G-Fafif

1977, in Archie, as seen when I was delivering Newsday... MRS. ANDREWS: I think Archie is growing up. MR. ANDREWS: How so? MRS. ANDREWS: Archie took down his poster of the California Angels and put up a poster of Charlie's Angels. Cue sweat beads. Former Met Nolan Ryan pitched for Archie's erstwhile object of affections throughout Farrah Fawcett-Majors' stay with the other Angels. Archie lived in Riverdale, where Willie Mays kept an apartment for many years, including his stint as a Met. Maybe not the same Riverdale. M. Donald Grant and Aaron Spelling both made jughead moves where their franchise player was concerned in 1977 At least Spelling could call up Cheryl Ladd. The Mets often field a lineup that looked like something out of the Farrah Fawcett-Minors. Too many lads on the roster. Before the next season started, Buddy Harrelson was traded to the Phillies for Fred Andrews, who shared a name with Archie's dad but, vis-a-vis Riverdale, probably wasn't the same one. Archie and Mets fans were both regularly annoyed by some upper crust type named Reggie. So, in conclusion, no, not a lot of connection between Farrah and the Mets.

="metirish"]="Nymr83"]the kosher-stand knishes are AMAZING, they are like giant garlic knots filled with potato. ]1. The parking situation is abhorrent. I envy those of you who are in easy reach of mass transit options to the park. We had to park across the street from the Citi Field parking lot, even though THOSE lots were not filled out, in a very disorganized lot by the train platform. Took 25 minutes to exit said lot and 15 minutes to find a spot to park in the first place, with virtually no employee guidance on where to go. Also a pointless wait for my change despite paying cash. Whiff i've been in that lot and once took nearly an hour to get out of there. of course i was with a girl and made good use of the time. You lectured her on the constitution and the need to " fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here" Sounds more like what to do in the parking lot leaving the Atlantic League All-Star Game.

You can't spend a half-inning with Fman & Son and not go looking for more. Though maybe a Michael Jackson thread isn't the place to express delight at meeting someone known as Fboy...

Final day of 1995, the DiamondVision montage of season highlights was set to a medley of Michael Jackson hits; "The Way You Make Me Feel" stands out in memory. That was the year "Scream" came out (the video for which the Mets showed while the Gruccis arranged their fireworks display) on the two-volume HIStory anthology, which was the only reason I could discern for why the Jacko backo catalogue was suddenly so prominent on the Shea PA.

I honestly thought "game tied, runner on third." Those bastards know how to play the game. The case for immediate release here[/url:1tlb5tzu].

Let's reward one Met after another who doesn't play the game correctly.

No professional team would trot this man out there any longer. Let's see if the Mets are professionals.

="Swan Swan H"]Hey kid, you want a book? Uh huh! How about 'War and Peace?' NO! How about 'The Story of O?' NOOO! Okay, you pick a book. I want METS BY THE NUMBERS! What... Rolls down stairs? Alone or in pairs? Enumerates Throneberry's tog?

MeiGray's got your ballpark merchandise in that warehouse in Jersey. Take a tour of what remains[/url:34xp20lf] with Uni Watch's Paul Lukas.

All the matchups favor the Mets. No other way to look at it.

