Who Is TJ Rivera?

[Edgy MD]

10 Facts!

1. Born in the Bronx! Grew up in the Throg's Neck Area. Lehman High School. If I find one Derek Jeter tee-shirt in your sports bag, it's code red time, kid.

2. Signed as an undrafted free agent!

3. His junior college coach? Mackey F. Sasser! Mackey also recommended him to the Mets. "I told Tommy, 'I can't believe nobody drafted T.J. You can't go wrong with him!'" (And the Mets better give him Sasser's #2 if they know what's good for them.)

4. In six minor league seasons, he has batted .300 or better five times. He's batted .320 or better each of the last four years.

5. Even if you're a Puerto Rican-American from the Bronx, when you're a ballplayer going to school in the south, you meet and fall for chicks named Ashton. It's just the way it is. Good choice in dress colors, Ashie.



6. They went for the chocolate fountain at the wedding. Had they called me, I'd've advised against it.

7. Two-time PCL Player of the Week this season. Also was a Player of the Month back in May when he hit .373 with five homers.

8. Wally has used him at first, second, and third this season, as well as eight games in left. He's played 139 games in the minors at shortstop, but none this season.

9. His 11 homers this season represents his career high. Thank you, PCL.

10. Hopes to play for Puerto Rico in the 2017 WBC. If any team doesn't need ringers from the Bronx, though, its Puerto Rico.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

From my neighborhood, plays like SuperJoe with pop... and the Sasser connection cinches it. I need a TJ Rivera shirsey.

[Guest themetfairy]

[Edgy MD]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: From my neighborhood, plays like SuperJoe with pop... and the Sasser connection cinches it. I need a TJ Rivera shirsey.

Head out the ballpark today. Hopefully Throgs Neck will be out representing in force.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Edgy MD wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: From my neighborhood, plays like SuperJoe with pop... and the Sasser connection cinches it. I need a TJ Rivera shirsey. Head out the ballpark today. Hopefully Throgs Neck will be out representing in force.

They'll be the ones sitting on the stadium stoop, pointedly not saying hi to passersby they don't recognize.

[Edgy MD]

This call up also gives us a peak into how the middle infield organizational depth chart looks post-Dilson Herrera.

Something like:

Second
Walker
[crossout]Reyes[/crossout]
Flores
Kelly
Rivera
Reynolds
Cecchini
Mazzilli
Romero
Evans
Burdick
Gibson
[crossout]McNiel[/crossout]

Short
[crossout]Cabrera[/crossout]
[crossout]Reyes[/crossout]
Reynolds
Flores
Cecchini
Romero
Kelly
Rosario
Evans
Gibson
Guillorme
Johnson
Colón

[Frayed Knot]

Who is T J Rivera? -- Thomas Javier Rivera

I always find the preference of initials over names to be an odd choice. Not negative, I just find myself wondering how the thought process or evolution went.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Sometimes it's to distinguish a son from his father when they both have the same name.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Edgy MD wrote: 5. Even if you're a Puerto Rican-American from the Bronx, when you're a ballplayer going to school in the south, you meet and fall for chicks named Ashton. It's just the way it is. Good choice in dress colors, Ashie.

First quick glance, I thought her dress was blue and orange.

[Guest d'Kong76]

He married a girl with orange legs, he's a true Met.

[HahnSolo]

Throgs Neck little leaguers were just at Citi a few weeks ago for a feature on Sunday Night Baseball.

[Frayed Knot]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Sometimes it's to distinguish a son from his father when they both have the same name.

Yes, that seems to be increasing common with the initial J even in cases where the middle name doesn't start with J at all but rather is there as a stand-in for 'Junior'.
In this case it's not for Junior although I suppose he could also be Thomas Javier Rivera Jr. and this not only beat having two Tommys in the house but pops decided he was too old to start calling himself T S Rivera.

In other cases the given name just seems to morph into initials for a variety of reasons. In R A Dickey's book he offered no other explanation other than people just started calling him R A instead of Robert or Bobby or whatever. It didn't seem like it was his choice although one would assume that he's OK with as he doesn't seem to have taken any actions to change how he's referred to now that he's an adult.
Then there was an episode in MASH where Hawkeye went nuts trying to figure out what B. J. stood for as it was even that way on his official army records. Hunnicut's explanation was it was from his parents Bea & Jay although Pierce wasn't buying it and continued to assume there was some deep, dark secret behind it.

