stevejrogers

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Last year And now, appearing on newsstands everywhere Sad that Endy's catch probably would have been on the cover if we won Game 7. First cover for all of them as well.

Doc, Darryl, Bobby O and a couple of others IIRC. Pearlman didn't mention why no Doc or Straw in the book but sent me some pissy emails when I wrote about it in a review for the dot com side of Inside Pitch when it came out. Basically the "left messages, never really responded" line. Ojeda comes to mind because I heard him with Ann Ligouri on WFAN actually say that he was never approached for the book. Anyway, back on topic. Vern also had a gift of predicting pretty much the exact date his team would win the division. I don't know if he did that in his Oakland years, but he did it in both 86 and 88.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2007-06-11-912021566_x.htm ]NEW YORK (AP) — Vern Hoscheit, a coach on four World Series championship teams with the Oakland Athletics and the New York Mets, died Monday in Pierce, Neb. He was 85. Hoscheit, the Mets' bullpen coach from 1984-87, died at the Pierce Manor nursing home following a long illness, team spokesman Jay Horwitz said. Born in Brunswick, Neb., Hoscheit was a catcher in the New York Yankees' farm system for 12 seasons starting in 1941. He was a general manager for Quincy (1955-56), Peoria (1957), Greensboro (1958-59), then became president of the Three-I League in 1960. Hoscheit joined the Baltimore Orioles and was a scout and minor league coordinator (1962-67) and coach (1968). He switched to the Oakland Athletics and was a coach from 1969-74, earning World Series rings in his final three seasons. He coached for the California Angels (1976) and was the Mets' Gulf Coast League manager in 1983. With the parent team, he served as bullpen coach when New York won the World Series in 1986. He became a minor league catching instructor for the Mets in 1988. Hoscheit is survived by a son, Billy Ray Hoscheit, and daughters Sherri Ann Huigens and Cathy Jean Brodhaugen. A funeral is scheduled for Saturday at Brock House Funeral Home in Creighton, Neb. The Associated Press

metsmarathon wrote: i was but a mere fetus, several months away from my first gasp of fresh air. Heh, I wonder if m.e.t.b.o.t. was under the same conditions, about to be born from some first year toy! Seriously, I was just turning 4 months old. Jody McDonald often tells this story on whatever radio station he works for, that he actually had a hand in getting Dan Norman in the deal. Basically McDonald (mid teens at this point) was a baseball junkie so he knew the top players in other teams organizations. Anyway, the Reds were giving up Flynn, Zachry, Henderson and Rawly Eastwick who was adamant about not wanting to be traded to New York (Reds sent him to the Cards but lo and behold he signs as a free agent with the Yankees that off season) So the Mets needed one more player to add to the deal, Joe Mac decided to let his baseball crazed son do the picking, and Dan Norman was the guy. Guess thats why McDonald is now a sports talk radio host!

Heh, I'll give you that with Sheffield, I was just throwing it out there as a rumor I've heard and knew there would be a few "And that was a bad thing, why?" type of responses. Hell I'll even say that when it comes to Sheffield. Great rent-a-player but don't try to sign to any sort of long term contract.

Here are a couple of recent ones What was the real reason Scott Kazmir was traded, did any number of the suspects (Leiter/Franco, Peterson, ect) really have that big of a hand in the trade and why was his value so low where the organization would be willing to deal him off for someone who had a history of arm problems and wasn't anything to write home about despite moments of effectiveness. What was the reason for not even telling Boras and Pay-Rod "Here is our offer, take it or leave it." Why did Phillips have to make a show of the prospectus that Boras was shopping around when a lot of the frivolous items (separate merchandise tent, private box, ect) never showed up in Texas or Yankee Stadium. Was there some sort of ulterior motive as to why the Wilpons didn't want to even enter the sweepstakes, one theory I've heard is that if ARod had signed the value of the franchise would have gone up, and therefore Freddie wouldn't be able to buy out Nelson. Was there an ulterior motive in pursing Vladimir Guerrero? They announced they tendered the offer right around the due date for ticket plans for the coming season, hmmmmmm. Then they end up with their own doctor saying there was too much of a risk to give Vlad the years he was looking for. (3 and a half years in and he hasn't shown any signs of season jeopardizing injuries, plus we signed Pedro Martinez to a four year deal despite a greater health risk) Was this shoddy work by the Met doctors, or the spin the organization wanted to put out there once they were outbid. Does Al Leiter and crew really have Bob Apodaca's and later Bobby Valentine's blood on their hands? Ask Ralph Branca and he says they do = Seriously, the Apodaca and Valentine firings supposedly have Leiter's hands all over them, I guess this should really be, did Al Leiter and John Franco really wield as much power with the Wilpons as they did during the late 90s and early 00s? Also it has been suggested that Gary Sheffield was not brought in based on player feedback (say what you will about Sheff, his bat in the middle of any decent order would have been great to have)

