G-Fafif

"Year of the METS Pitcher" was yet another big winner in the Mets Yearbook series. Pre-1969, Post-1964 Shea as I'd never seen it. Did you know there was a Bayer aspirin ad next to the Rheingold ad? And that the Rheingold ad was for the 10 Minute Head while Bayer is for headaches? Or that Tom Seaver threw on whatever jersey was handy (38, I think) for a clinic in a city park? Or that Look magazine covered Ron Swoboda? Or that, in the words of Bob Murphy (scripted by Dick Young), Bud Harrelson is a slender drink of water who offers a pound of hustle for every ounce of weight. It was great watching so much excitement drained from a 73-89 record. And listening to Jerry Koosman's internal monologue. And Jerry Grote explain that it helped him to stop squawking at umpires. And Kevin Collins make a play at third. And hearing Banner Day referred to as "the granddaddy of them all" and the Mets' "soul" promotion. Young wasn't so bad before he turned evil. It runs again Tuesday night (12/15) at 7:00 -- and runs about two minutes past its allotted time slot, so record accordingly. It will be followed at 7:30ish by the Omir Vaporizes Papelbon game...a new Mets Classic, of all things!

Bud Harrelson in there somewhere?

Speaking of Matt Franco, the middle game of the first Subway Series sweep, 7/3/04, was a 10-9 thriller won a dribbler by Shane Spencer. The next day, 7/4/04, in which Ty Wigginton dominated, was pretty great, too. Delgado's umpteen RBI to seal the MFYS II delayed sweep on 6/27/08...also awesome.

All baseball pros and cons aside, the Mets are prepared to willingly employ a blood relative of Yadier Molina. Shudder

If the HOF has proceeded apace after '97 when Keith was inducted, HoJo would have been in earlier this decade, maybe even while Bobby V was still managing. Yet I couldn't pass over Bobby now, so one more year for HoJo to wait. He can chill with Fonzie. Doc, Darryl and Cashen were the others.

Wanted to vote for Fonzie, but Walker and Jarvis should have already been in, so he can wait a year if we are to assume the Mets don't shutter their HOF to make more space for the Verizon Studio. Besides, he's going to make the club in ST (a man can hold onto childlike dreams). Mike and Davey, also.

Final game at Shea, 9/28/08 First game at post-Shea 4/13/09

Two no-hitter flirtations worth noting: Trachsel vs. the Rox, 8/18/03, broken up opposing pitcher Chin-Hui Tsao in the sixth (one-hitter) Glavine vs. the Rox, 5/23/04, broken up by Kit Pellow in the eighth (one-hitter) Honorable mention as Pitching Performance of the Decade: Seo, Weathers, Benitez pitch to the minimum 27 batters vs. the Marlins, 6/17/03 One other one-hitter of note: Trachsel vs. Angels, 6/15/03, notable for just-called-up rookie SS Jose Reyes' first HR, a grand slam

Pedro took two no-hitters deep in 2005. The Astro one was June. The Dodger one (after the Beltran/Cameron mishap) was August. Date of NLCS clinching: 10/16/2000 (I saw different upthread).

