stevejrogers

I'm starting to think we should give out cookies instead of beer on this kind of night!

ScarletKnight41 wrote: ="metirish"]I thought about you SK when Gary and Keith said that.... I've always liked you Irish Hey I think thats the closest we've gotten to a Cyber Cookie on the Cranepool Forum! Well not counting that birthday cake SK trots out all the time =

Frayed Knot wrote: The weird thing about Mattingly's 6 GS season is that they came in the middle of his career and that they were the only 6 he ever hit. Never hit even one before that season, never hit any after. The other 'odd' record Mattingly holds part of is the consecutive HR streak - 8 games, since tied by several others. And the funny part about that is when YES shows the (then) record 8th on their between-innings highlights ... and the ball is bouncing around in a sea of empty RF bleacher seats. There are probably a bushel full of recent Yanqui fans who don't know there was a time when empty seats was a regular occurance. And that seques nicely into this lovely piece by Bob Raisman the other day in the Daily News: ]Building blockheads On Wednesday, at 9:30 a.m., YES will offer live coverage of the ground-breaking ceremony for the new Yankee Stadium. Will Kay and John Sterling be part of the festivities? Remember the days when they, during the season on a nightly basis, bashed the Bronx on Yankee radiocasts? Remember when they said it was impossible for the Yankees to draw fans because of the neighborhood and traffic conditions? And will Yankee mascot Rudy Giuliani be in attendance? He would join Kay and Sterling in the radio booth to trash the Bronx while pushing George Steinbrenner's plan to build a new Stadium in Manhattan. Now, they all have changed their tune. How convenient. Amen to that! Anyone listening to WFAN during these years could hear an endless stream of "I'm never going back there!" and the usual sob stories about horrible incidents witnessed at Yankee Stadium. One particular one I remember because it was grossely untrue was a caller who said he knew the guy that designed the "Bat" outside the stadium, and pointed out to the caller when there was a crowd around doing what the person thought was gawking, turns out a very dead person was chained to it! Untrue because its a simple smokestack that eventually got the Louisville Slugger company to furnish it to look like Babe Ruth's old personal model, and you would need a lot of material to effecitivly chain someone to it. Not to mention it would be a noted bit of grisly triva in any book about crime in NYC Well, the point is that I'll bet dollars to donuts that many of those who made those passioned, "NEVER AGAIN" calls to WFAN and letters to the sports editiors wound up back in the Stadium, dancing to the Macarena/YMCA/Cotton Eye Joe/or whatever, prasing the good name of Kate Smith or Ronan Tynan, and screaming Derek Jeter's name during the course of the last 12 seasons, when it became the "thing to do" again Never mind of course that not a THING has changed in the neighboorhood outside Yankee Stadium. Little cosmetic things outside the actual Stadium have appeared, Sidewalk Cafe and Team Store, but nothing about the neighboorhood around River and 161st has changed. So tell me again how unsafe it is to be in Yankee Stadium? Gee, I'd figure it be less safe when there is 50,000 people than there was when it was only 20,000 =

Hey, thats his final apperance in a Met uniform as well!

Edgy DC wrote: Trains are great, even though (1) the Amtrack government-subsidized monopoly is a disaster, and (2) people are zipping around France and Japan in high-speed supertrains made with technology developed here while we're still rumbling around in 1930s-tech sardine cans. Interesting fact: Rockville Centre in 1933 advertised that they were 37 minutes from Manhattan by train. It's the same trip time today... if everything goes right. I should have headed down to Union Station to meet Mr. Met after the game. They probably have a special train entrance to get him on, don't you think? Yeah but as the years go on this line written in the early 50's is getting more and more out dated "...I bet there's rich folks eating, in those fancy dinning cars, probably drinking coffee and smoking them big cigars..." -Johnny Cash "Folsom Prison Blues" No fancy dinning cars, and no on-board special coffee either! Oh and its NO SMOKING these days And I'm not even going to get into all the references in Steve Goodman's "The City Of New Orleans" in terms of the romantic notion of train travel

="Zvon"]Good game. So much for any post game show-- 11's already joined Fresh Prince in progress. What ever happened to the ol post game show? I wanna see a Kiners Korner. Been that way for a long time now with shows on the WB...err now its CW 11 Your only bet for any kind of pre/post coverage will always be with whomever the cable carrier is. Worst example was in 1999 I believe, where the Mets were doing a 1969 reuion and what may have been the last OTG played at Shea. The WB carried the Met game that afternoon, and started their programing promptly at regular Met game time and ended promptly at the game's conculsion. I even emailed the WB wondering was it REALLY neccessary to air the 12 pm airing of a rebroadcast of the previous week's "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" I mean did that showing do ANY ratings that would neccesitate a firm "NO!" to carrying a special Met pomp and circumstance event? No response of course UGH! Just noticed that Ch 11 is having the Met game next Saturday as well. I might be TiVoing both 11 and SNY to see if ANY of the pregame stuff is televised! Yeah because reruns of Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond will do better raitings that some celebration of a beloved championship team! Is it any wonder that the MFY OTG hasn't been on over-the-air TV for the last 18 some years?

