G-Fafif

Benjamin Grimm wrote: My sister liked him because he was cute. She wasn't the only one, if you believe George Plimpton: ]On the way back from Shea I sat down next to a girl wearing a jacket covered with various patches�IRELAND, ITALY (which was coming off), FRANCE , SWITZERLAND , LONDON , MASSACHUSETTS . I noticed she was not wearing a Mets patch. "No, they've got to end up No. 1," she said. "It's not the Yankees or the Mets as much as the city. That's what I'm really rooting for�New York!" She leaned toward me conspiratorially. "I'm not an expert on baseball," she said. "I love the game, but some things have to take priority after a while. You want to know why I really go to the Mets games? It's to watch Danny Heep. He has the best buns on the team." "No kidding." "I keep two lists of buns, one through 10�a baseball list and a life list. Danny Heep is No. 1 on both of them." "No kidding." She had a large pair of binoculars with her. She said she had used them only four times during the game�each time Danny Heep came to bat. From one of my favorite articles ever, "More Than Just a Token Effort," Plimpton's attempt to take in both ends (or buns) of Baseball Thursday in New York on September 12, 1985. Through the magic of the SI Vault, it's here.

As they say in the senior section of the zoo, old gnus. As Steve indicates, there's no reason it would be brought up three-plus weeks later (three-plus light years in the course of a season, especially a season in New York, especially a season that has, for the moment at least, changed course). Don't worry, it will be brought up next time a Klapisch "must think of disparate examples to back up today's shaky hypothesis" column needs to be written ("and then there was the time Brian and Theo sat on a panel together...which proves Mariano must start the All-Star Game and be applauded like soft rain").

AG/DC wrote: Is that counting just the World Series roster or all the Magic 35. Either way, I bet Doug Sisk is touched. Never had time to have it in for Tim Corcoran. This 2006 Flashback attempted to articulate it.

Met Hunter wrote: Danny Heep known for 3 things: 1) Ryan's 4,000th K 2) traded for Mike Scott 3) Mets first DH 4) Good timing in that after winning a World Series ring he bounced from playoff team to playoff team: '88 Dodgers, '90 Red Sox, '91 Braves (though done before the postseason). 5) My least favorite '86 Met -- not that I disliked him, I just didn't like him as much as I loved most everybody else. My least favorite '86 Met would probably have been no worse than my sixth-favorite 1992 Met.

They did not lie. It was some kid and he was taking it down representing our Tri-State Lincoln Mercury Dealers. Honestly, Terry Cashman would have done it.

Don't know what the Mets are doing tonight, but in Oughta Be territory, we have some very special guests to take down 39: On July 16, 1977, the Mets crowned their [Old Timers Day] ceremonies with a salute to New York baseball royalty, the four centerfielders who defined the position in the city before the Mets were born. It was a breathtaking moment to watch these four men, legends all, enter the field of play through � where else? � the center field fence. Two of those centerfielders, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, sadly are no longer with us. But two are and both grace us with their presence today to remove number 39 one position over, in right field. One was a Giant, one was a Dodger, both were Mets and both mean the world to millions of baseball fans. With them is the songwriter who was inspired by a photograph of their appearance that Saturday afternoon to compose a tribute that turned into one of baseball's most famous musical odes. Our guests: Willie Mays, Duke Snider and Terry Cashman.

What a shame it's too late for Mariano Rivera to start the final game there.

My only game there was the 14-0 shutout the Mets endured the first year of Interleague play. And I didn't mind more than one bit. What a great place. Like old Comiskey, baseball just oozed out its pores. I actually planted a kiss (via my hand) on Tiger Stadium as I left. Don't want to think about what I'll do to Shea Stadium its last day (or, come to think of it, what Klapisch will do to MFY II before the authorities drag him away on morals violations). Anyway, it's time to let Tiger Stadium rest with some dignity. The pictures of it decaying haven't been pretty.

soupcan wrote: About 3-4 years ago a friend of mine who was a commercial photographer ('portraits a specialty') How often does his opera club meet?

