MFS62

Someone who reads this board but is not a member saw the rankings forum and ran a series of polls this past off season to see how the members of that board would vote the top 25 All-Time Mets. Throughout the process, he paid full and respectful tribute to the CPF. The author provided UMDB Mets-only statistics for each of the new candidates each week. The results were interesting. Enjoy, Later This is the list of All-Time Mets from our MetsRant polls. We are updating this list after each poll for a new number. In parenthesis, I am showing the rank that the Crane Pool gave them for comparison purposes. 1. Tom Seaver (1) 2. Mike Piazza (9) 3. Darryl Strawberry (4) 4. Jerry Koosman (3) 5. Dwight Gooden (2) 6. Keith Hernandez (13) 7. Howard Johnson (7) 8. Cleon Jones ( 8 ) 9. Mookie Wilson (16) 10. Tug McGraw (15) 11. Gary Carter (28 ) 12. David Cone (21) 13. Rusty Staub (20) 14. Ron Darling (14) 15. John Franco (5) 16. Edgardo Alfonzo (6) 17. Jesse Orosco (23) 18. Sid Fernandez (10) 19. Al Leiter (12) 20. Jerry Grote (17) 21. John Olerud (35) 22. Tommy Agee (25) 23. Ed Kranepool (11) 24. Al Jackson (68) 25. Bud Harrelson (22) Twenty-Two of the Mets picked for the Mets Rant Top Twenty-Five are also on the Crane Pool Top Twenty-Five. The three not picked (## 18, 19, and 24 in the Crane Pool) were all on the ballot for Mets Rant All-Time #25 along with six additional nominees. And three Mets picked for the Mets Rant Top Twenty-Five are not the Crane Pool Top Twenty-Five: Gary Carter, John Olerud, and Al Jackson.

Four leg lamps. I loved the story when I first read it by Jean Sheapard. The only thing keeping it from a five lamp rating is the boy actor who plays Ralphie(Peter Billingsley?). Even though I should have the entire script memorized by now, I still can't understand some of his lines. Later

Hawaii Winter Baseball Feature: Mike Carp and Blake DeWitt By Stacy Kaneshiro November 10, 2006 HONOLULU--Players in Hawaii Winter Baseball still can't believe their good fortune to be assigned to play in paradise. With two days off a week most weeks, players have found a lot of down time for hitting the beach or sightseeing. "It's tough playing baseball in Hawaii," joked New York Mets farmhand Mike Carp with a smile. Recently, Carp has had a lot to smile about. In a league where the top five pitchers in earned run average is under 2.00, Carp is fifth in the league in batting at .283 (as of Nov. . After starting off trying to pull the ball, the North Shore Honu's lefthanded hitting first baseman reverted to what made him hit .287/.379/.450 with high Class A St. Lucie: going the other way. "He tried to pull everything," Hono hitting coach Mike Lum said. "Now he has a better idea of what to do." Carp went hitless in four of the Honu's first six games. He got his first hit in the seventh game of the season to start a modest six-game hitting streak. Lum said some of Carp's biggest hits in HWB have come when tried to use the whole field. "Mike Lum really knows his hitting," said the 20-year-old Carp, a ninth-round pick by the Mets in 2004 out of Lakewood (Calif.) High. "He's helped me out when I struggled when I started off." Carp hopes to improve on what his best pro season. His batting average at St. Lucie was a career-high, as were his 27 doubles and 88 RBIs. His 17 home runs were one shy of what he hit at low Class A Hagerstown in 2005. His performance got him ranked as the eighth-highest prospect in the Florida State League by Baseball America. "I just want to improve on what I did, using the whole field and getting more at-bats," he said. Although the pitching in the league has made it hard on the hitters, Carp likes the challenge. "The better the pitching (you face), the better chance you have of moving up the next year," Carp said. Later

Edgy DC wrote: I think it should be a rule that if you're prospect is traded you immediately get custody of the top prospect (if any) in the package he was traded for, in this case, St. Nickeas. Ho Ho Ho Have you been a good little boy? Later

Sounds like fun. Plenty of opportunity for self-flagellation if he turns it around. But it seems that would be highly unlikely based on his AAA performance this year. Usually threads about players who are no longer Met property get archived. But if he gets off to a hot start, this might stick around for a while. Go for it. Later

I think you're right. Too many Police questions to answer; too many forms to fill out. Guess they didn't want to be late for the dance contest. Later