[Guest d'Kong76]

A friend's kid of ours goes by R F, short for Richie Frank. We called him that for a few years
to differentiate between his father Richie and him and just got lazy and started with the R F
and it just stuck. Was there an ad campaign in the NYC area 'T J is my DJ' years ago or am I
conflating that with some movie or song or something?

[G-Fafif]

Born on the second anniversary of the most recent Mets' world championship. He and Jon Niese can share a cake during the postseason.

Will be Met third baseman No. 162, so we're covered with one for every game of the year.

[Guest d'Kong76]

G-Fafif wrote: He and Jon Niese can share a cake during the postseason.

Hopefully it will be in the Citi clubhouse and not some 19th hole clubhouse!

[Guest Mets Guy in Michigan]

Frayed Knot wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: Sometimes it's to distinguish a son from his father when they both have the same name. Yes, that seems to be increasing common with the initial J even in cases where the middle name doesn't start with J at all but rather is there as a stand-in for 'Junior'. In this case it's not for Junior although I suppose he could also be Thomas Javier Rivera Jr. and this not only beat having two Tommys in the house but pops decided he was too old to start calling himself T S Rivera. In other cases the given name just seems to morph into initials for a variety of reasons. In R A Dickey's book he offered no other explanation other than people just started calling him R A instead of Robert or Bobby or whatever. It didn't seem like it was his choice although one would assume that he's OK with as he doesn't seem to have taken any actions to change how he's referred to now that he's an adult. Then there was an episode in MASH where Hawkeye went nuts trying to figure out what B. J. stood for as it was even that way on his official army records. Hunnicut's explanation was it was from his parents Bea & Jay although Pierce wasn't buying it and continued to assume there was some deep, dark secret behind it.

I used to work with LZ Granderson, who, I think, is still at ESPN and CNN, though he does a lot of things. A very nice guy. LZ is actually his name, printed that way on his birth certificate. I always thought that was cool.

[Centerfield]

And then there are those freaks whose names spelled out are letters.

Like Jay.

[bmfc1]

Edgy's comments about wives and gf's are one of the CPF's best features.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

word

[Frayed Knot]

Mets Guy in Michigan wrote: I used to work with LZ Granderson, who, I think, is still at ESPN and CNN, though he does a lot of things. A very nice guy. LZ is actually his name, printed that way on his birth certificate. I always thought that was cool.

I've seen him in passing on TV here and there and I noticed whenever his name was shown that there were never dots indicating that L and Z were initials.

[Zvon]

themetfairy wrote:

____

TMF, I removed Mr. Met and put your avatar in its place.

[Guest themetfairy]

Awesome - I love it!

I also took this shot of him today -

[metirish]

I have a friend that knows him, she worked with his mom in Pelham( not Pelham Bay) for several years. Says he's a really great guy.

Swings for the fences that's for sure

[MFS62]

metirish wrote: I have a friend that knows him, she worked with his mom in Pelham( not Pelham Bay) for several years. Says he's a really great guy. Swings for the fences that's for sure

Hey, welcome back.
Good to see you here.

Later

[metirish]

I should have come back sooner

later

[G-Fafif]

Best

on the team by far.

mVnoNpncfh0

[Centerfield]

TJ Rivera fun fact:

His career OBP (.348) is LOWER than his career BA (.364)!


(I always thought it was stupid that reaching on an error counts against you in terms of OBP. Fact of the matter is you reached base, and although the fielder screwed up, maybe you were hustling your ass down the line and damn well earned that base.)

[Edgy MD]

Agreed. Reaching on an error is to a large extent a product of making contact and hustling. That you get debits for that and credits for getting hit by a pitch doesn't seem particularly consistent.

[Centerfield]

Right? I mean sometimes it's inevitable, but some of those HBP's are a result of failing to act in time. Or being indifferent to the pitch coming at you altogether.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

G-Fafif wrote: Best walkup jam on the team by far. [youtube]mVnoNpncfh0[/youtube]

With a hateful, hateful video. (Establishing shots of YSII give way to obviously-shot-at-Shea interior video. Shea being forced into Death Star drag, IOW.)