G-Fafif

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Wow, for a guy who's played his whole career in Milwaukee, Detroit is going to be quite a culture shock! His dad did OK there.

Follow Cam on Twitter! Meanwhile, Mr. Sunshine intimates he'll become a Miami Maron before long.

Valadius wrote: Mets � Willets Point wrote: I was thinking it might have to do with the Killer B's of the Biggio/Bagwell days. Yup. Then your grade is, appropriately enough, revised to a B.

BTW, one of the Mets' radio sponsors during the 1986 playoffs was Astro Nissan. I considered that ironic at best, self-sabotaging at worst.

Fman99 wrote: RYOO CRAN'T CHRANGE TRHE RNAME RTHIS RIS RULLSHIT! The Houston Tralfazes.

Bobby V didn't much care for the way Rey O talked, either. Bobby Valentine won't make Rey Ordonez take English lessons, but the manager made it clear Thursday that the club would encourage the shortstop from Cuba to trust himself more with his second language. ''I'm not sure that it's to say that you have to stand up for your own team, but it's to say that we want him to be an integral part of our team, we don't want him as an independent contractor who comes in, catches the ball and throws it across the diamond for a highlight film,'' said Valentine. A more damning quote than I realized at the time, probably. His rookie year, when Dallas Green was managing, Rafael Landestoy coached and served as Rey-Rey's interpreter. That ended after one season.

One of the best conversations I was ever in, circa 1999: OUR LANDLADY: John Olerud is my favorite Met. ME: Mine is Fonzie. OUR LANDLADY (to Mrs. FAFIF): What about you? MRS. FAFIF: I like Ordonez. I miss conversations like those. you really need that fourth person to say Ventura and that conversation would have been the greatest ever. Not only was I thinking the same thing now, I was thinking the same thing then. Of course if I directed adult films, instead of a pizza delivery guy showing up at the door, I'd have Robin Ventura arrive in full uniform. And instead of adult film activities ensuing, everybody would gather 'round the TV to watch a tape of Game Five.

metirish wrote: Did you really feel that way about Mora at the time? Mora inspired much infatuation during a relatively brief sample size. He became one of my all-time favorites by dint of his 1999 and 2000 accomplishments yet I couldn't really argue that he didn't loom as a liability at short for a team not necessarily guaranteed a trip back to the playoffs in the summer of 2000. Murphy's an interesting comparison, though Mora was a superb outfielder in glimpses there as a Met while Murphy's best position remains at bat.

smg58 wrote: I learned at a young age that when a team's front office goes out of their way to draw attention to a player's defensive value, it really says more about his hitting. I never really thought of it that way, but that would explain Doug Saunders and Pat Howell, too.

One of the best conversations I was ever in, circa 1999: OUR LANDLADY: John Olerud is my favorite Met. ME: Mine is Fonzie. OUR LANDLADY (to Mrs. FAFIF): What about you? MRS. FAFIF: I like Ordonez. I miss conversations like those.

Another Met Hunter question: Is there ever any call, or have you ever attempted, to secure the participation of shall we say Met pariahs at an event like the one Sunday? Would a Richie Hebner or a Vince Coleman show up? And based on your experience, would they be well-received? One more question: Is there going to be a gap at future Met-intensive shows given that so many Met stars from the past ten or so years have or presumably will have retired to Latin America? (Followup: Is language a barrier in situations like those?)

No. 8 hitters twenty years apart, they were freaking RBI machines, relatively speaking: Flynn with 61 in 1979, Ordonez with 60 in 1999. Flynn's total was good for fourth on the 1979 Mets; Ordonez's placed him fifth (more than anybody not named Piazza, Ventura, Alfonzo or Olerud). I've been told RBIs are not really meaningful metric of offensive production. But they sure are fun when they materialize off the bats of guys like these.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Keith's dad met Keith's mom -- a Buffalo gal, if you will -- when he was playing for Houston. Without the Buffs, there's no Keith. Without Keith, who makes the play on that bunt in Cincinnati after Mitchell and Knight are ejected? Ralph always talked about the size of the mosquitoes in Houston. Keith hints at the birds and the, well, bees. Was this anecdote retold on TV recently. The details are so fresh in my head, as if I heard this tale 20 minutes ago. Keith's brought it up on the Houston trip each of the past two seasons.

His career started a few years before the major offensive outburst affectionately referred to by some as the "steroid era," and shuttered around the same time that era in baseball's history came to a close. His career started three years into that era, in 1996 -- same year Brady Anderson socked 52 homers, Todd Hundley walloped 41 and Rey Ordonez smacked as many as Paul Wilson (1).

