G-Fafif

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is pleased to announce the apprehension of one Derrell McKinley Harrelson who was wanted on suspicion of check kiting, money laundering and forgery. We have several documents in which he used the name Buddy which we have determined to be an alias. Gimme a Met who's opening a trendy downtown bistro.

We're sending our love down the well to all the expansion teams, even the Astros. http://www.gothambaseball.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6765

Great article, E. The whole issue with Minky struck me as overwrought. The end of the '91 World Series, as great a World Series and as great a Game 7 as imaginable, came and went and nobody worried about such things. Such innocence. As always, Dougie's good for a great quote: ]"And I was on that CNN crawl, sandwiched between the Laci Peterson murder trial and tsunami victims," Mientkiewicz says. "I didn't do anything wrong, but it's no fun when the whole world thinks the opposite. You would have thought I stole Ted Williams' body and wasn't going to give it back."

ScarletKnight41 wrote: Let's not regret anything about one of the two seasons that ended with the Mets winning it all. Amen sister. Maybe if Mex had stayed on the bench he would've been yelling at Carter, Mitchell, Knight or Mookie that we'll fight if you swing at any fastballs. Wow, those games really do blur together.

The date of dates: October 25, 1986.http://mets2005.myblogsite.com/blog/_archives/2005/10/25/1321179.html

ScarletKnight41 wrote:Greg - when in 2001 were you at Pac Bell and Oakland?We were there late June/early July that year.July 5 at the Coliseum (Angels beat the A's), July 6 at Pac Bell (Giants beat the Brewers). It was very hot for the first one, very cold for the second one.

Willets Point wrote:the two World Series rostersShouldn't there be four World Series rosters?I believe he meant the World Series rosters from the championship years though I seem to recall in the wake of 2000 seeing a special section devoted to those National League champions, but only the WS roster. He excluded Rey O for being on the DL and Derek Bell for going down in the LDS. He's a stickler for his own rules.Greg - would you please pass these thoughts along to Jason about today's column 1. Nice column. An interesting way to look back at who joined the team this year. 2. I have two boys who would gladly teach him how to play MLB Showdown. In fact, the little guy (the one you met) routinely collects Showdown cards. 3. He should come over and join the Pool. The water's fine, and we talk about the Mets all year long!SK, I'll pass along your appraisal, your offer and your invite.Truth be told, I don't think I named The Holy Books. I merely equated viewing them with facing Mecca. Or Metta.

mlbaseballtalk wrote: If ya want to be TECHNICAL about it, Conception probably was when Branch Rickey and company formally announced the formation of the "Contintental League" I'm thinkin' that was the seduction process, Branch getting the National League drunk on antitrust threats.

Not to throw cold water on the birthday cake, but aren't we celebrating the conception of the Mets rather than the birth? Whether life begins at conception is an issue best debated in another forum. Either way, happy milestone anniversary Metsies.

October 16, 1969.The date says it all.

October 16, 1969.The date says it all.

What they smoked at the PG... https://www.goodsportsart.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=APC&itemtemplate=PDGCommTemplates/FullNav/GSA-Custom-Print.html&emptyoverride=yes And, also way out in center, what they drank, at least toward the end of the Jints' stay... https://www.goodsportsart.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=PGN&itemtemplate=PDGCommTemplates/FullNav/GSA-Custom-Print.html&emptyoverride=yes

Zvon wrote: The Asstros were 15-30 in May Every time I see that record, I think back to the end of May 1977. That was the record that got Joe Frazier fired. Those Mets were 15-30. They were buried. Not even Joe Torre winning his first seven of eight could save them. Nor could that impending swift acquisition of a middle infielder, a starting pitcher and two top outfield prospects for some guy. That a team could be 15-30 and in the League Championship Series in the same year has to be one of the most remarkable feats of our time.

The Giants smoked Chesterfields and drank Knickerbocker. The Dodgers drank Schaefer and smoked Luckies. Then both franchises died. Shows what all that drinking and smoking will do to you.