KC wrote: There's nothing quaint about Amtrack's east coast service - it would take a lot of kool-aid for me to see it that way. Who knows, maybe they get a charter car or two on the train with buffet and stuff. Yup. Had a long one from Stamford to Vermont a few years ago. Not even Willie Nelson's "City of New Orleans," some neat New England scenery and plenty of Sam Adams from the dinning car prevented me from being bored out of my mind!

And if you REALLY want to be technical about it, Beltran did not have as bad of a year, or a s**t storm of a year that would merit a "Comeback" award Oh sure he was injured most of the year, but he played the entire year, 151 games worth! Granted thats not why we paid him, but there was a time when a .266 Batting (.330 OBP) with 16 HRs and 78 RIB was fairly acceptable, and again granted it was mostly based on his name recognition he did start in the 2005 All Star Game. Maybe "Breakout Player of the Year" but not "Comeback" MLB probably just wanted a New York player with name value to be on the ballot, hence no Valentin

Well does it really matter Were you going to tell the Red Sox to retire another uni just to break up the 9 4 1 8 karma (the 1918 World Series clincher date was 9/4/18that was hanging on Fenway untill 27 was retired? Eventually they did it in numerical order 1 4 9 8, but if a team has a strict policy, the policy should stand regardless of fan opinion

="Edgy DC"]="Elster88"]IMHO, the Internet is partly, if not mostly, responsible for the demise of the quality of sports' periodicals. How about the seperate, though related, rise of rotisserie/fantasy sports hobbying, and journals angling to porvide those hobbyists with data and betting angles that don't really illuminate the culture of the sport, and sometimes dim it? Excellent point. The stories didn't matter as much, only the statistical anaylsis more so than regular anaylsis. In some ways the trend for the mags have gone back to the previewing rather than review. Greatest example I can think of last year is that the week that the White Sox won the World Series, they were regulated to an insert on SI and the cover was a preview of a Monday night football game featuring the Colts and Pats. Yes that was a big game, and both teams seemed to be on a colision course for the AFC title game (Colts made it, Pats did not) but in the past the celebrating White Sox would have dominated the cover while Manning and Brady would have been an insert Back in the early days of the magazine it was like that, but only because of the speed of producing the mag (hence the start of the so-called jinx, usually when you put out a cover thats mostly preview your "success" rate is scrutinized) but now its clearly a sign of "giving up" to a more fast paced society where a weekly magazine isn't a fresh and relavant source for news and is more commentary and previews

So much for that, anyone get a uni number on Ledee and Tucker? They are both listed as 9 on MLB.com!

soupcan wrote: ="SteveJRogers"]FK, ya should edit the title for consistancy sake Yeah FK, what the hell were you thinking about?! Geez. Easy Soupy, I got snapped at for the same thing earlier this year

I find it funny that usually when trades happen MLB.com's photoshoppers are right on top of changing caps, but for some reason DiFelice and Tucker are still pictured in National gear!

FK, ya should edit the title for consistancy sake Lineups Padres Dave Roberts LF Todd Walker 3B Brian Giles RF Adrian Gonzalez 1B Josh Bard C Geoff Blum SS Josh Barfield 2B Ben Johnson CF Chris Young P Mets Reyes SS Chavez CF Wright 3B Delgado 1B Valentin 2B Ledee RF DiFelice C Hernandez SP 2-0 Top of First, Gonzalez homers to drive in Walker Grrrr.... 2 outs now

Lineups Padres Dave Roberts LF Todd Walker 3B Brian Giles RF Adrian Gonzalez 1B Josh Bard C Geoff Blum SS Josh Barfield 2B Ben Johnson CF Chris Young P Mets Reyes SS Chavez CF Wright 3B Delgado 1B Valentin 2B Ledee RF DiFelice C Hernandez SP 2-0 Top of First, Gonzalez homers to drive in Walker Grrrr.... 2 outs now

Edgy DC wrote: The best things about that Ivory Soap commercial: Gary Carter's teammates have "Mets" rendered in flourescent orange (not that visible in the resolution of that video, but we liked it)Gary Carter is having the best shower ever. I noticed it, plus all No Name...of course (tm Michael Kay) I wonder why that was done? No generic Minor Leaguer hand-me-downs available?