Sentimental favorites, one per year, beyond the fairly obvious and, unless I've missed something, those that have been mentioned: August 12, 2000: Mets 3 Giants 2 Giants score a run when Benny Agbayani hands a kid in the stands a live ball. That the Mets won in spite of Benny's boner makes it charming. Fondly recalled because Mrs. Fafif and I were on the last leg of our journey home from a day trip involving various trains and buses to and from Hyde Park (FDR Library, Vanderbilt Mansion) at the end of baseball-oriented vacation that involved lots of Shea, a little Jacobs Field and a cameo at the Polo Grounds. The day in question had nothing to do with the Mets but then I turned the game on that night and there they were, joining us on our adventure one more time. September 27, 2001: Mets 12 Expos 6 After the first Brian Jordan Game and before the second Brian Jordan Game the Mets sucked it up one final time and swept the eternally pesky Expos after trailing 6-2. There was no margin for error post-9/11 and the Mets just kept fighting back in this one. The five in the ninth that put it away took, I swear, about half an hour. The inning started as I was leaving work and continued throughout an uptown subway ride and a block's walk to Penn Station to finding a seat on the train. Let out many whoops along the way. June 29, 2002: Mets 11 Yankees 2 A pounding of the crosstown rivals that I can truly say I needed, for reasons that had little to do with the standings or anti-MFY self-esteem. We lost our cat Casey the night before and took him to Bide-a-Wee to arrange his cremation. Sadly and absently, we turned the game on not particularly concerned with the outcome. Felt uncommonly lifted by the proceedings that followed, including Roger Cedeno's straight steal of home, a spectacular misplay by Enrique Wilson and a homer to the heavens by Mo Vaughn. It's a long story, but Mo hitting one for Casey (and maybe to Casey) couldn't have been more appropriate. July 27, 2003: Reds 8 Mets 5 Worst Met year of the decade, so sure it's a loss. It was a loss of more than a game, though. Murph announces his retirement in the sixth inning. Me, like a schmuck, left after five in an effort to execute a Mets-Cyclones doubleheader. A comedy of errors ensued, so I never got to Brooklyn and missed the announcement and ensuing ovation. I learned about it on the train home and went into shock. No more Bob Murphy? I think I'm still in shock. August 21, 2004: Mets 11 Giants 9 (12) The greatest game I'm certain nobody remembers. Bonds and Wright both explosive. Glavine comes back from cab ride. Looper pitches bravely. Howe even manages pretty well. Game is won on a fly ball lost by the other guys in the San Francisco sun. April 16, 2005: Mets 4 Marlins 3 Pedro vs. Leiter, true beginning of the new era. New era didn't necessarily last as long as it should have, but everything felt different that sold out Saturday. Chris Woodward made a sensational catch in the outfield. Castro drives home Diaz in the ninth. As I'm leaving Shea amid a jubilant throng, a 7 train rolls west and everybody, without provocation, shouts and points at them. I don't know why we did it, but it felt great. September 7, 2006: Mets 7 Dodgers 0 By my calibration, the high point of the decade. Mets 35 games over .500, 16-1/2 in first place. Jose Jose!s his way around the bases for an inside-the-parker. Slides home, calls himself safe. Damn, I think, there's no way we're not winning the World Series. May 17, 2007: Mets 6 Cubs 5 This was the five-run ninth. Shea could not have been deader for this pre-Subway Series day game. First eight innings had almost no regulars in action. Then the Cubs' pen sprung a leak, Willie -- in his finest hour -- juggled star pinch-hitters and Delgado snuck one to right field for the win. High-fiving strangers, screaming Let's Go Mets all the way to subway, the whole bit. And I was by myself. August 7, 2008: Mets 5 Padres 3 David's first and only walkoff homer, off Heath Bell. Went with my three best friends from high school, two of whom came to town special for the occasion of our final game at Shea together. In a season notoriously lacking happy endings, this was the real deal. October 4, 2009: Mets 4 Astros 0 In a year best appreciated for the pleasures one could glean from it personally, this Nelson Figueroa shutout tied a bow on a strange phenomenon. The Mets won a lot when I went and were otherwise pathetic. Home record with me in attendance, 26-10; without me, 15-30; on the road, 29-52. A lovely day to end an unlovely year in a memorable if ultimately unrewarding Met decade.

Thursday night (12/10), 7:30, SNY: The 1968 highlight film, oh boy.

Every Met in the '80s: http://www.sporcle.com//games/draftace/1980smets Got 113 out of 153 in 14 minutes.

Bill Madden's curmudgeonly hacksmanship, lately flavored with unsubtle ethnic overtones, has finally been called out...by the Baseball Hall of Fame, with the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for excellence in baseball writing. How many other recipients have had to have had their online copy altered for good taste after it went to print lately? Bill Madden of the Daily News of New York has won the Hall of Fame's Spink Award for his work as a baseball writer. His election by members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America was announced Tuesday at the winter meetings. He will be honored at the Hall's induction ceremonies on July 25. Madden joined the Daily News in 1978 and was the New York Yankees' beat writer from 1980-88. He became the newspaper's national baseball columnist the next year. Madden has covered 35 World Series. He wrote a longtime column for The Sporting News on collecting memorabilia and has a book coming out on George Steinbrenner. Official release: Bill Madden, who has combined excellent reporting and commentary in a New York City market known for its baseball fever, was elected the 2010 winner of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award in balloting by the Baseball Writers� Association of America. He will be honored with the award that is presented annually to a sportswriter �for meritorious contributions to baseball writing� during the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum induction ceremony July 25 at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, N.Y. Madden received 226 votes from the 452 ballots cast by BBWAA members with 10 or more consecutive years� service in becoming the 61st winner of the award since its inception in 1962 and named for the first recipient. Spink was a driving force of The Sporting News, known during his lifetime as the �Baseball Bible.� Bob Elliott, whose writing career is considered strongly influential in the growing popularity of baseball in Canada, received 149 votes. Joe Giuliotti, who for 30 years in Boston was a voracious reporter on all matters concerning the Red Sox, got 76. One blank ballot was among those submitted. The candidates were selected by a three-member, BBWAA-appointed committee and announced at the All-Star Game meeting July 14 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Voting was conducted in November through a mail ballot, a process that began in 2002. Madden joined the New York Daily News in 1978 after nine years at United Press International. He was the Daily News� Yankees beat writer from 1980-88 before becoming the News� national baseball columnist. Madden has covered 35 World Series and broken numerous stories, among them the Mets� leaving Tom Seaver unprotected in the free agent compensation pool and losing him to the Chicago White Sox in 1984 and the National League hiring Bill White as the first black league president in pro sports in 1989. The author of four books on baseball, Madden is currently working on a biography of Yankees principal owner George Steinbrenner. From 1975-90, Madden�s Sporting News column on collecting served as a sort of watchdog on the burgeoning sports memorabilia industry. His 1994 exclusive for the Daily News exposing corrupt and fraudulent practices prompted an FBI investigation that resulted in shutting down two prominent auction houses. That same year, his series of reports on the FBI probe and conviction of Darryl Strawberry for memorabilia signings income tax evasion earned Madden an APSE award for excellence in reporting. A former New York Chapter chairman, Madden is a member of the Hall of Fame Screening Committee for the annual BBWAA ballot and the Historical Overview Committee that formulates the Veterans Committee ballots. He is also on the Veterans Committee electorate for players whose careers began prior to 1943. Madden majored in journalism at the University of South Carolina and lists as his mentors two previous Spink Award winners, Milton Richman at UPI and Dick Young with the Daily News.

