G-Fafif

Bobby M. Jones, Roberto Hernandez spring to mind for sure. The former idolized Doc, the latter said last year it had been a dream to be on Kiner's Korner. Ed Glynn of Flushing worked at Shea. My brother-in-law also lived in Flushing and also worked at Shea and hated baseball as a result, but I'm thinking Glynn didn't. Ken Singleton? Either him or Mike Jorgensen? At least one of them I kind of remember copping to fandom. John Pacella? When his hat fell off as a youngster in Suffolk County, was it a Mets hat? Matt Lawton because of his brother? If so, the affection wore off quickly. Piazza was a Phillies fan but allowed that he caught Mets broadcasts growing up and loved Murph and Ralph. One point for that. Among MFYs who weren't Mets, Ricky Ledee and A-Rod lay claim. Ledee watched Channel 9 on satellite in Puerto Rico. A-Rod sticks to his story about adoring Keith Hernandez. They get no points for that.

="Edgy DC"]Greg, any connection between the end of Healy's tenure and Wilson Pickett's passing? I understand "Mustang Sally" was electric.

Iriki has a history of bringing the 'tude: http://www.gothambaseball.com/bigmedium/moxie/baseballnews/mets/iriki-not-your-garden-var.shtml

My proactive collecting began with '72 and continues to this day. I later got hold of '64, '67 '70 and '71. I was particularly interested in '70 because I figured it would have a great look back at '69. It was very disappointing -- much the hack job. It was like "The Mets won the World Series last year. And hosted Helmet Day." Editorially they've gotten much better about commemorating things. Dennis D'Agostino's special sections on '86 in the '87 YB and the 40th anniversary of Shea in '04 make them must-haves beyond their merely being yearbooks. (They even published an excerpt from Roger Angell in '87.) On the other hand, the body of modern volumes beg to be ignored. But nothing beats those Willard Mullin covers.

Way to go, Sutter. Now let's get Kooz in there. Or Bunning out.

Except maybe for '95, when the Mets had the excuse of not knowing who would be playing in their uniforms and feature a bunch of equipment, '79's is the worst cover of them all. Maybe Whitney and Bebe figured showing a player's face would cost them at contract time. I just assumed, because Lindsey, Ralph and Bob were so adamant that I buy one, that everybody purchased a yearbook. It makes a great addition to your baseball library. That's been my guiding principle since 1972. I'm continually shocked that every Met fan doesn't buy a yearbook every year. I still feel guilty that I didn't go for every revised edition as soon as it rolled off the presses. The year the Mets became the Mets for me? 1970.

