G-Fafif

Yeah, it's banged. Philly on Monday is Opening Night.

Ken Reitz, All-Star, Gold Glover and teammate of Keith Hernandez, 69. Brett Reitz released the following statement through the team: "On behalf of my dad and my family I'd like to thank the Cardinals organization for allowing my father to live out his dream. Also, Cardinals fans for the endless support over the years. The only thing my dad loved as much as his family was baseball. He ate, slept, and breathed baseball and truly loved the city of St. Louis and the Cardinals. The loss of “Grandpa Kenny”, as his six grandkids called him, is heartbreaking. He will be truly missed.” https://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/cardinal-beat/former-cardinals-third-baseman-reitz-the-zamboni-dies-at-69/article_115d5ebe-a000-5cdd-90c3-fa0d9122dfa8.htmlhttps://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/cardinal-beat/former-cardinals-third-baseman-reitz-the-zamboni-dies-at-69/article_115d5ebe-a000-5cdd-90c3-fa0d9122dfa8.html

SNY and associated platform will air Francisco Lindor press conference at 3 PM today.

One more excerpt. You could lock every fan of the Texas Rangers, Seattle Mariners, and Colorado Rockies in a small storage locker, and they would kill one another for the Mets' postseason history. In 57 seasons to date, the Mets have reached the postseason nine times, they've played in five World Series, and they've won twice. Yes, it's been a while since 1986, and it's probably true that half the people who had vivid memories of that season are now dead. Still, compared with the genuine sad sacks of pro sports, the fan bases with zero joy, no highs, all lows, nothing to show for their loyalty but a deep dent in their foreheads from slapping them for decades, the Mets' track record for badness simply doesn't rate. It's pretty meh. In fact, amazing and/or miraculous postseason runs are as much a part of the Mets' identity as losing 120 games in 1962. For everyone who cares about the Mets, the DNA of seasons such as 1969, with the original Miracle Mets; 1973, when the “Ya Gotta Believe” Mets went from last place to Game 7 of the World Series in two months; and 1986, a season-long bullet train—right up until they almost derailed twice in the playoffs—has encoded in us this hapless instinct that a reversal of fortune is always possible. It's happened before, and it's happened more than once. It's kind of our thing. The mental state of your standard-issue Mets fan is to be simultaneously certain of humiliating defeat and pretty darn sure there's a miracle brewing. It's not bracing for the worst, exactly. It's bracing for something. Something awful, surely … but maybe not! Mets fans have the capacity to believe in both outcomes with equal commitment. This is very hard to do. You probably couldn't pull it off. You'd have to be special. https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/04/mets-are-losers/618470/https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/04/mets-are-losers/618470/

The framing is unfortunate to the naked eye, but the article is another excerpt from the previously discussed Devin Gordon book, and Devin Gordon is one of us. The sight of Ray Knight rounding third base with the winning run of Game 6 in the 1986 World Series against the Boston Red Sox—completing a two-run, two-out, two-strike comeback in the bottom of the tenth inning—was the greatest moment of my life, and I have two kids. I will cherish the memories of my sweet, gorgeous, magical children drawing their first breaths until the day I draw my last. I'll just cherish them ever so slightly less than my memories of that Game 6. I was 10 years old, and it was after midnight, and I'd already bleated so many times during the first nine and a half innings that I was under penalty of death if I woke up anyone else. By the top of the tenth, the noises coming out of me had turned dark and guttural. The Mets were down three games to two. A loss here tonight would end the series, and my childhood. Then right away in the top of the tenth, Red Sox outfielder Dave “Hendu” Henderson, who'd crushed us that whole series, crushed the second pitch so hard off the facade above the left-field wall that it ricocheted 50 yards back into left-center. He hit that ball so hard that its essence went clean through my chest, and I didn't feel it until I saw the baseball-size hole where several of my vital organs used to be. Phonetically, the sound I made was nngyuuuh. It was the sound of a 10-year-old boy learning that life is shit. Boston up 4–3. And then, as the light in my eyes went out, Sox third baseman Wade Boggs clubbed a double in the gap, followed by light-hitting second baseman Marty Barrett singling him home—Barrett's 12th hit in six games, lifting his World Series batting average to .418. Boston up 5–3. Game over. Childhood over. Knowing what I know now, about life, about losing, about giving your heart to a team like the Mets, I ache for those Red Sox fans, belligerent and insufferable as they were, because here we are all these decades later, and they're still haunted by the sight of Mookie Wilson's hard grounder sneaking through Bill Buckner's legs. The late, great Shea Stadium was built on a fetid ash heap, and it took just 12 minutes for the Mets to rise from it, roar back, and win the game, 6–5. As I processed what was happening, I uncorked one of those silent shrieks where you're going berserk but no sound is coming out. The clashing forces of the air trying to leave my body and me trying to hold in the sound caused a sudden rush of oxygen into my head. I remember the feeling of my brain expanding in my skull and getting super warm as Ray Knight stomped on home plate, and I know for certain that if it happened again today, I would stroke out. Sometimes clicking fills in blanks. https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/04/mets-are-losers/618470/https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/04/mets-are-losers/618470/

