G-Fafif

Tiger Stadium's the one everybody seems to remember as oppressively futile (I was there for the first of those games -- great park, 14-0 loss), but all three oh-and-three-and-out series in those A.L. parks were as ugly as that Hefty Bag fence in Minnesota. As all wrong ends of sweeps are, I suppose, but still, they really stunk up it in the Metrodome, once for 15 innings of grueling dreariness, once losing on a walkoff in the ninth and once to that Santana kid who's never going to amount to anything or my name isn't Drayton McLane. As for the Safeco set, I was so bummed out by the time it was over, I had to watch my staticky cassette of "No Surrender," the 1985 Met highlight tape, to rejoin the living. I believe his overwhelming mediocrity against the Mariners and bad attitude thereafter is what got Mike DeJean sent on his way.

Warthen's "habitual liar" line, destined to go down as a pitching coach classic with "I can fix him in 10 minutes" and "Tuscany tile," brings to mind this little ditty from the 1884 presidential campaign: Blaine! Blaine! James G. Blaine! Continental liar from the state of Maine! I've also seen it as "monumental liar". Either way, I read about it when I was a kid and it's rung through my brain at least a few Maine starts per year since 2007. I had no idea there was really something to it. If John recovers and is still in the rotation when we face Cleveland, watch the sparks fly!

Barajas� power display is a FLUKE, so if you can find someone willing to overpay for him, feel free to trade him. I take it that's a fantasy baseball directive, but if the Mets are out of it come August, and he's got some good numbers, I imagine Rod (if he hasn't completely outlied by then) would be attractive on the actual trade market. He's signed to a one-year deal and is understood as a placeholder for young Thole. But let's not think like that just yet.

Edgy DC wrote: Is Tiger Stadium is the only ballpark the Mets have played in but never won? 0-3 at the Metrodome. 0-3 at Safeco, with a theoretical chance to take care of that 0.

A good game is a good game, and a great game is a great game. The Mets and Angels played a great game in the middle of their series in 2005 -- Marlon Anderson's pinch ITP homer the featured element -- and it didn't matter that there was zero reason beyond the almost random reshuffling of the schedule for them to be playing. But a bad game is a bad game, so when it's a bad or at least nondescript game -- which generally means the Mets losing in moribund fashion to some team to whom we generally give little thought -- the lameness factor is magnified. The Mets can lose a lousy game to the Cubs, but it's understood the Mets play the Cubs. The Mets lose a lousy game to the Indians, it's foreign and it must be expunged for more lousy games against the Cubs. The relatively few gems don't seem worth the blandness of unfamiliar opponents. The Subway Series...I used to think that made the whole thing worthwhile, but I doubt I'd mourn its passing if MLB suddenly decided it and its Chicago, L.A., et al doppelgangers weren't the cash cows they once were. I reserve the right to change my mind if it's a good weekend.