Something I wrote two years ago in the wake of the news. It all comes rushing back. ]Must be a mistake. It's a doozy. I saw it first on ESPNews in a hotel room, lacking sleep and reeling from corporate feelgood confabbery, so I had to be imagining it. Former Mets and Phillies pitcher Tug McGraw dead at 59. How many things are wrong with that sentence? Former? Phillies? 59? Tug dead? Fact-checking ain't what it used to be, I guess. The story got picked up elsewhere on TV in various forms. I saw it again in the morning and afternoon in USA Today and the Chicago Tribune (which picked up the coverage from the Inquirer of Philadelphia, a city whose relevance to Tug McGraw couldn't be more than secondary). I escaped to New York. Rounded up the locals. The News. Newsday. Even the Post. They wouldn't blow this story, would they? The mysterious references to Philadelphia were downplayed, but the rest of it was in print. Something about Tug McGraw 1944-2004. So what does that mean? Tug would tell you that was his ERA during a particularly bad stretch. Or a rough estimate of how much he racked up in fines for letting his puppy loose during spring training. Or the proof of the bottle of Jameson he put away after giving one up to McCovey. I don't think it means Tug McGraw is dead. How could he be? He's here. He's been here all along. I'm grappling with the idea that it's no longer 1973, that Tug is no longer 29, that I'm no longer 10, that the Mets of his and our youth are not sneaking up on the Cards and the Cubs and the Bucs and the Expos and the Phillies. That it's not the end of August and that we're not at the end of the NL East standings but, will ya look at that? We're only like 6-1/2 games out. I read what Yogi just said the other day, that it ain't over 'til it's over, and I don't get all the fuss that Yogi said something silly. I may be only 10, but I understand him perfectly. We won in '69, we can do it again. It's not late August anymore. It's sometime in September. The Mets are making Yogi look like a genius. (Can you believe they talked about firing him over the summer?) Every time I look up, the Mets are gaining on somebody. They're gonna get to .500 and first place maybe on the same night if they're not careful. And every time I look up, it's Tug on the mound, bailing us out. Tug gets a win or a save practically every day. Gosh, Dave Giusti can do that, but look at the way Tug is doing it. He's so excited out there! Look at him slapping his glove to his thigh�I've never seen a pitcher do that. I'm gonna grab my glove and do it, even if it's on the wrong hand and the wrong thigh. It's the end of September. Yesterday, Sunday, there existed the possibility that five teams could tie for first by today, Monday. But that's not happening. The Mets have passed everybody. Tom is going to clinch it for us in Chicago in this makeup game. I'm running home from the bus stop and turning on Channel 9. C'mon Tom! Ah, he's in trouble. Ya think Yogi will�yeah, it's Tug. Tug comes on in the seventh, on the little Sony black and white we keep in the dining room and he gets the Cubs out. Mets win! Mets are champs! Champs of the Eastern Division! Second time in five years. What's weird about that? It's a week and a half later. Tug's still 29. I'm still 10. We've both aged a ton. Can you believe this series with the Reds? Freaking Pete Rose. But we're gonna win this thing, I know it. Israel's at war. Agnew resigned. Willie Mays got the damndest hit you ever saw, right off the plate. The damndest hit I ever heard anyway. It's some minor-league Jewish holiday, Sukkoth I think, and we're off from school, but my mother has dragged my sister and me into the city to meet my father at his office. We're in a Lamston's for some reason. I've got WHN on my little RCA. Tug's come in for Tom again. How can he not get it done? No way. Tug gets the last out. The crowd mobs the field. I run out into the street to see if it's anything like my father described 1969 to be. There are some screams and a little impromptu confetti. New York loves the Mets. It's 1973 forever in some essential compartment of our collective soul. Tug McGraw is forever a Met, the quintessential Met, the Met whose DNA defines this franchise. Imperfect rather than inept. Hilarious but not comical. Excitable boy who's The Man on the mound. We're never out of it. We always have some kind of chance, some screwy opportunity to get back in the game, get back in the race, cast aside all those errors and fat pitches and LOBs that dug us into this impossible hole in April and May and June and July and August and claw our way out. To win it all! (Like maybe on a crazy ground ball that slips through a first baseman's legs as the World Series has all but evaporated on us.) Or win some of it! (Perhaps on a wild pitch that caps a wacky weekend that redeems an unseemly, untimely seven-game losing streak with a playoff spot on the line.) Or get so close to it that it feels like we've won! (Too many times to pick one bittersweet example, but oh, they're in the archives.) Not everybody can derive thigh-slapping joy from that sensation. We can. Not anybody can produce that sort of effect, that sort of emotion, as profound as it's been perpetual, year after year, decade after decade, fall after summer. Not anybody but Tug McGraw, the fundamental Met. An original Met, not from 1962, but from a one-of-a-kind heart and left arm. This Tug McGraw, he ain't dead. How could he be? Cleon walked to load the bases, Rusty's leaving the on-deck circle and Rube just called Piggy. Tug's getting loose in the right-field bullpen. He'll be coming in in the bottom of the inning. I gotta believe that.

Amen.

Many things killed me about this book but perhaps the most odious was Golenbock mixing and matching new quotes from Gary Carter, presumably obtained in an actual interview, with quotes from his book "A Dream Season". They practically followed one another! As JD pointed out, the ramblings of Craig Swan did sparkle, but on the whole it was so relentlessly sloppy that the only thing Amazin' about it was that it was published. Incidentally, in the book Golenbock ghosted with Davey Johnson, "Bats," there is a reference to a relief pitcher the manager wishes he could bring up right away, a fella named Mars. You know: Randy Mars. So it's not like Golenbock was just having a bad week when he threw up "Amazin'".

