Hofstra 50th Anniversary Conference

[Ceetar]

yeah. the morning sessions were more populated, but not 'crowded' by any means.

And I'm pretty sure I border on being the youngest person there. (not counting the actual students milling around in the halls of course)

Greg's doing a great job as liaison or participant or moderator or whatever it is he's doing. He's all over the place.

[stevejrogers]

Sorry...can't resist the urge...

ehem...that's why Greg is a Prince of a guy!

(ducks)

=

[G-Fafif]

Nice CPF turnout for the first day: JCL nailed Seaver coming and going, Ceetar lent his Optimism to the lunchtime bullpen session, batmags brought me the most thoughtful of Met talismans and I listened to a 46-pitch bottom of the ninth in what amounted to class-cutting. Looking forward to Seawolf joining the fun Saturday and regret that he, Cee and I will be on simultaneously.

In non-CPFness, great panel of veteran sportswriters and broadcasters sang Casey Stengel's praises; two 1962 historians and John Thorn did the same. Some dude was at the same game I was where Dave Kingman hit three homers at Shea for the Cubs, but unlike me, he caught one of the balls and made a stalking sideline out of it. Lots of enthusiasm and a plethora of insight all around. Good bleeping conference that promises to maintain its high standard the rest of the way.

If you happen to be in the area, plenty of good seats are still available!

[Ceetar]

I was actually disappointed by my afternoon conference. How'd I end up in the Yankee fan one? hmm..

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Ceetar wrote:

Thanks for the support guys! I thought I did pretty good considering how unprepared I felt.But for whatever reason I wasn't even a little nervous and given my expectations I was pleased with the attendance.

I loved the Dave Kingman guy. And the first guy in my session probably shouldn't have read his whole paper but I thought made a great case for the "Midnight Massacre" being a moment when the fan expectations of ownership of sporting teams in general reached an inflection point. Great insight into the Seaver-Grant dynamic.

This was my first viewing of that Met documentary and I have to say I don't feel that the characters they chose to follow necessarily deserved the sympathetic treatment they got, and I'm not sure what I did to deserve to have to watch them for as long as I stuck it out. I couldn't stay till the Miniknight part, so no reflection on that but the "girls" and their behavior sort of embarrassed me. It was creepy and I'm not sure it was supposed to be.

[Edgy MD]

Get your presentation on video?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I don't know. They had a camera up there at first but they took it away.

[DocTee]

Getting some national press. From AP (via SF Gate):

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/04/27/national/a062512D82.DTL&tsp=1

[Ceetar]

straight from the press release, but that's cool. I love they included the pronunciation of Hempstead.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Are you not supposed to pronounce the P in Hempstead? If so, I've been saying it wrong for decades although I rarely speak aloud about Hempstead.

[Ceetar]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Are you not supposed to pronounce the P in Hempstead? If so, I've been saying it wrong for decades although I rarely speak aloud about Hempstead.

beats me. I think I usually sneak the p in there too.

[G-Fafif]

Ed Kranepool not thrilled Mets traded Jerry Koosman for "Jerry Orosco". Added "Joey Foy" skipped around the clubhouse high on something and we traded Amos Otis to get him. Rusty Staub not impressed by Mets' acquisition of Ellis Valentine.

When old players badmouth other old players -- value-added material.

[batmagadanleadoff]

G-Fafif wrote: Rusty Staub not impressed by Mets' acquisition of Ellis Valentine.

Nor was Rusty impressed that between relievers Jeff Reardon and Neil Allen, Reardon was the one traded for Valentine.

Eddie K noted that the two best centerfielders in the AL were Paul Blair and Amos Otis, and the Mets traded both of them, getting nothing in return.

Eddie K also said that the Reds shouldn't have been allowed to dictate to the Mets who they'd give up to acquire Seaver. The Mets should have dictated the terms of any trade for Seaver.

[G-Fafif]

Essentially, Eddie K was on fire.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Eddie K (who, these days, is looking more and more like fellow Bronxer Robert Klein) is too old to give a damn what anybody thinks about him. Especially dead people.

[Edgy MD]

The problem is that he's doing great in hindsight, and while I have no doubt that between his tenure in baseball and securities, he has some idea of valuation, we have no idea what kind of executive he'd've made. Because he was either disinterested in joining a front office at the entry level --- area scout level he'd probably initially get offered --- or he was too much a crank to be attractive to teams.

A generation later, his r�sum� --- 17 years in baseball followed by 10 in finance by the time he was a still-young 44 --- would have made him a great candidate for an assistant GM post.

[Ceetar]

why is this so tiny?

[Ceetar]

[Ceetar]

And I realize now that I've left I meant to say hello to seawolf and forgot. oops.

[Edgy MD]

Ceetar wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: Are you not supposed to pronounce the P in Hempstead? If so, I've been saying it wrong for decades although I rarely speak aloud about Hempstead. beats me. I think I usually sneak the p in there too.

