MFS62

]I ... think it would be a shame if he were not on the post-season roster I agree. Its one of those "long and meritorious service" kinds of things. But I would bury him in the bullpen. If he has to pitch, then the Mets have deeper issues than whether or not he is on the roster. As for next year, I don't know the specifics of his contract. If the Mets could retain his services without spending a lot of money (cheap ooption clause), then keep him. That way, if some of the youngsters aren't ready next Spring, he would be cheap insurance until they are. If this would be a costly option, or the Mets would be in a situation where they'd be limited in how much they can cut him (see Piazza, Mike) , I'd let him go. Later

]But Muniz, who saved all five St. Lucie postseason games A Boy Named Seo must be a proud pappa today. Later

TheOldMole wrote: No argument here. And I wouldn't mind a "Happy Felton's Knot Hole Gang", either. Later

Johnny Dickshot wrote: As a D-first catcher he probably has a 90ish arm strength AND throws a knuckleball, not necessarily at the same time. Ahhh. That is much more reasonable to the leetle grey cells of Inspector Hercule Poirot. Later

Edgy DC wrote: A knuckler in the 90s? Unheard of, no? Yes, most knuckleballs I've heard about were thrown much slower (70's). The pitch has to be thrown with (to be most effective) no spin. It boggles the mind that a pitch can be thrown in the 90's with no spin. Later

Gee, the things you learn on the CPF. I lived in Queens (after my family moved around a lot) and graduated from Bayside HIgh School, too. The guy who was my friend in high school, and who was the best man at my wedding, lived in Bay Terrace (Bayside) directly across from the entrance to Fort Totten. But since I used to take the bus (and later drive) to his house via Bell Boulevard, I never knew that literally a few feet away, Bell Boulevard turned into the other end of Willets Point Boulevard. I just knew it as "the service road" of the highway. Later

metirish wrote: Why do you expect that to happen 62?,aren't there enough players in the draft every year without having possibly several hundred or thousand more to deal with,what countries would this international draft cover?,how would it work,I want specifics please. There have been rumblings about it in various stories each time the new CBA is under discussion/ negotiation. I've seen two ways - Latin American ballplayers only, and all international ballplayers (including the Pacific Rim and Australia). I haven't seen Europe mentioned yet, but I might have missed it. Where there's smoke, there' s fire. So I figure its just a matter of time, especially if the majority of owners and GMs start to perceive that the current system is becoming an advantage to only a few teams. Later

I said I expect it to run for "a few years". That's because I also expect baseball to institute an international draft. That will tend to level the playing field so that the Omars of the world don't have their current advantage in directly signing foreign players. Later

OK, here it is. I wrote/ posted it after I was assigned the Phillies for the third time that year. And I "snapped". enjoy, Later ********************************************************************* MFS62 Jun 27 2005 09:38 PM Putting on my best Howard Beale voice: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002075/ I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's depressing. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Terrorism is running wild around the world and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster (like Willets Point) and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I got assigned to write another KTE about the Phillies. I said I didn�t want to, but my name showed up again next to this series on the assignment list. The World sucks, it is true. But all I wanted to be was left alone. And now THIS. Yes, I know, the Mets took two of three from the Phillies last week. Then they took two of three from the Yankees while the Phillies were getting swept by the Red Sox. And I should derive some solace from that. But we had to depend on Kaz Ishii to win a game in order to win the series. And we had to count on Hernandez to strike out Met-killer Pat Burrell to protect Kaz� win. And their quiet Met tormentor Rheal Cormier didn�t vulture a win. Are those things going to happen again real soon? You might as well wait for the next sighting of Haley�s Comet. I should have been glad that the series is over and I wouldn�t have to deal with the team that has been murder on the Mets since the days of Roy Sievers, Ray Culp and Larry Jackson. And Jimmy Rollins keeps getting key hits against the Mets like Bobby Wine used to. And now a suddenly reheated Jim Thome is coming to Shea, where the prevailing left-to-right wind can only help a lefty power hitter. Considering the way the Phillies have mal-treated the Mets over the years, I wouldn�t be surprised if pitcher Randy Wolf jumps off the operating table where he is having reconstructive arm surgery and rushes to the mound and throws a shutout. And to add insult to (a weird on deck) injury, Mientkiewicz is out and Jose Offerman has been called up. And who do we have to depend on to pull us out of our post Yankee loss funk? Its inconsistent Victor Zambrano (3-6, 3.97), who will be going up against either Robinson Tejada (1-0, 2.02) or Corey Lidle (6-6, 4.12). That�s who. And after that, it will be John Lieber (8-7, 4.95) against Kaz Ishii (2-6 5.25) and Vicente Padilla (3-7, 6.83 against Pedro Martinez (8-2, 2.72). And the only thing worse is that I have been assigned to write another KTE about that team. I�m mad. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman, or Edgy, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the terrorism and the crime in the street and forcing CPF-ers to do something they don�t want to do. All I know is that first you've got to get mad. [shouting] You've got to say, '62�s a HUMAN BEING, dammit! His life has VALUE!' So does my time. And yours does, too. Should it be wasted doing something you don�t want to do? I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, [shouting] 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis and the mandated KTE assignments. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: [screaming at the top of his lungs] "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"