="bmfc1":zx4wkuwq]Tweets: SI_JonHeyman: #mets saying maine injury isnt serious. they better hope theyre right about that (note: very insightful, very helpful Jon. That's why you're being paid by a half-dozen media outlets. Jackass.)[/quote:zx4wkuwq] Did Heyman ever Tweet as to how he liked his shake? Edgy DC Jun 12 2009 01:04 PM ="Benjamin Grimm":2obem2up]Is Switzer going to start for the Mets? What do we know about him? Has anyone adopted him?[/quote:2obem2up] What don't we know about him? http://cranepoolforum.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=10906 metirish Jun 12 2009 01:05 PM ="bmfc1":654wtqs4]"Lenno" is the Dave Lennon of Newsday.[/quote:654wtqs4] I was taking the piss , not at you though, at the writers now having to tweet . It just seems funny to me. holychicken Jun 12 2009 01:05 PM I am rapidly losing morale this season. This last series was a real downer and this injury nonsense is killing me inside. I keep telling myself that we were in a WORSE position later than this point last year so I am hoping we can turn it around again. Hawkeye57 Jun 12 2009 01:07 PM I sincerely hope so. metirish Jun 12 2009 01:12 PM I've resolved to just enjoy the game I am watching and not think about September .I enjoy the game that's on , enjoy individual at bats . I get great pleasure watching Francisco Rodriguez pitch , obviously if he's in then we are winning, but also I enjoy how ho goes about it...... bmfc1 Jun 12 2009 01:16 PM Re: It's Switzer Time! ="G-Fafif":17o6uv78]="bmfc1":17o6uv78]Tweets: SI_JonHeyman: #mets saying maine injury isnt serious. they better hope theyre right about that (note: very insightful, very helpful Jon. That's why you're being paid by a half-dozen media outlets. Jackass.)[/quote:17o6uv78] Did Heyman ever Tweet as to how he liked his shake?[/quote:17o6uv78] Heyman Tweets: # off to citi field (aka taxpayer field) in a few. greatest hope: that the lines arent too long at shake shack8:19 AM May 31st from web # shake shack line just exploded behind me. timing's everything11:01 AM May 31st from web fight over baseball in stands had to be mediated by one of new york's finest. relax, grab a shake (6.50 but worth it)12:41 PM May 31st from web @rswilner lol. not a terrible line at all12:43 PM May 31st from web in reply to rswilner @lenno212 yum yum12:44 PM May 31st from web in reply to lenno212 @esd714 2 singles, fries, black and white shake12:44 PM May 31st from web in reply to esd714 Swan Swan H Jun 12 2009 01:54 PM Looks like a candidate to be decked out in the oft-(OK, once)-avoided #48. LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Jun 12 2009 01:59 PM ="Swan Swan H":1g14k69p]Looks like a candidate to be decked out in the oft-(OK, once)-avoided #48.[/quote:1g14k69p] Let's not Rusch to judgement before we're good and Schour. Swan Swan H Jun 12 2009 02:02 PM Heil, man. I ad-myers your enthusiasm. LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Jun 12 2009 02:09 PM I would gladly star in an informercial for JCL's book. "'MBTN' made me roughly 37 percent smarter, roster-numerically speaking. Thanks, Jon!" Swan Swan H Jun 12 2009 02:21 PM Hmmm.... Perhaps you could get John Kricfalusi of Ren and Stimpy fame to do an animated ad. MBTN could be the 'Log' of the literary world. Fman99 Jun 12 2009 02:21 PM Re: It's Switzer Time! ="bmfc1":1ckxr2zl]="G-Fafif":1ckxr2zl]="bmfc1":1ckxr2zl]Tweets: SI_JonHeyman: #mets saying maine injury isnt serious. they better hope theyre right about that (note: very insightful, very helpful Jon. That's why you're being paid by a half-dozen media outlets. Jackass.)[/quote:1ckxr2zl] Did Heyman ever Tweet as to how he liked his shake?[/quote:1ckxr2zl] Heyman Tweets: # off to citi field (aka taxpayer field) in a few. greatest hope: that the lines arent too long at shake shack8:19 AM May 31st from web # shake shack line just exploded behind me. timing's everything11:01 AM May 31st from web fight over baseball in stands had to be mediated by one of new york's finest. relax, grab a shake (6.50 but worth it)12:41 PM May 31st from web @rswilner lol. not a terrible line at all12:43 PM May 31st from web in reply to rswilner @lenno212 yum yum12:44 PM May 31st from web in reply to lenno212 @esd714 2 singles, fries, black and white shake12:44 PM May 31st from web in reply to esd714[/quote:1ckxr2zl] Still with the fucking taxpayer field jokes. Die already. I am brewing up my own personal shake for him. themetfairy Jun 12 2009 02:34 PM ="Swan Swan H"]Hmmm.... Perhaps you could get John Kricfalusi of Ren and Stimpy fame to do an animated ad. MBTN could be the 'Log' of the literary world. Ren and Stimpy Swan Swan H Jun 12 2009 02:43 PM Hey kid, you want a book? Uh huh! How about 'War and Peace?' NO! How about 'The Story of O?' NOOO! Okay, you pick a book. I want METS BY THE NUMBERS! John Cougar Lunchbucket Jun 12 2009 02:55 PM wow. Hey you all should go my big giant book event next week! feeling dumb for not knowing Switzee's # yet... Swan Swan H Jun 12 2009 02:57 PM If you read from 'The Story of O' I'll definitely show up. LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Jun 12 2009 03:00 PM ="Swan Swan H":146s12pb]If you read from 'The Story of O' I'll definitely show up.[/quote:146s12pb] If you do this in, say, a Dykstra or Stengel voice, I'll buy another copy. MFS62 Jun 12 2009 03:36 PM Switzer's coming to the Mets? Next thing you know, the entire team will go on academic probation. Later smg58 Jun 12 2009 04:17 PM Switzer's another one of those guys (like Chip Ambres, for example) who really has nothing left to prove at AAA but can't seem to stick at the big league level. Hopefully he'll make good now. G-Fafif Jun 12 2009 04:23 PM ="Swan Swan H"]Hey kid, you want a book? Uh huh! How about 'War and Peace?' NO! How about 'The Story of O?' NOOO! Okay, you pick a book. I want METS BY THE NUMBERS! What... Rolls down stairs? Alone or in pairs? Enumerates Throneberry's tog?

