stevejrogers

Is it wrong for me to wish Barry Bonds, Griffey and Soriano all have an avalanche of votes in the next week to knock Beltran OUT of the ASG?

Hell maybe even have the Marlins who are 4 back pass the Mets and drop them to 4th in the division. I'm deadly serious, if anything is going to give this team a serious kick in the ass, which they so richly deserve, maybe that will do it, fall out of first place for the first time since the second day of the 2006 season. This team is playing like it's entitiled to October Baseball when in reality they are tied in the win column, 1 game overall, and about 2 games off the pace for the WC slot. The season isn't doomed, but maybe, just maybe a fall from first would give this team a freaking shot of Adrenaline to retake 1st and have that season that supposedly is ours. Its easy to say "Ya Gotta Believe" and quote Bluto Blutarksy if you think your team has a bit of life and spark in them, but right now it's nothing. I think the only thing left is for the Mets to be shown that NOTHING is for granted. Boy, this team historically doesn't do well in these "down to the wire" years do they? What 73 and 99 I think are the only times the Mets actually came out on top in a "not decided untill last week" of the season type of race.

New York 38 32 .543 - Atlanta 38 35 .521 1.5 Philadelphia 37 35 .514 2.0 Florida 35 38 .479 4.5 Washington 30 42 .417 9.0 In case you were wondering, the Braves are trailing the Dodgers and D'Backs (leaders) for the WC. This is clearly going to be a "Down The Stretch" race, historically we've never been great at these right? I think 73 and 99 are the only times the Mets managed to win a race that went down to the wire.

Do we have to declare a winner for the month of June?

Also does m.e.t.b.o.t. have any advice for someone that completely forgot his Fantasy League duties and now may win a m.e.t.b.o.t. as the boobie prize for being DFL?

So I assume metsmarathon is not taking m.e.t.b.o.t. on his next NYC training session?

Let me ask this way, any shot of m.e.t.b.o.t. running any marathons in 2007? =

Doesn't look like Bert has much left to go anyway I wonder what prompted the challenge? Has Gardenhire been not letting him finish games?

Some good reading on Athletics history The Kansas City A's & The Wrong Half Of The Yankees by Jeff Katz that chronicles how Kansas City came to get the Athletics and how involved the Del Webb and Dan Topping owned Yankees were in getting someone involved (Arnold Johnson) in buying the A's and moving them to KC, and then the eventual pipeline that continued the Stengel era and pretty much sunk the KC A's before they even began. Baseball's Last Dynasty Title is woefully out of date (not to mention the Back-to-Back Reds and Blue Jays might argue but Bruce Markusen does a great job detailing the history of Charlie Finley's ownership heyday.

Frayed Knot wrote: - Frank Thomas is 4 HRs short of 500 ARod needs 9 more as well. Also Sosa is sitting on 599

Here is one I just thought about. It has always been assumed by certain ownership hating/pro-player members of the media that Jeff Wilpon weilded too much power with the late 90s-early 00s Mets. Well it would seem that the Mets version of George Steinbrenner has not been as visable over the last couple of years as the aforementioned media members had stated he was in the past. Pretty much Jeff Wilpon is trotted out for press confrences, charitable functions, "tours" of Citi Field and other PR related gatherings. So, just how much "power" did Jeff have/has in the day-to-day baseball operations, or did his "connections" dry up when Leiter and Franco (rumored to be his links to the clubhouse) were jettisoned, or was it all really the over-zealous delusions of anti-ownership/corporate America and anti-nepotisim in corporate America media wankers?

Oh, In case you were wondering, here is the listing of who is in that Met factory set, which can be found at Shea, hobby stores and other places where cards are sold, great for a starter set: Wright Reyes Beltran Valentin Green Hernandez Martinez Milledge Wagner Lo Duca Alou Delgado Glavine Humber (RC)

Two Wagners, uh thats Billy, not Honus The one on the left is Wagner's regular issue #109, the second can be found in the Mets factory set of 14 (numbered NYM9) It's highly possible Topps just wanted to replace all horozontial cards in those factory packs since every other card is exactly the same as the regular issue, well save for being numbered NYM1-NYM14. The guess probably comes from the fact that the "infamous" Jeter card is not in the Yankee factory set

Interesting to note though, Pappas did "own" Frank: From Baseball-Reference Car# Year Date Tm Opp Score Inn RoB Out Cnt Pit Play Desc. +-----+----+-------------+---+----+-----------+---+---+---+---+---+-------------------------+ 1 1972 1972-06-17 LAD @CHC tied 0-0 t 2 --- 0 - Groundout: P-1B 2 down 0-2 t 4 1-- 2 - Strikeout 3 down 0-4 t 7 --- 0 - Strikeout 4 1972-08-29 LAD @CHC tied 0-0 t 2 --- 0 - Groundout: 3B-1B 5 ahead 1-0 t 4 --- 0 - Groundout: 2B-1B 6 ahead 1-0 t 6 --- 2 - Single to LF 7 down 1-2 t 9 1-- 0 - Strikeout