Thanks, KC. I'll try. Later

How would you rate this documentary about a middle school class in rural Tennessee that wanted to learn more about the Holocaust? If you missed it, it is often shown on HBO. Later

The 20 year old first baseman seems to be on the rise. Individual Batting Stats Pos AVG G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS OBP SLG OPS SH SF IBB GIDP HBP 1B .287 137 491 69 141 27 1 17 88 51 107 2 1 .379 .450 .829 0 6 5 13 25 Those 25 HBP intrigue me. Sounds like a hard nosed kid who will "Take one for the team". I'm just going to have to be careful when I spell his last name. Later

Edgy DC wrote: I think critics have been generally back and forth on Andrew Lloyd Weber most of his career. I didn't realize that. Do we get the shows in New York that the London critics have already "screened out"? Then, substitute Rogers and Hammerstein for Webber in my first post. Later

I'm interested in reading what our members who have experience in the entertainment industry have to say about this, but others please feel free to provide your opinions, too. Basic Question: Do film and theater critics change their mind about someone? To clarify when I mean by that, I have a few examples I'd like to expand upon. Andrew Lloyd Weber. He has a track record of writing critically acclaimed shows. But if he were to come up with a real stinker, how would the critics react? Would they be kind and say something kind, like "The proven formula at work again"? Would they give him the benefit of the doubt and say something like "Not up to his usual standard"? Or would they say something like "He hit a clinker"? Are critics in general reticent to say the "emperor" (someone with an established track record of good reviews) is now standing there butt nekked? If another critic says it, are the others fast followers? Or do they think a negative revue says that they might have been wrong about the artist in the past? In the other extreme, we have Ed Wood. If, after a long series of bad movies, he had created a true cinematic masterpiece, how do you think the critics would have reacted? Would they have given it the rave review it deserved? Would they have toned down their praise by saying something like "It was better than his previous efforts"? Would they have trivialized it in their review? I know we can't generalize, but IMO established critics tend to generally agree in the way they evaluate offerings. Finally, would theater and movie critics react the same way in the examples I gave? Which group would be more likely to tell it like it is? Some insight please. 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

Edgy, don't dispair. I think most of those runs (5 or 6) were in one bad outing. Keep the faith. Later

Abreu is 31 years old, according to the Binghamton roster. I believe this is his first year of US baseball. (Was he a Cuban refugee?) He has been hitting well at AA, with some power. Maybe the Mets are preparing him to take over the Julio Franco, old-guy, backup first baseman, righty pinch hitter, roster spot when Franco's contract expires after next year. Joe Smith is on the fast track too,eh? Later

No, its not the name of a movie. But JD's thread about L'Enfant reminded me. Why are the subtitles at the bottom of the screen and not at the top (other than you'd have to call them something like supratitles)? If you're sitting in one of the pre-stadium seating movie houses, they can be obscured by the head of the person sitting in front of you. Why not put them at the top of the screen and make them more visible? Can any of the film mavens here shed some light on this? Thanks in advance. Later