Takahashi -6.0

="John Cougar Lunchbucket"]The wording of these descriptions make me kinda skeptical. His family are Met fans. His mom is a Mets fan. Actually, if I'm reading the Newsday article correctly, his mom's mom was the Mets fan. So we're getting generations removed now (which makes the Mets seem like an old franchise, don't it?) ]What about the kid? I'm concerned we're gonna find some Jeter t-shirts at the bottom of this kid's drawer. Agreed. Also, Neal Heaton, referenced in the article as a former Mets first-round pick, blew off the Mets and, I recall, was kind of an MFY dick about it.

Onetime Met hero (literally one time) is back in the organization, presumably to show Emil Brown how it's done. ]The New York Mets today announced that they have acquired OF Chip Ambres from the Boston Red Sox. The veteran outfielder has been assigned to the Buffalo Bisons. Ambres, 29, was hitting .259 (48-185) with nine doubles, three home runs and 18RBI in 52 games with the Pawtucket Red Sox (AAA) this year. He has hit .282 (11-39) with 14RBI with runners in scoring position and has played all three outfield positions. Ambres is coming off a career season in 2008. With Portland (AAA) of the Pacific Coast League, Ambres hit .279 with career highs in home runs (22) and RBI (77). He also played 24 games over two stints with the San Diego Padres last season (.195, 8-41). Ambres, a 2004 International League All-Star with Pawtucket, signed as a free agent with the Mets in 2007. That year, he hit .274 (117-427) with 21 home runs and 71RBI at New Orleans (AAA) before playing three games in New York with the Mets (.333, 1-3, 1RBI).

Any word on whether the Long Island kid grew up a Mets fan? If he did, I imagine the Mets would be spreading the word. Let's Go Matz. It's a natural.

I feel I've been reading some version of this story, whether it's Alex Cora or Julio Franco or Mike Cameron or Robin Ventura or Rick Cerone at the center of it for 20 years. He's the veteran who knows how to conduct himself and play the game right, here to teach the hopelessly unprofessional Mets the error of their ways. Why is there such a hole at the core of the Mets' being that guys like this always seem to take on disproportionate roles in setting them straight -- and why does it never take for the long-term?

Anybody else write in Omir Santos?

