stevejrogers

Well if NYSOM is played at Shea as opposed to New York, New York I'd say the Mets consider him to be their version of Sinatra.

New York State Of Mind is generally played at Shea, both after a loss and after whatever winning game ending song of the moment is played. He is considered the Mets', OUR version of Frank Sinatra for crying out loud.

While Joel has a ton of Yankee links (Played at YS, grew up a Yankee fan, lyrics such as "Rose knows he's such a credit to the game/but the Yankees steal the headlines every time", he is wearing Yankee gear in the Stranger album, ect) but it still does seem odd for the Joel hate amongst a fan base that one would imagine would see a lot of cross pollination. Well maybe its just the Long Island thing that would make people feel that way. ]When Billy Joel played YS, he said something to the effect of he thought it would be great to play Shea because the Beatles did, but when he remembered Grand Funk did, too, it didn't seem that great. That remark and his decision to take his business elsewhere drove a bit of a wedge between us. Grand Funk? Greg, You do realize they are universally named as one of the worst groups in the history of rock & roll. Yeah thats akin to the amount of "pundits" that put Sgt. Pepper as the greatest album of all time despite the Beatles themselves putting Rubber Soul & Revolver above it, but considering the amount of Grand Funk hate that doesn't sound like a real good reason to dislike an artist.

Astrodome is still in use, but one of its major non Astros/Oilers attractions, the Houston Livestock Show And Rodeo had a George Strait (a usual performer at it, and its new home, Reliant Stadium home of the Texans) concert be a final send off

I could go with any of those three. Probably the Brew Crew just for the satisfaction of Milwaukee finally getting into the postseason for the first time since 1982. I agree it would look kind of bad if another team made it to the World Series for the second straight season with less than 85 wins. Its one thing for the 1973 Mets (82-79) to sneak in the World Series and darn nearly win it all, but thats supposed to be an every-now-and then occurance. If something like the Cards of last year winning, you almost set yourself up for baseball turning into the "forced parity" of the NFL where now teams can sputter early on, finish and make the playoffs at 8-8 or 9-7 and have as good of a shot at winning the title as the big 13-3 teams because "on any given Sunday..." Also it gives teams a false sense of security in terms of making changes for the next season.

Andrew Johnson as we are backing into The Civil War here with the countdown 17 thanks to the Mets 11-3 win over the Astros at Shea. Braves win, which means their tragic number stands at 16, Nationals at 8 and the Marlins are at 5.

Who is buried in Grant's Tomb? The Magic number is with Ulysses S. Grant for a little while, thanks to the Marlins' 6-3 win over the Phillies.

Yancy Street Gang wrote: A lot of people get "ironically" confused with "coincidentally" or "incidentally." Ironically =

Looks like Troy Glaus is also in the same hot water!

metirish wrote: Did I miss some news regarding Piazza,Fonzie ,Lenny and HoJo? No I'm just sick of the virtiol fans have of teams they hate (Yankees, Cardinals, Dodgers, ect) and are willing to make permanent bans on guys like Giambi, Clemens, McGwire, Sosa, Bonds, Sheffield for what they did for what seems only based on their hatred for the teams and players. If you are that upset, then stop following baseball entirely because chances are you rooted for someone who DID cheat. And the four aforementioned Mets are among the biggest ex-Mets that have whispers and innuendo thrown around by non-Met fans or Met haters. Here is something from another board that actually makes sense comparing Aaron and Bonds on the issue of steroids and greenies. Kind of making the point I'm trying to about making emotional, irrational statements based on your hate for one team/player when stuff like this has been going on for decades, and possibly by guys you like or teams you like ]Greenies would give you increased stamina and physical energy. Steroids give you increased stamina and physical energy with the added benifit of making muscle fibers heal more quickly. You don't take steroids and get strong. You take steroids and it allows you to do some crazy intense workouts for long periods of time (increased stamina and physical energy by the way). When you workout, the muscle fibers have to heal in order to get the best results. Usually this is you waiting until the soreness is gone to work out the same muscle group again, but on steroids, the muscle fibers heal faster allowing you to work out again faster. Greenies would give you similar effects minus you feeling sore in less time. Increased stamina and physical energy towards the middle of the season when your body starts getting fatigued is very much a performance enhancer. And why do people think Aaron took greenies? Because he would have been a minority among baseball players in his time if he didn't. The majority of the players took them (some estimates say 75% of them took the REGULARLY) in that time period. The reason you don't hear accusations about Aaron is that by the time Greenies were seen as a bad thing and banned (some, what, 30+ years later) Aaron was already a beloved national hero. No one was going to go back and point anything like that out. And like I said, if 75% of the league was using them then, who gives a fuck. They weren't doing what Aaron was doing so it wouldn't diminish his greatness in my eyes. Same with Bonds. Unless you truely believe tha the was one of the FEW guys taking something back when it wasn't against the rules to get an edge, then you have to know that yes, drugged up Bonds was playing against drugged up players and was doing what no one else was doing. As for Aaron and the video, back when everyone figured it would be Ken Griffey Jr. to catch his total, he gave an interview where he said he wouldn't be there when it happened because he wouldn't be traveling around waiting for the last home run and that the guy that broke it should have his moment because he already had his. The press pretending that he didn't show up as a slight to Bonds are just being misleading...as always.

