G-Fafif

That post came in the midst of the five-game win streak (and 8 of 9) immediately following the Al Quaeda attack. Two days later, Mike Piazza would hit the homer that saved mankind. We're very good with priorities. This from The Amazing Mets by Jerry Mitchell: It was the morning of October 23, 1962. President John F. Kennedy had the night before declared an embargo on Cuba, taking a step which could have meant the beginning of thermonuclear war. There was a sense of crisis all over the United States and all over the world. In the quiet little village of Cooperstown, N.Y., far from the centers of anxiety but feeling the impact nevertheless, Lee Allen, historian of the Baseball Hall of Fame, sat at his desk. He was thinking that if the Russians picked up the challenge it might very well mean the end of life as we know it. Brooding over the future, Lee attacked his mail. He turned over a postcard from New York's Bronx, and read: �Dear Sir: What was the record of the New York Mets this year on Thursdays? I would appreciate a game-by-game total. Thank you.� The preposterous postcard pulled him right out of his depression. He suddenly realized that, to the Met fan anyway, crises were commonplace. Somehow the card made him feel a lot better. �My first impulse was to toss it into the wastebasket,� related Allen. �But it occurred to me that the writer must have had a purpose in asking the question, as unusual a one as I ever received. I checked the records and found that the work of the Mets on Thursdays showed no victories and 15 defeats.� After replying to the fan, Allen forwarded the postcard to the Mets with the observation, �With the world on the verge of ruin, I thought you might be interested in what the Mets' fans are worried about.�

Steve Springer told Faith and Fear in Flushing in 2007, �If you don't get along with Gibby, trust me you're the idiot. He's the best. He's gold.�

HahnSolo wrote: The atdhe.net feed was good for me. Watched until the 5th. Then it was the radio and bed for me. Am I to understand that the feed was taken down at some point? Two feeds -- Fox with sound, ESPN America with sound -- went away, but a third -- ESPN America without sound (and close to a minute ahead of ESPN Radio) hung in there.

Alderson needs to show Jetership.

18 runs, 25 hits...Sandy Alderson owes us an apology.

Frayed Knot wrote: O'Connor is probably figuring that asking for apologies a decade-and-a-half after the fact worked so well for Ginni Thomas last week that he'd jump on that train too. "Good morning Sandy Alderson, it's Ian O'Connor. I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and Derek Jeter's intimate area to ask you to consider something."

Alderson bad. Jeter good. The rest is window dressing.

both for rhyming reasons and because it was a hit as Uribe was earning a World Series ring with the 2005 White Sox.

Second feed of the night just disappeared. Fuck Cablevision, fuck Fox, fuck Selig.

Gary Thorne just referred to Freddie Sanchez's third double as "three triples" and then pretended he said doubles all along, reminding me how irritatingly arrogant Thorne is on TV. The moment they took him away from Murph is the moment he commenced to suck.

Darn good baseball game between these two teams. And even if it was a terrible baseball game, it would be phenomenal considering who's not in it. Gary Thorne just gave the time of tomorrow's MLB International coverage as 7:30 Eastern, 23:30 Greenwich Mean Time.

No MFYs, no MFPs in this round. Hope this fact is still being appreciated/enjoyed.

Gary Thorne hasn't lost his tendency to announce every bat meeting ball incidence with too much excitement.

Well, one feed has been pulled but another one has become available, this one MLB International's. If I were stationed in Afghanistan, I'd feel lucky that I could follow this at all.

Kong76 wrote: I have never heard of John Legend. Is that his real last name? If you can't watch Cliff Legend, at least enjoy John Legend. One of my favorite songs of the past decade, . Another of my favorite songs of the past decade, , with some stormy sampling.

Rangers playing some excellent National League baseball -- Molina tags from third, Lee tags from second. Texas up 2-nil.

Cliff Lee said to "handle the bat" well, and he doubles. Who knew they knew what they were talking about on Fox?

Plugged in an old portable, adjusted the antenna and...nothing. But this is quite helpful. Video and English-language audio, together again. Only one pitch behind real-time ESPN Radio.

The GM who made it on the other side was Billy Beane, described as Alderson's protege. The A's gave Cruz four years to prove he was more than Jorge Velandia. He seemed to have put it together (statistically, anyway) in 2004, and was then shipped to the Brewers for another exciting infielder, Keith Ginter. One pretty good minor league season and one Milwaukee cup of coffee later, Cruz was off to a contending Texas club with Carlos Lee in a deadline salary dump (Lee's) for, among others, Francisco Cordero and Laynce Nix, two guys who helped beat the Mets as Reds in 2010 (though Cordero also gave up a game-winning HR to Rod Barajas). Three organizations weren't sold on Nelson Cruz. The fourth is in the World Series this year. Not the same route to glory, exactly, but Cruz having been a Met long before he broke through reminds me of learning Paul Blair had been a Met farmhand in 1962. He was drafted by the Orioles the following winter (in the "first-year draft") and went onto win eight Gold Gloves...but he was outshined defensively by Tommie Agee when it really counted, so we'll let it pass.

