G-Fafif

Please choose the Met of the 1970s based on performance between 1970 and 1979, disregarding anything any individual player may have done in the '60s or '80s as a Met. Apologies to several '70s stalwarts and fan favorites who did not make the cut. The blue and orange-ribbon committee tried to make this representative from across the decade. Also, at the risk of queering the voting, this could have been a one-man ballot for purposes of selecting a winner, but it's always fun to consider who else was around.

Continuing to pace back in time, we're looking to choose the Met of the 1980s. The blue and orange-ribbon committee narrowed it down to 25, per the poll limitations. One could probably have narrowed it down to three or four, but what the hell, more names to dig on. Please consider the seasons encompassed by the decade 1980-89 and disregard to the best of your abilities any overlap any given player had with Mets teams in the '70s or '90s.

Thanks BG for the statistical backup. Apologies to Eddie Murray for omission. Twenty-five spaces on the ballot get eaten up fast.

Decade fever has returned from a twenty-year hiatus. It occurs to me that the '90s in general got short shrift when their time was up since the Century and the Millennium was getting all the ink. So let's retrofit our sights for fun...or our version of it. Who, among the standouts listed (as chosen by a blue and orange-ribbon committee), is the Met of the 1990s? Please consider only the seasons encompassed by the 1990s when judging players whose Met tenure overlapped with the '80s or '00s. (Ballots for other decades TK.)

Everything Piazza did as a Met in the 2000s, on the field, off the field, around the field, was, or at least was treated, as momentous. Changing positions, coming back from injury, the Clemens episodes, the last out of the World Series, slapping Hernandez for the "quitter" remark, not being gay, the catcher home run record, obviously the mega-huge home runs (10-run inning; 9/21/01; Almanzar), the long goodbye, the return with San Diego, walking out Shea's center field gate with Seaver, coming back to catch Tom's first pitch in the new place. Sure he built on '98 and '99, but he was a larger-than-life figure as a Met all the way. His numbers declined but his stature never seriously suffered. Wright not quite at that level as an icon. Which I understand isn't necessarily the question here, but when I think of the Met of the 2000s, I gotta stick with them what brung us.

File under curiosity or milestone: September 26, 2005, the Mets short-circuit the Phillies' Wild Card chances with a four-run top of the eighth, coming back to win 6-5. Which was fine. But here's what makes me remember this game. Jae Seo (Kwanju, South Korea) started. He was followed to the mound by Danny Graves (Saigon, South Vietnam), Kaz Ishii (Chiba, Japan) and winning pitcher Shingo Takatsu (Hiroshima, Japan). Four consecutive Asian-born pitchers in a Major League Baseball game. Had to be a first. Maybe an only. And none of them was the most celebrated of Asian-born 2005 Mets, Dae-Sung Koo, whose last appearance came in August. Then again, he was known more for his bat.

I thought he did real well for someone who generally has trouble with the English language. Reyes did a nice job, too.

Wright and Beltran have been top players. But Piazza was The Man.

Four times the Mets finished with losing records in the 2000s. Which was, however you choose to define it, the absolute worst? A little shorthand is included to remind you of the key lowlights, but really each season had plenty of 'em.

It's not how you start, it's how you finish, particularly when you finish a little too memorably. Choose among the five poisons.

Choose between your postseason clubs, 2000 and 2006, as Mets Season of the Decade.

It took all the self-control I had to not make "Ghost of Joan Payson" an option.

It wasn't always all Wilpon in this decade.

Most awesome work was in the '90s. The 2000 team, 'til the World Series, was pretty darn good work, too, though.

I voted for the Omar who put together the 2006 club, not for the Omar who took his place immediately thereafter.

So it was no surprise that Lackey apparently had zero interest in playing for the Mets, at least as long as the Red Sox wanted him. The Mets sensed as much from the preliminary conversations they had with his agent, which is why they decided to make an offer to Jason Bay instead. Phrases like "apparently" and "sensed as much" are code for "I don't really know, but I have this hole to fill and I'm going to fill it with something about the Mets sucking, even if the Mets and Lackey were never reported anywhere as any kind of realistic match." Never fear, though. Word filtered out of Venezuela yesterday that the Mets are aggressively pursuing Kelvim Escobar, the 33-year-old righthander coming back from nearly two years missed because of shoulder surgery. Halladay, Lackey, Escobar. Black Monday indeed. Threes! Bad things come in threes! That's why the Mets suck so much, darkening Black Monday even more! Natch if the MFYs were interested in signing an under-the-radar veteran pitcher with a history of injuries, they'd be credited for maintaining the intrepidness to never stop beating the bushes for potential bargains because you never know who's going to step in and help put you over the top. Today may not be Bright Tuesday, but it's not because yesterday was Black Monday. Call me on April 5.

We wuz gonna give him a piece of birthday cake, but we wuz afraid it would roll through his legs. Lots of good Buckner stuff from the Bucknology Dept. at Mets Walkoffs here.

Robin Ventura tells the Snooze that he is out of the loop.

