G-Fafif

Paulino to answer our No. 9 dreams.

Semi-incidental Giants pedigree to today's Happiest Recap: 022: 1967 -- Jack Fisher goes deep 023: 2002 -- Shawn Estes nears perfection 024: 1972 -- Willie Mays comes home The undercard: 022: 1966 -- All the singles hitters! (all the singles hitters!) 023: 1991 -- Mackey, Mark with the good vibrations 024: 1962 -- Gil caps off one sweep day

I've never quite grasped why lefty pitchers are generally more effective against lefty hitters.

Ashie62 wrote: I see the article says 200 Million gets 49% of the team..Didn't this start with 200 million getting 20-25% of the team? And if that's not enough, call in the next ten minutes, and we'll throw in this amazing reading lamp!

Davis 2.5 Thole 2.0 Reyes 1.0 Beltran 1.0 Beato 1.0 Byrdak 0.5 Capuano 0.5

TransMonk wrote: Werth's entrance music is "November Rain"? As if he could get any more douchebaggy... Everything Werth touches turns to douche.

From Bondy, so take it FWIW: For reporters who covered the effective reliever during the Mets' golden years in the late '80s, this incident is horrifying, yet not far removed from the realm of believability. McDowell was known to the public as a merry prankster, a guy who would give a "hot foot" to teammates at the drop of a cap. But he also could get surly with reporters who were critical of his pitching. "He definitely had a dark, nasty side," said one beat writer. "He was pretty thin-skinned. He could turn on you." I loved his pitching quite often, especially when he first came up and eternally for Game Six in Houston, and of course rooted for him to succeed in a Mets uniform, but I never really cared for McDowell, personally...and by personally I mean as a fan, from a distance. Something about him always struck me as contrived. I think I resented that he'd be lumped in with Tug McGraw as a kindred free spirit when all Roger did was screw around with pranks and masks. I think I also resented that he usurped Orosco's pre-eminence in the pen (I hated that Jesse's effectiveness waned at the moment the Mets were becoming great; why can't I have everything I want all at once?) and was secretly satisfied that Jesse outpitched him in Game Seven (not that I spent a lot of time dwelling on that at the time). I was also modestly aghast (though completely getting it) that McDowell won the fan vote for best righthanded reliever in franchise history in 2002 when Benitez, painful as he was to consider, had piled up all relevant records over the previous three years. All that said, I wasn't thinking, "He'll probably go over the top with homophobic slurs in San Francisco at some fan eventually," yet I'm somehow not particularly surprised.

Ashie62 wrote: So New York is Harvard? The Mets are the Harvard of Flushing.

HahnSolo wrote: I call hijinks on Ojeda's story. NLCS game 3 was a 12 noon Saturday start. I know its a short flight, but are we really to believe he did all that in one morning? More likely he flew down and back on the off day. At least he wasn't talking about going up Mount Bleeping Kilimanjaro the second the postseason ended.

metirish wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Mets had a 10-1 stretch and a 12-1 stretch in 2010. Feelings were pretty good around the club then, too. not after he was called up though right? He was here for the second one, which encompassed the march through Baltimore and Cleveland.

Mets had a 10-1 stretch and a 12-1 stretch in 2010. Feelings were pretty good around the club then, too.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: The Mets lost the evening I started this thread, but then reeled off six in a row. If they win their next two, I'm going to declare this thread an official success. "Mission Accomplished" banners and all. And even if the streak should stop at six, I'm so proud of myself I feel like Donald Trump! I heard he was a terrible manager at Houston, then he winds up at Anaheim, now New York. Let him show his records.

From Rubin's roundup: R.A. Dickey, asked after Wednesday's game if his commentary after his previous start about everyone being accountable for improving his own performance was taken to heart, said: �I think guys are doing what they do best. You can see that manifested on the field in the way they�re playing. When I spoke about that, I was speaking from my point of view, which is to try to take ownership of what I can bring -- to try not to walk many guys and keep us in ballgames late and things like that. I feel like I�ve been able to step it up too. Yeah, I don�t know if anybody read into it. But I do feel like it might be a little more than coincidence that everybody in here kind of kicked it up a notch.� Six-game winning streak: articulate ballplayers welcome.

