2013 All-Star Game

[batmagadanleadoff]

Frayed Knot wrote: They['re] not up on who else in the midst of a good season because they're too busy ranking the best quarterback in July and counting down the days until training camp openings.

I see your point, but so what? My mother gets to vote, if she wanted to, and the only baseball player she could name is Tom Seaver. It's a popularity contest, baseball knows it, and having considered all the alternative methods of selecting an ASG roster, wants it this way. I must be getting old, because none of this matters to me any more. For all I care, Harvey and Wright could wear the embarrassing and hideous black drop-shadow unis with the even hideous-er black cap with the multi-colored logo that blends into the color purple.

[Frayed Knot]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: They['re] not up on who else in the midst of a good season because they're too busy ranking the best quarterback in July and counting down the days until training camp openings. I see your point, but so what? My mother gets to vote, if she wanted to, and the only baseball player she could name is Tom Seaver. It's a popularity contest, baseball knows it, and having considered all the alternative methods of selecting an ASG roster, wants it this way. I must be getting old, because none of this matters to me any more. For all I care, Harvey and Wright could wear the embarrassing and hideous black drop-shadow unis with the even hideous-er black cap with the multi-colored logo that blends into the color purple.

Of course it's a popularity contest (to a certain extent anyway) and the popular vote chose not to choose Puig. And again, I don't have a problem with those who DO want Puig and it would be fine with me if he winds up going. What I'm railing against here is the idea that this game will be some kind of travesty without him put forth by folks who barely follow the sport (in some cases are openly hostile to it) and only latched onto this story as a kind of issue-du-jour.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: metirish wrote: Anyone planning on attending FanFest at the Javits Center? Yes, wanna go with the Pail. But figured on buying tix at door, either Sat am or Sunday am.

Just to update yous guys I got tixx today, but they are not selling entries earlier than noon Saturday. So sounds as though we're gonna get right in the thickest of it.

[Ceetar]

I was worried about being exhausted at work on Wednesday after the late All-Star Game, but then I remember I went to work after going to the game in 2006 as well.. I'll probably be MORE rested this time right?

[Guest Swan Swan H]

mets.jpg[/attachment:1nx2w7d9]Went to the FanFest this morning. It's not really my kind of thing, but it was fine. Plenty to see and do for folks who wanted autographs or a chance to hit, throw and field. Exhibits of the annual trophies, a ton of memorabilia up for auction (including everything Warren Spahn ever had, from the look of it), and some other good stuff. Worth the time, especially since it got us into the city and close enough to Eataly to head over for lunch and shopping.

As the host team there was lots of Mets-centric stuff (two big history walls among them) but the coolest was a life-size cutout team photo that you could climb into and get your picture taken. Which, of course, means a life-size cutout of Anthony Recker. He seems to be floating on air like the angel he is.

(Disclaimer: We didn't wait on line or get our picture taken. I have no idea who the people in this picture are.)

[Zvon]

Lets start getting pumped. Well, those that still enjoy the ASG, anyways.
My first ASG is still one of my best ASG memories.

Is that Durocher behind Rose? He looks like he's sayin
"yea man, thats the way to do it!"
4Fj2B9z4Dbw
Color footage. Neat to see. In 70 I did not have a color TV.

Reggie gave us something to see in '71.
-2D9mBNnpUY

[Ceetar]

so Let's say you have 40 minutes, max, in FanFest..what do you see? (not real interested in autographs)

[Guest Swan Swan H]

The Mets stuff is as soon as you walk in, which leads into an excellent Negro Leagues exhibit. The auction stuff is right there - half genuine memorabilia, half stuff. I'd check out the trophies - just takes a minute if you don't want a picture of the WS trophy.

The big room has most of the interactive stuff. We spent some time watching kids in the base stealing area - lots of fun. Sirius XM, WFAN and ESPN Radio all have booths with live broadcasts, so if there's someone there it might be worth some time.

If you're into things like jerseys, old Starling Lineup figures and the like, there are three or four exhibitors of that kind of thing. Also, Scotts has a lawn care exhibit - perfect for the new homeowner!

[Ceetar]

Swan Swan H wrote: If you're into things like jerseys, old Starling Lineup figures and the like, there are three or four exhibitors of that kind of thing. Also, Scotts has a lawn care exhibit - perfect for the new homeowner!

Good to know, but I have at least like 45 days before I'm that.