Terrel Hansen was called up for a couple of days in 1992. Never played. He was a bigger shot in the Pacific Northwest than I ever would have imagined, according to Terry Mosher in the Kitsap (WA) Sun. (FAFIF cameo in article took me by surprise.) Terry Mosher: Hansen's MLB Career: 2 Games, 0 At-Bats Even after talking to Terrel Hansen, it's difficult to access why the Olalla resident never quite reached the top of the baseball pile and stayed there. But as I heard and said several times this past weekend while watching Bainbridge play in the Class 3A state tournament at Safeco Field, that's baseball. When Hansen, now 42, graduated from Bremerton High School in 1984 he was a prime prospect who turned down a 14th-round draft selection and an offer of $10,000 by the New York Mets to accept a baseball scholarship to Washington State. He played three years for the Cougars and was drafted by Montreal. There were times during his senior year at Bremerton when pro scouts crammed tightly together behind the backstop with their radar guns, zeroing in on Hansen, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound teenage sensation. The pitcher/catcher appeared to have the baseball world in the palm of his hands. Maybe � and I didn't ask him this in our recent conversation � Hansen was just too aware of the political shenanigans that go on in baseball and wouldn't kneel to them, or maybe it is just as he says, he had a knack of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whatever it was, the top for Hansen was two days in 1992 sitting on the New York Mets bench. While that brief cup of coffee earned him $1,200 on the then pro-rated basic minimum contract of $109,000 for Major League ball players (the minimum pay today for a player is $400,000), the stay produced no at-bats and a memory of another opportunity lost. Author Greg Prince wrote the book, Faith and Fear in Flushing, and put tongue-in-cheek to list the 10 "greatest Mets" of 1993 when the team lost 103 games. Hansen shows up at No. 7 even though by then he was in the Montreal organization with Triple-A Ottawa. But while the year is not correct, the premise is correct: Hansen didn't get a solid chance to prove himself, and to Prince he is an example of the craziness that swirled around the Mets' organization for a long time. Hansen, mostly an outfielder, was called up by the Mets from Triple-A Tidewater in 1992 to fill in for an injured player. He was going to pinch-hit in one of those two games, but as he grabbed a bat, Mets manager Jeff Torborg decided to let Mackey Sasser hit for himself. Hansen sat back down, and soon he would be sent back down, to Tidewater. Vince Coleman came off the disabled list and Hansen was gone. In Coleman's first game back, in his first at-bat, he pulled a muscle in his rib cage and went back on the DL. Because of the rule requiring a player sent to the minors to stay there for at least 10 days, Hansen could not be called back, even if he wasn't quite there yet. Another opportunity was wasted, and not by his own doing. D.J. Dozier, the former Penn State running back, was called up to replace Coleman. You can turn that into a Trivial Pursuit question, if you care. Dozier stayed for a month, which would have been plenty of time for Hansen to at last prove himself. But it wasn't to be. "I was always in the wrong place at the wrong time or behind somebody," Hansen said. "But when you are a $100,000 guy and there are $6 million guys ahead of you, those guys have to play. That is just a part of the game." When he did get into a perfect situation late in his career in the Detroit Tigers organization, he was too old. The Tigers decided to rebuild behind a youth movement and they said bye-bye to Hansen. He played the final three years of a 13-year career with Chico and friend Bill Plummer in the Western League, an independent circuit in California. Plummer, briefly the manager of the Seattle Mariners, is with the Arizona Diamondbacks organization now and would vouch for Hansen if he wanted to get back into the game. But Hansen is happy with his life. He works with heavy equipment with a construction company. Hansen coaches with the Narrows Baseball Club out of Gig Harbor, giving hitting lessons and enjoying his wife, Jennifer, and three sons � Nate, 17, who plays on a Narrows team; Brennan, 11, who plays for Southern Little League, and Tyler, 3, who spends most of his time swinging a bat off a tee. Baseball opened up the world to Hansen, who saw much of the U.S. and Latin America while playing for over 20 teams, including with the Mariners' replacement team during the strike season of 1995. He hit 194 minor-league home runs, was hit by a pitch 263 times, not counting playoff games and spring and winter ball, and lived a dream. But the big dream, the big hit, never came. Terry Mosher is a former Sun sportswriter who is publisher and editor of the monthly Sports Paper. E-mail him at bigmosher@msn.com.

Emil Brown just took a bus out of town... I'm not particularly sorry he won't be sticking around.

May the heroes be grinders!

Beloved Visitors from the North Cora SS Castillo 2B Beltran CF Wright 3B Murphy 1B Tatis LF Martinez RF Schneider C Redding P Modestly Supported Home Team Guzman SS Johnson 1B Zimmerman 3B Dunn LF Dukes CF Kearns RF Bard C Hernandez 2B Martis P Play ball...and win, Mets!