I had absolutely no idea Nelson Cruz was once in the Met system, signed at age 17: February 17, 1998: Signed by the New York Mets as an amateur free agent. August 30, 2000: Traded by the New York Mets to the Oakland Athletics for Jorge Velandia. His minor league experience from 1998 to 2000 is listed by Baseball Reference as "Dominican," and they have no stats for him. It wasn't a big deal when he was traded away for a not very big player. Meanwhile, in a roster development, the Mets have acquired the infielder Jorge Velandia from the Oakland Athletics in exchange for the minor league outfielder Nelson Cruz. Velandia, 25, hit .125 for the Athletics in 18 games this season and .283 for Class AAA Sacramento, and Phillips said that he would likely be called up to the Mets when the season ends at Class AAA Norfolk. I'd love to hold this against Steve Phillips (as opposed to what Steve Phillips loves to hold against certain young ladies) but Cruz steered clear of the majors until 2005 and didn't break out until 2009. Still, we did have him. And Phillips evaluated his potential so effectively that he traded him for Jorge Velandia.

Multiple sources are reporting it as done. Nice leak-proofing there, Fred, Jeff and Saul. Anyway, congratulations, welcome aboard and please fix this mess.

Wally Matthews was jealous of Ian O'Connor and Filip Bondy and wanted to write an inane MFY-based column. Highlights (as it were) follow of his take on the harassment of Kristen Lee. I'm aware of what goes on in ballparks all over the United States between fans of the home team and "invaders'' who come in wearing the colors of the opponent. In most cases, it's all in good fun -- and usually, the insurgent wears the enemy jersey for precisely the purpose of stirring up a reaction. My experience has been visiting fans wear their team's jersey because they like their team. Wally Matthews writes idiotic columns to stir up reaction. It's normal fan-on-fan stuff and usually harmless. Not really. More people than not watch the game. And I'm not saying things like this don't happen in other ballparks around the country toward Yankees fans, as well. I'm sure every one of you has a story to tell. The equivalency argument -- doesn't wash. The MFYs do everything bigger and better than everybody. Nobody bullies like an MFYLDB. Ask Nelson Cruz. They're very hands-on. But there's nothing normal about the way some fans are said to have behaved toward Kristen Lee while her husband was turning in one of the all-time great postseason pitching performances in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series. According to reports, she was cursed at, was spat at and had beer hurled on her. That is shameful, is cowardly and should embarrass any right-thinking person who was in the ballpark. Wally Matthews: Against cursing, spitting and beer-hurling. What a moral compass. And besides, this is New York City. We're supposed to be smarter than that, more sophisticated than that, above that sort of foolishness. And then something like this happens, reinforcing all the worst anti-New York stereotypes that people in other parts of the country hold as gospel. I know Yankees fans take pride in being enthusiastic, even vociferous, in their love of the home team and fearsome in their hatred toward the opponent. But this seems to have bordered on criminal behavior. What makes New York City (who, from New York, refers to "New York City" by the way?) sophisticated or smart? It's the market that's allowed Wally Matthews a media platform for years. As for the rest, haven't bullying, harassing MFY fans been glorified in the media as passionate and knowledgeable for years? Aren't Filip Bondy's Bleacher Creatures regularly indulged by the sycophant MFYLDB press? At the very least, if I were Cliff Lee, I would be extremely upset at Yankees management for exposing my wife and the wives of my Texas Rangers teammates to that sort of hostility -- and at stadium security, for apparently failing to do anything about it. (Nor did any of the fans sitting nearby.) And at the most, I would use it against the Yankees as leverage in what is likely to be a very difficult and expensive negotiation. If you were self-respecting, you'd know you could find a lucrative deal anywhere and not have to put up with MFYLDBs.

Rockin' Doc wrote: In a few more years, Jeeter will have the range of a lethargic sloth with a valium addiction. A lethargic sloth with a valium addiction who knows how to win.

Thanks all! Space considerations stripped the piece of its Seaver mention as well as a few other goodies (Jerry Grote: only 1969 Met to make the WS in the 1970s after 1973; Ron Taylor's favorite ring of them all; Taylor's club winning the second World Series against a team managed by the man Ryan was trded for; Bud Harrelson going the Ryan route and winning a championship as a co-owner, albeit of the Atlantic League), but I'm happy to have gotten the gist of it in.

Rough news regarding a familiar name. Bill Shannon, sports writer, dies in NJ house fire Tuesday, October 26, 2010 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY OCTOBER 26, 2010, 2:00 PM THE RECORD THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WEST CALDWELL � Bill Shannon, a baseball historian, author and an official scorer at New York Yankees and Mets games for decades, died in an early morning house fire Tuesday. West Caldwell fire chief Charlie Holden said the three-alarm fire was called in just before 9 a.m. and brought under control within an hour. Holden identified Shannon, 69, as the only fatality. Neighbors told News 12-New Jersey they were able to rescue Shannon's mother through the front door. One neighbor placed a ladder up to the second floor to reach Shannon, but Shannon told the neighbor he was unable to break the window and disappeared into the thick smoke. Shannon became an official scorer for the American League in 1979 and the National League one year later, and in recent seasons was the senior official scorer for games of the New York Yankees and Mets. He also contributed stories to The Associated Press. After attending Columbia University and serving in the Army, he was the head of public relations for Madison Square Garden from 1965-73 as it moved into its new building. He was longtime assistant on the press staff for the U.S. Tennis Association. He authored the book, "The Ballparks," a history of major league baseball stadiums and edited "The Official Encyclopedia of Tennis of the United States Tennis Association.