G-Fafif

Current clubhouse manager Kevin Kierst doesn't steal uniforms. He borrows from the past, reports Marty Noble. One photo is from the days of "Ya Gotta Believe" and has Tug, his face eclipsed by a gigantic Topps bubble he'd created, and Rollie Fingers, the closers from the 1973 World Series. Another has Jerry Grote and Rod Gaspar dousing Mayor Lindsay in 1969. There's one of Ed Charles -- David Wright calls him "The first No. 5" -- and Koosy in the home clubhouse at Shea. Another is of Willie hitting his first home run with the Mets, against the Giants, in May 1972. (The trained eye can identify Fran Healy as the Giants catcher.) A photo that caught the eye of Kevin Kierst, and wouldn't let go, is one of those staged, hokey things that pictures Rod Kanehl, Jim Hickman, Gil Hodges, Frank Thomas and Charlie Neal, members of the 1962 Mets, creating a group smile -- a rarity that year -- after Casey's bumblers had beaten the Phillies on April 28. Their record was 2-12 after the victory, and it was their first win at home. But that's another story. Kierst is in his second spring as the Mets' clubhouse and equipment manager. He and others have rearranged and redecorated the clubhouse here, created more room, added furniture and changed the art. A Met-amorphosis, you might say. In hopes of emphasizing the club's past and connecting the Mets of Terry Collins to those of Stengel, Westrum, Hodges, et al, he has added links to the days of the Polo Grounds, Shea and George Thomas Seaver, George Basil Theodore and George Heard Stone. And -- "tah-dah!" -- he has eliminated most of the black for the indoor motif. The lockers have been returned to Mets blue, and word is that precious little black will be visible in the team's uniforms this season unless there is an appropriate salute to Gary Carter. Selective memory, however, afflicts this noble effort (per Noble): But there is nothing from the years of Joe Orsulak, D.J. Dozier or Lastings Milledge; not even a square inch from the time of Lo Duca, Pedro and Reyes spent in this burg on the East Coast of Florida that, beginning Tuesday, will be home to the Mets' 51st training camp. "What we did has something to do with the 50th anniversary [of the franchise]," Kierst says. "But it's not just that. ... This is the Mets' clubhouse. It should look like it is."

Mark Herrmann with the scoop in Newsday that '62 Mets aren't going to be so bad, at least not by the players' recollections. This is not going to be so bad. That, more or less, was the thought going through the mind of every player on the expansion New York Mets when they ran onto the field in St. Petersburg for their first workout 50 years ago Sunday. They all heard the gravel-pit voice of 71-year-old manager Casey Stengel announcing to the world, "Here they are." The 22 pitchers and catchers and infielder Don Zimmer , who showed up early, also heard applause from 100 fans gathered to mark the historic occasion. Mostly, each man listened to an optimistic voice inside his own head. "Actually, I'd have to say that first spring training, we had a lot of big-name guys and I thought we should be a pretty good team," said Jay Hook , a pitcher drafted from the Reds. Said former Dodgers pitcher Roger Craig : "We had Frank Thomas , Richie Ashburn and Gus Bell. I felt we might be able to play .500 ball." Of course, to quote Stengel , you could look it up: They lost a record 120 games in 1962. "I didn't know it at the time, but I knew later that if we had put that group together a few years earlier, it would have been a hell of a club. We got them a little too late," said Al Jackson , a pitcher picked up from the Pirates. They did get the over-the-hill- gang look early on. Hook, a fitness buff who learned isometric exercises from football coach Ara Parseghian while pursuing his masters in mechanical engineering at Northwestern, was asked by Stengel to lead the team in exercises. Three days later, so many of the older players were sore and complaining that Stengel told him to stop. To this day, though, those 1962 Mets realize they had been right to begin with. It really wasn't so bad.

Bob Lipsyte covered the first Spring Training in 1962. He covered it again the other day for the Times. Once, while I was talking to Stengel, a middle-aged man approached, dragging a sullen teenager. This was clearly a troubled son and dad. The man claimed to have played for Stengel years ago in the minors. Stengel took his time, regaled them with tales of the father�s prowess and promised the kid a Mets contract if he got as good as his old man. As they left with arms around each other, Stengel rolled his eyes at me and shrugged. He had no memory of the man. Casey's the most fascinating manager in baseball and he's been dead at the present time for nearly 37 years.

That would be ripping off the Band-Aid brand bandage in one quick pull. But the "coaches" section on the mets.com roster now has a blank next to Geren. Perhaps he'll go with something not as Geren but more Generic.

One of those perennial signs of spring that feels a little less vital every year, but their appearance on magazine racks (kids, ask your grandparents) is comforting. Athlon Sports puts out a pretty decent one to go with those mentioned above. Used to rely on The Sporting News Yearbook before I decided the vast, worldwide, anti-Mets conspiracy had overcome them. Was accused during my adolescence of wasting my money on preseason magazines. I still consider it an investment.

Mike Cameron moves out of Nats camp and retires. 7iviWn8UMR8 It wasn't quite "L.A. Woman," but for the meaty part of 2004, Cameron's celebratory clubhouse jam made its way to the Shea speakers after wins. I can still hear it blaring from the Saturday afternoon 10-9 triumph over the MFYs.

