the guns. After the Texas incident, they don't want anyone falling over a railing trying to get a crummy t-shirt. They're just throwing them now.

yeah, they've been throwing them in the promenade too. I don't like giving up the guns for one mistake. seems silly to me, don't lean over the railings!

[Guest Edgy DC]

And in case people didn't read your post right before they made a stupid drunken decision that's the worst of their soon-to-end lives, it doesn't seem all that big a loss to me to do away with tee-shirt ballistics. It's certainly not one mistake.

Let's not get too big on the nanny-state kick. We've learned to live with batting helmets on the coaches, fences in front of the dugouts, beer cut-offs after the seventh, and smoke-free airlines, and someday shortly in the future, we'll see tee-shirt guns as a quaint anachronism.

Or not, and they'll be brought back. But many innovations in the game have been against nanny-statism. Integrated ball, facial hair, baseball on Sunday. There's push and pull, but we generally evolve toward the reasonable, I think.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: And in case people didn't read your post right before they made a stupid drunken decision that's the worst of their soon-to-end lives, it doesn't seem all that big a loss to me to do away with tee-shirt ballistics. It's certainly not one mistake. Let's not get too big on the nanny-state kick. We've learned to live with batting helmets on the coaches, fences in front of the dugouts, beer cut-offs after the seventh, and smoke-free airlines, and someday shortly in the future, we'll see tee-shirt guns as a quaint anachronism. Or not, and they'll be brought back. But many innovations in the game have been against nanny-statism. Integrated ball, facial hair, baseball on Sunday. There's push and pull, but we generally evolve toward the reasonable, I think.

I'm not sure I want to go down the politic discussion you've brought this to. I have been known to be a little hypocritical in that regard (Despise the 4loko ban (well, not in NJ) but like the trans fat ban for instance). Still, the knee-jerk reactions to things bother me. One or two idiots fall, let's ban the t-shirt guns! Some terrorists attack, let's mix church and state at baseball games and strip search everyone getting on an airplane!


Of course it's push and pull. But if you discount the push as part of the cycle and don't pull back, you won't evolve towards reasonable over the long term. So I'm pulling.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Yeah, but one thing is a heart-disease-causing junk-food component... and the other is a t-shirt gun.

[Guest Edgy DC]

One or two idiots fall, let's ban the t-shirt guns!

Now it's "one or two."

And it's not about bannng, so much as a policy choice. No czar handed down an edict. No municipality handed down a law, so far as I know. A private organization made a policy decision. What skin is it off of anybody's nose really?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Shoulda banned those things after Maude Flanders died.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: One or two idiots fall, let's ban the t-shirt guns! Now it's "one or two." And it's not about bannng, so much as a policy choice. No czar handed down an edict. No municipality handed down a law, so far as I know. A private organization made a policy decision. What skin is it off of anybody's nose really?

i like the t-shirt cannons.

Is there really multiple incidents of people falling? Or is this simply an isolated incident that people are overreacting to? Or they worried that it might happen at Citi and they'd have bad press? Is this similar to "Someone might write something naughty on a banner, so we're not going to do banner day"?

[Guest Edgy DC]

I liked lawn darts. C'es la vie.

Look, as long as you're writing hyperbole like "let's mix church and state at baseball games and strip search everyone getting on an airplane!" I guess its futile to ask you to back up and take some perspective, but come on.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: I liked lawn darts. C'es la vie. Look, as long as you're writing hyperbole like "let's mix church and state at baseball games and strip search everyone getting on an airplane!" I guess its futile to ask you to back up and take some perspective, but come on.

I'm not sure the severity of the event is the point here. (also, you're the one that started in on the Nanny state thing) I was pretty annoyed when Jamba Juice took kiwi juice off their menu too.



Obviously it's not a big deal. But I don't like it. It seems reactionary and panicky. And it's probably not actually less dangerous to throw the things. the Promenade's still kinda steep, and sure they won't fall as far..

[Frayed Knot]

Not to spoil a silly argument or anything ... but a minor fact is getting left out of this discussion

Gwreck wrote: They still shoot them in the 5th inning.

THEY HAVEN'T BANNED THE GUNS!!!!

[Ceetar]

Frayed Knot wrote: Not to spoil a silly argument or anything ... but a minor fact is getting left out of this discussion Gwreck wrote: They still shoot them in the 5th inning. THEY HAVEN'T BANNED THE GUNS!!!!

semantics.

I heard someone else say they banned them. I don't remember seeing them when I was there, buti was distracted by them suddenly throwing them in teh promenade.

fine, let's go back to talking about Collins' bullpen usage.

[Lefty Specialist]

Frayed Knot wrote: Not to spoil a silly argument or anything ... but a minor fact is getting left out of this discussion Gwreck wrote: They still shoot them in the 5th inning. THEY HAVEN'T BANNED THE GUNS!!!!

I was there on 7/18 and they didn't shoot them in the 5th or any other inning.