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Edgy MD wrote: It looks like David Cone's first Mets tenure ended with a relief appearance. First? August 23, 1992, he started. Second ended in relief.

Wheeler with a good start today. Calling it now.

He didn't pitch very well, but what a bonanza of Met trivia Jason Vargas's crummy start yielded!

K-Rod joins Jordany on the Ducks.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Hang in there! The second round will begin in just a few days! Our lives will once again have meaning and purpose! Thank goodness. I've been thoughtfully comparing and contrasting matchbook covers all week and it's just not the same.

MLBS Ed Burns is filming a documentary on the life of the Greatest Met Ever Tom Seaver, per the Snooze. The film, expected to be released next year to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of the Miracle Mets of 1969, will detail the triumphs and controversies of Seaver's 20-year career, including that improbable championship season of 1969 when Tom Terrific led the charge with a league-leading 25 wins, the Midnight Massacre that saw a tearful Seaver sent packing to Cincinnati in 1977, and his heroic return in 1983.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Was there that awe around Pedro at HIS prime, which was actually slightly better than Koufax's? I'd say, on a pro-rated scale, yes. Maybe not to the extent that people are telling total strangers about seeing him pitch decades later (which has been my experience whenever I get to talking with anybody who saw Koufax), but Pedro at his Fenway peak was a phenomenon in Boston and revered or at least acknowledged as something special nationwide, the caveat being the nation was less invested in the national pastime by then. Before him and after Koufax, Ryan, despite rarely posting the kind of record those guys did, had that kind of mystique that transcended merely being appreciated as a terrific pitcher by baseball fans and baseball people. In one of the many, many, many, many stories that has been written about baseball not being what it used to be, this one from the early '90s, it was fretted that research showed the most popular baseball player in America was a guy in his mid-40s on the verge of retirement. Koufax's legacy perversely benefits from the nature of the length of his career, the going out on as top as one could and not by choice. We got the last of Pedro's prime and then the fadeout. He could still stir Shea given the right circumstances, but when he was giving up five earned runs for every nine innings pitched, it was tough to tell him apart from Brian Lawrence or Brandon Knight. All the immediacy and access of our current era probably doesn't help when it comes to pedestals.

Extree Extree!! --Newsie, early 20th century

"Thor, Thor, Thor -- how do ya like it, how do ya like it?" --Andrea True Connection

batmagadanleadoff wrote: I'm never too sure about this: What's more impressive- once in a lifetime or once in a generation? What's longer - a lifetime or a generation? Hopefully a lifetime. Longer, I mean. People still kvell about the time they saw Willie Mays or Sandy Koufax. If you can be a touchstone, you've got it going on. Is there that sort of gee-whizzitude to having seen Alex Rodriguez or Clayton Kershaw?

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Fuck, I thought he was going to be perfect today --Jackie Chan [fimg=400]http://i63.tinypic.com/ka1d2d.jpg[/fimg]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Maybe that's why there's no Seaver statue. The Mets are waiting for someone who really deserves one! "Seriously, Dad, we're just gonna have to take it down and put up a new one if we get another great player." "Good point, son. Probably best not to bother with the statue or the player."

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Yeah, someone more like what Mike Schmidt was to the Phillies. I was trying to think of when fanbases "just knew". Schmidt had a fairly low bar to clear for a franchise whose success had been sporadic, to put it kindly. Mathewson and Ott were a high bar, but Mays leapt over them. Had Pujols stayed in St. Louis, maybe he could have been the Man. Clemente is Clemente, yet Wagner is still Wagner. Chipper never seriously chipped away at Bad Henry. Brooks and Palmer gave way to Ripken. Nobody could ever touch Teddy Ballgame in Boston, unless you value world championships over everything else, in which case Big Papi would be unrivaled.