Johnny Dickshot wrote: Interesting piece by Dubya today. http://www.gothambaseball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1992 One of the wonderful and scary differences between 1955 and 2005, I think, is that this fabulous new media we got here will turn anyone who doesn't smash the hell out of their pitch into a blacksmith. Or a private household laundress. There were 372 of those living in New York in 1950, according to that year's Census, zero now. I couldn't think of a tasteful way to work that into the column, though I suppose more dirty laundry gets aired now versus then. And it barely goes through the rinse cycle.

The Mets are loading up on guys who stand out in my memory as murdering us even if they're pretty AAAA everywhere else. Endy Chavez batted .364 against us as an Expo. He and Tike are at least off the streets.

Thanks all!

Frayed Knot wrote: My first question - out of curiosity mostly, not out of doubt for your word - is where are you getting those numbers -- Retrosheet? Retrosheet for some, media guide/memory for others. Haven't worked up a grid or anything. I've always thought of OD/HO as an event. Hard to believe 54,999 others (give or take) haven't always looked at it that way.

Frayed Knot wrote: My first question - out of curiosity mostly, not out of doubt for your word - is where are you getting those numbers -- Retrosheet? Retrosheet for some, media guide/memory for others. Haven't worked up a grid or anything. I've always thought of OD/HO as an event. Hard to believe 54,999 others (give or take) haven't always looked at it that way.

Was looking at some Opening Day/Home Opener attendance figures for the Mets and Yanks from the '60s and '70s (essentially because it's December) and noticed there was rarely anything like a sellout. The image we have now is of people lining up in the cold and 55,000 tickets being sold for Game 1 almost immediately, but it's only been like that in New York for no more than the past 30 years, coinciding with the open of new Yankee Stadium. Before that, they didn't draw even when they were flush from Mantle and Maris (Opening Day '62 was like 38,000). The Mets didn't draw particularly well for Opening Day even when they were the big team in town in the '70s. They didn't come close to breaking 30,000 for the raising of their flag in '74. The big makeover of '75 brought out 18,000. When the Mets went into major suck mode, the numbers were even worse. 1980 (amid a transit strike, which is what brought this on) was like 10,000. The first year they began to get a good crowd as a rule was '82, Foster and Bamberger and DiamondVision being the draws. We've had our drops since then -- '95 (post-strike: about 26,000) and '97 (twice rescheduled, eventually a Sunday doubledip for about 21,000; Mets downplayed it partly out of embarrassment that the Skanks were raising a flag at the same time and partly to save themselves for Jackie night) come to mind -- but it's usually a throng that gathers. Incomplete theories: --The game, especially the concept of Opening Day as an event, didn't used to be marketed the way it is now. --There were many more freebies given out for Opening Day by a more social-minded ownership (remember when they used to announce both a total and a paid attendance)? --The adoption of A.L. rules regarding tickets sold as the paid attendance instead of turnstile by the N.L. in '93 (why do you suppose the Mets are always breaking single-game records?) inflates the totals nowadays. --New York didn't view OD as a municipal holiday the way Detroit or Cincinnati did, though I haven't checked their attendance from way back. --We live in a more sports-minded, more mobile society than we used to and we make time to reach for conclusions like the one I just stated. If anybody clearly remembers Opening Days back when they weren't jammed, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Or if anybody has any insights, bring 'em on. It's still December and I'm still curious.

Bret Sabermetric wrote: which is the male equivalent of listening to pointless blather about some incredibly detailed but totally non-consequential encounter with one of her friends. To be fair, I do just about all the blathering in our family, especially when the encounters are imaginary.