Understatement: This must really suck for Ryan Church. I wonder how much of the "migraine" was him telling himself his career isn't in jeopardy. Odd we never heard about the migraines before, even amid all the talk of his head. Hope he recovers for on and off field purposes.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: They should tweak Gary Carter's nose and give Nick Evans number 8. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry (and Fernando) gets number 17. Carter's number shouldn't get any honors that Keith's doesn't. But what a slap at Desi Relaford.

Forecast for Norwich tonight: 20% chance of precipitation, stray thunderstorm possible. Obviously Alou's out for another three weeks.

I heard Collazo is starting out of respect for the Zephyrs so that the applause will cover him like a soft Kentucky rain.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I'm looking forward to the Bill Gallo cartoon that shows Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Mantle as putrid zombies rising from the dirt of the old Yankee Stadium and mindlessly lurching towards the new ballpark. While a superimposed face of Joe Girardi exclaims in comic ballon, "The Yanks Are Coming!" It will be titled "REINFORCEMENTS HAVE ARRIVED". Nothing's as scary as Gallo's Humor.

Revisiting this column hours later...yeesh. ]In a world of crazy, outside-the-box thinking --Do we really live in that world? ]here's one idea that has gained some traction in the Yankees' clubhouse lately --Well, if it's gained traction there, it must be solid as granite. ]Why not give Mariano Rivera, this generation's greatest closer, a chance to be really appreciated at the All-Star Game? --I do believe Klapisch is angling to show his appreciation in a very intimate manner, in full view of 56,000 ]How? Not by letting him get those last three outs; that's too pedestrian. --Yes, allowing Rivera to do what he has become famous for isn't nearly enough of a tribute to him for doing what he became famous for. ]A blowout by either league would render the appearance meaningless. --This-time-it-countsery notwithstanding, almost everything about everybody's appearance in an All-Star Game is meaningless -- except that it's an appearance in an All-Star Game. ]No, the real way to commemorate Yankee Stadium in what could be its final marquee event is to let Rivera start the game --So if the hook is "final," and Rivera's whole thing is getting final outs, why would starting be "the real way" to commemorate any of this? ]Allow him to bask in the thunderous standing ovation, and let him know what it feels like to have a million flashbulbs go off in his face upon delivery of that first cut fastball. --If the crowd (obviously every one of them a good and loyal Yankees fan, not corporate who-cares? types or people who scalped tickets because it's a big baseball event or, heaven forefend, fans of other teams) is that anxious to take a picture of Mariano Rivera, why wouldn't they save a little battery life for a later inning? ]But Rivera himself says, "I'm sure the fans would love it. They'd go crazy." --Especially if this were a Yankees home game...which it's not. ]The 2008 All-Star Game isn't your typical Midsummer Classic. --True enough. This will be the first in recorded history in which a national baseball columnist will be waiting on the mound in the ninth inning on his knees to offer his tribute. ]All the ghosts are heading across the street -- Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle, among others. --Relax, fans. If you thought the end of Yankee Stadium II was an end to all the hoary cliches, it's not. Other teams' new facilities start fresh. Yankee Stadium, no matter how many they build, maintains the exact same aura. ]Tickets for this event give new meaning to the term "sold out." --"The official sources who sell the tickets have none left to sell you" is indeed a startling new definition to the term "sold out". ]This is Yankee-mania at its best (or worst). --And by "worst," Klapisch means the ghosts won't actually suit up. And it makes him sad. ]Either way, the usual protocols don't have to apply --You mean the Yankee players won't get all the calls? Great! ]So if celebration will be the working theme on July 15, why not do honor to the single most dominant Yankees figure of the past decade? --Why not just let a checkbook start? ]Derek Jeter has been the marketing equivalent of Microsoft, but on the field, Rivera has been the Bombers' real difference-maker --Bob Klapisch is going against what he believes to be conventional wisdom. Watch out, he's a pistol. ]"I don't think it's that crazy," Johnny Damon said. "I bet Terry would do it. If anyone would do it, it would be him. The guy is awesome." --Johnny Damon has a warped sense of what awesome guys do for players who, whatever their stats, are not Cal Ripken in public esteem. ]it would be as a gesture of respect to the Yankees, and an acknowledgment of the warming relations between the two franchises. --Because merely holding