Ya Gotta Salute

[Edgy MD]

Any plans to commemorate the 1973 Mets team this year?

[Ceetar]

not that I've heard.

[Zvon]

Edgy MD wrote: Any plans to commemorate the 1973 Mets team this year?

They always bury this one under a rug. Before '73 I was a fan, but after '73 I was a fanatic. That was the year my blood turned orange blue. If it wasn't for every single thing that happened in 1973 (even losing the WS in 7) I would not be the Met fan I am now.

[Edgy MD]

Build it into Hall of Fame Day, especially if they have any 1973 characters they hope to enshrine.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Edgy MD wrote: Build it into Hall of Fame Day, especially if they have any 1973 characters they hope to enshrine.

Probably the most deserving choice from that team is Jon Matlack. Seaver, Staub, Jones, Koosman, Kranepool, Grote, McGraw, and Harrelson are all in.

Unless they want to pay Yogi to show up.

[Edgy MD]

Yogi, Willie, and Rube Walker, I think, are all candidates. Willie, at least, in the "Thank you for touching the ground and wearing the uniform, and not embarrassing us in any way by using your godlike stature to diminish us" sense.

I mean, yeah, his Met legacy is 92% spiritual, but it was enough to get his number (neqr) untouchable, so...

Not really pushing his case --- so please don't explode. But I am a big supporter of a Rube Walker enshrinement. Matlack or Felix Millan or Craig Swan or Karl Ehrhardt --- well, let's just say I wouldn't plant a pipe bomb in protest over any of those cases.

But more importantly, a 1973 commemorative day would have little downside.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Rube Walker definitely belongs. But I think his present status probably, unfairly, makes him less likely.

[Edgy MD]

Other fringey candidates from the 1973 squad: Wayne Garrett, the late John Milner, Bob Apodaca (in some sort of lifetime gesture), or Ron Hodges.

I think I'll stick with the Walker Lobby for now.

[stevejrogers]

Zvon wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Any plans to commemorate the 1973 Mets team this year? They always bury this one under a rug. Before '73 I was a fan, but after '73 I was a fanatic. That was the year my blood turned orange blue. If it wasn't for every single thing that happened in 1973 (even losing the WS in 7) I would not be the Met fan I am now.

No, they don't actually. They gave props often for 1973, last time was in 2003.

Maybe the plan was Piazza/late 1990s-early 2000s themed and scrapped when he failed to make Cooperstown or a special night planned for Met All Stars. Just nothing has been announced.

[stevejrogers]

Edgy MD wrote: Ron Hodges.

Why? Just because he was the catcher in the Ball Off The Wall play?

[Edgy MD]

Why what?

[stevejrogers]

You listed him as a fringey candidate for possible Met HOF enshrinement with Wayne Garrett, John Milner and Bob Apodaca.

[metirish]

Paying homage to a team that got to a WS?, they did do something for the 2000 team IIRC...they were all at a game one night or summit.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'm wondering if any teams celebrate the 100th anniversary of a worlds championship. Many of the teams that were winning World Series 100 years ago no longer play in the same city, but there are a few that do.

Did the Red Sox celebrate the 100th anniversary of their 1912 team? Did the Pirates have a ceremony in 2009 for the 1909 team? Did the Cubs celebrate in 2008, or was that too bittersweet since there haven't been any championships since then.

If all of the players and fans from the time are dead, do the teams figure that nobody cares anymore?

[Edgy MD]

SteveJRogers wrote: You listed him as a fringey candidate for possible Met HOF enshrinement with Wayne Garrett, John Milner and Bob Apodaca.

Because I have a broad, expansive mind, an elastic definition of the already nebulous term "fringey," and a not-uncharitable imagination.

The guy baptized Ron Darling with a shower of tobacco spit upon RJ's first appearing in a big league.uniform A man doesn't just win 99 games for the Mets without that sort of mentoring. We're talking intangibles.

I hope the Cubs celebrated the centennial of the 1908 team. That could have been great. All the hipsters could come with period facial hair. I imagine one or two hardcores would be tempted to disfigure a hand. Maybe with a jeans company sponsoring a giveaway of "Orval" Overalls to the first 10,000 people.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Did the Red Sox celebrate the 100th anniversary of their 1912 team?

The Red Sox held a season-long series of events celebrating the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park, but I don't recall them celebrating the team.

[ashie62]

You can make a case for most of the 1973 team for enshrinement...