G-Fafif

A local's appreciation Jim Caple.

And Feliciano makes an appearance in this story because Feliciano always makes an appearance.

Excellent 1962 Mets footage (found via On The Black), though this newsreel announcer has a real attitude.

More flattering stuff on Charlie, his empire, his seaside mansion, his connection (real estate, not gambling) to two Mets of recent vintage (one current), his informant ways and his chokehold on the Metsmorablia market in the News here.

Shulman would be perfect, so I assume ESPN'll overlook him in favor of somebody less perfect.

Heyman just on FAN saying he'd be "stunned" if it's not one of Hurdle, Collins, Melvin or Wakamatsu, though it sounded more like he was stunned he was asked the question and was kind of vamping on the answer because as an insider, he couldn't simply say, "Fellas, I really don't know." Though narrowing it down to four kind of says that.

Takahashi Rodriguez Feliciano Valdes Nieve I'll say this for K-Rod -- he wants to be here (gettin' paid) in 2011. Takahashi has abandoned us.

The formula might not take into account that Dykstra ruled and Bonilla sucked. But as Janet Jackson mentioned when Bobby Bo was receiving that first All-Star selection, that's the way love goes.

Any thought given, when calculating all-time rankings, to weighting seasons based on overall Met success? I get that this is based on who was ranked highest in a given season, but it strikes me that being the No. 3 Met in a lousy year isn't spiritually equal to being the No. 3 Met in a great year (or the No. 6 Met in a great year, for that matter). This occurs to me after recently having ascended through the ranks from Lenny Dykstra (five Met seasons, all of them winning, one of them the most magnificent of Met seasons) to -- with Hubie Brooks between them -- Bobby Bonilla (five Met seasons, four of them losing, the other a great one he had no positive impact on).

30 Wright 29 Pelfrey 28 Santana 27 Davis 26 Dickey 25 Pagan 24 Reyes 23 Niese 22 Bay 21 Takahashi 20 Francoeur 19 Barajas 18 Tejada 17 Beltran 16 Castillo 15 Rodriguez 14 Carter 13 PFeliciano 12 Blanco 11 Gee 10 Thole 9 Evans 8 Valdes 7 Maine 6 Nieve 5 Duda 4 Dessens 3 Parnell 2 Mejia 1 Misch I was intrigued by the word "contributions" in FK's mission statement. To me, contributions means contributions to winning. Thus, my methodology started with my own Schaefer point dispersal in the 79 Mets wins, rewarding those who led (generally the top three) on a daily/nightly basis. Then, understanding that my PotG balloting tends to de-emphasize relief pitching, I worked up a formula to put some kind of value (in addition to any reliever Schaefer points earned in wins -- there are never many of them on my scorecard) on usage in wins (particularly for Rodriguez and, when he was closing, Takahashi) and usage in a broader sense (with some emphasis on usage in wins) for other relievers. I figure non-closer relievers merit consideration for appearances and innings given they're often saving the bullpen for the next day. There was some counterweight included to take into account lousy relief pitching so as to give a more accurate portrayal of the reliever's season. (Nothing was given out for saves, per se.) Takahashi's total was an amalgamation of his starting, middle relieving and closing roles. Other points were added if a position player or starting pitcher (as starting pitcher) was in more winning games than losing games (a frighteningly small cohort); for most appearances in winning games by position players; for being among team WAR leaders; for walkoff RBIs (because I tend to undervalue them in the Schaefer voting and I believe they help define the winning aspects of any season); and, because my watching this team for six months had to be worth something, a little gut instinct to massage the whole thing. Wright placed first by a wide margin. Pelfrey set the pace among pitchers mostly because he was in the rotation the entire season, whereas Santana missed a month at the end and Dickey didn't appear for the first month-and-a-half. Davis's big impact came in winning games more so than Pagan's or Reyes's. Thole suffered from playing a lot while the Mets were terrible (record with Thole: 26-47) while Tejada benefited from playing in/arguably contributing to winning Mets games (record with Tejada: 42-36). I spent way too much time on this.

Phil Mushnick, recalling the WWII exploits of U.S. Combat engineer Lt. Warren Spahn.

Matt Artus of Always Amazin' follows Charlie through the years. Like mining the subconscious of the Mets fan who reads the "notes" portions of spring training stories.