I'll see it, but I won't knock down anyone in a rush to the ticket line. Later

Edgy DC wrote: I don't know what "Putlney Swope" is. An off-beat review/ story summary: Putney Swope If Putney Swope (superbly played by Arnold Johnson) had a hand in writing the Black Panther Ten Point Plan, it would include demands for equal opportunity television airtime, majority black employment on every rung of the corporate ladder, and termination of the marketing of destructive products to minority communities. Robert Downy Sr.'s 1969 fuck the system film, Putney Swope, opens like any other big city flick with a helicopter aerial shot. But this set-up is merely a cleverly disguised invitation to draw viewers into his manic version of corporate dystopia. As soon as the chopper lands atop a piece of the Manhattan skyline and its middle-aged punk-rock passenger hops out with "MENSA" stenciled to the back of his DIY sleeveless denim jacket with spray paint, you know that this film will deliver anything but what is expected. The protagonist, "Swope" as he is called throughout the film, is introduced as the disgruntled black music director of a major advertising agency. He is sitting at a conference table encircled by white execs. The Madison Avenue Agency is going through rough times, and there is a heated debate as to what changes need to be made. Swope tries to interject with words of righteousness and sincerity, but is combated with cynicism and deject. In a strange turn of events, the president of the agency shows up, dies of a heart attack, and is replaced by Swope who wins the Chairman?s seat through default vote. That is when a big load of blackie shit hits the proverbial fan. Swope fires the entire board, save for one "sick bastard", hires a motley crew of militant afro-centrist politicos, and bans cigarette, alcohol and violent toy manufacturers from the company?s roster of clients. The airing of the company's first ad under Swope's new direction lets the viewer in on Downy Sr.'s creative genius. Outside the television within the television, all the scenes are shot in stark black and white. But once the full-screen versions of ads Swope?s agency creates grace the screen, they surprisingly appear in soft-focused Technicolor. The ads are the tongue-in-cheek driving force of the film. Offensive yet humorous, they are smart enough to make any Adbuster magazine administrator come close to an anti-creativity climax. Ethereal Cereal, the first in a slew of funny five-minute spots, features a monotoned narrator informing a gentleman seated at a breakfast table of the benefits of this brand of cereal. As he eats, the camera closes in for a close-up. Then on hearing the summation of the off-screen accolades, the black gap-toothed breakfast eater exclaims, "No sheet!" The other commercials run the gamut, from Mr. Sony's Get-Out-Of Here mousetrap, to an interracial couple singing a soft duet for Face Off Pimple Cream, and match Ethereal Cereal in wit and political incorrectness. The agency is a hit. Clients that were removed from the roster beg to be replaced. The corrupt midget Head of State (played by famous small person Pepi Hermine) gets involved. And, in a scheme reminiscent of Robin Hood, Swope orders that in order to keep working with the agency, each account has to pay one million dollars in cash upfront, all the while secretly thinking of disseminating the funds to the rest of his cronies at a later date. Somewhere amidst the staccato scenes and profane deliveries, there is a message the director is cleverly conveying. It's hidden below the surface, and behind the "blackface". The hyper-exaggerated characters are making a mockery of every level of establishment. From religion?a nun tries to con Swope into adopting a yuck-mouthed youngster?to corporations?it goes without saying that corporate America and its mindless consumers are Downey Sr.s main target to minority Parties: behind closed doors the film's most vocal black militant turns out to be a ****-licking lowlife. With the pint-sized Prez leaning hard on Swope, he knows his agency is in its last throws of life. In a scene composed to resemble Fidel Castro's address to a newly liberated Cuba, Putney Swope orders his ad agents (everyone employed at Madison Avenue Agency, including janitors and bodyguards) to come up with the most outlandish ads they can think of and air them carte blanche. He then later sabotages the video shoot for the Nazi car company the President is pushing, making a host of high-powered enemies and hammering the last nail in the agency's coffin. In his final act of defiance, Swope holds a board meeting that mirrors the opening scene. To his Negro band of disciples, Putney is a Jesus figure, but on hearing his plan to diverge from militancy and cow-tow to The Man, they decide it would be better to send him to the cross. They do not want to give up the right fight, even though it means risking the loss of all the clients and the loads of money the clients are willing to spend. The meeting, of course, was a test, and Swope is pleased with the results... at least initially. He goes to the vault, grabs a few bags of money, and then orders that the rest be shared evenly. As he readies for an escape, Putney Swope is confronted by members of the board. Hotfooting over the prior topic they disappoint by showering him and his sellout ideas with praise. Speechless, Swope shakes his head and pushes his way through the thick crowd, assisted by his bodyguard. And as the money-hungry mob squabbles over the loot, it is set ablaze by a rogue kamikaze sending the film to its fiery finale. Written and directed by Robert Downy Sr., with production credits going to Herald Productions Inc., the film is a farcical exploration in big budget cinema. Yet it is revolutionary in its daring because of the time during which it was made, and the quasi pro-militant message it carries. I am certain Putney Swope would have agreed to summing up the film in his signature gravely voice like this: "If you can't join the system, then fuck the system." For a while, it was a big cult film. Later

Edgy wrote: thanks his sponosors by name, and expresses particular thanks for the family's access to KFC and Taco Bell and Pizza Hut --- the Kentucky Taco Hut Pepsico triumverate --- and finishes up by jumping his wife's bones at the dinner table (yes, I was watching with kids, thank you very much). I can't believe Pepsico OK'd it. I guess any exposure is good exposure, but it made me sad. I want a movie that really subverts these American trash culture monoliths, and leads them to sue the film, not pay them for the privilege. Haven't seen the movie yet. Was it a sendup of tv ads, like in "Putney Swope"? Later