G-Fafif

Tom gets a https://www.amazon.com/LIFE-Baseball-Greats-Those-Lost/dp/1547856513/ref=zg_bsnr_16315_18?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=BAHPZYBV7VMY2D9DKDK6posthumous magazine cover from a title that is usually no longer with us.

Dave is a very genuine person. Hope he honestly notices if someone is batting out of order.

Per MFS's request, Charley Pride is cross-referenced as a Baseball Passing. Charley Pride, pioneering country music superstar and would-be 1963 Met, 86, from COVID-19 complications. As wretched as the Mets were, they weren't so desperate as to be scouting smelters' club teams. Pride sent the clippings about his past baseball success to the general manager, George Weiss, and received no response. But he came up with a gambit: What if he mailed six Louisville Slugger Brooks Robinson–model bats with his name on them to the Mets' camp in [st. Petersburg]? Then the team would be expecting him when he arrived. He bought a one-way ticket from Great Falls, Mont., to Tampa, with connections in Chicago and Atlanta. It was 4 a.m. by the time he made it to the Mets' hotel. He talked the night manager into showing him the guest register, where he found the name of an old Negro leagues buddy, second baseman Sammy Drake. Pride knocked on Drake's door, and the stunned, half-dressed infielder took him in. Pride's big-league dream ended the next day. In fact, he got no further than the team bus. Casey Stengel told Weiss, “We ain't running no damn tryout camp down here. . . . Take him downtown and put him on a bus anywhere he wants to go.” Pride asked for a ticket back home to Montana—with a pit stop in Nashville. https://www.si.com/mlb/2018/03/21/charley-pride-texas-rangers-country-musichttps://www.si.com/mlb/2018/03/21/charley-pride-texas-rangers-country-music

Multiple sources reporting Dave Jauss, Jerry Manuel's bench coach in 2010, will be Luis Rojas's bench coach in 2021.

The bar to become Most Admirable Famous Jared is low.

Lee Mazzilli returns to his speed skating roots. Last month, Mazzilli got a chance to reconnect with speedskating and was delighted when the memories came flooding back. Bigwigs at U.S. Speedskating asked him to participate on a Zoom call with supporters to promote the sport. The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing are just over 400 days away. Blair was on the call and so was Eddy Alvarez, the Marlins infielder who won a Silver medal in speedskating at the 2014 Winter Olympics as part of the U.S. 5,000-meter relay team. Alvarez made his Major League debut last August and his story — he's the first Winter Olympics medalist ever to get an at-bat in MLB — garnered national attention for speedskating. It was natural to put Mazzilli and Alvarez together. In fact, Heiden suggested it when organizers were discussing Alvarez and his baseball background. “Lee was such a good athlete,” Heiden says. “Every once in a while, you'd see him throwing a baseball around with both arms. He was ambidextrous. It was always cool, when he was playing in the majors, to think, ‘Hey, I used to know that guy.'” It's mutual admiration. Mazzilli gushes when talking about what Heiden did at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, winning five Gold medals at distances ranging from 500 meters to 10,000 meters. Heiden was the first person to win five Gold medals in a single Olympics. “It's Jim Thorpe-ish,” Mazzilli says. “It's mind-boggling what he did from sprint to the middle to the distance. It's not talked about enough.” On the Zoom call, Mazzilli and Alvarez touched on everything from backgrounds to the not-so-plentiful similarities between baseball and skating: “Turning left all the time,” Alvarez jokes. “There's really not that much. But the competitive spirit, that was instilled in us in skating and baseball — always trying to find an edge.” https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-lee-mazzillis-speedskating-olympics-20201212-kyorxlvyojhc5jvwagxsuapxyi-story.htmlhttps://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-lee-mazzillis-speedskating-olympics-20201212-kyorxlvyojhc5jvwagxsuapxyi-story.html

Mets hiring Jared Porter from D'Backs as GM, per Post. https://nypost.com/2020/12/12/mets-hiring-jared-porter-as-next-general-manager/https://nypost.com/2020/12/12/mets-hiring-jared-porter-as-next-general-manager/

Steve and Alex were handing out previously undistributed 2020 bobbleheads to season ticket holders today. Quite the surprise, apparently.

I don't know how this is quantified, but I dig it. https://twitter.com/jamesmccann34/status/1136701316196163588

Who do you suppose this guy knows to get on the field AND get his name on the board? https://twitter.com/alexmomof5/status/1337818462496968705?s=21https://twitter.com/alexmomof5/status/1337818462496968705?s=21

http://thecranepool.net/phpBB32/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29154&p=40301&hilit=Blevins#p40301Released by the Giants in March, didn't seek Summer Camp opportunity.