Johnny Dickshot wrote: They're all filthy drug-using cheaters. They should move the entire franchise to the WWF. Mike Piazza, Edgardo Alfonzo Len Dysktra, Howard Johnson As I said in the past, make sure you can deal with news about your favorite team's players if it is revealed that there is fire where there once was just some smoke in the same way you are about other teams (Giants, Cardinals, Yankees) just because you have a personal hatred for that team and/or its players.

A furry lovable blue lump has something to say about this: Me don't want to count Elmos. ME WANT TO COUNT DOWN AND EAT... COOKIES! OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY! ME GOT 19 COOKIES TO EAT! C is for Cookie, thats good enough for me... AHHHH, too bad me can't find small enough cookie pics to post 19 of them. Me just go back to eating them! YUM YUM YUM YUM!

="Yancy Street Gang"]That wrinkle isn't all that interesting. It's still going to lead to more Darryl Strawberry and Keith Hernandez and Doc Gooden... How about this: The magic number is now in the custody of Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th President of the United States. One way of doing it. Take it away then! =

="Frayed Knot"]There are orange dots on the caps? The button on top of the cap

Interesting and useless tidbit: Bobby Ojeda of course was injured for the 1988 postseason, and my copy of the 1973 NLCS program (IIRC its the Mets one, not the Reds) does list Brian Ostrosser as #19 even though he was no where near the postseason roster. My guess is he, along with John Strohmayer were just called up in August and would have been possiblities if there was an injury or two late.

Fitting that a number that was used just on any of the previous 4 division winning postseason rosters appears on a day the number decreases thanks to a loss. Nothing against Bobby O, just feels a bit lonely having one guy representing #19, added to the taste of not winning today.

Yancy Street Gang wrote: Uniform numbers again? This is probably the fortieth time we've used uniform numbers for a countdown. (Maybe I should include a photo of Pat Zachry in this post.) Heh, well there is a "wrinkle" of sorts, only Uni numbers worn by members of the postseason roster of division winners (Sorry Ventura, Zeile, Alfonzo and others from 99-00). Hence Hojo, Agee and Green. Well otherwise I'd be spending time trying to locate a shot of 1973 Met Jerry May as well as adding Victor Diaz in the mix along with other wearers of various numbers through that particular season.

Man how could I forget one of the great PHers of all time, Lenny Harris Hmmmm, too bad I'm just doing division winning Mets in the countdown, that is a nice pic of Lenny.

Edgy DC wrote: I don't really care about wire-to-wire. (In the great scheme of things, who really cares that the 1986 Mets were 2-3 after five games?) Consecutive winning years, that's more important. ITA, just an inneresting factoid to throw out there. Yeah in the grand scheme of things, even the MFYs of 1998 weren't off to that flying of a start. All that matters is the totals at the end of the year. Provided that an extra 11 wins are added to the win total come late October!

20 Lets start doing this the right way 16 now for the Braves

At 77-60 the Mets are 4 games away from clinching their 4th season of having a .500 or better record for the entire season, the other three: 1985 98-64 1998 88-74 2006 97-65 Naturally that would mean this would be the first time the Mets have done back-to-back wire-to-wire .500 seasons. Also interesting to note is that this is should be the Mets third straight season of a .500 or better season, the other streaks in that regard, which actually encompass all of the Mets .500 or better seasons: 7 1984-1990 5 1969-1973 1997-2001 2 1975-1976

Closing in on the top 20 with 21 18 for the Bravos 9 for the Fish and 8 for the Nats.

Kelly Johnson sac fly makes it 3-1 Braves.