Win one for Dad IGT 6/16/13 Cubs @ NYM

[Frayed Knot]

Zvon wrote:

That's great. ^^^
I was trying to figure out who he looks like with that beard and I think you nailed it.




Y'know, in addition to my planned obnoxious comment about Byrd's "meaningless" HR, I was going to throw in a snarky post after the top of the 9th about how Bobby Parnell picked this 'just to get his work in' opportunity to put up a 1-2-3, 6-pitch inning.
Needless to say, I was in a rotten mood for about 170 minutes of this 171 minute game.

[metsmarathon]

twice this year we've gone to citi.

twice we left early to get in line for the mr. met dash.

twice this year the mets won those games on a walkoff homer.

clearly there need to be more mr met dash games that i can go to.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

bmfc1 wrote: STFU Bob Costas (and thank you Chipper Jones): http://www.amazinavenue.com/2013/6/16/4436328/bob-costas-mets-celebration-walk-off-video-decline-western-civilization

Costas is getting destroyed on Twitter, although he probably doesn't subscribe, ya know, 'cause The Mick never tweeted.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

I saw Costas' remarks during a quick cut-in during the US Open coverage. What a arrogant, pompous, self-important, windbag.

[batmagadanleadoff]

The more I read this forum, the more I think I'm out of touch with just about everyone here. 'Cause I agree with Costas, and it's not a Mets thing. A team practically buried in last place, and one of the worst in a 30 team league -- a National laughingstock --wins one game in the longest schedule in organized team sports and celebrates like they're the 1980 US Olympic Hockey team after beating the Russians. And everyone's inured to this because it's become routine. Where's the limit to this? The NFL had choreographed ballets when some wide receiver, his team down by three TD's, caught a first down pass -- until the league put a stop to that by enforcing unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. It's not my world anymore.

[Ceetar]

polite golf claps only. Emotion to be reserved for criticisms about how guys don't care enough.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Bob Costas and all other douchebag Cardinals fans in the media can suck my nuts.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Yeah, I agree with everything you said. Well, with the parts about you being out of touch, anyway.

A solo homer down five runs - the equivalent of your football example below - should be observed by running at a good pace around the bases and politely shaking hands with the third base coach and next batter. A three run homer to cap a last inning four-run comeback is a different thing.

[Frayed Knot]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: The more I read this forum, the more I think I'm out of touch with just about everyone here. 'Cause I agree with Costas, and it's not a Mets thing. A team practically buried in last place, and one of the worst in a 30 team league -- a National laughingstock --wins one game in the longest schedule in organized team sports and celebrates like they're the 1980 US Olympic Hockey team after beating the Russians. And everyone's inured to this because it's become routine. Where's the limit to this? The NFL had choreographed ballets when some wide receiver, his team down by three TD's, caught a first down pass -- until the league put a stop to that by enforcing unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. It's not my world anymore.

At times there occurs obviously pre-planned celebrations that overrun any supposed spontaneity right out of the park (I remember one courtesy of Prince Fielder and the Brewers a few years back); but, at the same time, there's a difference between a play that ends a game--particularly when that play turns what looked like sure defeat into final victory in one brief second--and what the NFL tried to crack down on which were often ridiculous and over-the-top celebrations of a single play within a game that were mostly designed for the sole purpose of calling attention to oneself.
Once the game's over, I don't have a problem with whatever they want to do. I was just afraid that Kirk was going to Kendry Morales himself.

[Edgy MD]

If being happy at the end of one game makes me wrong, I don't want to be right.

I'll write the Costas thing off to bad joke and leave at that.

[Edgy MD]

I mean, the Royals celebrate walk-off wins with a sexual assault.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Edgy MD wrote: If being happy at the end of one game makes me wrong, I don't want to be right. I'll write the Costas thing off to bad joke and leave at that.

It was more than that. He chose to use the US Open broadcast to show highlights of one baseball game in order to make this point. If it was during a roundup of all the games, let's say, it could be regarded as off-handed, but this was his chance to shake his fist. Wouldn't the Red Sox-Orioles game be the choice if he wanted to show highlights of one game for the sake of highlights? Nope. Bob wants these kids and their helmet tossing off of his lawn, and what better audience to show the world the pole up his ass than golf fans?

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

We do this for fun. Baseball is for fun. Fun, fun, fun.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Pssst, Bob. It's entertainment. It's a show. You go to these things for work, but we go for fun. We like it when players do fun things that we talk about. Don't worry, there will still be food in the press box after the little celebration extends your work time a little bit.

[Zvon]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: The more I read this forum, the more I think I'm out of touch with just about everyone here. 'Cause I agree with Costas, and it's not a Mets thing. A team practically buried in last place, and one of the worst in a 30 team league -- a National laughingstock --wins one game in the longest schedule in organized team sports and celebrates like they're the 1980 US Olympic Hockey team after beating the Russians. And everyone's inured to this because it's become routine. Where's the limit to this? The NFL had choreographed ballets when some wide receiver, his team down by three TD's, caught a first down pass -- until the league put a stop to that by enforcing unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. It's not my world anymore.

I agree about all that over celebration business. But it's what they do these days. I don't know if it's reflected in baseball video games, or the other way around. It's todays stylin'. This has been going on for years now. If this is how players want to or are told/taught is proper to celebrate then how do you put that cat back in the bag?

I just have come to accept it as the way it is these days.

Having said that, Costas is a baffoon to use this walkoff as an example. The way it looked to me they celebrated just the right amount, given todays standards and the circumstances.

