G-Fafif

Dickey 3.0 Pagan 2.0 Beltran 1.5 Evans 1.5 Tejada 1.5 Reyes 0.5

Combination of a lot of fun for the Mets' rompitude (and the perfect home plate view from 514) and depressing as hell for the quietude. Paid attendance was 27,000. Probably 20,000 paid to stay away.

Aging MLB stars who grew up adoring the Mets edition. Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo modeled his leg kick on the ace of his favorite childhood team, Dwight Gooden. Knew about A-Rod, didn't know about Damon. Arroyo�s Leg Kick Reaches Back to �86 By TYLER KEPNER As the Mets play out the schedule of another forgettable season, their younger fans might not realize just how dynamic, and influential, their team was in the mid-1980s. For proof, they can look at three stars of today. The Detroit Tigers� Johnny Damon wears No. 18 because Darryl Strawberry wore it for the Mets. The Yankees� Alex Rodriguez wears white spikes in every All-Star Game because Keith Hernandez and other Mets did so in their day. And the pitcher with one of the most unusual deliveries in baseball, Bronson Arroyo of the Cincinnati Reds, said he learned his signature leg kick by trying to imitate Dwight Gooden. Like Damon and Rodriguez, Arroyo grew up in Florida before the state had major league teams. The Mets� games were broadcast on cable � Channel 9 � and often shown on NBC�s game of the week. Arroyo caught the bug. �Living on Big Pine Key in �86, that was one of the few teams we could see once in a while,� Arroyo said. �My parents loved the Mets, and I already knew that Dwight Gooden was from Tampa. It�s weird, when I first played for the Red Sox, I was thinking back to �86 and how happy my family was, and I had no idea the devastation that was going on up there.� Arroyo, 33, was a steal for the Red Sox, but they lost him just as easily. Three years after grabbing Arroyo off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2003, the Red Sox traded him to the Reds for outfielder Wily Mo Pena. Arroyo has been a standout for Cincinnati, where photographers often capture him at a freakish point in his delivery. Arroyo lifts his left leg like a Rockette, as if it is the minute hand on a watch pointed at 10 o�clock. Gooden lifted his knee high, but the stiff-leg move seems to be uniquely Arroyo�s. �I really didn�t realize it was such a different leg kick than anyone else�s until I started seeing it on film in the rookie league,� Arroyo said. �Like in high school, I knew I had a decent high leg kick, but in my mind my foot is not out there. In my mind, my leg is in the same place everyone else�s is.� Arroyo is 6 feet 5 inches, and his foot reaches about head high. He acknowledges it is not the kind of mechanics one would teach a young pitcher, but he is athletic enough to pull it off. Also, Arroyo said, his father would have corrected him if he had noticed Bronson rocking back when his leg went up. In Class AA, Arroyo said, a coach tried to make him lift his leg like everyone else, keeping the knee bent. The concern was that Arroyo would not keep his back straight and lose his balance, which would throw off his arm slot. But the alteration did not take. �By the third inning I was absolutely toast,� Arroyo said. �Because without realizing it, I could just use the momentum of my foot and it�s totally relaxed. Other people have to use their hip flexor to pick up their leg, but the momentum of my foot takes my leg up and down, and it relaxes and just falls. It�s less effort than what a lot of other people are doing, but it looks like it�s more effort.� The photographic evidence would contradict that, right? Who else but Arroyo can contort his leg into that position while delivering a pitch? Arroyo has seen the photographers� snapshots, but he tries to ignore them. �Oh, they take �em all the time,� Arroyo said. �It messes with my head.�

Gee 3.5 Evans 2.0 Tejada 1.5 Takahashi 1.5 Thole 1.0 Wright 0.5

I hope Mrs. Gee can handle her husband's first major league start without Second Spitter and bmfc.

Neat! But why do we all appear to be wearing noseguards as well?

