G-Fafif

I had no idea Roy was in the running until JD spurred me to look up Mark Bradley, and am thus weirdly gratified that the Gerald Ford of Mets managers hung on. Huzzah for the interim skippers of the world! Never underestimate the power of warped sensibilities on a slow Mets news day.

Like he's Soriano or something. Link

That would explain the Phanatic.

The nerve of him mulling his future. Seriously. The nerve of him. I'm bored, too.

2006: A hellacious series in Chicago. Was robbed of a homer by an umpire. 2005: Versatility out the yin-yang. He had never or rarely played the outfield when Willie stuck him out there in Pedro's first Shea start and he made a sensational running catch that helped preserve/build the win. Typical of the value he brought to the bench. Both years: He was the Sultan of Swing. He may go down as the last player to come to bat to a song that was a hit when I was in high school. That's gotta be worth something for his permanent record.

I've been schlepping through a well-meaning, richly detailed history of the erstwhile Big O tenants for several months, Remembering the Montreal Expos. It's more a collection of anecdotes and somewhat random reminiscences than a straight-on trip through the seasons. There are some laughable errors within (the Mets traded Mike Torrez to Montreal; the Mets and 'Spos swapped Bob Bailey and Clay Kirby; the Mets and Dodgers played in the 1988 World Series) and the translation from Canadian to American feels a little rough, but it's got a good heart. I still kind of miss the Expos, though more in theory than reality.

Loaf insisted to Mets Weekly that he came to Shea more than the other New York stadium during the Seaver years because he was so darn great. I wasn't buying it."Paradise By The Dashboard Light" may have been well served by the voice of Murph (what wouldn't be?), but Rizzuto acquitted himself nicely.

"When Mike Piazza was on the Mets in '99 and having a terrible slump, that's what their scout would yell at him to lift his spirits."Thus spake Meat Loaf in a recent Rolling Stone Q&A to explain why his new album is called The Monster Is Loose.One is left to wonder, a little, whether Loaf and Piazza share such a special bond as rock guys that Mike let him in on a heretofore unknown anecdote or, as is much more likely, he's twisting the better known story, that of third base coach John Stearns shouting it spontaneously into the Fox wired-for-sound mic after Mike broke out of a slump during the 2000 NLCS.Close enough for rock 'n' roll.

Opinion: Ishii was worth the risk given the lack of serious alternatives (Matt Ginter) and the price to get him (Jason Phillips). Fact: Mike Cubbage managed the final seven games of 1991 and was never given another managerial job in the bigs.

Um, as for memories of Bannister... September against the Dodgers, mopup behind a mess of Trachsel's making. When he was announced into the game, no buzz of any sort. He was the feelgood story of five months earlier and now he was a September afterthought. Too bad. He and Jeremi/Geremi G. were the only two starters I didn't see in person. If anybody who wasn't a season-ticket holder collected all thirteen, that's quite a set.

All that he wants is another po-em...

Sent back the card, kept the poem. You wouldn't want it the other way around.

Listening for a moment to Michael Kay yesterday, he criticized the $17 mil a year Soriano is getting because Jeter makes $18.9 mil a year and Soriano "isn't half the player Derek Jeter is." I'm glad he cleared that up.

Edgy DC wrote: I think being on a playoff team is irrelevant. In fact, the Gold Glove, deserved by Beltran or not, is too much a byproduct of the visiblity of being on a playoff team and the visibility of being a slugger, so that's made less relevant also. Unto themselves, a Gold Glove or a playoff berth do not necessarily add up to MVP status. If they did, Doug Flynn and Rafael Santana are owed some votes. But taken together, Beltran's accomplishments -- not so much the fielding and slugging awards per se (not bestowed until after MVP balloting) but what they represent about his performance (and his defense was legitimately standout, so this wasn't lazy "let's give it to a good hitter" assignation) -- provide a snapshot of an extraordinarily valuable player. The playoff team component indicates his performance was not in the service of stats alone. This isn't an argument to take away Howard's hardware so much as mystification that a player of Beltran's caliber on a team of the Mets' caliber (visible to all) didn't at least finish ahead of Lance Berkman or rate a stray second-place vote from some renegade writer.

metirish wrote: Some no doubt will say it's northeast bias... Yet not quite north enough or east enough for my tastes. It's not necessarily an argument against Howard, whose numbers were hard to ignore (obviously) and whose impact on the Phillies getting as close as they did was enormous, but I wonder if anybody else has ever... *Won a Gold Glove *Won a Silver Slugger *Started in the All-Star Game *Tied his franchise's record for home runs in a season *Broke his franchise's record for runs scored in a season *Played on the team with the sport's best record ...and finished as low as fourth in the MVP voting. Then again, I wonder if anybody has ever done those six things in the same season, period.