Actually, I think I underestimated how far the Javits center is from Grand Central. *Grumble*

[Ceetar]

"Well Casey told the writers, 'No offense to Mr. Mazeroski, but my guy Mr. Hunt is the best second baseman in the game today.'" -Ron Hunt

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Ceetar wrote: so Let's say you have 40 minutes, max, in FanFest..what do you see? (not real interested in autographs)

Make awesome catches:

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

or this:

[ashie62]

Zvon wrote: Lets start getting pumped. Well, those that still enjoy the ASG, anyways. My first ASG is still one of my best ASG memories. Is that Durocher behind Rose? He looks like he's sayin "yea man, thats the way to do it!" [youtube]4Fj2B9z4Dbw[/youtube] Color footage. Neat to see. In 70 I did not have a color TV. Reggie gave us something to see in '71. [youtube]-2D9mBNnpUY[/youtube]

My first ASG Recognition is the Killebrew groin split.

Still like the intro more than the game...

[Zvon]

I wasn't aware of that incident Ashie. 1968. Very kool. Not for Harmon though.



Great screen shots from the game, including stints by Seaver and Koosman (and commercials). I imagine this was the first time they did this overhead camera view. Maybe not, since the Astrodome was around for a few. First time I saw it. Its amazing the leap in telecast quality during the 60s. I watched a few innings of a 1961 NBC Game OF The Week earlier today and it felt like I was watching something from the 1930s.

http://fleersticker.blogspot.com/2011/07/1968-all-star-game-broadcast.html

[batmagadanleadoff]

Ashie62 wrote: Still like the intro more than the game...

Me, too. Seeing all the all-stars lined up on the foul lines in their different uniforms is my favorite part of the ASG.

[Edgy MD]

Great shots of Bucket and Lunchpail.

But really, enough of Pete Rose and Reggie Jackson --- the two most definitive players of the seventies for all the wrong reasons. Let's see some Mazzilli '79 footage.

[metirish]

Taking Lorcan and a friend to the Futures Game tomorrow instead of the Javits Center....3 tickets for $21, hard to beat, some future Mets greats starting?, priceless.


section 534

[Edgy MD]

Edgardo Alfonzo and Mookie Wilson managing.

[Zvon]

Edgy MD wrote: Great shots of Bucket and Lunchpail. But really, enough of Pete Rose and Reggie Jackson --- the two most definitive players of the seventies for all the wrong reasons. Let's see some Mazzilli '79 footage.

I gave it one minute of searching and this is all I got:
C6zNClgnbFI
And thats not the outfield wall, lol.

[Guest themetfairy]

metirish wrote: Taking Lorcan and a friend to the Futures Game tomorrow instead of the Javits Center....3 tickets for $21, hard to beat, some future Mets greats starting?, priceless. section 534

Cool - I hope to see you there!

[Edgy MD]

Still looking for Mazz's homer. Here's the super play that it set up (and it turn set up his go-ahead walk), with great Gary Carter action.

[youtube:1akr0uui]1PH6XJypKno[/youtube:1akr0uui]

Both Jackson and Rose (natch) showed up without their full uniforms that year. Jackson ended up going through BP and pre-game warmups, I think, in a Mariners kit. Rose, as you see in that shot, took the field in a tee shirt.

Worth noting also that it's like the bottom of the eighth, but look who's in the game: Parker, Rose, Carter... You'd think Carter would be the perennial starter by this time in his career, having at last replaced Bench, but he was actually a substitute. The starter was Bob F. Boone.

[Ceetar]

metirish wrote: Taking Lorcan and a friend to the Futures Game tomorrow instead of the Javits Center....3 tickets for $21, hard to beat, some future Mets greats starting?, priceless. section 534

502

[batmagadanleadoff]

The Tim McCarver Farewell Tour rolls on as Tim is set to announce his last ASG. In this piece, Tim shoots the breeze about Yasiel Puig, the 1980's Mets and Harvelous Harv.

excerpt:

