G-Fafif

I'm sorry to say I had no idea that Edgy was referring to our own G-Fafif. I thought it had something to do with this guy: We were on the same page for the Let's and Go parts, but we diverged on the third word. I said "Mets," he said "Crazy".

I do hope Vida Blue is content. I didn't know this off the top of my head, so I checked the one source that figured to lead to the answer and recognized the shared hometown immediately. Just one nearby river to cross to find the answer.

And you are there... Fun evening. J. Diamond and D. Roth were terrific co-panelists and the crowd had fine questions throughout. Diamond reports Richie Hebner (whom he knew as a minor league hitting coach) is a swell guy who just didn't want to be in NY w/non-contender in 1979. "It was nothing personal," he assured the 16-year-old version of me. Older version of me is satisfied, even if Hebner and young me will always be wary of one another.

I probably have this wrong, but in my memory, he and Fernando Nieve made their first Mets starts in consecutive games during a starter pinch, which was cool in a their-names-are-one-letter-apart kind of way. Niese and Nieve made their Met debuts a season apart, but they were always confounding their teacher when she took attendance. (I think they based an episode of Small Wonder on their experience.) GKR Bobblehead night on August 27, 2013, had to have been Niese's best all-around performance: 3-hit shutout of Phillies, doubled in three runs. Helped take the edge off the news that had just come down re Harvey requiring rehab for coke addiction...I mean Tommy John surgery. [fimg=360]http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/niese-vols.jpg[/fimg] This was from one of my quasi-media outings, covering the Mets, which was basically Niese and Jay Horwitz, coming to the aid of Long Beach after Superstorm Sandy. I tried to keep his performance that day -- gracious, helpful, empathetic -- in mind when many of his mound performances went awry. I wasn't always successful.

Jim McAndrew.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Seaver, Mays, Carter, Piazza, Hernandez, Hodges. Get this thing started right. You're obviously one of those hardasses that purposely don't use all of their allotted votes, probably in order to draw attention to yourself. Can't come up with seven HOF'ers, even after a 50 year hiatus? Me, I woulda voted just like you did, but adding Ol' Case to the ballot. I had Casey on my first iteration, but figured since he was inducted by Veterans Committee it was somehow outside the spirit of the exercise. Also deeply considered Henderson and Berra (and, after posting, Martinez), but figured we didn't have to grope for Metsian connections. My other totally biased would-be was Koosman, who I've always maintained should have gotten a longer look considering Bunning is in with vaguely similar credentials, but in our new 50 year HOF class, we don't have to think "if he's in, then he's in." I was going to include Aaron, maybe Musial, but why devalue the Hall of Fame with non-Mets?

Seaver, Mays, Carter, Piazza, Hernandez, Hodges. Get this thing started right.