the All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium is a slap in the face to the Yankees -- and goodness knows the rest of baseball and America is concerned that the Vanderbilts speak to the Rockefellers. ]Despite their never-ending struggle in the American League East, the hostility in the northeast corridor has clearly diminished in the past two years. Maybe the Red Sox's dominance has quieted the winds of war. Maybe the Yankees don't pose the same threat as they did in the Joe Torre era. Maybe everyone's suffering from battle fatigue. --How are the Twins and White Sox getting along these days? What's that? Nobody cares except when they play each other? Hmmm... ]That might've explained why Brian Cashman and Theo Epstein, archenemies in theory, appeared jointly at a seminar at the Yogi Berra Museum over the winter. --Theory...as in fevered imaginations of sportswriters who forget that all these guys traditionally show up at the same offseason events and occasionally make trades with each other, no matter how loud the winds of war. ]And it was worth noting that Alex Rodriguez, arguably the most hated Yankee in New England (after Jeter), publicly congratulated Manny Ramirez on his 500th career home run. --I'll go on record as saying this is not worth noting. Three years ago, the Yankees stood respectfully in their dugout while the Red Sox received their World Series rings. That was a class act. One player saying "congratulations" to another player in the same union? That's just business as usual. ]Even Hank Steinbrenner, who blasted the concept of Red Sox Nation as a creation of ESPN, ultimately admitted the Sox aren't the enemy, after all. --Was this before or after he was digging up $40,000 worth of construction and threatening lawsuits over the buried Ortiz jersey? ]"We have a lot in common," Steinbrenner told reporters in March. "Red Sox ownership and Yankee ownership has a lot in common and a lot of common interests. You never know, we may end up being partners outside of baseball." --Are they buying a country together or something? ]So what would stop Francona from making such a historic decision? --This is a sign to the reader that Klapisch has been figuratively jerking you around. ]The Yankees have no interest in seeing Rivera start the All-Star Game. --So much for that think tank they started in the Yankee clubhouse. ]Cashman said, "To be honest with you, asking Mariano to be a starting pitcher would be like asking Alex [Rodriguez] to play center field. I don't like it." --Oh what does Brian Cashman know? ]But Rivera would only throw one inning; that would be the stipulation. --Rewrite protocol. This is beloved Mariano Rivera we're talking about. From Maine to California people are entranced by him. ]One inning, and he gets to stand on the mound and let the ovation cover him like a soft rain. --And Bob Klapisch will be his umbrella-brella-brella... ]It would be a reminder of better times in the Bronx --Ah, the good times, back when the Yankees were able to afford the most expensive roster in baseball, back when they could build a palatial new Stadium, back when they had going a thirteen-year streak of playoff appearances, back when they sold out every night, back when they approach the All-Star Break in reasonably good shape for a second-half run...where did those halcyon days of early July 2008 go? ]back when the Yankees really did rule the world --Springtime for Jeter and Yankees fans! ]And, technically speaking, it wouldn't be an entirely foreign assignment for Rivera. He did begin his career with the Yankees as a starting pitcher. --And, technically speaking, Bob Klapisch used to write about baseball, not Bob Klapisch's wet and disturbing dreams; a soft rain? ]The matter of actually finding a closer is just as simple. It could be anyone, and everyone. Francona would undoubtedly pick his own guy, Jonathan Papelbon, even if it comes with the caveat that the final three outs could mean nothing, depending on the score. --So the special skill sets Mariano Rivera brings to the ninth inning...they're not indispensable, anyone could deliver what he does. Gotcha. ]That's a risk Rivera doesn't necessarily want to take, however. He thought long and hard about the idea of starting, before finally deciding he'd rather close. --The choice, after all, is Rivera's. Francona would surely agree. He's awesome! ]"The game means something, we have to win [for home-field advantage in the World Series]," he said. "I'd go out there doing this for my team, not just my league." --Even though the good times are over for the Yankees. ]Rivera paused and considered the outside-the-box -- OK, outside-the-brain -- concept one last time. --Aw, pshaw, Bobby knows it was silly, but he brought it up at length anyway. ]Starting? After 811 consecutive appearances in relief? "Interesting," Rivera said, which is how civilized men put it when they mean, "Don't get your hopes up." --Somewhere in Bergen County, a small boy with an ESPN platform cries himself to sleep.

