Friends of Rico: Mets in Retirement in 2014

[Edgy MD]

Don't know if we had a nu thread. I think we used one for 2012 and 2013.

Anyhow, Barry Lyons has had a tough, tough time of it. Doing better, thanks.

[TransMonk]

THis could go in one of several threads, but...

Sources: Frank Viola has heart issue

[Guest cooby]

Carlos kinda coaching his son's team, as well as a lot of other stuff

http://www.unohracers.com/article/1130.php

[Edgy MD]

Royce Ring becomes pitching coach of the GCL Mets, shattering all theories that they don't trust 2006 Mets in positions of authority.

[Edgy MD]

Bradley Randle cut by but Vikings, along with Lenny Randle's heart.

http://vikingcorner.blogspot.com/2014/05/vikings-fans-stand-behind-bradley-randle.html?spref=tw

[batmagadanleadoff]

Joe Posnanski on ex-met and 2015 Hall of Fame inductee Pedro Martinez: Pedro's peak seven year run better than Koufax's peak.

excerpt:

But even in this, the woman does not have to keep everything exactly the same. It is her home now. �Right there,� [Tony] Pena said as he pointed at a photo on the wall, �there used to be a picture of Jesus.� The picture is now of Pedro Martinez. * * * Some stories get repeated so often that they lose their wonder. The story of Dominican baseball is such a story. There are roughly as many people in the Dominican Republic as in the state of Georgia. Since 1960, there have been three shortstops from the state of Georgia who have gotten 500 plate appearances in the big leagues. There have been 37 from the Dominican Republic. There has never been a pitcher born in Georgia elected to the Hall of Fame � Kevin Brown is probably the closest and he didn�t even make it to the second ballot. There is a Hall of Fame pitcher from the Dominican Republic � Juan Marichal. And next year Pedro Martinez will become the second. Martinez�s story is one of those we have grown numb to; it is in its own way the essential Dominican Republic baseball story. Pedro�s father Paolino was by all accounts a brilliant sinkerball pitcher who simply could not afford to go to the Major Leagues. According to one version, Paulino could not even afford the necessary cleats. Paulino was from that time in the 1950s when Dominican baseball was still largely undiscovered and attempting to go to the Major Leagues was a bit like Magellan attempting to circumnavigate the earth. Paulino always said he was offered a tryout by the New York Giants. His friends Matty and Felipe Alou found their way to the tryout and they became Major League stars. The Alous would always say Paulino could have been a major league star too. Pedro did not grow up with much more than his father. He grew up in Manoguayabo, just outside of Santo Domingo. Martinez talked often of playing baseball with doll�s heads and tree branches, fruits and pipes; he talked sometimes of the trash on his street. His home like Pena�s had a dirt floor with a crumbling roof but it did not have walls; sheets separated the rooms. In a way, though, Pedro Martinez grew up in a very different time from his father; this was after Marichal and Joaquin Andujar and Mario Soto and Jose Rijo, when scouts were scouring the island looking for live arms. There was another pitcher who was pivotal to how scouts came to view Dominican pitchers, and he happened to be Pedro�s older brother Ramon. He was the true phenom. At 17, Ramon pitched for the Dominican Olympic team, which was chosen to replace the boycotting Cuban team. That Dominican team was badly overmatched but Ramon Martinez left scouts awestruck. He was a whole new kind of Dominican pitcher. He was tall and lanky with a blazing fastball. Marichal had been barely 6-feet tall and his genius was in his slider and the way he changed speeds. Soto was also about 6-feet tall and was a pioneer of the circle change. Andujar, another 6-footer or so, would baffle hitters with various motions and arm angles. But Ramon Martinez, at 6-foot-4, was a pure power pitcher. At age 22, pitching for the 1990 Dodgers, he finished second in the Cy Young Award voting. He went 20-6 with a 2.92 ERA, a league leading 12 complete games and 223 strikeouts in 234 innings. By then, his younger brother Pedro � who was not even 6-feet tall and seemed more in the mold of Marichal and Soto � was pitching for Great Falls in the Dodgers minor league system. In truth, Pedro was a new kind of pitcher. He had the magician�s dexterity of Marichal. But he had the overpowering fastball of his brother. The combination was breathtaking. *** As a rookie in 1993, he pitched 107 innings, mostly in relief. He won 10 games. He struck out 119 � 10 per nine innings � and had a 2.61 ERA. That combination has only been done one time in baseball history by a rookie � Dwight Gooden. This was a once-in-a-lifetime arm and the Dodgers had to know that.