="Nymr83"]]I think we should import a shortstop from Calcutta theres like a billion people there, the Mets should innovate and be the first to tap that market. give them a free year of SNY with those indian guys in the commercials. We'd be the second, according to Slate. ]The Mound Is Flat India's first two professional baseball players make a passage to Pennsylvania. By Bruce Reed Posted Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008, at 12:45 PM ET As Christopher Hitchens eloquently suggested in the wake of last week's tragic terrorist attacks, India may well be America's most important ally. If so, last week also brought news of our most improbable form of foreign aid: the Pittsburgh Pirates. In a move that underscored both the common bonds and the cultural distance between India and the United States, the lowly Pirates signed two young pitchers who will become the first Indians ever to play professional sports in America. Before last Monday's signing, few in India had ever heard of the Pittsburgh Pirates, which is just as well. This year the Bucs tied the all-time record with their 16th-consecutive losing season, and next year they're on track to become the biggest losers in the history of professional sport. The Pittsburgh franchise is the General Motors of baseball, still reeling from disastrous mismanagement in the 1990s and early years of this decade. If TARP covered the major leagues, the Pirates would be first in the bailout queue. But in India, baseball is such a novelty that the Pirates might as well be the New York Yankees. The Hindustan Times reported, "Two Indian teenagers created history in the US sports Monday when they were signed up by prestigious baseball team Pittsburgh Pirates, five times World Series Champions." Never mind that the Bucs' last world championship was 30 years ago. With one grand, unlikely gesture, a team from western Pennsylvania has introduced America's national pastime to the second-most-populous nation on earth. In many ways, the whole episode is like the Pirates themselves�endearingly ridiculous. Pittsburgh discovered the two Indian pitchers, Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, thanks to an Indian reality show called The Million-Dollar Arm, the brainchild of Miami sports agent J.B. Bernstein. The show's premise�that any nation with 500 million men must have a Nolan Ryan somewhere�sounds like Tom Friedman trying to peddle a sequel, The Mound Is Flat. Bernstein promised a cool million to any Indian who could throw a baseball accurately at 85 mph. Of the 20,000 Indians who competed, Singh and Patel came closest, doing well enough to earn some cash and a chance to try out here in the United States. Neither man stands much chance of pitching in the big leagues, even for the Pirates, who gave up more runs by far than any other team in the National League this past season. In fact, neither Singh nor Patel had ever pitched in an actual baseball game. Both athletes trained as javelin hurlers. When they arrived in the United States this spring, they had to be taught to wear a baseball glove and not try to catch the ball with their bare hand. "What did the shortstop do wrong?" Patel asked their coach. "He's the only one without a base." Matt Yglesias once argued that baseball's popularity around the world is a sorry vestige of American manifest destiny�and India is already hopelessly addicted to cricket, which Yglesias dismisses as "the rotting corpse of British imperialism." Throw in a crass reality-show talent search by an American agent, and you have all the makings of a cross-cultural disaster. Yet judging from the glowingly proud reaction to their signing in India, as well as their own giddy blog entries about their experience so far in America, it's hard not to be happy for Singh and Patel�and to believe that this might be the best thing the Pittsburgh Pirates have done for baseball in a very long time. Both young men come from villages in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Singh is the son of a truck driver; his mother told the Hindustan Times, "He was often dubbed a loafer because he played sport. Now every villager prays for a loafer like him." The newspaper reports that Patel was raised by an aunt and uncle because his mother and mentally challenged father couldn't afford to. Patel's new contract means his uncle won't have to close his handlooms. Since they arrived in the United States six months ago, the two men have kept an online diary of their experience. It's endearingly ridiculous, too. First through an interpreter, and later in their own spare, broken English, Singh and Patel take turns gushing about what it's like to learn a silly game like baseball in a silly place like Southern California. If the greatest sportswriter of all, Ring Lardner, could return to write a 21st-century version of his classic You Know Me, Al, he would find inspiration in these two's adventures. More than baseball�a fantasy that is new to Singh and Patel�their