Frayed Knot wrote: ="G-Fafif"]Spiro Agnew resigned the vice presidency the same afternoon. The Mets beating the Reds was a bigger deal, even in Washington. I forget which Supreme Court justice it was who had his papers released within the last year or so (perhaps then Chief Justice Burger) who saved a note that had him asking a clerk for the score and receiving the news he sought. Whether he was interested in Agnew I'm not sure. It was Cincinnati native Potter Stewart. The justices were in the midst of a hearing concerning one of the pending Watergate related cases. Stewart decided to have his clerks pass notes to him on the progress of the game (day games as always back then). At first he wanted updates every inning, then every half-inning, and eventually every batter. When the news about Agnew broke (his resignation was unrelated to the Watergate matter of course) the clerk's next note read; "Kranepool Flies to Right ... Agnew Resigns" Thanks for clearing that up. Who'd have thought when both men went to sleep the night before that Ed Kranepool would have a job to go later that week and Spiro Agnew wouldn't?

metirish wrote:On October 10, 1973, the New York Mets win their second National League pennant in five years. In the fifth game of the Championship Series, Tom Seaver wins a 5-2 decision over the Cincinnati Reds. Tug McGraw, who inspired the Mets with his �Ya Gotta Believe!� slogan, picks up the save� http://www.baseballhalloffame.com/history/index.htm7-2. Don't let those bastards take away a single run of ours.http://retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B10100NYN1973.htm

mlbaseballtalk wrote: Ventura's Grand Slam Single doesn't rank as a great moment anymore because the Mets failed to win that series. Perhaps. An MLB poll of fans (a more limited online audience back then) voted it the greatest moment of the 1999 season and post-season. It will never fall from our lists, but across the board, I think a lot of LDS and LCS moments get lost in the shuffle. There's just so much October baseball that a lot of it, unfortunately, trickles down the memory hole. A while back, I was researching something about the Mets and 1999 when I came across a Newsday list titled something like Great Baseball Moments of 1999. There was NO mention of the Grand Slam Single. It didn't clinch anything, so whoever was compiling the list (a callow intern new to sports, I'd like to think) didn't think to mention it nor anything pertaining to the Mets' first post-season appearance in eleven years. You're gonna tell me that a New York/Long Island paper really thought Tony Gwynn's 3000th hit or Robin Yount's induction into Cooperstown was a bigger deal to its readers? Leave the Mets out of it. In 1997, the Orioles and Indians played a classic Game 6 in the ALCS. Mussina vs. Nagy. It went eleven. Mussina struck out eleven in eight. Tony Fernandez hit a solo homer off Armando Benitez in the top of the eleventh and Jose Mesa made it stand up to clinch the pennant. One of the most pressure-packed games I can remember. And do you hear a word about it today, less than a decade later?

mlbaseballtalk wrote: Also look at how the 86 WS is treated. Ask a Met fan for the greatest series of all time, 86 will rank up there, but ask a baseball historian, probably barely cracks the top ten ESPN, going into the 2002 Series, ranked 1986 as No. 8 all-time. The top three happened to be my top three that I've seen: 1991, 1975, 2001. We also had the two highest-ranked five-game series, '69 and '00, and '73 ranked in the Top 25 as well. If you're thinking New York bias, there were plenty of MFY series that were written off as awfully dull. The Mets are carriers of drama. The 1980 Phillie-Astro NLCS tilt was an all-around classic, probably the best of the five-game era.

ScarletKnight41 wrote: Greg's thoughts on this series Far be it from me to get in the way of a FAFIF plug (thanks SK!), but did it strike anybody else that even though we lost the title of longest post-season game ever played that this didn't match up to our postseason frightfests in terms of ubersuspense? An 18-inning game tied in the bottom of the ninth on a home run by a catcher with three dingers all year an inning after a grand slam brought the team back from the dead and then, eight innings after a potential walkoff goes foul, a little-known rookie wins it after a Hall of Fame starter pitches three scoreless innings of relief not dramatic enough? It was plenty dramatic. But I wasn't feeling the crazy tension of Mets-Astros Game Six or Mets-Red Sox Game Six or Mets-Diamondbacks Game Four or Mets-Braves Games Five and Six or Mets-Giants Game Three. I know, it didn't involve the Mets. But beyond that, it just felt long, not ohmigod, I'm going to kill myself if somebody doesn't score soon. I felt that way during the Angels-Red Sox Game 5 in '86 and I didn't have a clear rooting interest then. I felt that way during almost the entire 1991 World Series when I'll admit to admiring the Braves but certainly not hating the Twins. I felt it more in the Cardinal-Astro undercard last year and I surely felt it in the Yankee-Red Sox main event of '04. I felt mostly curious about this one, not as if my life depended on the outcome. Why didn't this game take me over like those did? Was it just my searing hatred for both teams (well for one team and one Hall of Fame bound pitcher, respectively)? Was it that it was Game Four and not Game Five and thus there would've been a tomorrow for Houston (which technically would be today)? Was it that this classic was shunted to ESPN and the announcers (our own dependable Dave O'Brien and the uselessly yakative Rick Sutcliffe) didn't sell the drama as an Al Michaels (in ALCS Game 5 1986: "If you're just tuning in...too bad!") might have? Was it the continual reminders that SportsCenter and NFL Tonight would be as soon as this silly baseball game ends? Was it that this completely became the Astros' show from the eighth inning on and that it never legitimately seemed that the Braves would prevail? It was great. It was memorable. But I wasn't feeling, despite what Phil Garner understandably claimed, Greatest Game Ever Played absorption. Anybody else?