Valdes 4.0 Wright 3.0 Barajas 1.0 Davis 1.0 Reyes 1.0

Neil Best of Newsday covered the Saturday night experiment recently. Note a bit of the logic used by Fox regarding the 20-inning game providing a ratings boost, as if a once-in-a-generation occurrence wasn't responsible for drawing more viewers to the Mets and Cardinals on April 17 -- it was just the time slot. For the first of two times this season, Fox's regional Game of the Week - including Yankees-Mets - will move to prime time, a first for a national broadcast network in the regular season since 2004. On June 26, they'll do it again, with regional coverage featuring the Yankees at Dodgers. Officially, this is an experiment. But Fox, working with Major League Baseball, wants to explore turning the notion into a regularly scheduled norm come 2011, at least for a number of Saturdays in the summer. ABC/ESPN has done well with its weekly Saturday night college football games, and every Saturday night NASCAR race in Fox's history has won its night, including two this year. Baseball? When a late-afternoon Mets-Cardinals game in April turned into a 20-inning, prime-time epic, ratings soared, a phenomenon Fox Sports president Ed Goren called "sort of an eye-opener.'' MLB executive vice president for business Tim Brosnan said baseball and Fox have had discussions over the years about "what prime-time baseball would look like and what the ratings reality of a Saturday night game would be,'' leading to this year's trial. There simply are more viewers available at night. But there is a scheduling consequence to consider. Many fans take advantage of afternoon games to take young children. Between each team's maximum five Sunday night games on ESPN and nine on Fox, attractive draws such as the Yankees and Mets could see their number of weekend afternoon games decrease, even as less popular teams end up with more afternoon games. "There are some teams that prefer to play at night on Saturdays; it goes both ways,'' Goren said. "And it's not as if we're doing 26 weeks [in prime time].'' For now, all of this is only in the discussion stage; Saturday's numbers will offer more evidence for TV and baseball to chew over. MLB must consider assorted constituents, such as the teams and local channels that carry games. Another element Fox has suggested is adding a larger number of attractive regional games to the slate each week, further enhancing ratings appeal. Even if that happened, Fox still would get the same total number of regional games per year, 72. So if more games were added in certain weeks, there would be some Saturdays with no national coverage. Brosnan said the "prime-time discussion is in its formative stages.'' The notion of expanding the number of exposures in a given window is a separate decision, also in its early stages. "We're very sensitive to the clubs' needs,'' said Brosnan, who said part of the process is balancing needs of fans watching on TV and those attending in person. "We're trying to be the most fan-friendly we can be.'' A decision likely will come this summer, after the prime- time window in late June. "We'll see,'' Goren said. "A lot has to happen, so it's far from a given. Nothing happens without the cooperation of baseball buying in, and for that matter, the people who run prime time at Fox.''

Takahashi? That guy's got an edge!

Frayed Knot wrote: Which Hernandez is higher, El Duque or El Duquecito? Oh, O. Hernandez (#119) is MUCH higher than L. Hernandez (#359) Even with his lost final season, El Duque was a major player on two separate good teams while Livan snagged just 13 points (18th best player) on the 70-win 2009 club. Livan didn't reach the level of Roberto Hernandez (236), and of course none of them can touch long lost brother Keith (#12) Keith testified to how high he was in Pittsburgh in 1985. Less smart-aleckily, Keith is only No. 12? Eleven Mets rate over Keith Hernandez? As Keith would say when overtaken by a gust of disbelief, "My goodness."

I've used Collapse II and Echo Collapse as the shorthand for September 2008, but as it was beginning, the word that seemed most appropriate was deflation. They were deflating from 40-19 to 7-10. They were never as good as they looked when they won (quick! call McCarver!) and maybe it was just a matter of time before they stumbled. Being without Tatis, Easley, Wagner and Maine stretched their roster issues, even in September, and with stretching, the air came out of the balloon (if that metaphor makes any sense). In retrospect, one can rationalize away the hard-fought losses (when I think hard fought pennant race loss, I think the 1-0 CG defeat Matlack absorbed the final Sunday of '73 when there was a nightcap and a Monday makeup twinbill still on tap), but there weren't that many of them. There was just a lot of not showing up. In the final week, Monday night against the Cubs and Friday night against the Marlins were total no-shows. Save for one big swing on Wednesday against the Cubs, they did nothing. And the final Sunday at Shea sticking in their throat speaks for itself. Win two of those games, the Mets are the 2008 Wild Card. The lifelessness of that team toward and at the end is what leaves a bad aftertaste that makes one (me, anyway) dismiss the 40-19 ride into first place as the aberration.

Dark Horse I John Gibbons, currently bench coach of the Kansas City Royals reasonably successful (finished ahead of the Red Sox when the Red Sox fell apart in 2006; lifetime .500 record) former manager of the Toronto Blue Jays. Got in some players' faces. If he hadn't gotten hurt early in 1984, he might have been the Catcher of the Future instead of Mike Fitzgerald and we never would have gotten Gary Carter. Or he might have been traded for Carter instead of Fitzgerald. At any rate, a true blue and orange Met bloodline (1984-1986) and vouched for by former Tidemate Steve Springer in 2007 when "Spring" told FAFIF: �If you don't get along with Gibby, trust me you're the idiot. He's the best. He's gold.� Dark Horse II Edgar Alfonzo's been managing and coaching in the Mets' system for a decade. Maybe he's picked up something along the way. He's put in the hours and he can speak a couple of languages. Brought the first Brooklyn Cyclones team home with a co-championship. Part of the Met family.