Man, does the Post ever know how to write to titillate. Gambling Mets clubhouse manager comped mob bookies with Citi seats By LARRY CELONA, IKIMULISA LIVINGSTON and DAN MANGAN Last Updated: 9:48 PM, November 5, 2010 Disgraced Met clubhouse manager Charlie Samuels, who has confessed to betting on baseball games, comped his mobbed-up bookies prime $400 seats at Citi Field, sources told The Post. Samuels� shameless actions, which led to his unpaid suspension and a criminal probe, came to light yesterday as The Post learned he had been playing house with another troubled Met figure � pitcher Francisco "K-Rod" Rodriguez. The reliever, who faces his own criminal charges for attacking his girlfriend�s dad in the clubhouse in August, has been crashing at Samuels� home in the Rockaways while under a restraining order, the sources said. Samuels, 53, is likely to be canned from his $80,000-a-year post for his gambling, which was captured on wiretaps. Samuels placed wagers ranging from several hundred dollars to $5,000 on horse races and NFL games and has admitted betting on baseball games, the sources said. Probers are looking into whether he gave mobbed-up associates dope about the team or they were able to glean useful info from his wagers. Photos show Samuels gave some of those bookies � Gambino crime-family associates from Howard Beach � comped seats at Citi Field that normally sell for $400 each, sources said. "I�m shocked," one Met player said today. Another player said, "If anything happened, it was pretty stealthy." Samuels has worked for the Mets since 1976 and has been the clubhouse manager for 27 seasons. He is also associate travel director and equipment manager. On other teams, several individuals usually hold those posts. Major League Baseball began eyeing Samuels last season after getting a tip that he was gambling with illegal bookies. MLB soon notified the Mets, telling the team that it should audit its financial records because Samuels� several jobs gave him control over large amounts of money, a source said. The Mets, who refused to comment yesterday, suspended Samuels indefinitely without pay on Oct. 27. Neither Samuels nor K-Rod emerged yesterday from Samuels� Queens townhouse, where a Mercedes SUV and a Range Rover registered to the 28-year-old fireballer were parked outside. Samuels� ex-wife, Charlene, yesterday said, "I don�t believe" the allegations. "His job at the Mets means everything to him," Charlene said. "I don�t think he would ever take a chance on jeopardizing that. He would never, ever bet on baseball."

From Waldstein: Hisanori Takahashi�s time with the Mets is over after one successful season, and he will seek another team in free agency beginning Saturday. The Mets and Takahashi�s agent, Arn Tellem, were expected to announce later Friday that they could not come to an agreement on his contract, and the Mets will be obligated by the terms of his contract to release him. Takahashi was asking for a multi-year contract with a value of between $4 and $6 million annually, and the Mets were willing to give him only one year. The team�s initial offer was for $1.5 million, with incentives that could allow him to earn close to $3 million. The sides had until midnight Saturday morning to complete a deal. Without one, Takahashi becomes a free agent and, by rule, cannot re-sign with the Mets until May 15, ensuring that he will sign with another team. BTW, Charlie Samuels bet this would happen.

Rubin confirms (though not what he means about Backman).

If he rises to the position of Mets manager, he will change his name to Ken Oberkgotup.

metirish wrote: What the Mets need is some Tea Party folks(they are always folks) to change the culture there..... Sharron Angle's available. She'll let us know what she'll do for the Mets as soon as they hire her.

TransMonk wrote: This is bad. Worse than punching your father-in-law bad. That's the tagline that will appear on the billboard with K-Rod's face as part of the Mets' 2011 ad campaign: IT COULD BE A WHOLE LOT WORSE.

Hard to think of Samuels as an itsy bitsy spider at any rate.

It is my sincere hope that once Sandy settles down from his bicoastal teaching and travels, he goes through his in-box, notices they're sending out these ludicrous updates over his signature and puts an end to it. This was going on during the GM search, so one assumes this is Jeff's (or Jeff's consultant's) brilliant idea. Or, perhaps, they anticipated Sandy would like this sort of communication and implemented it to impress him ahead of time. Nothing ever seems what it's supposed to with this organization.

Irresponsible speculation: Samuels put itching powder in Gl@v!ne's uniform and then bet the Marlins heavy.