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/05/12/if-the-devil-ever-gives-me-one-pitcher-to-play-for-my-soul/related/

[Edgy MD]

Hey, Paul Lo Duca. Shut up nine times.

[Edgy MD]

I'm trying to remember which LoDuca comments triggered the above outburst.

Anyhow, Amos Otis is a 1969 Met and a Kansas City legend who, it turns out, is... a YLDB.

Gulp.

[Edgy MD]

Masato Yoshii, standing up to the culture that has Japanese schoolboy pitchers throw a million pitches before they graduate high school.

[Guest cooby]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: excerpt: But even in this, the woman does not have to keep everything exactly the same. It is her home now. �Right there,� [Tony] Pena said as he pointed at a photo on the wall, �there used to be a picture of Jesus.� The picture is now of Pedro Martinez. . http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/05/12/if-the-devil-ever-gives-me-one-pitcher-to-play-for-my-soul/related/

Thanks for this link...I actually went back to see the part about Tony Pena; one of my favorites. (my son is named after him)

[MFS62]

Ex-Met farmhand Alan Zinter signed as assistant hitting coach by Houston.
Why in this thread?
Because he was traded for Rico Brogna.

Later

[Edgy MD]

I always consider guys getting coaching gigs belonging in this thread, rather than the continuing careers one. Like Zinter. Like... Don Schulze... new pitching coach for the Nashville Sounds.

What I remember about Schulze, if I remember correctly, was his name adhered to his uniform instead of sewn on --- or perhaps sewn on very badly --- for his Mets debut, and the letters began peeling off his back as he pitched. Demeaning.

[G-Fafif]

Rico Brogna -- with a continued career in baseball but how can he not be in this thread? -- is controlling quality for the Angels.

[Farmer Ted]

Oh, Mikey.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=51XXtbC5O9A

[Edgy MD]

About 30 seconds in: A unicorn tattoo on his ankle?

[Farmer Ted]

I recall him getting matching tattoos with his former playmate girlfriend. Looks like he's gone the route of Clyde Frazier and Keith Hernandez in the Just For Men section of Duane Reade.

[Edgy MD]

The things we do for love.

[Guest d'Kong76]

I.R.S. to Auction Off Annuity From Darryl Strawberry�s Mets Days
By RICHARD SANDOMIR -- DEC. 22, 2014

In 1985, when Darryl Strawberry�s career appeared to have no bounds, he signed a contract extension with the Mets. A portion of the estimated $7 million deal was deferred, to be paid out over 30 years after the end of his career. The annuity guaranteed that he would receive $8,891.82 a month.

But those payments will be made to someone else starting next year. To pay off Strawberry�s tax debts from 1989, 1990, 2003 and 2004, the Internal Revenue Service, on Jan. 20 at its office in Fairview Heights, Ill., will auction off the right to receive the monthly checks. The I.R.S. has set a minimum bid of $550,000 for the right to receive the remaining payments of $1.28 million.

�The auction of a M.L.B. deferred compensation agreement by the I.R.S. may be a unique event,� said Michael Devine, a spokesman for the agency in St. Louis.

Strawberry, who last played in 1999 and whose career was derailed by substance abuse and cancer, has faced tax troubles before. In 1995, he pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion for not reporting income he received from autograph shows and other appearances from 1986 to 1990. He was sentenced to three years� probation, including six months of home confinement and 100 hours of community service, and was ordered to repay $350,000 in taxes, interest and penalties.