Weekly newsletter available from Gotham Baseball. Free if you sign up (no spamming either). Sample provided here sans the ads (because it's Xmas/Xnukah). If you'd like to receive it regularly, just sign up here: http://gothambaseball.com/mailman/listinfo/newsupdate_gothambaseball.com Thanks for your indulgence and, not incidentally, your virtual companionship. Gotham Baseball Desktop Update December 21, 2005 EDITOR'S NOTE About eight months ago, Johnny Damon insisted, "There's no way I can go play for the Yankees." Now he's a surer thing than the 4 train to show up next at 161st Street. Welcome to New York, late December 2005, and welcome to the Gotham Baseball Desktop Update, designed to bring you up to speed on what's going on across all of New York baseball. Every week, and as news warrants, we will bring you the latest happenings in the game and give you a sneak peek into the observations garnered by the GB Staff. Be sure to bookmark http://www.gothambaseball.com and visit our site throughout the week for more. And, most importantly, happy holidays to you and yours. POSSIBILITIES Available For The Holidays --Former Mets and Yankees and potential future Mets and Yankees are among baseball's non-tendered. http://www.gothambaseball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1886 Rumor Mill: Kent Go Home Again? --Mets and Dodgers talk second base trade. http://www.gothambaseball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1871 TRANSACTIONS All That And Bernie, Too Williams reportedly signs one-year pact with Yankees. http://www.gothambaseball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1889 Money Talks, Idiot Walks --Four years, $52 million lure Johnny Damon to the Bronx. http://www.gothambaseball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1884 Yank Pen Up An Octavio --Dotel returns to town, albeit a different side of it. http://www.gothambaseball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1883 Villone Again (Naturally) --Cashman reels in a Fish of his own. http://www.gothambaseball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1847 INSIGHTS The War At Home --Mike McGann: Johnny Damon in center means the Yankees are in a battle royale with the Mets. http://www.gothambaseball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1887 Why Not Grudzielanek? Kaz, That's Why --Mark Healey: Omar would love a new second baseman but he's still got to move the old one. http://www.gothambaseball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1855 DEVELOPMENTS Beyond The $200 Million Men --Gotham's Top 10 Yankee Prospects await their chance. http://www.gothambaseball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1444 OPINION They Call It 'Second' Base for a Reason --Greg W. Prince: Maybe the Mets can get by with three infielders. http://www.gothambaseball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1877 And To All, An Appropriate Gift --Chip Armonaitis: Santa's getting an earful from baseball. http://www.gothambaseball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1865 Innocent Childhood Memories of Profit & Loss --Aaron Ross: Baseball cards were my business. http://www.gothambaseball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1842 What In The World? --Cecilia Tan: Careful what you call Classic. http://www.gothambaseball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1831 HISTORY 12/26/1919: Yankees agree to acquire a star Red Sox outfielder who scored more than 100 runs last season and promises to tangibly alter the relationship between the two franchises. And, no, it wasn't Johnny Damon. 12/21/1948: Dave Kingman born. Is reportedly unhappy. 12/25/1958: Rickey Henderson born and immediately learns to walk. 12/23/1975: Arbitrator Peter Seitz ushers in free agency era with decision in the Messersmith/McNally case. Two-year-old Johnny Damon taken for his first haircut. 12/21/1978: Cartoonist Willard Mullin dies. He was a Jint among men. A Bum, too. 12/23/1996: Mets sign Todd Pratt. You never saw somebody so happy to leave a Domino's. 12/23/1999: Mike Hampton traded to the Mets from Houston. NYC schools enter holiday recess. 12/27/2001: Mets rid themselves of Kevin Appier's ridiculous contract by exchanging it for Mo Vaughn's ludicrous contract. 12/24/2002: Yankees reach agreement with pitcher Jose Contreras. Contreras goes on to pitch White Sox to world championship. That wasn't part of the agreement. ONE MORE THING The most home runs hit by a manager who led his team to a world championship were 370, by Gil Hodges, skipper of the 1969 New York Mets. Conversely, the world championship manager who hit the most home runs was longtime Brooklyn Dodgers slugger Gil Hodges. Either way, he's still not in the Hall of Fame. COMING UP IN GOTHAM BASEBALL MAGAZINE Our Winter 2006 issue will salute the city's player of the year and the best of the minors and the majors. Plus... --A First Look at SNY --A Last Look at Piazza --An In-Depth Look at the New York baseball psyche Winter 2006: On Sale in February. SUBSCRIBE OR ORDER BACK ISSUES http://www.gothambaseball.com/subscribe.html