TransMonk wrote: ="SteveJRogers"]All staffs do have a best pitcher for a given year but does that mean that pitcher was among the best in the game that given year? Craig Swan won the 1978 NL ERA title. Do you think the Phillies would rather have had him instead of Carlton? Reds and Seaver? Astros and Richard? Padres and Perry (who won the NL Cy Young that year)? I would think the answer to those would be a simple No. Just because a guy is the best pitcher on a team doesn't mean those pitchers comprise the top 15 in their respective leagues or the top 30 in MLB for a given year. So an ace is one of the best 15 pitchers in the league? I thought it was the best pitcher on your team. Thus the term "ace." Meaning the best you got...who's your number one?. ???? No I said "Just because a guy is the best pitcher on a team doesn't mean those pitchers comprise the top 15 in their respective leagues or the top 30 in MLB for a given year." The list of aces in the NL in 1978 includes Gaylord Perry, J.R. Richard, Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton, and maybe a couple of others but it does not include the best pitcher on the Mets staff, Craig Swan

295 up, 195 down!

OlerudOwned wrote: ="TransMonk"]="SteveJRogers"] Was Leiter (even at any point in his career) ever that type of pitcher who could be a #1 (apparantly my definition also includes being a #1, not a soild #2) on virtually every team in the league as a Met? So by your definition, an ace has to be an ace on "virtually" every other team in the league? By that reasoning, that would limit the number of aces in the league to only a few pitchers? Every staff has an ace. You can debate which pitchers in which years or eras were the staff ace, but all teams have them. I would call Al the Mets ace in 2002. I wouldn't say that all staffs have an ace. What if they're all similar? Hell, what if they all suck? Mark Redman was the best pitcher on the 2006 Royals. To give him a title that's meant to invoke the image of a guy like Johan Santana (aside from "Major League pitcher," though you can't even say that about Redman anymore) is kind of silly. What OO said! All staffs do have a best pitcher for a given year but does that mean that pitcher was among the best in the game that given year? Craig Swan won the 1978 NL ERA title. Do you think the Phillies would rather have had him instead of Carlton? Reds and Seaver? Astros and Richard? Padres and Perry (who won the NL Cy Young that year)? I would think the answer to those would be a simple No. Just because a guy is the best pitcher on a team doesn't mean those pitchers comprise the top 15 in their respective leagues or the top 30 in MLB for a given year.

Mets are trying their darndest to avoid 195 right now

Edgy DC wrote: I'm just referring to how many times we've been down this road. I used to post an annual thread called "Is Al an Ace?" The definitions of "ace" and "number one" are so nebulous as to be rather useless, in my experience. I see your point. BTW, I'm pretty sure I agreed with you when I mentioned I didn't consider Hampton an ace, and yet we went on to the 2000 WS, and conversley if you really want to use the "Saberhagen was the last "ace/number one" we had, well we all know how THOSE years ended up! So while it would be nice to have someone who I would consider one of the top, eh, 5 starters in the game, it isn't neccessary for a pennant winning ballclub. Ira's OP about the number of aces that have been "named" by various sources this season I think hammers home your point as well. So basically an ace according to those "labeling" all the Met starters as such is whomever has the hot hand at that moment in time. Therefore, is Tyler Clippard an ace?

Edgy DC wrote: Is Al an Ace? Was Leiter (even at any point in his career) ever that type of pitcher who could be a #1 (apparantly my definition also includes being a #1, not a soild #2) on virtually every team in the league as a Met? Heck, part of the "excitement" of bringing in Glavine was letting Leiter slide back down to the #2 role where he enjoyed his success in 2000 (and with the 1997 Marlins behind Kevin Brown) Sure he pitched like and was treated as the best pitcher on the staff for much of his Metly days, but was he a true MLB ace? See Swan, Craig for that answer.