"Members of the New York Jets" quite obviously get the call tonight. They get their due from us a few first-down markers down the road. Tonight, to open the final Mets-Giants series in Shea history, the Countdown Like It Oughta Be number-pullers are a pair who took part in the greatest Mets-Giants series in Shea history: a big part. Taking down 40 will be the shiningest stars of the 2000 NLDS, "the outfielder from Honolulu, Hawaii and the inspiration for Benny Bean Coffee," Benny Agbayani, and "a pretty fair righthanded pitcher from Fresno, California in his own right," Bobby Jones.

Because All-Star Games are held primarily if not exclusively for the benefit of the host team...especially when it's Bob Klapisch's favorite host team in the whole wide world. ]Starting Rivera in Midsummer Classic would be ultimate tribute By Bob Klapisch Special to ESPN.com NEW YORK -- In a world of crazy, outside-the-box thinking, here's one idea that has gained some traction in the Yankees' clubhouse lately: Why not give Mariano Rivera, this generation's greatest closer, a chance to be really appreciated at the All-Star Game? How? Not by letting him get those last three outs; that's too pedestrian. There's no guarantee the American League will need a save, and there's no promise that even if Rivera takes the mound, he'll be pitching in a critical situation. A blowout by either league would render the appearance meaningless. No, the real way to commemorate Yankee Stadium in what could be its final marquee event is to let Rivera start the game: Allow him to bask in the thunderous standing ovation, and let him know what it feels like to have a million flashbulbs go off in his face upon delivery of that first cut fastball. Unconventional? It's almost surreal. But Rivera himself says, "I'm sure the fans would love it. They'd go crazy." The theory behind this heresy goes like this: The 2008 All-Star Game isn't your typical Midsummer Classic. The very reason it's being staged in the Bronx is to bid an official farewell to Yankee Stadium, which is being replaced by a new structure in 2009. All the ghosts are heading across the street -- Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle, among others. Tickets for this event give new meaning to the term "sold out." Some seats are being hawked for almost $10,000 a pop on eBay. This is Yankee-mania at its best (or worst). Either way, the usual protocols don't have to apply: All-Star Games are often awarded to new ballparks, not ones that are about to meet their doom at the wrecking ball. So if celebration will be the working theme on July 15, why not do honor to the single most dominant Yankees figure of the past decade? Derek Jeter has been the marketing equivalent of Microsoft, but on the field, Rivera has been the Bombers' real difference-maker. Jeter himself says, "Mo is the one who deserves the attention. Whether he pitches the first inning or the last, that's not up to me. But one way or another, all the eyes are going to be on him. That's the way it should be." The decision will be Terry Francona's, and there's at least one Yankee who thinks the Red Sox manager is open-minded enough to at least consider the proposition. "I don't think it's that crazy," Johnny Damon said. "I bet Terry would do it. If anyone would do it, it would be him. The guy is awesome." If Francona were to even consider handing the ball to Rivera instead of, say, C.C. Sabathia, it would be as a gesture of respect to the Yankees, and an acknowledgment of the warming relations between the two franchises. Despite their never-ending struggle in the American League East, the hostility in the northeast corridor has clearly diminished in the past two years. Maybe the Red Sox's dominance has quieted the winds of war. Maybe the Yankees don't pose the same threat as they did in the Joe Torre era. Maybe everyone's suffering from battle fatigue. That might've explained why Brian Cashman and Theo Epstein, archenemies in theory, appeared jointly at a seminar at the Yogi Berra Museum over the winter. And it was worth noting that Alex Rodriguez, arguably the most hated Yankee in New England (after Jeter), publicly congratulated Manny Ramirez on his 500th career home run. Even Hank Steinbrenner, who blasted the concept of Red Sox Nation as a creation of ESPN, ultimately admitted the Sox aren't the enemy, after all. "We have a lot in common," Steinbrenner told reporters in March. "Red Sox ownership and Yankee ownership has a lot in common and a lot of common interests. You never know, we may end up being partners outside of baseball." So what would stop Francona from making such a historic decision? Real-world politics, for one: The Yankees have no interest in seeing Rivera start the All-Star Game. Cashman said, "To be honest with you, asking Mariano to be a starting pitcher would be like asking Alex [Rodriguez] to play center field. I don't like it." But Rivera would only throw one inning; that would be the stipulation. One inning, and he gets to stand on the mound and let the ovation cover him like a soft rain. It would be a reminder of better times in the Bronx, back when the Yankees really did rule the world. And, technically speaking, it wouldn't be an entirely foreign assignment for Rivera. He did begin his career with the Yankees as a starting pitcher. The matter of actually finding a closer is just as simple. It could be anyone, and everyone. Francona would undoubtedly pick his own guy, Jonathan Papelbon, even if it comes with the caveat that the final three outs could mean nothing, depending on the score. That's a risk Rivera doesn't necessarily want to take, however. He thought long and hard about the idea of starting, before finally deciding he'd rather close. "The game means something, we have to win [for home-field advantage in the World Series]," he said. "I'd go out there doing this for my team, not just my league." Rivera paused and considered the outside-the-box -- OK, outside-the-brain -- concept one last time. Starting? After 811 consecutive appearances in relief? "Interesting," Rivera said, which is how civilized men put it when they mean, "Don't get your hopes up."