The annuity payments became an issue in Strawberry�s divorce from his wife, Charisse. In 2006, a county court in Florida ordered that she receive $2,439.02 a month from each check until the total reached $800,000. But in ordering the auction of the annuity, the Federal District Court in Tallahassee, Fla., said the deferred payments belonged to Strawberry and had to be used to pay his tax liens.

Deferred compensation arrangements like Strawberry�s have long been out of favor in sports, said Robert Raiola, a certified public accountant at O�Connor Davies who specializes in taxes for athletes.

He speculated that potential buyers of the annuity might be attracted to the star power, however diminished, of Strawberry, a former Met, Dodger, Giant and Yankee.

�Or maybe somebody�s a Mets fan and feel like they�re getting money from the Mets,� he said.

[Edgy MD]

This article about UT's Bubba Trammell's return to baseball is behind a paywall. I can't tell you what the bulk of the thing says, but my search engine does share with me this Metsy bit.

He hit a pair of home runs in the 2000 World Series as a member of the New York Mets.

How do I find a portal into the alternative universe where that's true?

[Edgy MD]

Cool profile here of the Twin's new pitching coach, Neil Allen, oddly enough replacing fellow Mets relief alumnus Rick Anderson.

Recovering alcoholic and a widower. Still got the full hair and rakish smile.

[fimg=500]http://stmedia.startribune.com/images/ows_142335383478421.jpg[/fimg]

[batmagadanleadoff]

Cappuccino Funk!

[fimg=444]http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/p/sp/editorial_image/69/69d52b26a066c2a8f058e51804021a68/jerry_hairston_takes_a_page_from_lenny_randle_attempts_to_blow_ball_foul.jpg[/fimg][fimg=444]http://dailyman40.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/shea-stadium-1977-blackout.jpg[/fimg]

