Rico Brogna and the Long Sunset: Mets in Retirement, 2012

[Edgy MD]

Oh, there it is. It must be him. He transferred from CoSI.

[G-Fafif]

Benny Ayala remembers his big splash 39 years later.

Don�t rock the boat. Everyone was saying that in August 1974 � it was from one of the most popular songs that summer. I wanted more than anything to get called up and play for the New York Mets. I had 11 home runs, among the league leaders that year for AAA Tidewater, tops on my team. I felt I was ready. I didn�t speak up much that year, but when I was with my teammates, I would tell them how I felt, in the dugout, our small clubhouse, in the local bars of Norfolk, Va, where you could hear the song. Their response was always the same; you will get to New York very soon. Don't rock the boat. The whole organization was having a tough season. The parent club had just come off an amazing 1973, coming within a game of the World Championship against the Oakland A�s. The next year, the bullpen was much worse, Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman had off seasons. Jon Matlack may have been the best pitcher in baseball, but the bullpen and batting order let him down again and again. The team was really out of the pennant race by the middle of August. Soon it would be time for them to call up players from Tidewater. I tried to be as patient as possible, but it wasn�t easy. I arrived at Metropolitan Memorial Park in the early afternoon on August 27th, 1974. The ballpark was ideally located very close to the airport in Norfolk. This was the first thing on my mind right after my manager John Antonelli called me into his office. �Benny, you�re in the starting lineup for the Mets tonight,� he said, �There�s a plane ticket waiting for you at the airport to Queens. Go right now.� It was calling it very close for an 8:05 game time in New York. No cell phones to call loved ones from the car to let them know what�s happening. No time to grab my glove & favorite bats. Only time to shake my kind manager�s hand and offer a sincere �Thank you.� Antonelli shook my hand and pointed to the door. �Go now,� he smiled, �The game starts in four hours.�

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Nice job by Benny.

[Edgy MD]

He might've hit the homer before anybody in his family knew he was a big leaguer.

[batmagadanleadoff]

G-Fafif wrote: Benny Ayala remembers his big splash 39 years later.

Nice story.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Sitting in the Lowe's Broadcast Booth with John Sterling last night: CJ Nitkowski, subbing for Suzyn Waldman.

He wasn't so bad, deep voice, enlightened-jock takes, evidence of some sense of humor.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Benny Ayala remembers his big splash 39 years later. Nice story.

Even more Benny here in this really great bio. "He�s so good he knocks himself out of games."

http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/d7be841b

[Edgy MD]

The Rangers gain a new coach for their bench, and his name is Tim Bogar.

Wash was a Mets minor league coach when Bogar was coming up.

[Edgy MD]

Ken Davidoff takes advantage of a trip to St. Loo to catch up with an overall-clad Ron Hunt.

Hey, since when is Davidoff with The Post?

[MFS62]

Edgy MD wrote: Ken Davidoff takes advantage of a trip to St. Loo to catch up with an overall-clad Ron Hunt. Hey, since when is Davidoff with The Post?

It would be easier for Ron to lead the league in getting hit by pitches with that new profile.

Later

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Davidoff moved to the Post more than a year ago I believe.

[Edgy MD]

Not only hard to detach Davidoff from Newday in my mind, but it's surprising to think of sports columnists still jumping papers. If he was going to jump anywhere, I'd figure it'd be to an online-only outlet.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'm afraid that newspapers are becoming "online outlets" that just happen to also have a printed version.

[Guest Mets Guy in Michigan]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I'm afraid that newspapers are becoming "online outlets" that just happen to also have a printed version.

This is true. The goal is to give you the news in whatever format you want to read it in. Last year, mobile accounted for about half of our readership.

[Edgy MD]

Yes, but I spoke explicitly about "online-only" outlets. The dailies still have the high profile of their centuries-old brand, and I'd rather be a columnist for the Daily News than Gotham Baseball (or even a more national site like SB Nation), even if I'm getting most of my readership online either way. ESPN.com, similarly, has the authority of being linked to the unbreachable broadcast anchor-entity.

I therefore imagine it's tough for columnists to jump from one local paper to another anymore, as the main value of their name brand is their association with the paper's brand. Would Newsday jump at the chance to grab Bill Price if he became available? If he worked for something like an entry-level wage maybe.

[Guest Mets Guy in Michigan]

I think a part of the problem is that there are fewer two-paper towns any more, and there are fewer places to jump if you don't want to uproot.

[G-Fafif]

Listening to one of the late-season Mets-Giants games at which Giants fans outnumbered Mets by a ratio of at least 54:1, Howie recalled the late Vic Ziegel writing about his love of the New York Giants (while missing the fact that he despised their San Francisco successors). Some platitudes ensued directly between Howie and Josh about how great it is to live in New York where the papers have columnists like George Vecsey and Steve Jacobson, while it was acknowledged both were basically retired (at least from their longtime gigs). So to sum up, the greatest columnists in town, by the announcers' reckoning, were two who are no longer plying their craft and one who is no longer with us.