Okay, time to start placing bets, which comes first, 300 Wins for Glavine, or 3,000 Ks for Pedro. Figure if Pedro's first start is in August, that would mean what, 6 more starts? The way things are going I'm starting to think Glavine is going to be at 298 when Pedro comes back!

Gwreck wrote: I don't think we necessarily have an ace, we have 5 #2 or #3 starters. Which seems to be working fine. And I don't think we really had an "ace" not named Pedro Martinez in quite a while. Mike Hampton was soild for us, but was he really an "ace" in the true sense of the word? Ditto Leiter, and clearly Glavine's ace days have been behind him for a couple of years now. If your definition of "ace" is someone who would be a #1 on a great majority of MLB teams for a given period of time when he was with the Mets, then the last one we really had (besides Pedro even now) was the guy iramets played off of for his last handle on here, Bret Saberhagen.

Looks like we have an excellent chance of preventing win # 350 (7th all-time) for Ass-Head Friday night That would be nice.

Rockin' Doc wrote: The thought of such a run may make you feel funny Steve, but it just makes me feel nauseous. I didn't say it made me feel funny, I'm just saying I feel a run coming. I doubt it will be sustained though, despite all the "history" of the two teams as MFY love to point out.

Willets Point wrote: I sure don't miss Warner Wolf. I sure want to strangle him when he's on 1050 ESPN Saturday mornings and on WABC with Curtis & Kuby.

Very strange. One would think Mets-Phillies would have been a better matchup than Tigers-Twins. Though I'd guess that the both teams were objecting based on the fact that they would have had to catch red eyes to Denver (Mets) and Houston (Phillies) Monday morning while the Tigers have Monday off and the Twinkies have a quickie flight from D-Town to NYC for Monday's game against the MFYs

="Edgy DC"]Bob Gibson wasn't the pitching coach for Leary's debut. Rube Walker was. To hear some people tell it, Walker invented pitch counts. Right, right, Bob was just the assistant. Brain fart there, sorry.

While I admit I'm kind of guilty of the same line of thinking, but I wonder why whenever someone tries to disprove that pitch counts matter and pitchers should just pitch, pitch and pitch some more, despite the overwhelming evidence (heck even Dallas Green admits that he had a hand in messing up Gen K) in today's game, they use only the rarest rubber arm examples like Bob Gibson (who was the pitching coach for Tim Leary's debut) rather than try to do any kind of research to counter the arguments beyond "This guy once threw 197 pitches and all these extra inning CGs" There is a guy on the radio right now saying Tom Gorzelanny of the Pirates should have been left in after 117 pitches in part because the guy didn't want to leave and because of how bad the Pirate pen is! The true funny thing is that the radio guy has no clue about Gorzelanny's or the Pirates' situation so its really is projecting his opinions blindly on everything. Even to the point of saying Sosa should have finished last night! Even when faced with possible evidence (Billy Martin with Ron Guidry and the 80s Athletics) these guys with these kinds of opinions will disregard them as untrue rumors. Is there anything you can say to these people?

="Rockin' Doc"]"Remain calm. All is well!" Over? Did you say over?...

Don't look now, but the Yanks have a "stretch" going. Taking two out of three in Boston and winning two out of the first three in Chicago. Coming up is Pittsburgh at home, DBacks, and Mets at home, then on the road for Rockies, Giants and Orioles before ending the month at home against Oakland. The Sawx are supposedly heading into the toughest part of their schedule with a trip to Arizona this weekend, then facing the Rockies and Giants at home, followed by an Atlanta-San Diego-Seattle road trip before finishing the month at home vs Texas. For some reason I have this feeling that we'll be looking at the standings July 1st and the Yankees will be around 5 to 7 games behind.

David Newhan Ben Johnson

Any sighting of a Pedro Feliciano card in a 2007 set so far? And I guess that shot of Tucker in the NLCS highlights set is as close as a Michael Tucker in a Met uni set that I'm going to get for the 2006 NL East Champs Postseason Roster Team Set