G-Fafif

Jae S.

Tug M. OE: You asked starters, so never mind (unless this is somehow right).

T#m G.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Retro cards have become such a thing that I'm staring at the actual cards of Matlack and El Sid and thinking "those really look authentic." You'd be right about the Sid. Here's his original '86 Topps base card, below. The one above is a retro re-make. Ah, Bach...

Retro cards have become such a thing that I'm staring at the actual cards of Matlack and El Sid and thinking "those really look authentic."

Steve T.

David C.

Frankie V.

Pedro Martinez.

Ceetar wrote: And if it's Davis or Satin, perhaps she buys really lame pick-up lines in bars? "Think about it, Hannah. If he really hit 32 home runs in the big leagues last year, then what's he doing in Las Vegas?" "Maybe he's at a convention." "For two months?" "Well, my gynecologist told me..." "The one who 'played for the Mets'?" "He said he did." "And you believe everything a guy tells you?" "I believe my gynecologist." "Why? What makes him so believable?" "I have to. I can't have that kind of intimate relationship with a man who would lie to me. Besides, he told me I gotta believe him -- he invented that!" "Invented what?" "That phrase, 'You Gotta Believe,.' He came up with that when he was on the Mets." "Hannah, that was Tug McGraw." "Who?" "Tug McGraw, the Met who came up with 'You Gotta Believe.'" "Maybe that was my gynecologist's stage name. They have those, don't they?"

Edgy MD wrote: G-Fafif wrote: The Saunders AB-No RBI record has stayed with me since it was mentioned on a radio broadcast in 1993. Retaining it helped me win a t-shirt at QBC last January ("nobody's ever gonna get this," the guy asking it insisted). Doug had a really good glove...though I suppose he'd have to. D'Amico by all rights but one shouldn't be on any list of RBI-bereft Mets. I attended a game in early 2002 in which Jeff grounded a ball into right with runners on first and third and two out. RBI, right? Not to B.J. Surhoff, who was playing shallow and threw the lumbering pitcher out at first to end the inning. The rare 9-3 putout ensured that the Mets would lose in irritating fashion to the Braves, 2-1, and Big Jeff would someday wind up drifting through a quiz like this. That play may have happened in 2002, but it's so 2003. In the spirit of the metric alphabet, 200220032004 felt like one very long, very awful, very endless season.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I was at that game too. I can say without hindsight that when that game was over, I somehow knew all the changes that had been made in the preceding offseason would add up to bupkes and that the Braves would remain out of reach for all of eternity -- or that year, anyway.

Also, I remain bizarrely proud of having witnessed Colon record an RBI at Shea as an Angel in 2005. He singled to right off Mike DeJean to cap a six-run inning. That was his last, or shall we say most recent, MLB run batted in.

The Saunders AB-No RBI record has stayed with me since it was mentioned on a radio broadcast in 1993. Retaining it helped me win a t-shirt at QBC last January ("nobody's ever gonna get this," the guy asking it insisted). Doug had a really good glove...though I suppose he'd have to. D'Amico by all rights but one shouldn't be on any list of RBI-bereft Mets. I attended a game in early 2002 in which Jeff grounded a ball into right with runners on first and third and two out. RBI, right? Not to B.J. Surhoff, who was playing shallow and threw the lumbering pitcher out at first to end the inning. The rare 9-3 putout ensured that the Mets would lose in irritating fashion to the Braves, 2-1, and Big Jeff would someday wind up drifting through a quiz like this.

Times picked up on the quote, though not with the investigative zeal (or Zeile) shown here. If we accept Randy is an adjective/nom-de-plume, then we must turn to Dunham's other clue, Mets of Jewish faith, heritage or at least partial identity. Since 1962, that group encompasses Joe Ginsberg, Norm Sherry, Greg Goossen, Art Shamsky, Elliott Maddox, Dave Roberts, Shawn Green, David Newhan, Scott Schoeneweis, Ike Davis, Josh Satin. Ginsberg, Goossen and Roberts are no longer with us (meaning if one of those was the guy, the author needs a new gyno). Nothing in the bio of the 83-year-old Sherry suggests he took up medicine. Have seen and heard enough of and from Shamsky and Maddox post-baseball to discern they didn't become doctors. Nobody else -- even from the perspective of young Lena -- would qualify as "an older Jewish man". Guessing, as suggested upthread, that if the whole thing isn't a clever fictionalization (or fabrication), the doctor might have said something to her once about going to a tryout camp or being drafted in the 43rd round and that became "my gynecologist played for the Mets." If by chance it's Schoeneweis, then Ms. Dunham should check her insurance to make sure it covers catastrophic events.

Ravishing Recker. Except he really is ravishing. Maybe not always ravaging opposing pitchers, though.

Legend has it Piersall was immediately booted off the team by Stengel for his stunt, supported by the immortal line about there being room enough on this here ballclub for only one clown, but Piersall played another month as a Met. His homer kicked off a great week, actually. Two days later he batted leadoff and doubled to spark the Mets to victory in the first-ever Mayor's Trophy Game, the one in which Yankee Stadium ushers couldn't control those awful rowdy Mets fans with their horns and banners and general insouciance.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: One of my pet topics since the Lone HR reign of Mike Hessman, who was supposed to be a super slugger and got screwed out of a second HR on a video review (that was correct). So what's one of your pet topics? Mets with one and only one home run, thus my enthusiasm for this particular quiz. Not a pet topic: sentences that don't need clarification.

Maybe if Piersall had looked where he was going, he would have streaked past Argenis.

One of my pet topics since the Lone HR reign of Mike Hessman, who was supposed to be a super slugger and got screwed out of a second HR on a video review (that was correct). I think Abreu might have one-homered his way past Reyes, however. And maybe llasreiP ymmiJ had more ABs?

Al Moran and Argenis Reyes?

Al Moran.

Rod Gaspar.

Tim Foli.

Edgy MD wrote: I like pedestrian ballplayers with outsized nicknames for that they can't possibly live up to. Like Taters Taveras?