As JCL was kind enough to point out in the book thread, I have one coming out this March, titled Amazin' Again: How the 2015 New York Mets Brought the Magic Back to Queens. Bonus points for recognizing the title was used for the Mets' 2000 giveaway VHS tape commemorating the 1999 season. (My editor confesses he'd forgotten about that, but I think it works here, too.) You can pre-order it here. And you can read a chapter right here: LOOK WHO’S NO. 1 How does that old chestnut go again? Oh right, like this: Washington. First in war. First in peace. And second in the National League East. On August 3, one night after the Mets swept the Nationals out of Citi Field, they elbowed them out of any claim of first place in their division. New York traveled to Miami and pounded the Marlins, 12-1. Yoenis Cespedes collected three hits and Michael Conforto belted his first major league homer. Simultaneously in our nation’s capital, the Arizona Diamondbacks held off the successors to the Senators, 6-4. The Mets were alone in first place. They liked it so much, they began to decorate. It was predictable behavior, given the Mets’ historical tendency to get to first and get downright cozy. “LOOK WHO’S NO. 1,” the Shea scoreboard suggested on September 10, 1969, the night the Mets nosed ahead of the Cubs. Those Mets kept their nose heading only one way from there: up. They weren’t snobs, they just weren’t giving up first place. Same thing happened in the five-team rumble for the N.L. East flag in 1973. They had four competitors right down to the wire, but once the Mets moved in on September 21, they never moved out. The ’86 Mets took first place on April 22 and didn’t think of giving it up. The ’88 Mets waited until May 3 to become similarly proprietary. In ’06 Mets didn’t mess around much. They were in first as of April 6 and remained in first clear to the end of the season. These Mets hadn’t been as sure of themselves in their penthouse surroundings, exchanging keys with the Nationals on a couple of occasions and experimenting with life in second place. They must not have cared for it, because they were back in first. Besides, “these Mets” were practically a new proposition. There’d been no Conforto or Cespedes around when the Mets were vacating first in May and June. There weren’t a load of 12-1 wins, either. The good offensive times kept rolling for the Mets in Florida. They swept three from the Marlins — outscoring them 25-8 — and then took a series-opener in St. Pete in which Conforto delivered a clutch ninth-inning double and Wilmer Flores the eventual game-winning double. The 4-3 victory over the Rays on August 7 extended the Mets’ winning streak to seven. They hadn’t lost since that day in the rain against the Padres. Which seemed like a very long time ago. Two one-run losses at Tampa Bay dimmed the Sunshine State road trip a bit, but the standings remained in good stead, with the Mets a game-and-a-half up on the Nationals as they flew home. A new winning streak commenced against the Rockies, who came into Citi Field for what turned into four more Met wins. Four more raucous Mets wins, it should be noted. It’s not so much that they buried last-place Colorado — only the last of the four was a blowout — but Citi Field stayed loud, supportive and engaged. Maybe that shouldn’t have seemed worth mentioning, but from 2009 through 2014, even at intervals in 2015, the home of the Mets didn’t engender much enthusiasm. It could be a nice place to visit, but sometimes it was hard to tell that your favorite ballclub lived there. The Nationals series changed that and the Rockies series certified it. The third game of the set, in particular, transmitted a different tone. It was Colorado on a Wednesday night, which in previous years meant you could sit pretty much anywhere you liked and if you were in the mood to purchase a snack (something Citi Field specialized in selling you), you wouldn’t have to wait long. Why was this Wednesday night different from all other Wednesday nights? Maybe it was first place, maybe it was the momentum, maybe it was the critical mass of the Mets finally being the Mets we wanted them to be, but boy was it different. There were 37,175 of us in the building for baseball and nothing but baseball. No free shirts on a Wednesday. No quick visits to the concessions, either. And, for the first time I could recall, no sense of attention wandering. We were all there to watch and cheer the Mets. We watched Jacob deGrom strike out ten and give up only two hits across seven — and we cheered. We watched new Met Juan Uribe and nearly forgotten newish Met Michael Cuddyer (who handled his transition to part-time status with team-first grace) drive in runs in back-to-back at-bats in the fourth — and we cheered. We watched Cespedes in a neon yellow compression sleeve connect for his first Met home run — and goodness, did we cheer. You could make out the sleeve from Promenade, though you probably had to be watching on television to notice a parakeet that perfectly accessorized Yoenis’s accessory clinging to the screen behind home plate. The synergy was too perfect, and thus was born the Rally Parakeet. The bird matched our mood: bright. If we’d seen our new avian mascot from where we were sitting, would have cheered it, too. The Mets won, 3-0. A fine win, certainly, but essentially just another win in an August when they were beginning to become regularly scheduled events. Of course we were happy. I just didn’t realize how happy until I started to leave Citi Field. I entered the staircase that takes you down to Field Level and heard something besides the shuffling of feet. I heard chanting. I heard “LET’S GO METS!” over and over again. That was a sound that I thought was left for the demolition crews when the last of the Shea Stadium ramps was torn down. Nope, it was as alive at Citi Field as it was constant, unyielding and celebratory. We were celebrating more than a win over Colorado, I was certain. We were celebrating more than the Mets’ status as a first-place entity and the extension of their first-place lead (it would be up to 3½ by night’s end, 4½ the next day). We were, I deduced, celebrating ourselves. We were getting to be Mets fans again. We were getting to come to a ballgame and root for our ballclub and make ourselves heard and not feel that if we shouted, we were shouting into a vacuum. We were part of what the Mets were doing and it felt great to be doing it again. First-place, first-person plural wasn’t delusional for those of us in the stands and on the stairs. This meant something to us, something a fan only understands when he or she has been without it for too long. The traffic on the staircase was downward, but the direction at Citi Field was up, up and away.