Dan Epstein @BigHairPlasGras

The casual baseball fan primarily remembers Lenny Randle today for one of three reasons: a) He�s the guy who blew a slow-roller off the bat of Amos Otis into foul territory during a game in May 1981; He was standing at the plate when the New York City blackout suddenly darkened Shea Stadium in the summer of �77; or c) He once sent Rangers manager Frank Lucchesi to the hospital with a vicious (and quite uncharacteristic) spring training beatdown. There�s far more to Randle�s story than those bullet points, of course. A first-round pick out of Arizona State, where he played second base for the 1969 Sun Devils baseball squad that went 56-11 on their way to winning the College World Series, Randle � who turns 66 on Thursday � made it to the majors in 1971, and hustled hard through twelve seasons with the Senators, Rangers, Mets, Yankees, Cubs and Mariners. After being released by the Mariners in 1982, Randle took his bat and glove to Italy, where he won a batting crown, set several Serie A1 league records, and became a cult hero among Italian baseball fans, who dubbed him �Cappuccino.� Today, Randle is also something of a cult hero among a smaller but equally passionate group of fans: those who dig endlessly through record bins in search of obscure funk and R&B gems from the early 1980s. In the waning days of his MLB career, Randle cut several funky tracks � some with the help of Mariners teammate Thad Bosley � that have become quite collectable. �Kingdome,� Randle�s cowbell-driven salute to the original home of the M�s, was recently included on Wheedle�s Groove Volume II, a killer compilation of Seattle funk tracks from the 70s and 80s released by Light In the Attic Records. �I grew up in a musical family,� says Randle. �Music was always very important to us. We thought the Randle 5 was gonna be the Jackson 5, Part II!� Though Randle�s baseball career understandably took precedence over his youthful dreams of musical stardom, he says that making music remained a valuable outlet for him throughout his playing days. �We used to have a lot of fun with that,� he recalls. �Thad and I, we didn�t do all the crazy off-the-field stuff that some of the guys did. You have a lot of down-time during the season, but we just used it to do music, dance, and eat good, and that was it. We were focused! We had to get a ten-year career in,� he laughs. �Kingdome� was inspired by Randle�s friendship with David Finnegan, a young Mariners fan who had cerebral palsy. �He�d come to the games all the time with his dad,� remembers Randle. �He had trouble speaking, but he was always saying �Yay, Mariners!� This kid needed a voice synthesizer to help him talk better, but it cost five thousand dollars to buy one. So I told him I�d make a record and give him the proceeds from it.� Recorded shortly before the 1981 baseball strike, �Kingdome� � which features Randle on vocals and cowbell, his brother Ron on most of the other instruments, his ten year-old niece Rashawna and M�s teammates Larry Andersen, Bryan Clark, Al Cowens, Julio Cruz and Dick Drago on backing vocals � was intended as a high-energy party starter for Mariners fans, in the grand tradition of such sure-fire stadium anthems as Queen�s �We Will Rock You.� And really, who wouldn�t get pumped up by lyrics like, �Now check out the turf/That�s Astroturf!�? Credited to Lenny Randle and Ball Players featuring Rashawna, the �Kingdome� single sold well enough to get Finnegan his voice synthesizer, and attracted enough buzz to convince Randle and his brother to go back into the studio. This time, though, it was with Thad Bosley � who would later go on to record two albums of his own, 1987�s No Greater Love and 1990�s Who Can Change the World � in tow. �He�s a very talented guy,� says Randle of his former teammate. �He plays keyboards, he sings, and he does a little bit of flute. He�s like my Brian McKnight!� Bosley and the Randles recorded enough tracks to fill out a full-length Ball Players album called Just a Chance, which included �Kingdome� and �I�m a Ballplayer,� and which was released in a limited pressing on Randle�s own Randle Enterprises label in 1983. The highly sought-after release typically fetches $150 or more these days, if you can even find it; a single containing �American Worker� and the album�s title track, which was released around the same time, is significantly easier on the wallet. Four of the album�s tracks, including �American Worker� and �Universal Language,� were reissued on a vinyl EP in 2009 by the Peoples Potential Unlimited label. Hopefully, the Light in the Attic folks will reissue the entire Just a Chance album some day, if only so the world can know if the song �Mr. Rogers �Get Down�� is actually as good as its promising title. Though Randle looks back fondly on the Ball Players tracks, he remains a little disappointed about the way the Mariners organization reacted to �Kingdome.� Instead of viewing the song as a useful marketing tool, he says, �the ownership thought it was a distraction. Every city [the Mariners] played in, somebody would also want to book a show for the band, or put us on the news. So the front office was like, �Well, what are you doing? Is it baseball or music?� It pissed them off, because they were worried about our concentration. This is before Shaq and Deon, okay? It was before �Super Bowl Shuffle�. Athletes making music wasn�t a normal thing back then.� Randle, who now makes his home in Nettuno, Italy, is much savvier about cross-marketing baseball and music than his former employers ever were. As the GM and co-owner of the Nettuno Baseball Club, he regularly holds �Battle of the Bands� promotions at Nettuno�s Stadio Steno Borghese; he also books �Baseball and Boogie� tours around the world featuring classic funk bands like War, and oversees the Lenny Randle�s Sports Academy, which offers a variety of international baseball tours, clinics and fantasy camps. And, somehow, Randle still finds time for his own music; he recently shot a video for a song of his called �Another Touch,� inspired by life on the Roman coast. He also says he may taking part in a US summer tour featuring a collective of 80s-era Seattle funk and jazz musicians. But even if he doesn�t bring his music back to Seattle this summer, the Mariners should seriously consider adding �Kingdome� to the Safeco Field playlist. Sure, the team plays in a much nicer stadium now, one with real grass and a retractable roof. But with the M�s coming in to 2015 looking like serious contenders in the AL West, some cowbell-driven funk from the team�s past might be the final touch that�s needed to put the present squad over the top.

Link to article and music videos:
http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/musical-stylings-of-lenny-randle-021215

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Check out the turf! ASTROTURF!

[youtube:1bu5ctqf]AtPawvq-0dc[/youtube:1bu5ctqf]

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

That's pretty funky!

[Edgy MD]

That's what this thread was made for.

[Edgy MD]

What's that pin you've been seeing on Bob Hendley's lapel? That's the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame pin, buddy.

[Edgy MD]

Sandy Alderson's first (and perhaps worst) free agent signing DJ Carassco is in New Zealand, preaching the baseball gospel.