Keith's dad met Keith's mom -- a Buffalo gal, if you will -- when he was playing for Houston. Without the Buffs, there's no Keith. Without Keith, who makes the play on that bunt in Cincinnati after Mitchell and Knight are ejected? Ralph always talked about the size of the mosquitoes in Houston. Keith hints at the birds and the, well, bees.

Met Hunter wrote: I think after Choo Choo there really arent that many well known out of the spotlight Mets. The true recluses are guys like Brock Pemberton or Bob Rauch. But like the guy in Shawshank sort of said "I don't think they'll put up much of fuss for an old Met like that." When I checked Clarence in on Friday night, I had to literally show him how to use a key card in his hotel room door. Saw him last night and he told me he's doing pretty good with the key. (They've had him at three different hotels). He's got a perpetual smile. Last night was cool too. He came down to the hotel lobby and sat around shooting the shit with Ralph Kiner, Orlando Cepeda, Bernard Gilkey and Randy Myers. Quite a sight. I could roll around in those three paragraphs for the next three days.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Vic Sage wrote: They could even reclaim the "Oilers" name. or go with Tornadoes, or Power, or some other non-space age appellation. Power. That's good. How about the Houston Enrons? If they go in this direction, I can feel "the Houston Energy" being the focus-grouped result. Which would be a heckuva MISL team name.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I looked up what the team name was when Houston was a minor league city, and it looks like the answer is the Houston Buffaloes. I don't think I like that. Known more commonly as the Houston Buffs. One who was Buff was John Hernandez -- Keith's dad, in the late '40s.

Oh, and A+ for the thread title, Vlad.

I've always thought the Astros name stopped making sense once they retro'd their logo and moved into a ballpark that paid homage to a 1911 train station. Still, name-changing is a serious leap. I recall stories surfacing in the 1981-82 offseason that the Mets were thinking they might want to find a new identity. This was on the heels of shunting (as it was seen then) Bob Murphy to radio exclusively plus installing a new manager and generally making with the new broom after two years of new ownership. Predictably, whatever trial balloon that was being floated got shot down. It was the first time I saw business guy Al Harazin's name in the paper, issuing a denial that noted how beloved the Mets were in 1969 or words to that effect as an explanation for why they'd never dream of changing the name. Unfortunately (or from our perspective, just as well) the Astros don't have that kind of equity to hang their non-orange hats on. When you watch the Mets Yearbooks, you're reminded just how large 1969 loomed year after year in the Met consciousness. When they had nothing positive to report (which was mostly always prior to 1984), they found a way to insert 1969 into the conversation.

Met Hunter wrote: In the flesh. Happy to serve the Met community whether they just root or root and collect. Out-frigging-standing. Now that you've brought Choo Choo into the spotlight, who moves up to most wanted Met recluse?