Those high socks and that body when he first came up...gave hope to all us sartorially and somewhat gravitationally challenged fellas. One of the first "Mets Weekly"s did a piece on him at home in St. Lucie. Showed him to be very funny, very self-effacing. Made me want to root hard for him. But I never could get behind his cause fully (other than he was a Met and Mets are encouraged to flourish). Reasons? 1) He never pitched all that well (perhaps the yo-yo nature of his roster spot and role -- long man here, closer there -- took a toll on him). 2) It irked me he became a symbol for the post-Moneyball kneejerk thinking that the youngish guy from your minor leagues MUST be better than the older, name player who's being recycled. I remember a lot of gnashing of fan teeth over giving that dirty retread Roberto Hernandez a shot when fresh young Heath Bell was being unjustly ignored. Hernandez proved somebody knew what he was doing when he signed him. Bell, unfortunately, never did live up to his out-of-proportion hype. That said, I hope he finds his groove in San Diego except against us.

After being talked about as something of a steal for Alomar (after Alomar stole from us), he fell off the face of the Met earth. Wore a number in the 90s, without a name, in a televised spring training game in 2005. To his credit he worked his way back up. Saw his first MLB appearance at RFK, making him a personal bookend of sorts to Keith Miller whose first game I saw at Olympic Stadium when the Nats were the 'Spos. After that, it's all kind of a blur of demotions and recalls.

Edgy DC wrote: I'd really rather not have a field name that morphs so easily into ShitiField the moment the disgruntled start grumbling about something or other. If there are any other "South Park" diehards out there, perhaps the first thing that crossed your mind was the Chinese takeout place called City Wok whose phone is answered for comedic effect by an Asian man who pronounces the "C" in "City" as "Sh". Their specialty is the City Beef. Well, at least it figures to be fertile ground.

Tuned in earlier and saw Jose Reyes batting .227. I'll bet he picks it up later in the season. An old Mets game is better than a new anything else game.

ScarletKnight41 wrote: The Mets have a weekend series in Philly for the first time in years. Is anyone up for a group outing to the CB either Saturday, June 30 or Sunday, July 1? Group tickets go on sale in January - I'd be happy to buy a block of tickets to one of those games. I'm inclined to go with $22 Scoreboard Porch tickets, which are right by Harry the K's bar, near Ashburn Alley, convenient to most of the ballpark parking, and with a reasonably good view of the field. Who's in? And which day works better for people? One extraordinarily tentative vote for Sunday.

Shea Sushi....anyone ever eat from here? This stand totally rocks, spun off from Daruma of Great Neck (talked up by Gary Cohen in one broadcast this year). I discovered it in '99 when it was in the left field corner and the Mets went like 9-1 when I partook. Only problem is the Sheastapo is very diligent about keeping you from it if you don't have field level tix. If you get to the park early enough, no problem, except in postseason when my wife and I were denied passage (because "we just want to go to the sushi stand" is obviously code for "we're cleverly going to steal us a seat upgrade"). I willingly made the tradeoff, no sushi in exchange for there being a postseason, but it was typically insulting of the way the personnel at our beloved Shea treats its fans. Anyway, Daruma: decent prices, excellent rolls and they don't take the cap when you purchase a beverage.

Can't spell Yadier without d-i-e*. Or think it. (*Baseball "d-i-e," mind you. It's tough to make that crack without realizing you can't spell Lidle without those three letters either.)

Most horrifying predictions possible? I wrote these last week but forgot to post them: Some run-of-the-mill starter shuts us down all night. We load the bases with one out and the game tied but can't score. A light-hitting catcher homers against us in the ninth. We get the first two guys on in the bottom of that inning yet with our season on the line, we strike out looking, line out, walk and strike out looking. We lose the pennant despite having been clearly the best team in the course of the year. There wasn't a deadline for these, was there?

Summer lasting as long as it did.

A new plot for 61*. Forget Fear. Nothing but Faith in Flushing.