Not a bad day for winning pennants either, as was the case on October 10, 1973. Spiro Agnew resigned the vice presidency the same afternoon. The Mets beating the Reds was a bigger deal, even in Washington. I forget which Supreme Court justice it was who had his papers released within the last year or so (perhaps then Chief Justice Burger) who saved a note that had him asking a clerk for the score and receiving the news he sought. Whether he was interested in Agnew I'm not sure.

Four left, if I'm following. Of three of these I'm certain: 11. Who are we? We were teammates for a few seasons and we both ended our Met careers on the same day -- but in different games of a doubleheader -- as pinch-hitters. In the first game, one of us whiffed and stayed in the game at first base. In game 2, the other guy singled. We were traded to Los Angeles together. HICKMAN, HUNT 1966 18. I singled in three at-bats, finishing my third year with the Mets and the third straight year of declines in home runs, doubles and batting average. Before I got any worse they traded me. VENTURA 2001 41. My last appearance as a Met was flying out to right as a pinch-hitter: Not a bad decision if you ask me. TORRE 1977 (player-manager; clever) This one is troublesome: 5. My Met career -- and as it turned out, my MLB career -- ended on a collision. The only answer I can offer with any certainty is MILLAN, who crashed into Ed Ott and never played in the bigs again, but his last Met/MLB game was in 1977 (later he was sold to the Taiyo Whales) and the only year that hasn't been filled in, if I'm tracking this correctly, is 1976. The only Mets whose Major League careers finished with the Mets in 1976 were Jay Kleven, Billy Baldwin and Leon Brown. I can find no evidence that any of them suffered an untimely demise, plus you haven't really dabbled in the uberobscure for other answers (Rob Gardner's game is mildly famous), so I'm going to respectfully ask: Have you made a mistake and used two 1977s? If you haven't, I apologize for doubting your thoroughness. And even if you have, a kick-ass quiz...and a kick-ass job of answering all around. (If I have to go with a guess from the remaining three 76ers, I'm going to say Baldwin, but I really do believe the answer here is Millan, '77 or not.)

In the bottom of the eighth, Mike sent a half-inning of bouquets our way, how Sunday meant so much to him, how the fans kept him on his toes, how places like New York and Boston (and even Chicago, he added since he was there) are such great places to play. He didn't sound quite as resigned to leaving as he had before but he wasn't all "we're gonna get a deal done." He seemed refreshed.

Edgy DC wrote: 5/11/1988: The Mets were playing at the Astrodome in Houston. In the top of the ninth, Tim Teufel hit a line drive that cleared the fence in left center for an apparent grand slam off Dave Smith to put the Mets ahead. However, it struck the concrete outer wall and came back on the field. The blast was eventually ruled a three-run double, which tied the game and sent it into extra innings. The Mets eventually won it in the tenth, 9-8.. Good goes around. Let me explain. I wrote to Retrosheet about this one a couple of years ago to suggest it be added to their list of lost home runs. I remembered the game and the situation but not all the details. They did the rest. I'm gratified that it struck the Retrosheet outerwall and came back on the Crane Pool Forum.

Johnny Dickshot wrote: I'll prepare a release, but before I can I need details on the original and a magic quote from the cpf administrator over why we did this. When did the original Scheafer POTG run? Any details? The one year I will swear to was 1976. Jerry Koosman had come from way behind to win it by one point (86 to 85 sticks out in my memory) over Dave Kingman because Dave Kingman was out for several weeks in the middle of summer. Schaefer had taken over for Rheingold after 1973. Before that, they were the Yankee beer and Rheingold was the Met beer. Later we were sponsored by the Cardinal beer. Has anything been quite right since Rheingold was in its prime?

The Padres are frauds. I'd like to see the Cardinals cash in their make-good from last year just on principle. I don't much care for them, but I hate to see teams play as well as they have for two years and come away with nothing (unless they're the Braves or the Skanks). A Petco-Fenway World Series would be the most aesthetically pleasing, however.