="ScarletKnight41"]What I would suggest for 2007 and beyond is that 1) posters who wish to do KTEs volunteer for the duty; and 2) the poster be assigned one team for the whole season. ...This way the person writing the KTE for a particular team would really know that rival well by the end of the season. Scarlett. I once commented on that idea. http://www.getalifealready.com/cpf/archives/f15_t370.shtml Later

="Johnny Dickshot"]The problem with doing that is pre-65 ? teams were only affiliated with parents and not controlled by them. The young Mets would scatter their guys all over the place, where they'd play alongside their future opponents. Interesting. That got me thinking. (I hate it when that happens) Branch Rickey is credited with coming up with the idea of the "farm system" in which major league teams had direct control over the coaching/ development of their minor league players. IIRC, that was in the 40's when he was with Brooklyn. 1965 would have been about the time the "bonus baby" rule, under which any team could sign any amateur player, was phased out and the common draft was coming in. It makes sense that now that teams were spending large amounts of money on young players, they would want to make sure those players would receive a consistent level of coaching. And the way to do that was to have direct control of the farm teams and assign their players, and coaches, there. I do remember now that in my 1962-63 issues of the Sporting News Baseball Guide, there were sometimes more than one major league team affiliated with some minor league teams. Later

Yancy Street Gang wrote: In 1968 the Mets were in Jacksonville. Was that the same time their AA (Texas League) team was in Jackson (Mississippi)? Later

And in 1962, the Mets were in Syracuse. Later

And, in case nobody noticed, the Brooklyn Cyclones made the wild card in the NYP League on the last day of the season. They open up this week against the (insert BOOOs here) The Staten Island Yankees. Later

Time and the Tides must wait a few weeks. From Baseball America: ]Of course, we're not supposed to know any of this yet. Everything is supposed to remain quiet until the last stage of the reaffiliation process, which begins Sept. 16. From now until Sept. 11, major and minor league teams are notifying Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball of their intention to seek new affiliates. From Sept. 12-15, the clubs that are looking for new partners will get a list of who's available. Then from Sept. 16-30, those teams can talk to each other and sign new deals. If any teams are still left standing at the end of the process, MLB and MiLB will pair them up, but this rarely happens. The Phillies' move from Scranton to Ottawa/Allentown could be one of several significant changes in Triple-A. Both the Mets and Yankees have their longtime International League affiliations expiring this year as well, in Norfolk and Columbus, respectively. The Nationals will also be looking for a new Triple-A affiliate, after two seasons in New Orleans, as will the Orioles after four seasons in Ottawa. Later

There's an old baseball expression that "hitting is timing and pitching is upsetting timing". (Or something like that) The first two starters, Pedro and Glavine, and even OHernandez, throw in the high 80's. It would seem that someone like Maine, who throws in the low-mid 90's, would give the opposition batters a different game-to-game look. In-game, most of the Mets righty relievers throw as hard as Maine (the exception being Bradford who has a funky delivery). But, as Edgy said, experience tends to count for something. But Maine has to be on the roster somewhere. He's earned it. And who knows? He could be this generation's Howard Ehmke. (A surprise WS starter who struck out 14 batters for Philadelphia) Later

Irish, so what that means is if Jose can't "be" Willie Mays, he can still be put in the same sentence with Honus Wagner? I can live with that. EDIT: Willie beats Wagner in one thing though, his smile. In most of the old pictures of Wagner I've seen, he had an expression on his face like he had just listened to five straight hours of Michael Kay and Suzyn Waldmann. Later

Looking at wreck's list, I can't think of two more opposite looking players than Victor Diaz and Shawn Green in terms of body type. I never thought about it before, but now I wonder - Do they move the numbers to another uniform that fits the player and put the name on, or just alter the one with the number already on it (and change the name)? As I type that, moving the numbers sounds much more logical. But it would still mean they have to keep a supply of different size uniforms, in all team "styles", on hand at all times. And that would be costly and a pain in the arse to tote with them in case there is a player change when the team is on the road. Anybody know what they do? Later

In the post game interview, Willie Randolph said what I was thinking when Jose hit the inside the park home run. He said "I wish he would have just crossed home plate standing up". Sliding was unnecessary. Sliding head first was foolish. But that big grin on his face when he crossed home plate sure made for a great Kodak moment. The kid is fun,eh? and The only player in major league history who had 20 doubles, homers, triples and stolen bases in the same season was Willie Mays. Jose is getting close and it will be interesting to track this. Question: Do you think Jose will join Mays with those totals by year's end? Later

They look like the little bride and groom dolls they used to put on the top of the wedding cake. Do you still have a slice of your wedding cake in your freezer for "good luck"? I have lots of pictures of my wife, but none of her mother. It seems neither camera nor mirror could capture her image. Later

With extra starters to try out, it will be interesting to see what happens to Steve Traschell's performance as the team prepares for the playoffs. IIRC he is very set in a routine (like Mike Mussina) and doesn't pitch well with extra rest. Later

ScarletKnight41 wrote: If you notice, the GIF I posted features runners. We were posting at the same time. I didn't see it when I wrote that. The only thing that would have made that better would have been if Jose had spiked Fecal on his way around the bases. Later

Meanwhile, Jose Reyes hits an inside-the-park homer to make the score 7-0. Which brings up the question - does an inside the parker qualify for a full kaboom? Later

Then good job! EDIT: Since I know nothing of Haiku, it may not have been. But I had to reward the effort. Later

sharpie wrote: I like the states, too. Countdown to Delaware! No, the idea is to count down to Colony. I like 'em too. LAter