The 1975 highlight film, "Meet The Mets," aired last night on SNY. Will rebroadcast Sunday night at 7. A masterpiece of the genre. The Mets we meet are primarily if not exclusively the many new Mets who made Shea such an exciting place in the past season, particularly an incredibly chatty and amiable Dave Kingman (teaching kids in the community how to hit) and the endlessly promising Mike Vail. Joe Frazier's introductory press conference (at which he's asked if he's got any more Vails at Tidewater), Dairylea Day, Jerry Koosman's brief stint as closer and a visit by Pele are all covered. Plus more. Much more. Terrific excerpt here.

But no Met has ever done what Coleman is about to do. Prophetic words from Bob "Soft Rain" Klapisch. I will take Ron Darling's assessment of leaders with many grains of salt after reading this.

Kalamazoo has given the world Shakespeare fishing rods, Gibson guitars, Checker cabs, no good reason for Mets Guy In Michigan to consistently visit and Jeter's will to win, in that order of rigidity.

There are three "congratulations" ads in the print edition specific to Jeter's winning the award. Probably three more than they could sell for Bolt.

Irony also lost on Verducci that MacArthur wasn't exactly a graduate of the Humility Academy.

After Verducci rigidly tells some story about Jeter wins a childish bet with the director of his next commercial, making the director gag on a spoonful of cinnamon (what a fun lover!), we get, as the conclusion, his true "essence"...which is the reading equivalent of gagging on a spoonful of cinnamon. Another victory, however small, for Derek Jeter, today's superstar most synonymous with winning. But none of the accoutrements of his success�the five rings, the $189 million contract, the national endorsements and the starlet on his arm�capture the essence of his success. In the difficult days of the Philippines campaign during World War II, General Douglas MacArthur wrote A Father's Prayer, which begins, "Build me a son, O Lord." MacArthur prayed for a son with, among other traits, "humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of true greatness." Therein lies true victory. The great wonder is not that Jeter has won so much but that he has won so well. He is the good son, the good winner. Verducci will take a spoonful of Jeter's essence...to go.

Kalamazoo has given the world Shakespeare fishing rods, Gibson guitars, Checker cabs, and Jeter's will to win, in that order of rigidity. Something else must have gotten pretty rigid while Verducci typed that sentence. If you were to draw up a list of Jeter's dislikes, most all of them would be what he regards as obstacles to winning: Long walks on the beach with Jay Witasick not included. 1. Individuals who don't care about winning. 2. Self-promoters. "I never liked people who talked about themselves all the time, gloat," he says. "If you're accomplished and have done things, people will talk about it for you. I don't think you have to point it out. I'm not judging anybody. That's just the way I am." Jeter's no individual or self-promoter. He's a team player all the way. That's why he insisted on having so many of his teammates pose with him for the cover of his magazine and why he told SI "make it about my team, not just me." 3. Measuring success by individual statistics. "In this day and age, not just in baseball but in sports in general, all people care about is stats, stats, stats," he says. "You've got fantasy this, fantasy that, where you pay attention to stats. But there are ways to win games that you don't get a stat for." 4. Injury talk. "You either play or you don't play. If you're playing, nobody wants to know what's bothering you. Sometimes it's a built-in excuse for failing." Sounds like the ultimate team man is taking backhanded swipes at other players, possibly teammeates. 5. Negativity. Jeter wants nothing to do with negative questions from reporters or negative talk from teammates. He once went 0 for 32 and refused to admit he was in a slump. "We weren't allowed to use the word can't�'I can't do this, can't do that,'" Jeter says of his childhood. "My mom would say, 'What? No.' She's always positive. I don't like people always talking about the negative, negative, negative, because once you get caught in that mind-set, it's hard to get out of it." Didn't mind being negative about Jay Witasick, did he?