Dan Warthen fixed Ollie's arm angle so he can more readily endorse a very large check this winter.

I've enjoyed it (save the result) the last few years given the generous Met representation and participation, to say nothing of the lavish Willie Mays tribute last summer. Now it comes to MFY Stadium and all its attendant self-love and there's one Met named (for now) and it's the one Met I'm not exactly in the mood to look at lately. I've never been in the "screw it" camp, but I might be this year.

="AG/DC"]I like the part where Perez decides to fail. I had to keep reminding myself yesterday that Wagner didn't mean to hang a slider to Werth, that he'd rather get him out, that he likes to collect saves. It's silly to think otherwise (unless this is the 1919 World Series). So how did Billy get away with his characterization of Perez that afternoon? Must have been the language barrier between Billy and the press.

]Wagner called the Mets "fortunate" to be 14-12 and openly criticized Perez. "Perez has honestly got to step up and know that we've just used every guy in our bullpen the night before," Wagner said. "He can't come out there and decide that gee, he hasn't got it today, and so be it." Asked if someone ought to relay that sentiment to Perez, Wagner suggested it would be "pretty much" like talking to a wall. Perez, for his part, was unfazed by Wagner's remark. "You have to help your team going deep in the game," he said. "I was trying to do that." Maybe not Ollie, but one of the outfielders could have gotten on Billy yesterday about forcing them to work several more innings, how every guy in our outfield is trying to make up for the absence of Alou and Church and how by extending the game, they had to risk further injury as a corps by spending more time patrolling that treacherous wet grass. Billy can't just go out there and decide to hang a slider and shrug his shoulders. But that would have been ludicrous and nobody would have said that. Guess they just don't care as much as Billy.