The South Hempstead kids who went to my high school referred to themselves as "Hempers," not "Hemmers."

[batmagadanleadoff]

The New Yorker




The Sporting Scene
Dispatches from the playing fields by New Yorker writers.



April 27, 2012
The Mets Go to School
Posted by Seth Berkman

On Thursday, Hofstra University kicked off a three-day academic conference celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the New York Mets. Inside the Sondra and David S. Mack Student Center�which has previously hosted scholarly conferences on chocolate, James Bond, and U.S. Presidents�a mix of professors, journalists, and season-ticket holders discussed the cultural relevance of the beleaguered franchise. The lineup of topics included �The Mets and Judaism,� �The Mets and Hispanic Fans,� and �The New York Mets as Punk Rock.� Aside from the occasional attempt to draw parallels between the careers of say, the bassist Dee Dee Ramone and catcher Choo-Choo Coleman, a number of the papers focussed on the Mets� symbiotic relationship with the written word. Steve Amarnick, an English professor at Kingsborough Community College, opened with �A Long Journey: Teaching Homer�s Odyssey and the Mets.� The franchise is currently navigating its own journey of adventure and despair, driven off course by financial turmoil (the team�s owners, the Wilpons, were sued for a billion dollars for their alleged involvement in the Bernie Madoff scandal); injuries (first baseman Ike Davis was recently diagnosed with �Valley Fever,� a fungal infection predominately found in desert regions of the Southwest); and epic collapses on the field (blowing a seven-game lead with seventeen games to play in 2007, and lackluster play since). Perhaps the most stinging evidence of their recent ineptitude occurred last December, when Jose Reyes, the homegrown All-Star shortstop, signed with the Miami Marlins for a hundred and six million dollars. The Mets did not even offer Reyes a contract, letting him simply be wooed away by the Sirens of South Beach. This week, as Amarnick was finishing his presentation, Reyes was just a thirty-minute drive away, closing out his first series at Citi Field as a member of the visiting team. Judy Van Sickle Johnson, a former English teacher at Phillips Academy, presented �Literature, the New York Mets, and the Tug of Baseball.� She summed up Reyes�s return with a local literary comparison: It�s a little like Jay Gatsby seeing Daisy Buchanan again�the woman he loved so passionately and innocently in his youth, hated losing, and now she�s back in his life, as beautiful as ever. But she doesn�t really want him anymore, and he can�t have her. It�s a bittersweet experience�the love he feels for her is still genuine and it�s still there, but his affection is mixed with the ache of longing and the sting of loss. In �The Great Gatsby,� Fitzgerald described a stretch of wasteland along West Egg as a �valley of ashes.� Since 1964, the Mets have called that spot home. In Reyes�s absence, many Mets fans have turned their affection toward R. A. Dickey, a knuckleball pitcher with a scruffy beard and a slight Southern drawl. Dickey was particularly adored among the literary types at the Hofstra conference: he majored in English literature at the University of Tennessee, recently named one of his bats �Hrunting,� after Beowulf�s sword, and has a new memoir memoir out, titled �Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball.� Currently, we hear, Dickey is reading �Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman,� by Haruki Murakami, and two months ago he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, inspired an Ernest Hemingway short story. Earlier in the week, Dickey lamented that he could not attend the conference�the Mets flew out to Colorado late on Thursday evening�and talked about the influence Hemingway had on his own book. �I think one of the keys to writing is who can say the most while writing the least,� he said. Dickey can relate: he�s been the Mets� most reliable pitcher during the past two seasons, despite boasting an arsenal of just two pitches�a knuckleball and fastball. �Hemingway mastered that. Most of what he wrote could resonate with the human condition and he draws from that deeply.� Among the other highlights of the day was the panel � �Metsmobilia� and Mascots,� moderated by Mike Cesarano, who once donned a Mr. Met replica costume at Shea Stadium in the mid-nineties. The beloved, gigantic baseball-headed mascot has become a symbol of the franchise, but the audience learned that he was not the team�s first mascot. That honor belongs to Homer the Beagle, a dog that was trained to run around the bases after each home run. Homer received rave reviews during rehearsals, but suffered from stage fright during his first live game action, trotting instead out to center field. Sadly, he was never heard from again. In 1979, the Mets failed once again with live animals: Mettle the Mule only lasted a season. During lunch, a panel of Mets bloggers held a Q. & A., which felt more like a group-therapy session. Mark Simon, a stats specialist at ESPN, told a story of missing his train to Connecticut after the Mets lost Game 7 of the 2006 N.L.C.S. Still lamenting Carlos Beltran�s strikeout to end the series, Simon passed the time by repeatedly yelling, �Why didn�t he swing?� in a bathroom in Grand Central Station. As Thursday wound down, a small group gathered in a lounge to watch the conclusion of the afternoon game against the Marlins. The Mets came from behind in the bottom of the ninth to win. They finished the day with a record of 11-8, better than expected. Still, no one was making plans for the World Series yet. Amarnick offered one last reference to Homer: �The monsters�the cloud of Bernie Madoff�are gone and won�t be eating them up any more. Right now, the Mets are finding their way back home. They�re not back yet, there�s a ways to go, but they�re getting closer.�

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2012/04/the-mets-go-to-school.html#ixzz1tOpjzrny

[G-Fafif]

Third day so good that I was sorry to realize the whole thing was ending, which is saying something because the planning portion made me long for the moment it would be over. I guess Hofstra spinning off a Mets College would be too much to ask for.

