YOUR Mets Bookshelf

[Edgy MD]

My colleague just came by my desk to gift me with this pearl of great price, 1970 edition:

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

The whole story? How does it end?

[Edgy MD]

According to this edition:

It had been, all in all, quite a performance. It would be hard to top. In fact, all in all, it would be impossible.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Oh, well, then.

[Puts on good pearls]
[Puts "Is That All There Is" on phonograph on repeat]
[shuts windows, blows out pilot light, and turns on gas]

[Guest d'Kong76]

I have that Koppett book sans the dust jacket. The assclown that sold it
to me on eBay (probably) years ago kept that groovy cover for himself
I wager!

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Buttload of new Mets books scheduled next year including our guy Greg on the '15ers, and at least 3 books on the '86ers.

Judging a book by its cover this one is terrific already:

[Frayed Knot]

Not that I'm trying to critique the Darling book before I even see it, but the 'Biggest Game of My Life' subtitle reminds me that when I do a quickie review of his career I tend to see three games of his life (maybe even four if you count his famous college matchup) and that maybe a cool thing to do would have been to contrast the bunch.

Oct 1, 1985 in St Louis
Game 1 of a three game series where the Mets come in three games behind the Cards in the penultimate series of the season. The buzz on the street and in the papers, in that just-before all-sports talk-radio era, was that the Mets should move Gooden up and pitch him on short rest rather than "sacrifice" the game by pitching Darling against StL ace John Tudor in a series where a sweep was virtually mandatory. IIRC, even Ronnie's then-teammate and current broadcast partner revealed in his 'IF AT FIRST' book on the '85 season that that would have been his strategy as well. But Davey stuck with the rotation, backed Darling, and Ronnie responded with a 9-inning, 4-hit shutout gem. And even though he ultimately wound up with a 'ND' when Strawberry's 'off-the-clock' HR won the game in the 11th, it was certainly the game of his then 24 y/o, 3rd ML-season life.

The one they're apparently focusing on - Game 7 1986 WS
It's counterintuitive to say that 'Game 7 - World Series' isn't the biggest of your career. But seeing as how he didn't even last through the 4th inning it's probably the game from this list that's least about him. I see that one more as the Sid game, or about Keith's 2-RBI single, or Knight's tie-breaking HR.

And then there's the one which he himself admits is the one he thinks about more than all the good ones: Game 7 NLCS 1988
6 runs allowed on 6 hits (plus an error) in just 10 batters faced in a deciding game is about as bad as it gets. Maybe his self-described 'black-out' after the game (he tells some story about forgetting to meet his family afterward or something along those lines) means he doesn't have enough memories of the day to put anything in writing.

[Edgy MD]

Who had the most misbegotten big game start? Darling, Leiter, or Glavine?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Glavine's seems like the worst because it capped an epic collapse and the need for a win seemed especially desperate. Also, it was his final start as a Met. You can also throw in the fact that many fans never liked him anyway. It all adds up to a particularly toxic stew.

[Guest cooby classic]

Got the Sandy Alderson book from metfairy for Christmas !

[Edgy MD]

Save up your pennies. If at First II is in the hopper.

[G-Fafif]

Edgy MD wrote: Save up your pennies. If at First II is in the hopper.

Please use a few shekels on this first, and then invest in Keith. Thank you.

[Edgy MD]

Don't worry. I won't be slow to the Prince party.

[Guest themetfairy]

G-Fafif wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Save up your pennies. If at First II is in the hopper. Please use a few shekels on this first, and then invest in Keith. Thank you.

Barnes & Noble customers can pre-order it here.

[Edgy MD]

Commentary on the new Alderson book, including rare insights into the gamesmanship Sandy engaged in to engineer the Beltran trade: Book report: Sandy Alderson, 'Baseball Maverick' March, 18, 2015 Mar 18 7:45 PM ET By Adam Rubin | ESPNNewYork.com ... • Alderson approached Peter Greenberg, the agent for Jose Reyes, in June of Reyes' walk year, but the GM was rebuffed in extension talks. Alderson never made an official offer that winter, but informally indicated the Mets genuinely were prepared to bid $100 million.