="Yancy Street Gang"]I don't think he deserves it. You're right that few people care about the team's Hall of Fame. Maybe they can address that, though. Have an actual Hall of Fame display in the new ballpark that fans can get to. (The one at Shea is inaccessible and nobody knows where it is.) Make it prominent and people will care. Not really, anyone can hang in the lobby, you don't need a Diamond Club ticket or anything

Vic Sage wrote: Mike Piazza was drafted by the Dodgers, as a result of his personal ties to Dodger icon Tommy Lasorda; he played in the Dodgers minor-league system for 4 years; he came up and was a Dodger ROY; he had his best seasons as a Dodger; he was an all-star MVP as a dodger; and he played for the Dodgers for parts of 7 seasons, including 2 post-seasons. While I enjoyed him as a player for the Mets, and i know he had an impact on the franchise, i still don't think a few hundred more ABs as a Met changes the fact that he's a Dodger HOFer. Maybe if we'd won the WS in 2000, that could've tipped the scales. But we didn't, and so it doesn't. We should not be retiring the number of yet ANOTHER Dodger great (including Gil Hodges and Jackie Robinson). Excellent points! I love this agrument you can make about not retiring #8 and Carter not being a Met in Cooperstown: Gary Carter spent more time as an Expo than Tom Seaver did as a Met Tom Seaver spent more time as a Red than Gary Carter did as a Met Note, the Expos retired #8 for Carter, and Seaver was voted (by fans and media combo I believe) into the Reds HOF, the opposite of course is true for Seaver and Carter, #41 retired and Carter is in the Mets HOF I agree, I can see putting Piazza in the Mets HOF, but retiring 31 probably would be a bit much. Sure it did turn around the franchise, but I'm sure if you polled baseball fans across the country more neutral (neither Dodger or Met fan) would probably associate Piazza as a Dodger than as a Met. Like more fans associate Carter as an Expo or Seaver as a Met. Retiring 8 and/or 31 does seem like something that would open floodgates that shouldn't be opened.

metirish wrote: You're joking about Kevin Mass,right?, he played 4 seasons and a total of 384 games for them....how could they retire his number? http://www.baseball-reference.com/m/maaske01.shtml Yup. He was. Roger Maris, Thurman Munson, Billy Martin, Allie Reynolds, Ron Guidry and Elston Howard are the non-HOF players members in Monument Park. Jacob Ruppert, Bob Sheppard, two plaques commemorating Papal vists and a 9/11 memorial monument are the others representing non-HOFers Case COULD be made for Maris, Munson and especially Martin though being in Cooperstown Note, Ed Barrow is in Monument Park, not George M. Weiss who is in the Mets HOF (Barrow is the only GM the Yanks found it neccessary to honor, no doubt George will join Ruppert as owners in there some day)

Johnny Dickshot wrote: They're not going to be able to do 8 without also doing 17, so I think they'd either do both or neither. I think Hernandez has the stronger case for retirement, HOF notwithstanding, but as often argued here I wish they wouldn't and instead issue his number more carefully in the future. They each ought to be in the Mets HoF, in the event they aren';t. I really have no idea They've both are long since in the Mets HoF

soupcan wrote: I was at that Mets-Reds '62 throwback game. I didn't realize it was a throwback game until I got there. It was very cool, both teams had vintage unis on. The Mets unis were actually an off-white, almost yellow but they looked great. I remember that either Jay Payton or Robin Ventura slid and got a huge tear on the back of his pants. The old unis are definitly cooler but perhaps not nearly as durable. And P.S. - several hundred dollars for a baseball jersey IS overcharging. Yup, but that is the going rate for a normal authentic jersey. Better off getting a replica throwback and having it personalized to the exact specs from back then, either your past favorite or current favorite

Nymr83 wrote: ]Also available for sale are a Reyes, Martinez, Delgado, Lo Duca (grrrr) and Beltran uni you've stumbled onto the reason for this weekend. nonetheless, i want the Wright pullover jersey. Isn't that the reason for everything, from patches on unis, to patches on caps, to the locker room celebration caps? More on the field stuff, more products that can be sold. I see nothing wrong with this particular form of capitalism. Overcharging for it, THEN we've have a problem!

Frayed Knot wrote: Are the Rockies going to wear replicas of their 1986 unis also? Heh! I wouldn't be surprised to see the Denver Bears trot out there.

Come on, I don't want to see an ex-Met up!