Meeting Seawolf a definite highlight though I cursed the fates that kept me from sitting in on his presentation as well as Ceetar's (though I was glad to have Cee among the bloggers who graciously made each lunchtime an event with our bullpen sessions). Batmags was a joy to touch base with time and again throughout the proceedings. Can't believe it took me like 20 guesses to figure out the 1992 road uniform he was wearing under his jacket revealed the name on the back as...MAGADAN. It was a long three days.

On one hand I wish most every Mets fan in creation could have partaken of this...and in my head I was editing every slight historical inaccuracy I heard from the podium...and I was figuring out how the logistics could have been improved (for what -- the 51st anniversary conference?)...and I wondered what more I could have done to attract attention to it...but honestly (save for terribly missing Dana Brand about every ten minutes), I wouldn't change a thing about it now.

[Ceetar]

I think I missed that batmags was there at all.

attracting more attention to it would've been if the Mets themselves had gotten involved. Although I don't really know how that works, particularly since it was an away game. But talking about it on SNY, or if the couple of major news places that did talk about it had done so before it started.

I don't know if you were still there, but after the lunch (or before?) we were talking about how it's basically halfway to Fan Fest already. Set up some podiums on the Shea footprint, set up some booths, and away we go.

Anyway, it was fun. You did a good job keeping everyone involved during the lunch sessions, although I know you had other topics and I think you underestimated how long we all can go on and on and on about certain things.

my panel q/a somehow broke down into a "Gil should be in the Hall!" discussion and then a "Wilpons love the Dodgers!" also they all wanted the Mets to bring back Old Timers day.

[ashie62]

Was the conference more academic or anecdotal?

[seawolf17]

I only caught the end -- from lunch yesterday through my panel -- but what I saw was 75% "anecdotal," 25% "academic." But that was just a small percentage of the overall package.

My only issue was the cost, really. I feel like this could have, should have been so much bigger, and maybe could have been if it was free, or maybe just a couple of bucks.

That said, I was THRILLED to have been included, happy to see that Greg actually exists outside of the interwebs, and happy to put a face with a username for batmags. Saw Ceetar on the lunch panel, but forgot to say hello afterwards. JCL stopped into my session, which was fun, and posted a photo of me presenting, which was cool.

I wish I had been able to make more of it; everybody was really, really nice and we had some great discussions in that short amount of time.

[Ceetar]

well where's this photo then?! I posted photos of everyone I saw! ;-)

I remembered when I was 20 minutes away, remarked to my wife that I'd forgotten I'd wanted to say hi, mentioned you're the one that sent me the Lucas Duda card from Stonybrook and she said "Oh, you mean the guy in the seawolves jacket?" doh.

[Ceetar]

and yeah, I'd say more anecdotal than academic. Although those lines can be blurred a bit when we're talking about the Mets I suppose. JCL's was more academic, mine was mixed. There was a lot of "this is my story of becoming/being a Mets fan" which aren't necessarily bad, but not necessarily interesting either.

One of the more interesting one was the guy on before JCL who is basically a Dave Kingman stalker/groupie/fan and recounted some funny stories about it.

[G-Fafif]

Ashie62 wrote: Was the conference more academic or anecdotal?

I think a lot of the presentations were intended with academic aspirations (and some stuck to them) but the tone in general shifted to the anecdotal by Saturday. Which was fine...it was Saturday, and it was the Mets.

I gave my talk a slightly hifalutin title -- "The Shared Mets Fan Language: How Mets Fans Speak to One Another" -- and tried to keep it in a fairly academic context, citing the following:

� Recurring Precedent
� Proprietary Nostalgia
� Unbroken Family Tradition
� Media Griots
� Positive Self-Image

But when you're talking about Casey Stengel shouting "Viva La France!" for Danny Napoleon and reciting the lyrics to the Rheingold jingle, it's hard to be too terribly tweedy about the whole thing.

Academic or anecdotal, I had the hell impressed out of me by just about every presenter.

[Edgy MD]

I dreamed of putting together a presentation on Kingman, referencing turning points in his career, psychological papers, anecdotes of baseball instructors, and data on career arcs --- making the case that if a team studied up on the archetypal psyche of the insecure giant, they would be able to coax the Hall of Fame career out of the next Kingman that came along.

[stevejrogers]

From the, gee I should have asked this back on Wednesday department, any chance any of the panels were recorded for Hofstra's library, and possible non-student/employee viewing?