G-Fafif

Ali Sanchez sent from the Cubs to the Marlins.

https://joeblogs.joeposnanski.com/p/isnt-willie-mays-wonderfulJoe Posnanski: Yes, you see him, even if you never saw him, Willie Mays turns on a fastball, anybody's fastball, Koufax's fastball, Gibson's fastball, Drysdale's fastball, turns on it and sends the ball screaming like a toddler rushing back to mom. Nobody's bat was quicker, his swing was Ali's jab, a cobra strike, a magician's sleight of hand, and if you ever dared throw at him—to scare him, to intimidate him, to move him off the plate—he'd hit the dirt, dust himself off, and shout out in his bird tweet of a voice: “Don't you be throwing at me!” “Then,” Tom Seaver would say, “he'd rip the ball off the wall.”

I'm the Pujols vote based on Albert being the guy who came to mind first last night when I wondered about this myself, though I proceeded to think, “oh yeah, Bonds..and Schmidt.” Bench is a really good candidate, too. And Henderson does feel more like a “ballplayer” than just about anybody. Pujols appeals to me because he's pretty much the last player (along with Miguel Cabrera) I viewed through a lingering childlike lens as larger than life, even in his Angel denouement. His brief revival on his way out moved me for how it connected him to his initial decade of dominance. Like any reasonable Mets fan, I hate the Cardinals, but I rooted for him in 2022 to do a little Citi Field hitting. I don't believe I will raise that kind of sentiment for any of the active stars of today…though I believe Ohtani deserves consideration in this exercise. All of this said, I agree the designation of Greatest Living Player doesn't quite fit anybody who isn't a Willie Mays — and there aren't any of those around anymore.

You say Nido Check your libido And roll to the church In your new tuxedo ..is something I hummed to myself every time is name was mentioned until 2021. Should Tomás wander into the picture a few years from now the way Dillon Gee did the other night in Arlington, I'll probably react similarly to how I did for Dillon, more delighted in retrospect than I was in real time.

I've never existed a day when Willie Mays couldn't be identified as the greatest ballplayer alive. I doubt I'm ready to start https://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2024/06/19/willies-timing/now.

From Jeff Passan: Infielder J.D. Davis was designated for assignment by the Oakland A's, sources tell ESPN. Davis was cut by San Francisco in spring training and received only $1.1M of his $6.9M salary before signing with Oakland for $2.5M. If he's not traded by Oakland, he'll be a free agent. Some J.D.s are hotter than others of late.

J.D. Martinez is your reigning National League Playet of the Week.

Nido released.

Mets maintain low-as-hell profile in ASG voting. Click on tweet to see full tables.

4:10 has become Citi Field's standard Saturday start time. 11 Alive is the frequency, Kenneth.

I was at this game, which was wacky on its "what shows up in the box score" merit, and had no idea about the disguise. Learning about it via highlights was the cherry on top of an exhilarating win.

Edwin activated. Danny Young optioned.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: That surprised me too! Me three. That's what I remember the most about the Castillo game: how uncharacteristically mean G-FAFIF was to Castillo. It was so brutal that I ended up feeling sorry for the guy. Castillo, that is. I think it was like two or three times meaner than he was to Gl@v!ne. And he's never mean to anybody. Though I never altered the spelling of Castillo.

While I stand by my “release” sentiment as it was https://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2009/06/13/15-seconds-of-lousy-baseball-%E2%80%94-weve-had-enough/rendered in the moment — which itself was, I believe, the shittiest Mets moment simply as a moment (rather than as a numbing conclusion to an ongoing trauma) I've ever experienced — I attempted to make my personal peace with Castillo a few years ago by ranking him No. 100 as https://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2021/02/17/mets-of-the-2000s-100-91/part of a multipart series on Mets of the 2000s, acknowledging he had as good a 2009 as he was capable of, while certainly not forgetting the one-handed debacle of June 12. When I tweeted the article, an immediate response was, in so many words, I'm not bleeping reading anything that bleeping praises Luis Bleeping Castillo. While I felt that nonreader lacked the ability to grasp nuance, I understood.

Lopez signs minor league deal with Cubs.

Nimmo sits. McNeil in the Nido slot.

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=158938 time=1718226118 user_id=68] Anyways, I'm now waiting for the inevitable writeup on Faith and Fear, which might be my favorite feature over there. Too bad somebody's gotta die for that to happen.

Maria Leiter, mom of Al, 97. https://www.app.com/story/news/local/people/2024/06/11/maria-leiter-matriarch-of-famed-baseball-family-was-a-model-parent-to-al-leiter-and-siblings/74036497007/

Nido seeding the ground for his Memories thread.

Nido DFA'd as Alvarez is activated.

Lindor '74 in my 11-year-old mitts makes my day in my mind.

190. Jose Iglesias 06/09/2024

Brett Baty will be 27th man for the series. Matthew Broderick will throw out first pitch Saturday.

Narváez and Lopez are each released.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I did read something about that in the last week or so, about how the Mets were going back and forth over whether to draft Beane or Strawberry. And I thought the same thing you did, that apparently nobody else saw Beane as a number 1 pick, so I was wondering why the Mets did. Anthony DiComo piece I'm guessing you're referencing: Heading into the 1980 MLB Draft, the consensus No. 1 overall pick was Darryl Strawberry. The only prospect with a reasonable chance to unseat him was Billy Beane. “Thank goodness they made the right choice,” Beane said last week, laughing. Looking back, the decision might seem obvious. Strawberry, who will have his number retired in a ceremony Saturday at Citi Field, is the Mets' all-time home run king, a prodigious slugger who hit 252 balls over the fence in eight seasons in Flushing, won the 1983 National League Rookie of the Year Award and the 1986 World Series, and made seven All-Star teams with the franchise. Beane, despite going on to have a decorated career as a front-office executive and minority owner of the A's, never became a standout player himself. Back in June 1980, however, things were not so clear. Strawberry, of course, was the popular choice to go No. 1 overall based on his generational career at Crenshaw High School in inner city Los Angeles, as well as an April Sports Illustrated article that referred to him as “a black Ted Williams.” (Fun fact: The cover story of that edition was on a young Cardinals star named Keith Hernandez.) https://www.mlb.com/news/darryl-strawberry-billy-beane-mets-1980-drafthttps://www.mlb.com/news/darryl-strawberry-billy-beane-mets-1980-draft