With the game being played at Citi Field, McCarver talked about his 16 years as a Mets broadcaster, from 1983 to �98. It�s easy to forget, he said, �how big the Mets were during the 1980s. I know New Yorkers and people around the country are familiar with how attached New Yorkers are to the New York Yankees now, but they were at least equally attached to the Mets back in the �80s. The Mets owned the town, with those colorful ball clubs. � And some of their announcers thought, including me, that they should have won it all more than in just 1986. In 1988, I thought they had a better club than they did in 1986. They had better pitching with David Cone� that year. Mets pitcher Matt Harvey is expected to be the NL�s starter on Tuesday night in the Mid-Summer Classic. Mets manager Terry Collins skipped Harvey�s spot in the rotation on Saturday to keep his pitcher fresh for the All-Star Game, a very unconventional move. McCarver, as you might have guessed, had an opinion on that. �I think it�s a real shot in the arm for that franchise to have a guy like Matt Harvey starting,� McCarver said. �Of course he has not been named yet, but everybody is speculating that he will be the pitcher. � Harvey is missing a start during the season, on Saturday, because he has blister problems, in order to be able to start on Tuesday night. I think that�s refreshing. I think it�s the right thing to do, because that franchise really needs a lift like the one Harvey has given them through the first half and could certainly give them in the All-Star Game.�

http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130713/SPORTS/130719549/1004

[batmagadanleadoff]

This ASG business is sure generating lotsa Mets-centric pieces. And not just the kind that you'd think were written by Howie Megdal.

When Shea Was the Stadium of the Future
By JARED DIAMOND

If the Mets still called Shea Stadium home, Major League Baseball probably wouldn't let them host next week's All-Star Game, one of the sport's premier events. Taken at its best, Shea stood as a nostalgic remnant from a kooky bygone era by the time the Mets vacated the old place following the 2008 season. Most people probably didn't read that much into it: They just referred to it as a dump. But dismissing Shea Stadium as nothing more than an ugly blue semicircle surrounded by a sea of auto-part shops�and it certainly fit that description at the end�ignores the building's influential role in ballpark history. When the All-Star Game last came to Flushing in 1964, the three-month-old Shea represented a bold vision of the future. It just so happens that "the future" became "the past" far quicker than anybody imagined. "Shea Stadium was then not only new, but in the vanguard of ballpark architecture," said John Thorn, MLB's official historian. "It became an eye sore, but it didn't look as ugly as it would." Shea Stadium�then the first new stadium built in New York City in more than 40 years�opened on April 17, 1964, a season later than originally expected. The delay wound up serving as a fortunate coincidence: The 1964 World's Fair, held at Flushing Meadows Park in the shadow of Shea, began less than a week later. That fair, renowned for its optimistic perspective on the blossoming Space Age and the promise of progress that would come with it, became intrinsically connected with the new ballpark. Though technically not located in the fairgrounds, Shea appeared on the fair's maps. The Mets wore a patch commemorating the fair on their uniforms. The fair's official guidebook heralded the stadium as "the latest word in comfort, convenience and design for sporting arenas." It began with the exterior, noted for its bright colors and bizarre blue and orange panels suspended on cables so thin that they appeared to float in midair. (The funky neon baseball players came much later.) Inside, Shea didn't feature vertical columns and therefore had no Wrigley Field-like obstructed-view seats, despite a capacity of more than 55,000. John Pastier, an architecture critic and the author of a book about baseball stadiums, said that "people remarked that this was the brightest sports lighting system ever installed." In the mid-1960s, this looked space-aged. This looked sleek. Shea received so much attention when it opened that the Beatles went there in 1965, playing one of their most famous concerts ever. "The World's Fair was all about inventing the future as you would like to see it," said Mark Lamster, an architecture professor and critic with a background in writing about baseball. "Shea was like another relic of the future that lasted a long time until the future passed it by." Shea's attempt at futurism perfectly reflected the era, spurring a boom of similar ballpark design. An entire generation of stadiums�some loved, some reviled�traces its origin back to Queens. Shea marked the second of the multipurpose round stadiums (the Jets played there, too), opening two seasons after Washington's RFK Stadium. It sparked an onslaught of multipurpose round stadiums around the country�a collection of stadiums now known derisively as "cookie cutters." But at the time, "cookie cutter" seemed like the next wave. The model strove for efficiency, not beauty: a giant sterile circle built in its own little world. Pastier called the notion of building one stadium for baseball and football "a progressive idea," rooted in the economic philosophies of the period. "It saved money," he said. "It was a progressive, modern way of being more rational than what preceded it." At this time, middle-class families lived in the suburbs. They wanted to drive to the game, take advantage of the ocean of parking spaces and then turn around and drive home, all without going through the big bad city. They couldn't do that at Yankee Stadium or Ebbets Field or the Polo Grounds. Ron Hunt, the Mets' lone representative in the 1964 All-Star Game, remembers Shea as a "plus for fans," in large part because of the massive parking lot and overall ease of access by automobile, especially compared to the Polo Grounds. Pastier described it as "modern living." "Shea was form flowing from function," Thorn said. "The function? To give you a comfortable seat to watch the ballgame and easy parking to get out of it. It was the new functionalism. Everything started going that direction." So what went wrong? Economic conditions in New York played a role in Shea's demise, as the city's financial woes in the 1970s affected the stadium's upkeep. Pastier surmised that the field perhaps took a beating in 1975, when the Mets, Yankees (during their stadium's renovation), Jets and Giants all played their home games at Shea. But more than any of that, Shea simply went out of style. Fans began to bemoan the cookie-cutter model as bland and impersonal. Cities began to revitalize their downtowns. Franchise owners began to sense new ways to increase revenues by building stadiums designed only for baseball, filled with suites and luxury boxes. Once Baltimore's Camden Yards opened in 1992, Shea didn't stand a chance. One by one, the cookie-cutters fell, replaced by "retro-modern" stadiums, meant to look and feel like the cozy ballparks of old. Football teams began building their own stadiums as well. Compared to Citi Field, maybe Shea was a dump. But it was the Mets' dump�and an important one at that. "When it was brand-spanking new, it was an idea of what the future might be," Lamster said. "But very quickly the reality set in on what Shea was: A not-super accommodating concrete-and steel-donut."