Advance quotes provided by MLBN from this Sunday's No. 3 Game, 1986 World Series, Game Six (airing 7 PM). Buckner on feeling pressure from Red Sox fans to win the series: I hadn�t been in New England that long or with the Red Sox and I had no clue what was in those people�s minds and what they had been through and what they�re thinking. I was just out trying to have a good time and trying to win a championship but those people had a lot of other things on their mind. Buckner on Clemens: Roger was the best pitcher in baseball and I�d seen some of the things that he�d done that year, they were amazing. He always had a great arm but on top of that, he learned how to pitch. The 20-strikeout game, the whole package � I�d bet my bank account on that game. Ojeda on pitching on three days� rest: Joe Garagiola said as far as [pitching on] three days� rest, �This time of year, it means nothing,� and he was spot-on. It meant nothing to me. And at that time, no one knows, but I had two cortisone shots. Right after I threw the complete game in Houston [1986 NLCS Game 2], we came home � this is pre-9/11 � I went to the ballpark, I got the needles, I got the cortisone, put it in my pocket, went to LaGuardia, flew down to Washington, where [team physician] Dr. Parkes was. He shoots my elbow in the bathroom, I get back on a plane, fly back and I�m at the yard for [1986 NLCS Game 3] that night. So on the short rest, [Garagiola] couldn�t have been more correct. My arm was killing me, but I wasn�t gonna miss it. Everybody who gets to play in a World Series feels that same way. On Calvin Schiraldi replacing Clemens in the 8th inning: Wilson: We�d been very confident so far and, to tell you the truth, Schiraldi was a Met and we all knew Schiraldi very well. And, I�ll tell you what, it was like Christmas. We thought that we could get to Schiraldi. We really did. Ojeda: When Schiraldi came in � because they knew him as well as Boston knew me � they were fighting over the bat rack. No disrespect to Calvin Schiraldi, none meant, none intended, but these guys � getting Roger out and it happened to be Schiraldi � it was like the clouds had parted. They were ready. On the lack of lineup changes in the 8th inning: Wilson: Not watching this game until now, you don�t think about all these things. Normally as players, we�re sitting there trying to figure out what the manager�s going to do but in this game, I don�t think that was the case. Buckner: In McNamara�s defense, I was the best first baseman, defensively, that he had. Dave Stapleton, bless his heart, he wasn�t a great player by any means. He had his own issues. If I thought that Dave Stapleton was gonna do a better job than I was, then I�d have told McNamara. I wanted to win, so did everybody else. � I�d been in positions where my ankles were in better shape, where I could cover more ground but I wasn�t having an issue at this point. I was the best player we had to be out there. Was I Keith Hernandez? No. But I was the best that we had. Wilson on batting in the bottom of the 10th: I don�t even remember feeling anything, I was numb. The crowd was so loud. I mean, it was just so loud. You stand on the ground and you could just feel it generating through your bones, that�s how loud it was. Surprisingly I wasn�t nervous. I only thought one thing, �Just don�t make the last out.� That�s the only thing I was thinking. Buckner on his reaction after losing Game 6: The fans in Boston were great to me. � People ask me how I feel now about it, I feel very blessed. I played 21 years in the Major Leagues, I got to play in two World Series. Would I have liked it for things to change differently in the sixth game? Obviously. But it didn�t. Would I do it again, with the same results? Heck yeah. I lived [in Boston] until 1993 and I moved to Idaho because that was a dream of mine since I was a little kid, since I watched �Bonanza� on TV. I wanted to buy a ranch in Idaho, which I did. People say I left Boston because of [Game 6]. That�s hardly the case.

Murphy 2.5 Dickey 1.0 Hu 1.0 Bay 1.0 Davis 1.0 Reyes 1.0 Igarashi 0.5 Thole 0.5 Turner 0.5 Rodriguez 0.5 Harris 0.5

Great minds thought alike ten months ago. Link will take you to a whole history of homegrown Met infields, who qualifies, who doesn't. In a nutshell, Davis, Tejada, Reyes and Wright broke the record for most starts by a purebred homegrown Met infield last year. It wasn't much of a record: 15 games by Kranepool, Boswell, Harrelson and Foli, all in 1971. The new record is 39, all in 2010. Davis, Murphy, Reyes and Wright have started nine games together thus far.

What a Braves uniform will do to a person.

One of the employees at the ST Nats/Mets game we went to in Florida presented Fgirl with a foul ball (much to Fboy's dismay). I have caught two of them at the local AAA park. Sorry sucker, AAA games don't count. I've gotten exactly ONE foul ball in my years of attending MAJOR LEAGUE games. This one: I was at that game. It was terrible, per the score. And I didn't get a ball.

I wonder if his kids have special HAIRSTON 12s just for his center field appearances.

Murph sits for Turner. Terry allowing no one (except Hu) to grow stale. Terry's a genius this week until he's not.

seawolf17 wrote: I'm honestly still bitter. I saw the "Rachel" DVD at the Blockbuster going-out-of-business sale and I almost bought it just to stomp on it. The Seawolf curse. Why do you think Blockbuster was going out of business? For stocking such evocative dreck.

I went from "what a self-absorbed jerk" to rooting for the guy by the end. Also interesting to know there's such a phalanx and process to Met security. Good for Hample (whom I agree comes across as uberdouchey generally) not taking "that's not gonna happen" as definitive Met law, which I assume gets made up on the fly. It's always jarring and often funny to see the players' kids, easily identifiable because they're the only HAIRSTON 12s in the house. I'll never forget the kids I saw in the family section in 1998, each wearing "WE'RE McCRAZY!" t-shirts. They must have been real proud of their dad Dennis Cook.

Gotta be the Brent Lilli. It's the bridge to MFY defeat. With one out, runners on 1st and 2nd, Sergio Santos stepped in and faced Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano. A-Rod and Cano ripped two screaming liners down the right field line that were simply put on this Earth to be game-winning doubles... ...and Brent Lillibridge caught both of them The first was an inside-out drive to the wall from A-Rod. Lillibridge ranged right on the warning track and stretched his glove out toward the foul line and squeezed it while crashing into the wall. Athletic, brilliantly-timed, and almost assuredly staved off defeat...it was also far from his best work. Cano followed that up with a sinking liner with a lot less hangtime to it. With barely a moment to judge it, Lillibridge raced to cut it off with a dive, planted his back foot, laid-out horizontal, and snagged it centimeters away from the grass while sliding on his belly. His arms were raised in triumph while his face was still buried in turf, and entry into the game-opening video montage at U.S. Cellular was assured. As far as baseball moments go, they don't get a whole lot better. And as far as baseball moments in April go, I can't think of much to compare it to.

Davis 2.5 Bay 2.0 Thole 2.0 Igarashi 1.5 Buchholz 1.0 Murphy 0.5 Beltran 0.5

In the not so long ago, MLB didn't suck up to every fan base eight times over. If a team didn't have a distinct regular at a position, that team didn't have someone listed. I could live without a Mets 2B candidate on the ballot. It's not going to influence my official licensed apparel shopping decisions one way or the other, which I assume is the kind of thing MLB worries about more than reflecting reality.