Take that, Papacy! At Montreal's Olympic Park, management announced plans to consult with Carter's family and make plans to name a space in the area after him One federal politician, Liberal Denis Coderre, raised the possibility of renaming the metro stop at Olympic Stadium, replacing the current name of Pope Pius IX.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Keith utterly broken up talking Kid with Francesa. Was Francesa boasting that he had predicted that Gary Carter would one day be dead? Ooh... I recall during the Piazza era Francesa and his erstwhile partner announced they were supposed to have Carter on but that Carter asked that they not discuss Piazza's throwing -- the potential move to first base was probably the controversy of the month at the time and Carter was working as a Met minor league instructor -- and the hosts haughtily told their listeners that no one tells them what they can't ask, so we won't be having Gary Carter on. Jerks.

Keith utterly broken up talking Kid with Francesa.

Bill Pennington of the Times on how Bobby V, out of baseball as a player, bounced back into the game -- partly by turning down George Steinbrenner. Valentine reconnected with professional baseball in the early 1980s, he said, completely by accident. Attending another dinner function, this one the annual New York baseball writers� affair, Valentine ran into a San Diego Padres executive who asked him to tutor minor league infielders. �I was going to be a roving instructor for $10,000,� Valentine said. �I would make eight or nine trips a year. If I had a traditional job, maybe I couldn�t have done that. But with the restaurant I could get away. So I did it.� A year later, he was at the Stamford muscular dystrophy dinner again and ran into Lou Gorman, then a Mets vice president for player personnel. Gorman, like everyone else, asked Valentine what he was doing with himself. Valentine talked about the restaurant and his role with the Padres. �I told Lou that I liked working with the minor leaguers but that the Padres� farm teams were kind of far away from Stamford,� Valentine said. Gorman told Valentine he could have the same job with the Mets, and he would travel for the most part in the eastern United States. So Valentine became a part-time Mets employee. In 1983, the Dodgers had an opening on their coaching staff. Dodgers Manager Tommy Lasorda, who had been Valentine�s minor league manager in the Pacific Coast League, told his bosses to offer Valentine the job. As a courtesy, the Dodgers called the Mets to ask permission to speak to Valentine, and Gorman took the call. Laughing last week as he told the story, Valentine said: �And Lou says that I can�t be a coach for the Padres� big club because I�m going to coach in New York for the Mets. Actually, it had never been discussed, but that�s how I ended up on the Mets staff the next season. �I�m telling you, it�s all luck.�

Joe Klein in New York magazine, September 29, 1986: Carter and Hernandez are the most accomplished players on the Mets and the dominant personalities, the twin poles about whom the team revolves, the princes of darkness and light. Their rivalry is a great understated fact of life on the ball club... Link will take you to cover. Story begins on page 44.

Mr. Met with a cameo on last night's Dark Knight-themed 30 Rock episode, "The Tuxedo Begins".

Starting lineup Wakefield faced in his first Shea Stadium start, August 10, 1992. Coleman Bass Boston Murray Donnels Hundley Randolph Schofield Schourek Willie Randolph started playing in 1975. Todd Hundley finished playing in 2003. This game went nearly as long...sixteen innings (a 4-2 win for the Pirates; Wakefield went eight, gave up one run on three hits and threw 123 pitches).

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SNY showing Kid's first game right now.

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Not Chico's memoir but one of the "Tales" series celebrating a given franchise, with player/announcer (or both, in Resch's case) attached to make it more authentic and appealing.

Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Jon Stewart and Greg Prince all mentioned in the same New Yorker article. Hadn't even thought of the juxtaposition. But I sure hope somebody else is picking up the check in this foursome.

Area blogger quoted regarding Sandy's Tweets in the New Yorker (yes, the New Yorker).

Ceetar wrote: the day they traded Beltran they were 2 games (with 3 to play) behind the team that would win the Wild Card. Where was this information about the Cardinals in late July when it could have been useful? At least Joe Posnanski called the World Series in late August (sort of). Mets had a better record at the 2010 All-Star break than the team that won the 2010 World Series. Shows one team made the most of its opportunities and one didn't. Not sure that hindsight standings indicate 2010 Mets were better than the 2010 Giants or 2011 Mets were nearly as good as the 2011 Cardinals.

metirish wrote: G-Fafif wrote: At their midseason peak, the Mets were never closer than 6-1/2 out of the Wild Card. Indeed. Mets flirted with contention in Julys 2004, 2010 and 2011. Didn't mean they were contenders. If Sandy needs to frame the Mets as net-bolstered by the prospective returns of Davis and Santana, versus where they were at the end of 2011, it doesn't come off (to me, anyway) as incredibly crazy or insulting (Reyes's departure notwithstanding). But the best way to get a "message" across is with Davis hitting, Santana pitching and the Mets winning. Everything else is going to slam into a wall of "prove it" until then -- and not wrongly so.

At their midseason peak, the Mets were never closer than 6-1/2 out of the Wild Card.

From the official release: �It�s exciting to be part of the Mets� broadcast team with Howie Rose, who is one of the best in the business,� Lewin said. �It�s a thrill to be able to come back to my roots in New York and call games for the team I rooted for as a kid on the pre-eminent sports talk radio station in the country.� Mets fan growing up? Howie-like (genuine) or Leiter-like (when the MFYs or Phillies weren't on)?