Oh, here's that Jon Matlack feature story you were looking for from the Saratogian.

Forty years ago this month Jon Matlack helped lead the Mets all the way to Game 7 of the World Series. One of his favorite memories from that 1973 campaign was playing for manager Yogi Berra, whose verbal idiosyncracies are the stuff of baseball legend. For good reason, Matlack sometimes couldn�t understand Berra when he came out to the mound. Exasperated, he finally turned to Hall of Fame hurler and teammate Tom Seaver for help. �It�s real easy,� Seaver said. �What do you mean, it�s easy?� Matlack responded. �When Yogi comes out to the mound and says whatever he says, if he doesn�t put his hand out, just say OK. He�ll go back to the dugout. If he puts his hand out, put the ball in it and you go back to the dugout. It�s that simple.� Matlack, who lives in Johnsburg, still smiles when recalling Seaver�s advice. Other than that, he thrived under Berra�s managerial style. �Yogi was a gem,� he said. �Yogi would not over-manage. By today�s standards he would under-manage. It was, �Let�s put the right people on the field and let them play the game. Maybe we�ll make a change here or there.� He was very easy to play for and work with.� Of the many changes in baseball since Matlack hung up his spikes, the one he laments most is the �SABR-metrics� approach to handling pitching staffs, where managers rely more heavily on spreadsheets and computer data than a hurler�s talent, heart and will to win. �Today, if the computer says this pitcher is most likely to get so-and-so out with a curveball at 4 o�clock on a Tuesday, when the sun isn�t shining, that�s who you go with,� Matlack said. �There�s so much emphasis on who faces who. It�s almost like Fantasy Baseball is being played on the field instead of baseball being played on the field.� He firmly believes, to his chagrin, that this limits a young pitcher�s progress and development over the long run. �The reason is that he gets no blame, no responsibility, or credit because all the information comes from the dugout,� Matlack said. �All he does is follow the script like a machine. If he�s wrong, all the people in the dugout didn�t know what they were talking about. If he�s right, �Oh, he�s supposed to do that.� They�re supplying me with all the information, the stats.� �So instead of having that chess match at 90 mph that used to take place, I think it�s just figuring the odds and following them, which is a shame,� he said. After his playing career, Matlack spent many years as a pitching coach at both the major and minor league levels. One of his longest assignments was with the Detroit Tigers, where he mentored all minor league hurlers, including Justin Verlander, who�s now one of the game�s premier pitchers. In 2012, Matlack held a similar position with the Astros and would periodically come to Troy to work with young Tri-City Valley Cats prospects, Houston�s affiliate in the NY-Penn League. This season was his first away from organized baseball in almost 20 years and at 63, he�s uncertain about his future in the game. Despite a proven track record of success, mountains of hard-won experience and a knack for conveying such knowledge to young people, Matlack finds himself on the outside looking in. �I may be permanently retired, who knows?� he said. �It seems very strange. �Forty-somethings are more popular than 60-somethings. There�s a whole different thought process these days.�

"SABR-metrics" is not only not a word, but implies advanced statistics are a product of the Society for American Baseball Research.

[Edgy MD]

I like that the success they cite is his work with Justin Verlander.

I mean, good for him, but the guy was a #2 overall pick with a spectacular collegiate career and a brief, comet-like run in the minors. It's sort of the like the joke about private-school admissions: "Give us your brightest most successful students and we'll make successes out of them!"

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Gee I dunno, Jon. Maybe they won't hire you because you come off exactly like a grouchy old man reluctant to understand, much less embrace, the modern game.

[seawolf17]

G-Fafif wrote: "SABR-metrics" is not only not a word, but implies advanced statistics are a product of the Society for American Baseball Research.

Well, they are, aren't they?

[Edgy MD]

Not very much. "Sabermetrics" was goofy word coined by Bill James as a fun tribute to his colleagues that he's long expressed regret over, because it mis-represents both the science being entirely (or even mostly or primarily) emanating from one outlet, and the purpose of the organization as scientific stat crunching, which is a very small part of what they are about.

[G-Fafif]

And even if it was all SABR's doing, the guy on the paper upstate should know that it's cspelled sabermetrics.

I've been a member of SABR for only a few years, but never once have I been given the impression that what "we" do is solely or mostly about statistics.

[stevejrogers]

Seaver gets a street named for him!
http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/09/26/3520416/fresno-city-council-puts-pitcher.html

[G-Fafif]

Lee Mazzilli chats with Ron Darling on MLB Network. Neither Walt Terrell nor Howard Johnson joins them.

[Edgy MD]

Mitchell looks like he's biting at the bottom of that pile.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Lee belongs to the 70s but his brain belongs to the 50s.

[Edgy MD]

Only a few seconds, but that footage of Mays teaching the basket catch to Mazz was golden. Where's that from? The 1976 highlight film?

Not so golden is the shot of Lee's shorts the day the got traded.