Or Tom Hall. 47 was mentioned upthread. That ruined him for me right there (no offense, Messrs. Orosco and Cornejo). Maybe if he'd been a righty. Maybe if I hadn't been watching him from virtually the same perspective at Citi that I last watched Glavine at Shea. Other weird thing: first Met to come along with one of my cat's names, at least since I had the cat. Exhorting "Casey!" was just too weird, considering I spent nine years saying exactly that to a tabby. Oh, and this: he really sucked. The pitcher, I mean. The cat was great.

Bookends: 4/29/00: Ken Griffey's first game at Shea Stadium. During the offseason it appeared his first game might be the Home Opener, but he vetoed a half-assed trade proposal between the Mets and M's and famously went to Cincinnati where it never really worked out for him. Hence, he was the newest villain in town, booed all night -- which was 1969 throwback night, per a promotional tie-in with the release of the movie "Frequency". Griffey came up as the potential go-ahead run in the ninth. Armando, in veritable retro pajamas, struck him out on 3-2 to preserve the Mets' ninth win in a row (a streak that had begun with the Sunday game in Pittsburgh mentioned upthread). Very cold night, but all was well. 5/11/08: Ken Griffey's final game at Shea Stadium. Animus had been put aside long before. Griffey was one of the few veteran sluggers not suspect for substances. He is warmly received on a windy Shea day. Mets leave him three homers shy of 600 in a Mets' 8-3 win notable for the following: Oliver Perez steals a base; Mets use pink bats and some where pink spikes for Mother's Day; and the Reds bat out of order in the ninth, delaying the game's end interminably.

I don't know that these qualify as memorable, per se, in that I had to look them up and get my memory way refreshed on the details, but I do remember thinking at the end of this particular series that if it took place in October, it would be talked about for ages. As is, I doubt anybody's talked about it since April 2000. Still, to my mind, they're what helps make a baseball season compelling while it's in progress. That alone should be memorable. Three-game series at Pittsburgh, each game rather intense in its time: Friday night, 4/14/00 Leiter takes 4-2 lead to eighth. Kevin Young homers with nobody on. Al departs with two out. Turk gets out of it. Armando comes on in the ninth. Gets two quick outs. Then surrenders double to Jason Kendall, triple to Pat Meares. Brian Giles is intentionally walked; Young strikes out. Top of tenth: Ordonez thrown out trying to score go-ahead run. Bottom of tenth: Mike Benjamin gets aboard on infield single with two out off Franco. Steals second. Takes third on Piazza's throw. Stranded. Top of eleventh: Piazza, Ventura, Zeile single to load bases with one out (slow men). Payton, indicating bases-loaded problem that would plague him all year, hits into DP. Bottom of eleventh: Trouble keeps finding Franco. One out, then Kendall reaches on Ventura error. Kendall picked off for second out. Then Johnny hits Meares with pitch, but gets out of it on force of pitcher Jose Silva, allowed to hit, as Gene Lamont has burned through his bench. Mets break through in top of twelfth: Ordonez singles, Agbayni doubles, Mora singles them home. Bell lines to first, doubling off Mora. Fonzie walks...Mike homers. Mets take 8-4 lead...but Pirates make life difficult for Dennis Cook. A walk, a wild pitch, an infield single and a Mike Benjamin double make it 8-5. With two on and two out, Adrian Brown hits a frighteningly long fly to center that Payton tracks down to end it. Saturday afternoon, 4/15/00 Heretofore unknown quantity Glendon Rusch is masterful in his first Met start: complete game, allowing only a walk and four hits. Alas, two of them are a leadoff single to Giles and a home run to Young to open the bottom of the seventh. Mets can't touch lefty Jimmy Anderson (en route to a 5-11, 5.25 ERA season). They collect just five singles and are blanked 2-0 in 1:57. Sunday afternoon, 4/16/00 Top of the first features a HBP of Rickey Henderson by Kris Benson, an Aramis Ramirez throwing error that keeps the inning going and a three-run homer by Robin Ventura. Great, right? Bobby Jones hits Jason Kendall and gives up a single to Pat Meares. Jones leaves with a calf strain. Pat Mahomes comes on and, in a blink, it's 4-3 Pirates. Jon Nunnally homers to put the Mets ahead 5-4 in the second. Zeile adds an RBI double in the third to make it 6-4, chasing Benson. Mahomes gives it all back in the bottom of the third with Kendall and Giles driving home runs and making it Pirates 7 Mets 6. Mets come back in fourth with RBIs from Bell, Alfonzo and Ventura off Chris Peters, to make it Mets 9 Pirates 7. Ventura sac fly and Payton double off Marc Wilins make it 11-7 in the top of the sixth. But here come the Bucs again in the bottom of the inning, with solo HRs from Giles and Wil Cordero off Turk. It's 11-9 Mets. Robin adds an insurance run off Scott Sauerbeck in the eighth, doubling home Piazza. Final is Mets 12 Bucs 9. Mets commit three errors. Mahomes goes four innings for the win. Ventura has 6 RBI. Fonzie and Mike score three runs apiece. Bell goes 3 for 6. Mike and Robin go 3 for 4. There are six unearned runs altogether between the two teams. This is a day after the Mets can't do anything offensively, which was a day after the Mets posted 20 hits (and three other errors). And for not so good measure, the final out of the final game was a pop fly by the Pirate third baseman, a fellow often associated with the Mets of 2000, but not for this game: Luis Sojo. An incredible series. Now completely forgotten. That's baseball for ya.