[Edgy MD]

[Edgy MD]

I just completed a quick survey of every baseball team on the planet ever. and found that 1000% of them would celebrate at home plate at that moment.

There's this strange thing around baseball --- for years now --- that Mets celebrations are somehow, by definition, more obnoxious than anybody else's, because they're the Mets.

Costas, by the way kind, of bites it with his "A bit of Keystone Kops action early... " --- "early," meaning the bottom of the fifth.

[G-Fafif]

I only wish the Mets were so used to winning that they felt compelled to celebrate in a slightly more casual manner. But given how much they've been told they suck -- with good reason -- climbing out of the suckhole as suddenly as they did (even if it was Marmol) deserves a 20-second home plate Mardi Gras. Sometimes the acting like kids gets my old cringer going (for example, the way they take inordinate glee in dressing up like cowboys, hockey players and South Beachers for the team flight when Coach Terry says they can), but then I remember most of them aren't far removed from being kids -- and they all live in something of a state of perpetual adolescence.

As for Costas, it's not surprising to find him on a defender-of-the-faith high horse, albeit the kind his mother has to stick a quarter in. (Cheap shot -- but, honestly, fuck him, we just scored four in the ninth.)

[G-Fafif]

And while we're puncturing the pompous, this priceless reply to the Times can't be bothered to go guy:

What a shock to the system! The Mets actually won today but sadly it took way too much time for them to even get a run scored and it was during their last gasp in the 9th inning. The Mets are actually a double A team competing in the big league.

Well, harumph! I like my baseball games settled by the third "inning," for "runs" tallied later are clearly made available only on remainder.

[Edgy MD]

Before his big swing, Nieuwenhuis, I think, had been 1-15 with seven strikeouts since returning from the minors.

The guy was swinging for his professional life there. There was every chance that failure would have meant a sad conversation in Terry's office.

Anyone who ever had a heart... .

[Frayed Knot]

During the game a few days ago I posted the question (only half sarcastically) whether Nieuwenhuis had even made contact since his return. The answer, as it turned out, was yes, although just barely: 6 Ks + 6 Ground-outs (1 a GiDP) plus an intentional walk.
The next day (Saturday) he had that PH single which marked the first time he had gotten a ball out of the infield since April; Sunday's HR four PAs later marked the second time (with a K, Pop-out, and BB in between).

So probably not something we should count on as some kind of turning point - even if it was a helluva moment.

[Ceetar]

Frayed Knot wrote: So probably not something we should count on as some kind of turning point - even if it was a helluva moment.

If there was a turning point, it was the time in the minors working on his K/BB rate. But this might be a nice monkey off his back/confidence moment for him.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I totally associate Niuewenhuis with Sunday walkoffs. IIRC he had a key hit and scored the winning run in that first Marlins series too.

[Edgy MD]

Turning point, shmurning point. If this season indeed goes nowhere, it's still a heck of a reprieve from utterly drowning in the first half --- even if only a brief one. Getting a losing streak off their backs before the series in which they unveil Wheeler is meaningful. So is a ninth-inning rally after a players-only clubhouse meeting --- a pill which almost never works, but everybody agrees has to work the first time if at all.

And again, the guy's major league career, like the team's season, was uttlerly flat-lining. One heartbeat is worthy of celebrating.

Last time the Mets had a walkoff-homer victory after trailing by two or more runs in the final inning --- August 30, 1992. Bobby Bonilla took Rob Dibble deep for a three run homer, at a magical place called Shea.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

I don't see this is a new trend considering that one of the pillars of my Mets fandom was attending the Steve Henderson game when I was 6 years old. That team finished in 5th place with 67 wins and yet what I remember about the game was the exuberance on the field and in the stands celebrating that moment. The joy and optimism found in celebrating the little victories of the Mets, the all-too-human club that resembles ourselves and our sad sack lives, is what made me a Mets fan.

[Edgy MD]

How many six-year olds will this be a watermark for? A lot, I hope.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, I think Costas would have had more of a case if he decided to trash the whole jump-dance/pie-in-face/pummel-the-run-scorer celebration thing at home plate over some bloop single rather than a bolt out of the blue. A mob following the former might seem more manufactured than one after the latter.

Still not quite sure what prompted him to even bring this whole thing up in the first place. For whatever Costas's faults he's a genuine baseball fan and, although I suppose one could make the argument that he's saying this because he's a fan, it still smells more like something I'd expect out of one of the legion of baseball haters in the national sports media.

[Edgy MD]

Agreed.

As I said above, there seems to be an accepted truth among some fans of NL rivals --- and has been for a long time --- that any celebrating by the Mets is too much celebrating. Because they're the Mets. For decades, it's been "The Mets act like the champions they never were."

Once that's your narrative, any such footage can be made to fit it.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Odd-- when he's "funny," he's not, and when he's humorless, he's a little funny. A commentator whose every breath didn't bespeak "coasting on long-since-secured laurels" might be able to make something of that sort of thing.

[Edgy MD]

I would guess that the likes of Deadspin and Olberman has brought the snarkosphere so much into the ascendancy of sports journalism that one can see this as Costas trying to navigate the new paradigm --- rush to judgment, execute judgment with smug superiority --- and navigating it poorly. The careful reflection which Costas at least once pretended to care about before pontificating would now perhaps be considered a weakness.

Hey, Bob, if you can't be yourself, don't be Will Leitch. Be Vin Scully or Joe Garagiola or somebody. Be Jim McKay or Al Michaels.