blog is about the power, magic, and challenge of trying to make it in America. "People often hope to conquer this great, so-called 'American Dream' back home in India," Patel told their interpreter in May. "But here we are, the lucky ones blessed with this dream." Singh reflects, "You may think I'm building castles in the air, but there's no hope without a dream, is there?" Both players want to usher in a "baseball revolution" by launching baseball academies in India, and their villages are already swept up in baseball fever. Patel is still learning the rules but goes to bed "dreaming of returning home as the first baseball hero of my country." Their poignant, comic initiation to Southern California culture seems destined to generate screenplays in Hollywood and Bollywood alike�a cross between Field of Dreams and Slumdog Millionaire. Indeed, this week Patel wrote, "We have been spending free time meeting with many movies and TV peoples. It is unreal to believe someday our friends could see film about me and Rinku." He posted a photo of himself with a producer who knows the Rock. Singh and Patel gleefully recount one mishap after another. The first time Patel goes up to bat, he tries the underhand uppercut used in cricket. "No surprises, it doesn't work," he admits. Their coach teaches them to swing the bat like an ax instead. After a day of fielding practice, Patel confesses that he's "nervous about the speeding ball hitting me." They do yoga, get their first salon haircuts, visit Barry Bonds, and marvel at his mirror that turns into a TV. A "disastrous outing at the Laundromat" convinces them to write, "We are quite incompetent at laundry." Their biggest laughs come at our expense. Watching so many commercials for Viagra, restless leg syndrome, and smoothie makers leads Singh to conclude that in America, "There's a pill and a machine for everything." When he visits the emergency room after cutting his fingers with a kitchen knife, Singh can't believe it costs $300 for Band-Aids and a tetanus shot that would have cost 20 rupees back home. Seeing the stack of hospital paperwork they had to fill out, he says, "We laughed our guts out." After signing with the Pirates, Singh and Patel found Pittsburgh on Google and declared it a very good city. Bucs General Manager Neal Huntington doesn't expect India to be the next Dominican Republic or the signing to produce a billion new Pirate fans overnight. For now, Indian sports fans are consumed with the more pressing question of if any English cricketers will use the Mumbai attacks as an excuse to wimp out of this month's Test Series in India. But the Pirates' surprise move seems to have charmed the team's dwindling fan base in Pittsburgh. In an online Post-Gazette poll, fans overwhelmingly viewed the signing as "innovative" or "desperate"; only 18 percent considered it "insane"�a record low for the Pirate front office. One Bucs blogger, Honest Wagner, called it a "brilliant move" and proclaimed "Rinkumania." At Bucs Dugout, another wrote, "I love these guys." A fan at Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke? declared, "After reading their blog I've moved from bemusement to unadulterated adoration." Last week's attacks in Mumbai made Singh and Patel reflect on the contrast between the unreality of their current quest and the harsh realities back home. "Thanks to God that our families are very far from where the killings are, but still as Indian men we feel very bad," they wrote. "If not for contest we would be in India, and maybe in Army right now fighting terrorist in Mumbai." Their javelin coach in Lucknow, India, says the two athletes miss Indian food and their friends from school. But he insists that it's worth braving the culture gap, enduring the media scrutiny, and learning English by watching SportsCenter. "To achieve something," he says, "you have to make some sacrifices." For their sake, let's hope it's possible to learn baseball by watching the Pittsburgh Pirates. Bruce Reed, who was President Clinton's domestic policy adviser, is president of the Democratic Leadership Council and editor-in-chief of Blueprint magazine..

All these Fernandos put me in mind of Ferd'nand.

="Benjamin Grimm":f0gx8zt0]I'd like to see a committee approach to the seventh inning. It can be shared among Santana, Maine, Pelfrey, and Hernandez.[/quote:f0gx8zt0] Best. Solution. If not ever than in ages. MFS62 Jun 05 2009 02:25 PM Roster moves: ] Fernando Nieve will replace J.J. Putz on the roster. Nieve was claimed off waivers from the Astros late in spring training. He began the season at Double-A Binghamton, and was 3-0 with a 3.70 ERA as a starter since joining Triple-A Buffalo. *** The Mets also have claimed lefthander Pat Misch off waivers from the Giants. He will be assigned to Buffalo. Misch appeared in four games for San Francisco this season. Later Centerfield Jun 05 2009 03:37 PM Omar says at least three months, according to MetsBlog.

dcbatgirl manages expectations very nicely.