A version of this article appeared July 13, 2013, on page A22 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Queens' Futuristic Blue Semicircle.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324879504578602144268188454.html?mod=wsj_streaming_stream

[batmagadanleadoff]

43 years ago today, Tom Seaver strikes out four in three innings in his only ASG start. Gil Hodges manages the Nationals.

http://www.amazinavenue.com/2013/7/14/4522240/this-date-in-mets-history-july-14-tom-seaver-gil-hodges-johnny-murphy-robin-ventura-birthday

[batmagadanleadoff]

43 years ago today, Tom Seaver strikes out four in three innings in his only ASG start. Gil Hodges manages the Nationals. http://www.amazinavenue.com/2013/7/14/4522240/this-date-in-mets-history-july-14-tom-seaver-gil-hodges-johnny-murphy-robin-ventura-birthday

1970 National Gillette Razor Ad for the 1970 ASG (fan vote reinstated) featuring managers Gil Hodges and Earl Weaver. The illustration for the ad is among the last Met themed pieces ever done by Willard Mullin, and might even be Mullin's last Met illustration.

[batmagadanleadoff]

43 years ago today, Tom Seaver strikes out four in three innings in his only ASG start. Gil Hodges manages the Nationals. http://www.amazinavenue.com/2013/7/14/4522240/this-date-in-mets-history-july-14-tom-seaver-gil-hodges-johnny-murphy-robin-ventura-birthday 1970 National Gillette Razor Ad for the 1970 ASG (fan vote reinstated) featuring managers Gil Hodges and Earl Weaver. The illustration for the ad is among the last Met themed pieces ever done by Willard Mullin, and might even be Mullin's last Met illustration.

And ... yeah ... that was the Hickman/Rose/Fosse ASG.

[batmagadanleadoff]

This one could just as logically go in the Everything's Harvey thread.

Matt Harvey's blister no longer a problem, Mets manager Terry Collins says

[batmagadanleadoff]

Big week for Mets first starting All-Star, Ron Hunt, who curently seems to be on everybody's interview wish list:

excerpt:

Ron Hunt was the Mets first All-Star starter back in 1964, as the franchise hosted the game for the first and only time in history. [Hunt]�ll be at Citi Field on Tuesday night for the All-Star Game, his first trip to the team�s new ballpark � though he still has no idea why the Mets built it to resemble Ebbets Field. He remembers Shea Stadium in 1964, when it was new and glistening. He wishes the club had built a park that was a retro-chic version of Shea, the park where he � and later his grandfather � came to know.

http://www.nj.com/mets/index.ssf/2013/07/mlb_all-star_game_ron_hunt_first_mets_starter_recalls_memorable_night_prior_to_1964_game.html

[Edgy MD]

He wishes the club had built a park that was a retro-chic version of Shea, the park where he � and later his grandfather � came to know.

Exactly. HIRE RON HUNT!