If you build it, Ken Sanders will help you sell it. 'Field of Dreams' diamond, stands, field being sold by The Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa - In "Field of Dreams," Kevin Costner's character builds a baseball diamond out of a cornfield after a voice tells him: "If you build it, he will come." Well, now he can buy it and so can anyone else. Don and Becky Lansing, the owners of the site near Dyersville where the field was built by Universal Studios, said Thursday they're selling the property. The asking price is $5.4 million. The couple said they love the land, which has been in Don Lansing's family for more than a century, but they're ready to retire and give up the property. "It's really time for us to head to the locker room. Maybe that sounds corny. I don't care," Becky Lansing said. "We really would just love to become spectators. We want to sit in the bleachers. We want to look forward to all that the 'Field of Dreams' will become in the future." The "Field of Dreams" is in the middle of a cornfield in eastern Iowa. The movie, released in 1989 with Costner as its star, was based on the book "Shoeless Joe" by W.P. Kinsella. The site has been a popular tourist destination, with the family maintaining the baseball diamond built by Universal. The Lansings purchased the left field and center portions from neighbor Rita Ameskamp in 2007, ending a long-standing split over the commercialization of the site. Up for sale is the diamond, a two-bedroom house, six outbuildings that include a concession stand, and a 193-acre parcel. The land includes the mystical cornfield where the ghosts of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, "Moonlight" Graham and others emerge to play ball. Former major league pitcher Ken Sanders, now a real estate consultant overseeing the sale, said he's already received a number of inquiries about the property. Sanders said the majority of those who've reached out have shown interest in preserving the property. But he's also heard from people thinking about putting up a hotel, water park and even some contemplating whether to build a minor league ballpark on the site. There's little doubt, though, that the property's iconic place in sports movie history will help its resale value. "We are the caretakers of a living piece of sports memorabilia," Becky Lansing said. "This is an organic, living, breathing piece of memorabilia."

Oh, and as far as the Jerry Manuel temperature check, it's 73 degrees in Washington right now. He can probably shed the light jacket.

Jerry Manuel for roving instructor. Somebody else for manager.

If I could think of something Manuel is bringing to the table, something in the way of player handling or strategy or anything that I thought might pay off if given a little time or a change of luck, I wouldn't say he should go. I don't like insisting that people should lose their livelihoods (though four-plus months remain on a contract that reportedly pays him approximately $1.5 million per season). But I can't think of any upside to Jerry Manuel any longer. Gangsta and focusing Jose Reyes and having the departing pitcher wait on the mound for his replacement was all a very long time ago. Jerry was enchanting in the aftermath of Willie and eventually rode a few hot bats and a couple of live arms to an outstanding stretch of contending baseball. The bats haven't been hot and the arms haven't been live since that portion of 2008. Go in peace, Jerry. But go.

Losing the cycle game was a gut punch, albeit a harmless one in the scheme of divisional things. Mackey's Magical Mystery Tour in right field remains a sentimental favorite. Mets had won ten straight going into that game. Then Sasser makes those two incredible plays and you think NOTHING can possibly go wrong. Then it became 1991 again.

Per LBJ on Walter Cronkite and Vietnam, if Jerry has lost MBTN, he's lost the country.

attgig wrote: no Endy Chavez catch? Was only thinking regular season. Will specify above. But that was pretty good, defensively.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Who on Earth compartmentalizes great individual performances in Met losses and can call on 12 of them over 30 years? Gfafif, that's who. Wow. That Alou game reawakened an old heartbreak. Gawd. F him though. The Hernandez game, for sure. But I think maybe Pagan wins this one. Not neatly compartmentalized, but a few sprang to mind and I dug through the memory banks/baseball-reference from there. Feel free to add any others you think of (if you can bear to think of them). Pre-1980 graciously accepted as well. Doug Flynn's three triples represented a baseline for thinking "what a waste," and 30 happens to be a nice, round number. Wasn't thinking of this as a poll initially, but I agree it would be hard to top Angel for shiniest medal of valor. Then again if he stops at third and is driven in and/or he starts a double play and the next guy grounds out, it's just another loss. But he didn't and it wasn't and that's baseball for ya.

Great chronicling of a (thus far) not so great season AND he designed our last championship uniforms? If the guy can bat third, then we know he can do it all.