Game Two rained out, but Gersh Kuntzman is in the Eye of the Storm with his own take on the Game One loss. Backman said he was disappointed that his team �showed up without much punch,� not getting a hit after the fourth. �I would have liked to see more �rah-rah-rah� out the guys, more standing on the top step than sitting on the bench,� he said. But Backman added he would not use the four-hour bus ride back to the Cyclones� Downtown Brooklyn dormitory to chew out his team. �There�s not a whole lot to say at this point in a season,� he said. �The bottom line is that we were outpitched tonight. And we made a big error on a double-play ball. That�s the difference in this game.�

Your 2000 National League Champion Mets are coming out of mothballs: Jay Payton is up with the Rockies, Mike Hampton is a Diamondback. And Super Joe McEwing could easily start at second base for this club.

Niese 3.5 PFeliciano 0.5 Acosta 0.5

Ashie62 wrote: G-Fafif wrote: I adore the Spinners -- explosively and definitely not ironically. And f.a.f.i.f is one of the spinners contributing to this mess..yuck yuck Not anymore. Too busy preparing myself for the Rubberband Man.

I adore the Spinners -- explosively and definitely not ironically.

Good memories of Cliff Lee to be had from today as well. Got home from today's uberdowner of a Mets game (save for the slew of friendly faces) in time for the ninth inning on YEECH. Michael Kay presided over a state funeral. Then, on MLB Network, they played the Rangers' feed of the final out. You'd think "Deep in the Heart of Texas" had gained a new verse.

Frenchy up with the bases loaded and one out versus the Great Rivera. Score tied, bottom of the ninth and, in the words of Pearl Bailey, HE HIT HIM! Jeff takes one for his new team (and the brighter side of humanity), right on the Texas flag patch, and the Rangers complete their come-from-behind victory over the MFYs, 7-6.

The Boys of Backman fall in Game One.

In the name of Cliff Floyd and all that is holy, this is the game where we get our grand slam -- off fucking Oswalt, just as Cliffie did in on a glorious Friday night in the otherwise godforsaken spring of 2004.

Pelfrey 3.5 Davis 3.0 Reyes 1.5 Evans 0.5 Acosta 0.5 JFeliciano 0.5 Takahashi 0.5

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/jeff_pearlman/09/10/mets/index.html Pearlman, who aspires to be Klapisch, chimed in. Missing is the praise that 22 Mets DID visit the hospital.... Pearlman says he was wrong: http://networkedblogs.com/7JnhQ Compelling, engaging and provocative as a reporter...yet everything on his blog essentially reads as such: Pearlman Has Thought, Shares It Immediately Writer thinks of things, thinks everything he thinks needs to be expressed without regard to thinking Later expresses regret he didn't think things through

I was hoping we could hear from Scott Boras. One interesting tidibit I hadn't seen before, however, about advance notice for visit. Boras upset with Mets for treatment of Beltran September 10, 2010 by DAVID LENNON Carlos Beltran kept his feelings in check this week after hearing that Mets ownership was angry with him for failing to attend the team-organized trip to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. But his agent, Scott Boras, is livid at the Mets for what he believes was unfair treatment of Beltran, who had arranged a meeting for his own charitable foundation that same morning in Washington. Boras questioned why the Mets would single out Beltran, who visited a veterans hospital with principal owner Fred Wilpon last winter, and publicly attempt to smear him. "What they've done is the equivalent of Campbell's soup taking one of their cans, kicking it down the aisle, tarnishing the can, and then trying to sell you the soup," Boras said in a telephone interview. "Why is management doing that? There seems to be a serious problem there." Boras also pointed out that the Mets told their players and staff about the non-mandatory trip only 24 hours before they were expected to attend. As Beltran explained, he already had set up the meeting for his foundation, which is building a high school/baseball academy in his native Puerto Rico. Boras said that Mets ownership didn't bother to ask Beltran why he couldn't make the trip - but criticized him anyway, along with Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo. Beltran, who homered Friday night, has one year worth $18.5 million left on his $119-million contract, and given his recent clashes with the Mets, it could make for an interesting winter. On Friday, when asked again about the incident, Beltran shrugged. "I'm confident that I know to do the right thing," he said. "That's how I live my life. The only thing is if somebody had a problem with me, I wish they would come to me and talk to me about it. To do it through the newspapers, that's not how I do business."