Richard Sandomir on Kimmy's diary. January 23, 2012 Carter�s Poignant Turns, Chronicled by a Daughter By RICHARD SANDOMIR Like her father, Gary Carter, Kimmy Bloemers was a catcher. She played at Florida State. He spent most of his Hall of Fame career with the Montreal Expos and the Mets. The two extended their sports bond in 2009 when Carter was named the baseball coach at Palm Beach Atlantic University, where Bloemers has coached the women�s softball team since 2007. But the joy of coaching on the same campus has given way to the somber reality of Carter�s inoperable brain cancer, a diagnosis he received last May. Since then, Bloemers has been writing an intimate family journal on CaringBridge.org about her father�s illness and how the Carters are being sustained by their Christian faith and his competitive fire. The diary�s 55 entries, spread over 121 pages, create a continuing narrative of heartbreak and spiritual uplift. In the postings, Bloemers writes with the exuberance of her famously upbeat father � a devoted younger daughter who says she copes with the grimness of her father�s decline with Biblical quotations, music, family meals and the generosity of friends and neighbors. Late last May, she described her wish that the next day�s biopsy on her father�s tumors could be performed in a crowded baseball stadium, rather than in Duke University Medical Center�s Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center. �Dad loves to hear clapping, cheering and lots of enthusiasm,� she wrote, �so let�s get rowdy for �The Kid.�� Several days later, after Carter, who is 57, was found to have glioblastoma, an aggressive, fast-moving cancer, Bloemers�s sadness at the physical changes visible in her father was tempered with the hope of a miracle. �Team Carter believes that dad will hit one out of the park,� she wrote. �We are pouring the �unknown� and fearful thoughts to Jesus and not allowing Satan to get the best of us.� Then, last Thursday afternoon, Bloemers wrote �with tears� about the appearance of �several new spots/tumors on my dad�s brain� on a magnetic resonance imaging exam. One of his doctors was to visit the family that night, but she has not provided an update since that day. �The Lord is my strength and shield,� she wrote at the end of her posting. �I trust him with my heart.� Despite her father�s condition, Bloemers, her sister, Christy, and her brother, D. J., were able to accept the �You Gotta Have Heart� Award for him from the Baseball Writers� Association of America on Saturday night at the New York Hilton. In serving as her family�s health-news emissary, Bloemers is following others who, through traditional methods or social media, have found a means to communicate the details of life-threatening illnesses. The British-born essayist and atheist Christopher Hitchens wrote as vigorously about his cancer as he did about the myriad subjects that engaged him with a fury before his death last month. During the 19 months he lived with the same type of brain cancer that Carter has, the former Yankees outfielder and announcer Bobby Murcer spoke regularly about his sickness, returned to work on a limited basis for the YES Network and wrote an autobiography that described his faith and his devotion to his wife, Kay. �God has blessed us so much since I was diagnosed with this brain tumor, and so many blessings have come my way,� he said during an interview shortly before he died. �It�s changed our life for the better.� He died in July 2008. Michael Douglas has used talk shows and other public forums to discuss his treatment for throat cancer. And after Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie-Mellon, learned he had pancreatic cancer, he delivered what was called his �Last Lecture,� a direct talk about how to live. It became an Internet sensation and was expanded into a best-selling book before his death in 2008. Although Carter has made some remarks about his illness, Bloemers�s account has provided a vivid, almost daily picture of a close, Christian family � Carter and his wife, Sandy; their children; three grandchildren; and two sons-in-law � coping with Carter�s debilitating treatments, physical therapy, hair loss, bloating mouth wounds, exercise, headaches, back pain, kidney stones, pneumonia, falls that tore his rotator cuff, blood clots and emergency room visits. There have been exhilarating moments, as when Carter was healthy enough to make a two-mile nighttime walk with Sandy, when he was able to swim for exercise, when he took notes during a church sermon, or when his white blood cell count rose high enough for chemotherapy. One day last August, Bloemers wrote, �Dad�s tumors are 80 percent better!� One night, the Carters watched all of his old commercials (Ivory, Pringles and 7Up � with Christy, a toddler, pitching to him). �He looked so good and happy,� Bloemers wrote. Hank Aaron and Mike Krzyzewski have called, according to Bloemers. His friend and former Expos teammate Tommy Hutton has taken him for physical therapy. There have been disappointments that must have pierced Carter�s athletic pride as he has continued to coach his team. Last September, he threw batting practice, but not to his satisfaction. �He tried a couple of times, and in his eyes, he had failed,� Bloemers wrote. �He talked with my mom and was saddened/disappointed that things are starting to be �taken away from me� ... golf, throwing b.p.� But when he coached a game a month later, she wrote that �he enjoyed calling the plays.� �Dad absolutely loves to be the skipper,� she added. Last month, Carter wanted to buy a Christmas gift for his wife. Bloemers drove him to a mall, but he was weak, fatigued and shaky and had to sit in a chair. As they left, Bloemers wrote, �the lady who sold me mom�s gift, pulled me aside and said she is adding my dad to her prayer list and hugged me. She saw the tears in my eyes and realized that it meant so much to hear that.� Then, on Christmas Eve, with D. J. Carter dressed as Santa Claus, Carter stumbled and fell hard into a glass window, then onto the floor, injuring his shoulder. An M.R.I. later revealed a complete tear of his rotator cuff that will require surgery. �Tough night for Dad, � Bloemers wrote. �Thankfully, the pain subsided as time went on.� In the entry that preceded news that more tumors had been found in her father�s brain, Bloemers described his joy at this year�s first practice for his team. �Now that baseball season has begun, his spirits have lifted a bit and I believe he is excited to see his team,� she wrote. �His weak body limits his physical involvement, but the fact that he wants to go and still teach his players is beyond amazing.�

"Who's Torres?" --Initial instinctive reaction upon seeing those lineups. Fans need Spring Training, too.

Now matter how laconic Choo Choo Coleman was portrayed, he had to make for an interesting listen than Ed Coleman.

seawolf17 wrote: I'm waiting for Greg; Val said he'd concede, so let's get moving. Not for this you ain't -- and I think you just gave LWFS bulletin board material.