laff-a-lympics igt: Fla @ New York (N)

[Edgy MD]

Look at that aggressive baserunning!

[ashie62]

yEAH BABY!

[Edgy MD]

Infield in?!

[ashie62]

[bigpurple:jpu8igwx]BOOKS![/bigpurple:jpu8igwx]

[Zvon]

UNBELIEVABLE!

[Edgy MD]

HOLY CRAP?!! Mike Redmond, thank you!

[Fman99]

WOO HOO!

[Zvon]

Edgy MD wrote: Infield in?!

Zvon wrote: UNBELIEVABLE!

[Gwreck]

NICE

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

AWESOME!!!!!!

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: Infield in?!

That Marlin fan is creating a second guess thread in his [crossout]forum[/crossout]personal journal.

[Zvon]

We did it. We pulled one out of our orange brimmed hat! I will try harder to accept the hats(yes, I'm just that simple). All real credit goes to Redmond over managing though. I love that his strat bit him big time on the ass. Perfect.

[Edgy MD]

Zvon wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Are the Mets wearing decal numbers on their backs instead of sew-ons? Is that a funny? Course not. Do you remember when they used square plastic stickers for the NY on the batting helmet (like the ones on giveways in the 70s) and you could see it was a cheap decal/sticker? Late 70s I'm thinkin. Horrible.

No, not a funny. I just saw it catch the light in a certain way and it didn't seem like fabric at all.

[Edgy MD]

Really satisfying win, but I have to say that I very much disagree with Ronnie's comments in the ninth. The way to have a good season is not to win the one-run games and occasionally beat the other team's closer, as he asserts. The way to have a good season is too win the beatdowns.

The former is commonly received wisdom, but I think it's been shown that the data doesn't back it up.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Frigid friggin day at the park, crazy cold wind. Met all the forumites with their offspring as planned, including first ever meeting of the Irishes. Did any of you stay to run the bases?

Had a good feeling after Atchison escaped that 2nd & 3rd, 1 out jam in the 7th (?). If they went down 2 there was no coming back but liked our chances down 1.

Nieuwenhuis's AB was pretty sweet, especially for him and as Tejada turned for 3rd me and everyone else in the park for a moment thought he would be out. I guess the throw was bad. Was certain after that we'd tie or win.

Watched froim behind the plate and saw how slow a jump Duda consistently gets in the outfield, a better LF gets at least one of those 2 extra base hits if not both.

Kid pitcher for Florida was pretty hot. Laffey was Laffable.

[Frayed Knot]

Laffey was kind of unlucky early, lots of soft hits and such (they were getting soft hits all weekend) but it was really just a matter of time after that. The Fish batters started measuring him and the harder smacks started coming. Once he walked the leadoff batter in the 3rd or 4th I saw a bad moon a'rising and if the luck/key outs hadn't turned our way a bit through the middle innings they would have gotten a lot more runs than they did.


Tejada decided to go to 3rd a bit late; don't think he got a great read on the bloop. But once he made the move it wasn't all that risky with Pierre's arm. The real gutsy move was Nieuwenhuis's in that the 3rd baseman never looked at him after he received the throw. Quicker action on his part and he might get Kirk and that would have been a killer.


Gary went nuts on the infield in move - ahead of time as usual for him - and, assuming Byrd's hit is exactly the same with the fielders back, he shirley gloves the ball and at worst probably gets an out somewhere even if the game got tied. I hope the one or two writers that covers that team ask Redmond about it.

[ashie62]

Rookie players and managers make mistakes...

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

GOOD: Finally meeting the Forumites/Mini-Forumites.
BAD: Not sure I'd recognize any of them again-- my kid included-- outside of the 4-5 layers each was wearing when we met.

BAD: Wind so frigid and strong, I lost about 6 oz. of a 12-oz. beer without losing hold of the cup. Also, YoungerPooper's hat was blown off at least a dozen times, including off the Shea Bridge into the 'pen picnic area.
GOOD: Metly conviviality bade those who caught it below to wave up and hold onto it for a nervous YP until we could make our way down.

BAD: Empty seats (see above).
GOOD: Empty field-level seats in the relatively sunny Apple area, into which a kindly usher let a dozing YP and me slip in the top of the 7th.

BAD: YP fell asleep on my shoulder as I saw off the shiverin' Irishes in the 6th.
GOOD: YP woke up just as the top of the 9th commenced, just in time to cheer the 'pen, high-five a bunch of friendly die-hard strangers, and learn the phrase "walk-off win."
DOUBLEGOOD: YP woke up refreshed, and excited to join the line for the Mr. Met dash, which we finally did-- enthusiastically-- for the first time in three tries (pictures forthcoming).