Another James (Schapiro, a young man whose writing I recommend), has delved in. According to Statcast, McCann's batted-ball profile has been consistently improving since 2018. His hard-hit rate in 2018 was 37.1%, which was around his career average at the time. In 2019, it improved to 44.2%. In 2020, it improved again, all the way to 47.8%. His walk rate was similar: it went from 5.7% in 2018 to 6.3% in 2019 to a career-high 7.2% in 2020. So, the million-dollar question (literally): can McCann keep it up? He's almost certainly not a .289/.360/.536 hitter, but can he sustain an OPS around .800, as he did in 2019? It won't be easy, as even that season, he had a .359 BABIP. But he's now spent two consecutive seasons — albeit one shortened one — hitting the ball noticeably harder than he had before. Maybe he's made a genuine improvement, or maybe it's a fluke — or maybe, as seems most likely, it's somewhere in between. McCann hasn't just improved on offense either. His framing, a hugely important skill at which Wilson Ramos was particularly bad, has been on an upswing just as he hits free agency. In 2019, according to Statcast, McCann's framing ranked dead last in the league. However, as The Athletic reported, there are nuances to the numbers. Statcast's framing algorithm, James Fegan wrote, “grade(d) him out as among the best in the league at framing strikes at the top of the zone.” However, “the 6-foot-3 McCann was losing larger quantities of runs on pitches at the knees.” But in 2020, something changed. McCann's strike rate improved to 51.4%, eighth in baseball. In 2019, his strike rates in the three areas across the bottom of the strike zone (bottom left, bottom middle, bottom right) had been 20.3%, 44.1%, and 13.9%. In 2020, they climbed to 38.1%, 61.8%, and 31.3%. His framing at the top of the zone suffered, but not enough to offset his gains at the bottom. Vast framing improvement: career development, or one-year fluke? It depends, again, on your level of optimism. Before the 2020 season, McCann worked out with former catcher and bench coach Jerry Narron, who has instructed catchers like Jeff Mathis, Jonathan Lucroy, and David Ross. He was there to work on one thing: framing. “Up to this point in my career I've never really had anyone who was able to explain to me why the scoring worked the way that it did as far as the framing metrics go and how to improve,” McCann told Fegan. “I'll definitely be monitoring it closer than I ever have.” When he returned to the field after his workouts with Narron, his framing seemed to have improved dramatically. https://sheabridge.substack.com/p/the-ultimate-rorschach-testhttps://sheabridge.substack.com/p/the-ultimate-rorschach-test

It's done, per Heyman: James at 4 years, $40 million. Let us hope he comes of age in a Mets uniform.

Mets are bringing back likable lefty Jerry Blevins on a minor league deal. Turned 37 in Second. Didn't pitch in 2020.

Filling out the roster with Sleet Schourek, Wally Whitechristmas, Lee Machiily, Michael Comforter and Igloo Klimchock. All cheered on silently by mascot Mr. Mitten.

Edgy MD wrote: I like Z's watermark back there on the scoreboard. Do I correctly guess that this shot was from a Mayor's Trophy game? Yup, Phil was acquired just in time for the ‘67 game at MFYS I.

[FIMG=555]https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9dvYUiXheSQ/VhB5FoAFbiI/AAAAAAAAgso/qnwGRukuVxM/s640/67mfcMusicalMets-z15-Z15.png[/FIMG] Play us out, Z.

Mets utility infielder in 1967 and 1968, better known for playing the harmonica on the MFY team bus in 1964, much to manager Yogi Berra's consternation, 81. Linz's passing on December 9 in a Virginia nursing home reported by Marty Appel on Facebook.

=Fman99 post_id=51980 time=1607629422 user_id=86] Yeah, I'm not one for reruns of old games to begin with. But mostly, if you think I'm watching a Tom Glavine appearance, well, uh, no. Fuck that guy.

I don't know if this is the last-ever Kiner's Korner (periodically revived version), but it would have been a tough act to follow. At about 2:21:20, Ralph, with an assist from proto-Gelbs Matt Loughlin, welcomes in Bob Murphy at the conclusion of Bob Murphy Night. Also, a little before that, Mike Piazza tries his reluctant hand at first base for the first time as a Met. Ted Robinson and Fran Healy on the call for FSN-NY. https://youtu.be/YVX69WARbgshttps://youtu.be/YVX69WARbgs

Martino now. Making it sound as if Realmuto is a potential option if McCann falls through, as opposed to the other way around, which seems more intuitive. https://twitter.com/martinonyc/status/1336783094603517953?s=21https://twitter.com/martinonyc/status/1336783094603517953?s=21

Well deserved, I think. Baseball Al Michael's was superb Al Michael's.

Mets sign reliever Trevor Hildenberger. https://sports.yahoo.com/mets-sign-reliever-trevor-hildenberger-231400408.htmlhttps://sports.yahoo.com/mets-sign-reliever-trevor-hildenberger-231400408.html