Milt Pappas in the oral history of the Baltimore Orioles, From 33rd Street To Camden Yards by John Eisenberg mentions an incident the Spring Training after he got traded for Frank Robinson where Frank stood him up for some photo shoot featuring the principles in the trade, then that he never wound up facing Frank untill he (Pappas) was a Cub and Frank was a Dodger in 1972. Pappas mentions that every time Robinson came up he buzzed him, and that he struck him out three times in the game. It seems plausible, but I really didn't think it happened the way it did since Pappas has a history of overselling himself (especially for a shot at the HOF) Well, Pappas faced the Dodgers on June 17, 1972 and Robinson did indeed strike out three times during the game, but his first AB against Pappas resulted in this DODGERS 2ND: Robinson grounded out (pitcher to first); Buckner grounded out (shortstop to first); Sims flied out to left; 0 R, 0 H, 0 E, 0 LOB. Dodgers 0, Cubs 0. and he struck out the third time against another former Oriole Tom Phoebus!

Some more 1986 stuff The infamous 1986 Brawl vs the Reds The aftermath of Ray Knight v. Tom Niedenfuer The fight

Piazza v. Mota

="DocTee"]I remember a good Mets-Braves fight with Mazzilli rushing the mound (Bedrosian? Hrabosky?) after he had homered. Maybe "remember" isn't the right word. This one? ] The Mets and Braves in a scuffle on the mound during the first inning of a game at Shea Stadium. The altercation started when Darryl Strawberry charged Braves pitcher David Palmer after he was hit by a pitch. Identifiable are from left on the ground are Ron Darling, Keith Hernandez (tackling Palmer) and Rick Aguilera of the Mets and Palmer and Billy Sample (reaching for Aguilera) of the Braves. No one was ejected from the game. (AP Photo) Jul 11, 1986

May 14th 1994 Got Cangelosi there trying to pound an unseen John Smoltz, ex-Met Charlie O'Brien pounding on Cangelosi and Terry F'N Pendelton in there as well Interesting that this pre-dates the Braves-Mets so-called rivalry!

OH THE PAIN!

Got a couple from another board that seem like urban legends about Mike & The Mad Dog's Influence in NYC sports ]They forced Nelson Doubleday to come off his yacht and tell future ESPN hack Steve Phillips into trading for Mike Piazza. I question the validity of them being the true driving force behind Nelson pushing the trade. I do recall Phillips not wanting to do the deal because he promised Hundley that there would be no such deal. Mike did "thank" them on his very first interview after the deal though! ]They led the charge in ridiculing the Mets in 2004 about the Zambrano for Kazmir trade. According to Bob Klapisch who broke the trade, Mets management figured the fans would not care about trading a top prospect to be in a pennant race. Another one that I really don't recall as it was happening. Francessa anyway has always been on the "go for the brass ring now" and "how can anyone say he's gonna be good when they haven't seen him?" side on such arguments on trading prospects for veteran help. I don't think they were leading the charge though. What I still find the most hilarious thing about that whole weekend in 2004 was Wally Mathews' reaction. On Friday as the trades was announced he was in complete endorsement saying that he didn't know Kazmir or Peterson but he did know Benson and he did know Zambrano (since Victor had pitched in the majors.) On Monday, after an entire weekend of bashing and Met losing in Atlanta he was singing the complete opposite tune of "Lets trade all the veterans in waiver wire deals!" I mean the guy pulled both hammies backpedaling! ]They may have forced the Mets into rehiring Dallas Green after the second half surge of 1995, thus missing out on potential candidates like Tony LaRussa and Jim Leyland. Anyone remember this? I would doubt they would have had that much pull to "force" the Mets in keeping Dallas Green in 1996.

From the 2005 Parody Acrhives: mlbaseballtalk Oct 21 2005 10:39 PM The Mets Traded Seaver Today More Brush up with The Possum The great George Jones and one of the greatest country music songs of all time, "He Stopped Loving Her Today" Grant was mad that he was called "The Franchise" He told him he just could not be signed As the months went slowly by, The deals were rolling through his mind That 69 pennant hung on the wall Drove the Mets brass crazy now and then. But the fans still loved him through it all, Hoping Tom would still pitch again. Then came an offer from the Reds, For Zachry, Flynn and Hendu So on June 15th Seaver's run came to an end Dick Young's response was "What can you do?" The magic of 1969 died that day, It was hard to fight back the tears. The team's heart and soul had gone away Last time you'd see Shea smile for years. The Mets traded Tom Seaver today, Got him for Flynn, Zach, Henu and Norm, And soon the fans will stay away, The Mets traded Seaver today. You know, he did come back one last time. Oh we all wondered if he would. And it kept runnin' through my mind, Mets fans will never be over that trade for good. The Mets traded Tom Seaver today, Got him for Flynn, Zach, Henu and Norm, And soon the fans will stay away, The Mets traded Seaver today.

="seawolf17"]And WHAM, just like that, Chan Ho Park is an Astro. Good choice of guys to put on cards this year, Topps. I would venture that he might be one of the very few one game Mets to get a card as a Met that is not part of the "All Time Roster" set put out by The Wiz in 1991.

Geez, of course I forget Cangelosi backing into a cover in 1994

I'm dissapointed that again they are not wearing the pinstripes. I believe this is the last time a Met in pinstripes has been shown on the cover of SI, Straw July 7th 1990