So, Reyes' reps rebuffed Alderson mid-season, and then, during the off-season, met with the Marlins, asked Sandy how high he was willing to go, and upon receiving a $100 million verbal offer from Sandy, ran back to the Marlins to use this figure to bid them up.

Alderson's account matches contemporary accounts. If anybody was shunned, it wasn't Reyes.

[Edgy MD]

The late Phil Pepe on YOUR Mets Bookshelf:

[fimg=232]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51d17m0p1OL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg[/fimg][fimg=232]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Rv9wxS3LL._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg[/fimg][fimg=232]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Fg1cMiOtL._SX346_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg[/fimg]
[fimg=232]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41-29FbyiSL._SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_.jpg[/fimg][fimg=232]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41RXZp32v%2BL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg[/fimg][fimg=232]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41brxX10pEL._SX441_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg[/fimg][fimg=232]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mZbDYUMUL._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg[/fimg]

[seawolf17]

Anyone who has "Defining Cardinal Greatness Across the Eras" on THEIR Mets Bookshelf deserves a serious kick in the privates.

[Edgy MD]

I tend to grab, on the cheap ($1-3), books about Mets figures even if the marketing and design is linked to their association with another team.

If I only get one Metly chapter, it can fill in some spaces. If it's got enough accounts and characters, it can trump a whole book about Gary Carter telling me how his attitude and attention to character are just the neatest.

I make no apologies. I probably deserve a groin kick or two anyhow, but... .

[batmagadanleadoff]

Part of a two-volume SABR book set:

[fimg=444:151q3gpx]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51W3WqXYGuL._SX385_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg[/fimg:151q3gpx]

One of a two-book series on the rivals that met in the 1986 World Series, the Boston Red Sox and the New York Mets, including biographies of every player, coach, broadcaster, and other important figures in the top organizations in baseball that year. This book on the 1986 season re-tells the story of that year’s classic World Series. After four games, each team had won two away games and neither had won at home. Then the Red Sox won Game Five at Fenway, and were one game away from winning their first World Championship in 86 years. It came to the point they were one pitch away from baseball Nirvana. And then.... Just about everyone knows what happened, but there are takes on it here you might not have read elsewhere. Mostly, this is the story of each of the players, coaches, managers, and broadcasters, their lives in baseball and the way the 1986 season fit into their lives. As with many of the books published by the Society of American Baseball Research, this was a true collaborative effort. There are 74 different SABR members who contributed to making these two books on the Mets and Red Sox a reality. It took us two books to tell the story as well as we wanted. Be sure to pick up the companion 1986 Boston Red Sox book for the rest of the story!

[fimg=333:151q3gpx]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51BBYAlPyoL._SX385_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg[/fimg:151q3gpx]

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I got the Mets book in the mail yesterday: Payment for having contributed 4 chapters.

I like doing the bios and admire the effort but they tend to turn out a little uneven thanks to a million contributors. Also, a tiny bit sloppy. For example one of my bios, a snippet of copy-edit conversation appears as though its text! They also re-use previously penned bios and don;t necessarily update them as needed.

That said, I read the Johnson and Magadan bios and learned things I Did Not Know Until 2016.

Like, I never knew for some reason that Magadan was a Spaniard. I mean I knew he was related to Lou Piniella and from Florida. But the pronunciation of his name made me think he was Irish or something. In Spain its Ma-ga-DAAN

I didn't know he was a fluent Spanish speaker! Or that his dad was a Ybor City cigar maker.

I didn't know Davey Johnson's dad's teeth were pulled from his mouth w/o antheseia as an Italian POW during WWII.

My bits reveal that Ed Lynch's brother was a better baseball player than he was.

[G-Fafif]

I just got past Fernandez in the alphabetical going, having downloaded it via my handy SABR membership. As with all of these things, some entries feel more cohesive than others. I did peek ahead at the contributions of JCL and was uniformly impressed.

[batmagadanleadoff]

[fimg=444]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51W3WqXYGuL._SX385_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg[/fimg]



The book title is in the font style used for team names in the 1986 Topps set.

[G-Fafif]

Font use so cleverly subtle that I completely missed it.

[Ceetar]

Not specifically Mets, but I'm helping out with a beer and baseball ebook project and am looking for a quote or two about beer near/in Citi (or YSIII) if any of you want to help out.