They do something memorable, but they can't enjoy it. They're asked about it afterwards and they have to hang their heads and say it doesn't matter. What a shame. Chronologically, since 1980, here is a tentative list of the greatest individual performances by a Met position player in a REGULAR-SEASON Met loss. (We'll leave out pitchers since the Mets are lousy with hard-luck losers who lacked only support and/or a reliable relief corps behind them.) And the nominees are: August 5, 1980: Doug Flynn triples three times. Expos beat Mets, 11-5. October 3, 1985: With Mets desperately needing to beat St. Louis to stay alive in a pennant race for the ages, Keith Hernandez goes 5-for-5 and drives in a pair of runs. Cardinals beat Mets, 4-3. August 28, 1988: Gregg Jefferies electrifies Shea with a single and a double in his first two plate appearances as a major league starter, foreshadowing the September (and maybe career) to come. Giants beat Mets, 7-4. July 14, 1991: Needing an outfielder and wanting to keep him away from behind the plate, Buddy Harrelson inserts Mackey Sasser in right field for his first start ever at the position. In the top of the first, with Bip Roberts on second, Tony Fernandez lines a ball to deep right. Sasser turns around, crashes into the wall, makes the catch, turns again and fires to Kevin Elster to double off Roberts. Next batter is Tony Gwynn, who crushes a ball above the right field wall. Sasser goes back, leaps and grabs it. Two putouts and an assist in his very first inning as a starting right fielder. Seven innings later, Mackey breaks up Greg Harris's bid for a no-hitter with a leadoff double. Padres beat Mets, 2-1. April 26, 1995: Todd Hundley helps christen Coors Field with a sixth-inning grand slam, one of four hits he collects on Opening Night in Colorado. The last big swing, however, belongs to Dante Bichette in the fourteenth. Rockies beat Mets, 11-9. May 6, 1995: Edgardo Alfonzo chooses to make his first major league home run an inside-the-park job, which contributes to the building of an 11-4 lead. It would become the biggest lead the Mets would ever blow. Reds beat Mets, 13-11. August 5, 1998: En route to setting the Mets' single-season batting average standard, John Olerud bangs two doubles, one of them for two RBI. He also handles a fifth-inning ground ball and turns it into a 3-6-3-2 triple play, Snow out at first, Kent out at second, Bonds out at home. Giants beat Mets, 6-4. May 17, 2001: Desi Relaford starts at short and records an RBI double. Bobby Valentine moves him to the mound for the top of the ninth and he pitches a 1-2-3 frame before singling in the bottom of the ninth. Padres beat Mets, 15-3. June 21, 2006: Jose Reyes hits for the cycle. When he singles to clinch it in the bottom of the eighth, the Ho-ZAY! chant rocks Shea Stadium in earnest for the first time. Billy Wagner comes on for the save in the ninth. Reds beat Mets, 6-5. August 15, 2006: Jose Reyes hits three homers, good for four RBI. Phillies beat Mets, 11-4. September 25, 2007: As Mets cling tenuously to first place, Moises Alou extends team record hitting streak to 29 games with a 4-for-5 night. His last hit is a three-run, ninth-inning double that brings the Mets to within one run of a tie score. Nationals beat Mets, 10-9. May 19, 2010: In the top of the fourth inning, Angel Pagan lifts a fly ball to center over the head of Nyjer Morgan that Morgan severely misjudges. Morgan's leap allows the ball to bounce off the wall into no man's land. Pagan steams ahead and scores on an inside-the-park homer. In the bottom of the fourth inning, with the bases loaded, Pagan, playing center, dives and catches a sinking liner off the bat of Roger Bernadina. It goes as a sacrifice fly, but it could have been a good deal worse. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Pagan makes another diving, thieving grab of a sinking liner, this time against Cristian Guzman. Baserunners on second and first are caught off guard as the umpires make a deliberate call on the catch. The end result is an 8-2-6-3 triple play, with Pagan overthrowing second, Henry Blanco backing up the the throw and Jose Reyes making an unnecessary relay to first. Nationals beat Mets, 5-3.

In the case of Maine v. Atilano, I find for the plaintiff, and award damages of more runs scored than allowed. Perhaps if Elena Kagan were on the high court, she'd see to it that the Mets don't leave D.C. winless.

R.A. Dickey is No. 887 -- which is hard to fit on a uniform.