Who else but Joe Posnanski to contemplate George and Sparky? Some played for his approval. Some played to spite him. Some played to live up to the ludicrous expectations he had placed on them.* Some played to prove him wrong. Before spring training in 1975, he gathered his team together and told them that there were four stars on the team � Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez � and the rest of them were turds. That was the word he used. Turds. The stars played like stars. The others had T-shirts made with �Turds� on the front and, most of them, they also played like stars. And the Reds won 108 games and probably the greatest World Series ever played. *Examples: 1. �Don Gullett is going to the Hall of Fame.� 2. �Kirk Gibson is the next Mickey Mantle.� 3. �Chris Pittaro is going to be a great ballplayer, and that�s etched in cement.� 4. �Barbaro Garbey is another Roberto Clemente.� 5. �Mike Laga will make you forget every power hitter that ever lived.� 6. �We�ve got some great hitters in Cincinnati, and Dan Driessen might be the best of them all.� Sparky had his baseball ideas, of course. He didn�t care much for the bunt. He preferred speed to power, though he liked having players who could provide both. He believed as a young man that pitchers were disposable, that if they weren�t getting outs, then it was his job as manager to find someone who would. In 1975, he went 45 straight games without allowing a pitcher to complete a game, a record in those days � the nightly hooks were so shocking that people in Cincinnati booed Sparky even though the Reds were leading the division by 10 games. �If you want to stay in the game, it�s like dance steps, boys,� Sparky would say. �You need to play the song in your head like a waltz � one-two-three, one-two-three, one-two-three. Play it like that, and I�ll just sit right here in the dugout and enjoy it. But you start going one-two-three � four � five � well, we�ll see you later.� Funny thing: As an older manager, Sparky�s Detroit Tigers led the league in complete games once and were among the leaders several other times. His explanation wasn�t that he had changed philosophies. His explanation was that his starting pitchers were better. �I always believed Sparky hated pitchers,� his pitcher Gary Nolan said, repeating the theory often proposed by Anderson�s pitchers, �because he couldn�t hit them.� Yes, Sparky had his baseball ideas. He had his life ideas, too � he believed that ballplayers should have short hair and shiny shoes and they should wear jackets and ties when away from the ballpark. The hardest defeat he suffered � he would tell friends � was when the Reds lost to the 1972 Oakland A�s. It wasn�t because the A�s weren�t great � they would go on to win three straight World Series teams. It was because the A�s wore their hair long. He could not believe that his Reds � HIS REDS � lost to a team of hippies. Most of all, Sparky Anderson�s success was built out of the bond he created with his players. He became famous for some of his quirky sayings like �Pain don�t hurt� and �You don�t invent winning� and �I got my faults but living in the past is not one of them � there�s no future in it.� But so much of what made Sparky Anderson a successful manager was unspoken. �I don�t know why we did the things we did for Sparky,� Pete Rose said. �But we all did. All of us. Johnny. Joe. Me. All of us.� In 1975, middle of the year, Sparky Anderson asked Pete Rose to move from the outfield to third base, a position he had not played in 10 years (and had hated when he did play there briefly). And Pete Rose moved. �We wanted to win for Sparky,� Rose said. �He just had this way about him.� Players wanting to win for a manager. Imagine that. Anyway, read the whole thing. It's worth your time.

I'm such a sucker for stuff like this.

Keith Olbermann revisits an admirable episode from late in Sparky's career. There wasn't a lot of principle flying around in the winter of 1994-95. The owners had pushed the players into threatening to call a stupid strike. The players misjudged the owners and the public mood and struck anyway. The owners stonewalled, cancelled the rest of the season and the playoffs. All but one of the owners recruited "replacement teams" filled with minor leaguers (some of them virtually blackmailed into it) and long-retired players (some in their late 40s) and trotted them out on the field for Spring Training of 1995. And Sparky Anderson said no. The Hall of Fame manager of the Reds and Tigers passed away Thursday, and his successes with both franchises were worthy of all the accolades he's receiving posthumously. But not prominent in these recollections is what Sparky Anderson did when the proverbial rubber met the road in that dark March of 1995, when the owners were ready to put a guy who was on Anderson's first Cincinnati team in 1970 on the mound a quarter century later and pretend it was still the Major Leagues. Sparky Anderson said he didn't want to pick sides in a labor dispute, that his only interest was the integrity of the game, but he just couldn't participate in the "replacement" season. So, much to the horror of his management and the game's, he took an unpaid leave of absence as manager of the Detroit Tigers. When a court ruling forced a settlement on the owners and the "replacements" vanished, Sparky came back for a troubled year in which ownership looked at him suspiciously and even some fans took out on him their frustrations about the strike. It would be his last season managing.

Pirates, middle of 1970, coinciding with opening of Three Rivers.