Neat poem! Al and I are old pals. I saw him sitting in front of the Starbucks across the street from the team hotel in Cincinnati in 2003, furiously chatting up a guy who appeared to be one of the writers. I circled the block for half an hour and never got up the nerve to interrupt and say hello. Then I went back to the room and spent half an hour telling my wife how I had just spent the previous half-hour. As we were going out, we passed him as we were leaving and he was entering the elevator. "Hi Al!" And for reasons still unknown to me, I gave him the thumbs-up. "Yeah, hi." Made my day. Fans are so easy.

Edgy DC wrote: Greg has made a passing --- but solid --- argument that Herr Ehrhardt belongs in the Mets Hall of Fame. A memorable FAFIF thread, thanks in great part to Edgy. http://faithandfear.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2005/8/2/1100101.html[/url]

MFS62 wrote: Gimme a Met who didn't use steroids when they were legal. 98-pound weakling Doug Saunders instead chose to believe those Charles Atlas ads in the back of Archie comics, the ones that said bullies won't be kicking sand in your face if you clip this coupon and mail it in. Doug also took advantage of the offer to get your high school diploma at night. Gimme a Met who was so fond of the results of the home brewing kit he got for Christmas, that he contacted a local beer maker who had excess capacity and decided to market his very own microbrew.

MFS62 wrote: Gimme a Met whose wife didn't want to sit in the wives section at Shea, but preferred to proudly sit in the stands and hear what fans were saying about her man. No matter how many sections she tried, Mary Lamb couldn't find any fans talking about her husband David. Still, she preferred the solitude that the mezzanine provided, tiring as she was of the other wives humming "Mary Had a Little Lamb" every time she got up to use the ladies room. MFS62 wrote: Gimme a Met who could help your child with an uncoming Science Project for high school. We were fortunate when we moved in and found ourselves living next door to Professor Bret Hinchiliffe. He has a Masters in physics from MIT, you know. Gimme a Met who, based on the lousy morning he had, is feeling extremely fatalistic this afternoon.

metirish wrote: Gimme a Mets that opened up a fish & tackle shop in the mountains of Wyoming? Ol' Lou Thornton gets pretty lonely up there, what with fishing being such a lonely business. "But I like my solitude," he says. "You might call me the luckiest Lou on the face of the earth." Gimme a Met who is going to step in and resolve the threat of a transit strike.

]The Winter Meetings are like a giant class reunion for the world's most social sport. Old friends reconnect, new ones are made and futures are built. And, of course, when people talk, there's no small amount of gossip. Who's going where? Who talked to whom? Mike McGann's column offers an unusual behind-the-curtain look into how the Winter Meetings operate. Check out how much drinking goes on. The same piece also goes in the anti-igNoble direction and talks up a Met beat writer doing a heckuva job. http://www.gothambaseball.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1822

Johnny Dickshot wrote: Official ruling: Not funny. However, upon further review, officials ruled that, as a blood descendent of the original response joke in the thread, which itself was ruled funny, the penalty was offset by a baiting violation by the straight men. Repeat first down. Five yards for a football metaphor on a baseball board. First and fifteen. I mean one and oh.

MFS62 wrote: Clarence Coleman, a one-time LA gang member and now a Civil Liberties Lawyer protested the execution of Tookie Smith. He commented to a member of the press that being a gang member did hinder his professional career. Gimmie a Met who gave Pee Wee Herman his raincoat in the theater. Later Sarasota, Fla. law enforcement officials have announced Claude Edward Lockwood has been indicted as an accessory in the Paul Reubens lewd-behavior case. Lockwood, proprietor of Skip's Raincoat Emporium on Route 41, allegedly provided the entertainer known as Pee Wee Herman with the garment necessary for his theatrical adventure. "It was just a sample sale, I swear," Lockwood told reporters on the steps of the Sarasota County Courthouse. Gimme a Met whose neighborhood coffee house is being threatened by the opening of a Starbucks directly across the street.