A changing of the guard, utterly unofficial as it would be, would be fascinating to feel unfold. If Mike Trout were having his career in a Mets uniform (and leading the Mets farther than he's led the Angels), I could imagine the non-existent Seaver statue looking over its shoulder a little.

seawolf17 wrote: David Wright, if he hadn't gotten hurt, would have probably been there by now. In what would have been 13 full seasons, he would have passed 2,000 hits and would be close to 300 homers. Wright would have had to have racked up a couple of MVPs or at least been the no-doubt perennial All-Star starting third baseman and capture imaginations outside the Metsie confines to gain parity with Seaver (plus maybe win a World Series, though that can't fairly be put on a single player, no matter how great). Wright's hypothetically uninterrupted career would likely be considered very, very good, maybe excellent, the kind for whom pleas to appreciate his accomplishments would be written every January when he barely stayed on the Hall of Fame ballot. Seaver's career was and is universally acknowledged as one of the best ever. That's what an everyday player would have to put on the board to be half of "Seaver and [blank]," if not "[blank], then Seaver." I agree Wright was en route to undisputed best position player in Mets history, and may still hold that honor as is. Throw in the entire career as a Met and how much he took the Captain role to heart, the only way No. 5 isn't retired for him is if Mets ownership clings to some dopey "only Hall of Famers who go in as Mets" rule.

I've often wondered what it would take to supplant Tom Terrific as No. 1 among all Mets. I don't think there'll ever be another starting pitcher who does what he did for as long as he did. Only Doc was on his level for a couple of years, and then a little less so every year until injuries and everything else took an irreversible toll. You also have to consider the narrative value of Seaver as the franchise's first true professional, first true star, best player on the most unlikely world champion ever. Instead of flaming out after bursting on the scene, he got better and for the most part stayed great right up to June 15, 1977 (with his truncated returns in 1983 and 1987 not detracting one iota from his legend). If you could craft an everyday player out of the best of Wright, Strawberry, Hernandez and Piazza and have him spend an entire career with the Mets while the Mets win multiple championships and make regular visits to the postseason, then maybe there'd be some competition.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: He wasn't. But there's certainly evidence that he was a different kind of jerk than Harvey is. There's more transparency let alone immediacy today than there was when Seaver pitched and for quite a while thereafter. For the most part, we could only glean and gauge from stories in the next day's paper what these guys were like (putting aside the player who is never forgiven for dickishly not signing a ball or something). In Worst Team, as an aside, Klapisch and Harper called out the Mets from the late '80s who were the worst to deal with. It was a revelation in 1993 to learn that Jesse Orosco was an a-hole in 1986 (must be said I noticed nobody seemed more genuinely friendly meeting with reporters from the old days at the 2016 reunion than Jesse). Certainly some guys' "moodiness" transcended day-to-day norms and prehistoric communications -- and occasionally a columnist would let loose -- but the bit where several reporters report several hours before the game that somebody doesn't want to talk and implies he was a jerk about it, and everybody who cares about the team is aware of it instantly, and it's talked to the high heavens in advance of first pitch...that didn't exist in Seaver's day, in Orosco's day, in Bonilla's day, not fully until this decade. Thus, Seaver (when he played) wasn't a jerk. He was laser-focused on his next start.

"The business of America is the Mets kicking the Cardinals' ass." --Calvin Coolidge

On the Season Two premiere of Brockmire (April 25, 2018), the title character, portrayed by legit MLBS Hank Azaria, hands out gift baskets to his "guests" the morning after. Among them is "the Piazza," which includes a "potty squatty" and olive oil, which his assistant put together because "he's an Italian catcher -- it's so obvious." Brockmire himself prefers to hand out the Jeter because he views the Piazza as "confusing" and "unpopular," adding "there's an element of sadness to them."

I certainly hope Matz handles his inevitable demotion more professionally.

Asdrubal not starting tonight because a hamstring is barking. Woof.

Among the baseball people on hand, according to Newsday's Laura Albanese, were Franco, Darling, Mazzilli, Omar, Bobby V, Larry Dierker, Jim Beattie, Rob Manfred and the Wilpons. From the world of hockey, Mark Messier and (according to another person) Rod Gilbert.

"I felt all right. A little different, obviously. We'll see. I just wanna pitch and help us win. Thanks guys." That's all he has to say. "Harvey spoke briefly" comes off much better than "Harvey told us to go fuck ourselves." Honestly, I'm not all that interested in his thoughts on relief pitching. And those asking him aren't all that interested. It's all a bit of kabuki, owing to the man bites dog aspect of him as a reliever, but just be a person and move on.

Tonight in St. Loo. Note the 2B... CF Michael Conforto LF Yoenis Cespedes RF Jay Bruce 3B Todd Frazier 2B Wilmer Flores 1B Adrian Gonzalez C Jose Lobaton P Steven Matz SS Amed Rosario

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Forgive the question but did he ever come out? Fairly often, assuming there was a pinch-runner available.