Jeff Wilpon speaks! Or is asked to by the Times and doesn't say much. SEPTEMBER 10, 2010, 6:21 PM Wilpon Leaves Hospital Flap to the Players By KEN BELSON Days after three Mets skipped a team trip to visit wounded war veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Jeff Wilpon, the team�s chief operating officer, declined to rebuke the players, saying that any discontent that stemmed from their absence should be worked out in the clubhouse. �It�s nothing for me to deal with; it�s for them to deal with amongst their teammates,� said Wilpon, who spoke after David Wright and Mike Pelfrey met with firefighters at Ladder Company 10 near ground zero as part of a Sept. 11 commemoration. �It wasn�t mandatory. You can�t get upset.� Carlos Beltran, Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez did not visit the hospital with the rest of the team Tuesday, when the Mets were in Washington to play the Nationals. The absences raised eyebrows because the players have underperformed on the field. Castillo and Perez have expressed unhappiness with their diminished roles, and the Mets have been at odds with Beltran since he elected to have surgery in January, apparently against the team�s wishes. Several teammates have expressed disappointment that the entire team did not make the trip. Pelfrey had posted a sign in the clubhouse declaring that the trip was mandatory even though the club did not deem it so. �That should be stuff that you shouldn�t have to have a meeting about and to remind people,� Pelfrey said Friday, referring to a team meeting in which players were urged to visit the hospital. �It should be, �Hey, I want to go do that and give thanks and show my appreciation.� � Still, Pelfrey said he was happy 27 players made the trip, which he said was twice as many as in past visits. �It would have been great to have all of them, but having 27 there was pretty good,� he said. Wilpon addressed the issue publicly for the first time Friday on what was an otherwise solemn event with firefighters to commemorate their efforts after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Wilpon said he would consider making the event mandatory next season so �it takes out any of the controversy.� The controversy was the latest in a string of public relations disasters for the team this year that have included Johan Santana being accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit and the arraignment of Francisco Rodriguez on charges that he attacked the grandfather of his children. The flap in Washington partly obscured the Mets� efforts Friday to thank the public service workers for their work after the terrorist attacks nine years ago. In 2001, the Mets helped store food and other supplies in the parking lots at Shea Stadium in the days after the attacks, and they were the first to wear caps honoring the police and firefighters in the games that followed. Mike Piazza�s game-winning home run during the first game in New York after baseball resumed play has become a signature moment for the team. �When you see that home run, it made us feel like we were back,� said Salvatore Cassano, the New York City Fire Commissioner. �They kept us going.�

Beltran 1.5 Davis 1.0 Thole 1.0 Reyes 0.5 Wright 0.5

Plumbing the depths of elimination for sure are the 55-86 Seattle Mariners. Being a little more coy about it, because if you look at the standings with a naked eye, they still seem in it are the 60-81 Washington Nationals...but with too many teams that would have to lose having to also play one another, we can leave them here. The 61-80 Chicago Cubs are just about in the same capsized boat.

The real enemy... Victorino CF Polanco 3B Utley 2B Howard 1B Werth RF Ibanez LF Ruiz C Valdez SS Halladay P

TransMonk wrote: Edgy DC wrote: This is probably our first first-hand contribution to this thread, which is hereby elevated from creepy to ooky. Aided by the demonic red-eye. Great pic! Embellished by the guy in the t-shirt on the left urging Satan's minions to get their RED on.