[metsmarathon]

i don't think i saw all too much of the game, but it was worth it for minimm to accost forumites and perfect strangers alike with first his keith hernandez bobblehead and then later his new mets train.

after the 7th we went out back behind the stadium to get in line for the mr. met dash. worth it to leave a smidge early but get a very early spot in line (i think...) for the dash.

last year, minimm was afraid of mr. met, and wouldn't give him a high five as he greeted teh kids on the warning track just inside the foul line. this year, minimm had said going in that he didn't want to see mr. met (he saw him in the fan fest earlier while waiting in line for the wiffleball field and was customarily terrified, too). ok, i'd told him, we dont have to give him a high five. we can just walk around him.

well... we get on the field... and there's no mr. met n the warning track. oh, he's on the infield. right by second base giving out high fives... hmm... wonder how this will go...

we step on the infield and minimm misses first base, but goes back to tag up. then, he notices mr met and realizes hes going to get close. warily he approaches second base. mr. met reaches out for the high five and... minimm screams NO! and runs away towards first base. i corral him halfway to the bag and reassure him he's ok, and that mr met just wanted to say hi, and that he doesn't want to scare him, and that i'll hold his hand while we go by. so, crying, he bravely approaches second base again. mr met again makes a little bit of a move and minimm cries more, clings closer to me, and cuts the short of the bag. "whatchagonnado?" mr met gamely mimed with his big head and plush-handed shrug. "that's the most beloved mascot in american sports, kid, it doesn't get any better than him!" i think to myself. minimm stopped crying as we neared third base. he stepped on it and went towards home. missed the plate completely as he ran into the lefty-batter's batters box.

and then it was over.

"he's too big," minimm says. "mr. met is too big. i like my mr. met because he's little. when mr. met gets little i'll give him a high five."

at least he's not the easter bunny, i suppose...

it was great that the mets won, and even better seeing everybody. outside the stadium it was a bit hard keeping up with the game. they have speakers overhead demurely playing the radio broadcast, but maybe they could have some tv screens out there for the folks who left the game for the dash to actually see what's happening. keep them in the ticket windows and only turn 'em on when there's a bunch of little munchkins lined up out there. we heard the game winning hit, but we all got so excited that we didn't actually hear teh game winning run scoring result. and there sounded like some discussion of the play so we weren't even sure if the mets had actually done it (we feared desperately the specter of extra innings) until our iphones updated with the score.

also, my goodness, was it cold!

[G-Fafif]

Been meaning to mention this for several hours: WOO!

[Edgy MD]

Great to hear that there were two baserunners in the Forum contingent.

[Zvon]

Frayed Knot wrote: Gary went nuts on the infield in move - ahead of time as usual for him - and, assuming Byrd's hit is exactly the same with the fielders back, he shirley gloves the ball and at worst probably gets an out somewhere even if the game got tied. I hope the one or two writers that covers that team ask Redmond about it.

Don't call his gloves Shirley!


Great story metsmarathon. And I agree with your boy. Live he's just too damn big. That head.

[Edgy MD]

We start off 1-for-1 in games Chris Young would have started.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Edgy MD wrote: Great to hear that there were two baserunners in the Forum contingent.

at least 4 by my count. I stayed to watch the 9th while Wifey took the boys down to do the run (Lunchpail and his schoolyard boyfriend). I was waiting for them to arrive on the RF line, front row, but didn't see any of you guys again.

Speaking of Mr Met, we went down to visit my brother working the Delta club on the Sterling level. On the way back up, Mr. Met rode the elevator with us.

[metirish]

Had a fun day....it really was great to meet Bucket, MM, LFWS and Seawolf, and of course the kids..... unfortunately we left before the end, had hoped to stay for the dash but as soon as the sun went in Lorcan started complaining about the cold....and it was cold and windy up in the promenade....next time we will make it for the dash.

[Edgy MD]

Mets seemed to have a crap record last year (to my memory, anyhow) on Sundays. I associated this with the propensity to wear alternative uniforms for Sunday day games. It was as if going out dressed in something ill-considered (or at least unfamiliar) sapped their morale, and perhaps dampened the spirits of their supporters, who rooted for the Unfamiliarmets far less vociferously and helpfully. And of course losing on Sundays and frequently getting Monday off to spend a day as a loer (or even just hopping on a plain for a quick turnaround, but leaving town a loser) takes an additional toll on morale.

It's one of those stupid ideas that has barely a grain of solid reasoning, but just enough that I can't let it go. So it's nice to see them get off to a good Sunday start this year to get me away from that fifty-cent logic and perhaps back toward the realm of ten-dollar logic. Brainthinking.

[metsmarathon]

afterwards, minimm has been asking, "why mr. met's head is a baseball?"

[Benjamin Grimm]

metsmarathon wrote: afterwards, minimm has been asking, "why mr. met's head is a baseball?"

Tell him that as a child, Mr. Met got hit on the head by a radioactive baseball.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

afterwards, minimm has been asking, "why mr. met's head is a baseball?" Tell him that as a child, Mr. Met got hit on the head by a radioactive baseball.

Did you watch last week's episode of The Office?

There was a cameo by Ryan Howard who wrote a movie script called "The Big Piece". In it he hits a home run into space, the ball collects :space dust: and returns to Earth transforming him into a superhero called the Big Piece. He then fights the Evil Space Yankees and Darth Vader. He called it "semi-autobiographical".

[seawolf17]

We dashed. We stood on the Shea Bridge for the 9th, and MiniWolf whined the whole time about going down to get on the Dash line. We wound up pretty far back, but it was totally worth it to jump around high-fiving strangers. Awesome times, and enormous fun to see everyone in person. MiniWolf ran the Shea bases in the parking lot after the game as well.

MM -- gotta send that group photo around!