Edgy MD wrote: Save up your pennies. If at First II is in the hopper. Please use a few shekels on this first, and then invest in Keith. Thank you.

This world was never meant for one as beautiful as him. Hit a big home run in the first would-have-been Harvey Day start after his was announced Harvey was going in for TJS. Ralph did that game.

The Dairylea Deck or Rheingold Ridge would keep it historically on point, though those probably aren't actionable sponsorships in 2015. "Right field porch" would be fine.

I swear Carlos Diaz was the last dependable lefty specialist the Mets had until Dennis Cook. No matter the bounty he and Bob Bailor brought back, he was missed then and he is no doubt missed by his loved ones now. RIP.

SNY has already designated one 2015 Mets Classic and aired it twice: the Steven Matz Game of 6/28.

I feel like Game Six tonight, deGrom refreshed and ready to make amends for Game Two, the offense prepared to quash Cueto. Let's tie this Series and send it to Game Seven! What?

Citi Field Met Career Postseason Home Run Leaders Murphy 3 Granderson 2 d'Arnaud 2 Conforto 2 Wright 1 Cespedes 1

Gads, I miss baseball.

Diamond Dad wrote: Hammer? HAMMER???!! We don't need no stinking Hammer!!! (We need bats that work) We can always use a Hammer.

Ceetar wrote: All three games (For the tailgating. I don't know about G-Fafif's ticket situation beyond tomorrow.) That's fair, since we don't know the Mets ticketing situation for Sunday either. I'm thinking they'll be ticketed for a return trip to Kansas City late Sunday night.

Four outta five. Win Friday and it's three outta four. The National League champions can do that.

All teams and their associated cities that stand in the way of Met destiny and/or density invite animus. Screw the Royals. Let's Go Mets.

That 1995 draft pick wasn't Carlos Beltran. Who was he? Story here.

Forgot to mention: Flavor Flav wore a Mets cap while Public Enemy performed on Kimmel. There are a couple of variations on this theme floating around. This is the good one. [youtube:1dmtniby]WVvI3AUSxAg&feature=youtu.be&a[/youtube:1dmtniby]

In addition to Mr. Met appearing on Kimmel from Brooklyn on October 22, 2015, four Mets -- Wright, Flores, Harvey, deGrom -- enjoyed the prodigal host. He properly slobbered over them and the crowd went wild.

Hope this Series sparks a tiresome "the Buffalo Bills of baseball" narrative for KC.

Re: 2006 -- as of Wednesday night, the outcome of Game Seven bothers me a LOT less. Honestly, even as 2015 got better and better, I still didn't think I was enjoying it as much as 2006, which will always be the one that got away to me. Though they weren't quite so proximate, it was the same feeling I had about deep-down loving 1985 ever so slightly more than 1986 and 1999 marginally more than 2000 (marginally as opposed to significantly only because of finally winning the pennant). The passion burned deeper in the years they came close as opposed to the years that reaped greater reward. Through the regular season and Division Series, I would have still taken 2006 over 2015. I loved how the '06 team owned its division essentially wire to wire. I loved the cast of characters. I loved the sense that they were going all the way. There's been a change in the standings, though, and I don't think it's the moment talking. I really love this bunch of Mets, not just for what they've accomplished, but how they've accomplished it. I saw the phrase after Game Three, "they outclassed the Cubs," and it really struck me. There's something about this team that just makes you proud, including the way they never let the way you might have underestimated or mischaracterized them slow them down.