Haste that beats the others cold, Klapisch pours it on. (A figurative nickel to whoever gets that reference.) Anyway, Klap calls Ollie a militant and says the Mets, when you factor in K-Rod, are, you know it, doomed. Gosh, I had no idea a columnist of Klap's soft rain stature was following the Mets on their recent road trip...or is this just the same Klaptrap anybody with a keyboard and a high-speed connetion could have posted? Is Oliver Perez playing a game of chicken with the Mets, daring ownership to release him so he can walk away with next year�s $12 million salary? That�s just one of the questions the Wilpon family is asking after yet another PR fiasco for baseball�s most troubled franchise. Perez, Luis Castillo and Carlos Beltran all missed a team-sponsored trip to visit wounded veterans at Washington�s Walter Reed Hospital this week � ignoring Jeff Wilpon�s personal appeal for the players� cooperation. Two of the Mets at least tried to defend themselves. Beltran said he had a meeting regarding the high school his foundation is building in Puerto Rico. Castillo said he simply didn�t have the stomach to be in the presence of amputees. Neither excuse softened ownership�s anger, but it was Perez�s reaction that drew the most heated response from above. The left-hander didn�t even bother with an alibi, saying he wouldn�t talk about anything �outside the stadium.� Senior officials resisted the temptation to respond publicly, but one person familiar with the mood in the front office said Jeff Wilpon was �livid� with Perez. That could very well be the reaction he�s seeking. Last month, Perez told WFAN he was being treated �unfairly� by the Mets, a comment that was met with derision, both in the clubhouse and upstairs at Citi Field. With a 6.65 ERA and a three-year, $36 million contract that runs through 2011, Perez has become the billboard of the Mets� ineptitude. A bad pitcher with an absurd contract and a defiant attitude, to boot. If the blow-off of the soldiers was the tipping point, the next move is now the Wilpons. Do they have the stomach, or the financial insulation, to fire Perez? No one believes the left-hander can be resurrected, at least not in New York, but the Mets are already at war with Francisco Rodriguez, trying to void his guaranteed contract after he allegedly assaulted his daughter�s grandfather at the ballpark last month. One rival executive said the Mets would�ve had an �air-tight� case against K-Rod had they sought to merely recoup the remainder of his 2010 salary. It would�ve been impossible for the union to defend a player who�d injured himself in the commission of a crime and was subsequently unable to compete. But Mets ownership is seeking the maximum penalty, looking to get out from the $11.5 million K-Rod is owed in 2011 so he can be released in spring training. An executive from another team said, �(the Mets) have zero chance of getting an arbitrator to agree to that much. It�s so outrageous that they might not even get the (partial penalty) that�s rightfully theirs. An arbitrator might just say, �you�re asking for too much� and rule entirely in Rodriguez� favor.� Clearly, there�s no way the Mets could eat the contracts of Perez and K-Rod; no team, not even the Yankees, can burn that kind of cash. A more modest option would be to trade both players, although with their emotional baggage and respective salaries it�s impossible to imagine any team willing to take them. Perez is as close to poison as any player in baseball, especially if his blow-off of the soldiers was as selfish and mean-spirited as it appeared. K-Rod�s for-sale sign might not be quite as tainted, especially if the Mets portray him as a man working his way back to the community. Rodriguez will have completed anger management therapy by spring training, which, coupled with his embarrassment and remorse over his arrest, might be enough to at least get another GM to pick up the phone. But the rest of the list goes on and on. Beltran, going into his age-34 season, is the oldest centerfielder in the majors. Forced to wear a brace to protect a fragile knee, he�s lost his defensive mobility and looks just as helpless at the plate, almost 50 points under his career average at .235. Beltran might not be as volatile as K-Rod or as militant as Perez, but he�s nevertheless just as disconnected. No need for a look-at-me display to let teammates know how Beltran feels about being a Met. He�ll be a free agent after 2011 and is already counting the days. Castillo? He�s hated by fans simply because he�s in his decline phase, pulling down $6 million to hit .236. Like Perez, Castillo represents the era of big contracts to under-performing players, creating a roster that�s expensive ($128 million) and practically frozen. Rebuilding the franchise will be the mandate of whoever follows Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya. There�s been talk lately, generated by Peter Gammons, that Bobby Valentine will be the Mets� next manager. But that comes as news to both Valentine and the Wilpons. It�s far more likely that Wally Backman, successfully running the Mets� Class-A team in Brooklyn, will replace Manuel. The process of toppling Minaya might not be so simple. While most everyone assumes the GM will take the fall for the summer�s catastrophes, Minaya isn�t necessarily willing to be re-assigned, as has been widely presumed. His contractual tie to the Mets is strictly as their general manager, meaning he�s not obligated to take any other job in the organization. If the Mets want to turn Minaya into a super-scout and hire, say, Kevin Towers, they have two choices: They either re-work Minaya�s contract, or else fire him and eat the last two years of his pact. That�s no small dilemma for an organization that�s looking to clean house, devise a new business plan and rise from the ashes by 2012. No team in the majors is bleeding attendance faster than the Mets, so it�s essential they act forcefully. The obvious question is whether they can afford it. The better question is can they afford not to.

bmfc1 wrote: �... and we anticipate he will be able to resume throwing in the spring.� Diagnosis from Dr. Chauncey Gardener.