One day in 2000 I decided after years of thinking it would be neat to actually get up and go to the Polo Grounds apartments and take a look around. I open the News on the train and I find this article by Vic Ziegel, published that very morning: ]A STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN ONCE, GIANTS WALKED THERE BY VIC ZIEGEL Thursday, August 10th 2000, 2:13AM The staircase begins on 158th St. and Edgecombe Ave., several hundred feet from where Bobby Thomson was standing, a bat in his hands, Oct. 3, 1951. The staircase was a gift, 87 years ago, from a baseball team to the City of New York. That same team, long gone, needs the gift restored. ONE OF THE WORST days in my life - I know you've been wondering - was a baseball afternoon in 1957 when it became indisputably clear that the Giants, the only team I would ever love, were leaving the Polo Grounds and New York. Winters were for the Knicks and Rangers. The football Giants were more than a passing fancy. But I rooted harder for snow. Baseball was the game and the Giants were my team. Until they left, and did the small quiet thing known as breaking hearts. It hurt then and - I made this discovery when I visited the Hall of Fame a few summers ago - it still hurts. The New York Giants have disappeared. Which may not surprise anyone who has gotten off the subway at 155th St. and 8th Ave. Father Knickerbocker now pitches beer in that great saloon in the sky. Willard Marshall never calls. Sal Yvars never writes. The Giants are another lost tribe. When ESPN Classic recalls the great sports rivalries, they say Giants and Dodgers and deliver the obligatory shot of a crowded Ebbets Field. Do they show the Polo Grounds? Do you have to ask? OK, the team in Brooklyn ran out, too, and a wrecking ball crunched Ebbets Field. (Aw, rough.) And you probably don't think you need grainy film footage to remember what the Polo Grounds looked like - 279 feet to the wall in left, 257 to right, 483 to center. It's etched in your memory, but cleaner. Not as much pigeon glop dropping from the rafters. Memory, it turns out, is a slap in the face. My visit to Cooperstown was terrific until I hit the gift shop. There was plenty of Yankees' stuff. Tons of it. If you absolutely had to buy one of everything Yankee you would still be there, your credit card melting. And if Dodger stuff was something you wanted to load up on, that wouldn't have been a problem. Roger Kahn made sure of that. F. Scott Fitzgerald did it for East Egg and Kahn's "Boys of Summer" did it for Flatbush Ave. People who weren't alive when the Dodgers were choking in October are walking the streets of this city wearing the words "Brooklyn Dodgers." The Mayor thinks the West Side Highway is now Joe DiMaggio Highway and the Interboro Parkway has been renamed Jackie Robinson. There's a Gil Hodges Bridge out there. Fine. And enough already. There is nothing in use today to remind anybody that the Giants, who won 15 National League pennants and five World Series, spent every baseball year until 1957 in New York. Not even the staircase, which was their gift to the city on July 10, 1913. And bears the inscription, still clearly visible on one landing, "The John T. Brush Stairway, presented by the New York Giants." (Brush was the team's president.) A chain fence discourages anybody from walking the 78 steps from Edgecombe to the road that runs into the Harlem River Drive. Many of the steps are cracked. There are gaping holes on the landings. Three street lamps, from that long-ago time, are very close to stumps. The weeds are winning. Across the street, another staircase takes you down to the Polo Grounds Houses, the high-rise complex that went up when the ballpark was torn down in 1964 (the same wrecking ball that did the job on Ebbets Field). I walked the Polo Grounds neighborhood earlier this week with Larry Ritter, who wrote the book "Lost Ballparks," and Don Majeski, a boxing guy who has a feel for old New York sports sites. He told me about the staircase. At 2991-2999 8th Ave., inside the Polo Grounds Houses, we saw the plaque that reads "Polo Grounds, Approximate Location of Home Plate, Home of the New York Giants, National Baseball League, 1890-1957, World Champions 1904. 1905. 1921. 1922. 1933. 1954. The Giants Shared the Field with the New York Yankees, 1913-1922. The New York Mets Played Here 1962-63." So I stood there, the approximate location, and imagined I was Bobby Thomson. Sixty feet, six inches away, near a playground, Ralph Branca was on the mound. The five most important words in Giants history - and maybe the history of the world, to that time - had been relayed from Clyde Sukeforth, the bullpen coach, to Dodgers manager Charley Dressen. "Erskine just bounced his curveball," the coach said. And because of that message, Dressen brings in Branca to face Thomson. If he stays with Don Newcombe, or uses Carl Erskine, maybe Thomson doesn't hit Branca's second pitch for the home run that wins a pennant. So long ago. THE PLAQUE IS COVERED with scratch marks, bubble gum residue. It ain't glorious. Does the city have a few bucks to spend to shine it up? Can something be done for the staircase? Forget Mr. Brush. John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, Carl Hubbell, Mel Ott, Willie Mays. One of them deserves to be a bridge, a highway, a something. Memory isn't enough. I saw the plaque (not the easiest find) but didn't get to the stairs, which it continues to blow my mind still exist with the inscription still visible. It seemed like enough of an accomplishment to stand where Thomson stood with Coogan's Bluff at my back. I've met several old NY Giants fans who tell great stories about sneaking in to the Polo Grounds either with ushers looking the other way or ushers not being fast enough to keep up with them. Trying to imagine that happening today...or ever again.

2008 Mets All-Stars Suck

Hey, that's my pie!

Has anyone else noticed Ankiel and Wright are tied in home runs?