Amazingly, this thread has grown http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2021/04/01/the-kings-of-queens-of-staten-island/incredibly timely.

The total is $341 million because getting “41” in there was important to both parties...is something I'd love to hear from Cohen and Lindor. Even if it wasn't.

Adrian Gonzalez is in a sense close to home, playing ball anew in his native Mexico. Five-time All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez hasn't played in the majors since 2018, but his professional career isn't over yet. Gonzalez has signed with the expansion Guadalajara Mariachis of the Mexican League, Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times relays. The soon-to-be 39-year-old did so in order to tune up for this summer's Tokyo Olympic Games, in which he's hoping to play for Mexico. The team has already qualified for the tournament. As Shaikin notes, Gonzalez previously represented Mexico in youth ball, the Caribbean World Series and the World Baseball Classic. Gonzalez said adding the Olympics to that trio would be “like the grand slam of representing Mexico. That is the only reason I have not retired yet.” https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/03/adrian-gonzalez-signs-in-mexican-league.htmlhttps://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/03/adrian-gonzalez-signs-in-mexican-league.html

Tommy hunted around before accepting a minor league contract to return to the Mets.

Marlins Park will now be known as loanDepot park, lower-case and all.

Steve would still like to hire him for the long haul.

Todd opts to remain relatively close to the site of his childhood exploits in Williamsport. https://twitter.com/robbiertempfel/status/1376948615176937477?s=21https://twitter.com/robbiertempfel/status/1376948615176937477?s=21

Mr. Thorn can be fun. And what is baseball if not fun?

Black for black's sake. It's Uni-ese used to dismiss the addition of black by teams who had no reason other than trendiness to add it.

Official MLB historian John Thorn is on board.

=kcmets post_id=58960 time=1617076431 user_id=53] I doubt there's 'demands' going on, but it's The Post.

Being offered a lot. Wants a lot (more).

Died in Muscle Shoals, Ala. https://www.timesdaily.com/sports/randy-tate-shoals-resident-who-pitched-for-the-mets-in-1975-dies/article_239789db-9dc2-5937-ba1a-40cf3fddf8eb.htmlhttps://www.timesdaily.com/sports/randy-tate-shoals-resident-who-pitched-for-the-mets-in-1975-dies/article_239789db-9dc2-5937-ba1a-40cf3fddf8eb.html

=Marshmallowmilkshake post_id=58934 time=1617059422 user_id=119] 5. Who wins the World Series (can be the same answer a Q.4)? Mets (Hopefully the awesome Faith and Fear writer is already lining up a book deal for the story of the season.)

Steve Cohen, in his YouTube fan q&a conducted by Wayne Randazzo, says you can look for a few black-jerseyed dates this season.

1. The Mets' record will be 91-71. 2. The Mets will finish 2nd in the NL East. 3. The Mets will make the playoffs. 4. The Mets will win the Wild Card Game but lose in the NLDS. 5. The White Sox will win the World Series. 6. Pete Alonso will hit 38 home runs.

Opening Day coincided with the afterschool dress rehearsal of Li'l Abner, coming to the LBHS stage that weekend, meaning I got home only in time for the ninth inning. Was delighted we were winning by so much. Got a little less delighted as the lead evaporated bit by bit. Was thrilled, natch, that it was preserved. Future me revels in the first game of 1979 ending with two of the signature participants from the 1986 World Series facing one another.

Mets decide Mike Montgomery rots and release him.