MFS62

Yancy Street Gang wrote: I wonder if this is the future of big league uniforms? Well, there was that attempt to put the logo for the Spiderman movie on the bases....... Later

The Winter League playoffs are being broadcast on YES. The first game started at 6:30. Anderson Hernandez is playing and leading off. He grounded out to short in his first at bat. Later

You don't have to go back as far as the 60's to find penurous GMs. It was whispered that when Dan Douquette was GM of the Red Sox, his performance (as in bonus paid to him) was based on team profit. Based on that, some fans felt that he was reticent to add high salaried veterans at the trading deadline in order to try for the pennant. Of course, you have to ask yourself, what are the responsibilities of a GM and are they very different from those of a GM in another business. How many GMs in other industries keep their jobs after they say somethning like "Well, we were able to produce the very best widgit on the market, but we lost a ton of money last year"? Not too many I'd guess. The management of profit/ loss is one of the responsibilities of a baseball GM. But sometimes the fans get distracted by their flashy role of making trades and forget that. Some teams have involved CFOs and owners, who manage the finances. But whether the owner, CFO or GM determine the budget, it is the job of the GM to manage to it. Later

Julio is so old, his first baseball card was a stone tablet. Later

Rotblatt wrote: In short, I'm maybe average for a beer leaguer. I do drink well, though, so I've got that going for me . . . (Slaps forehead) How could I have left drinking off my original list? After you stop playing the game, drinking becomes the most important skill. Especially if you're a Mets fan. Later

Pitching: Fastball , before I hurt my arm (from which it never recovered) in the 80's. My dad (may he rest in Peace) tried to teach me the curve ball, but I never got the hang of it. Actually, "hang" was a good description. Threw a screwball which wasn't bad. But without a fastball to set the batter up.... I fooled around with the knuckler when I was trying to make my "comeback" from the sore arm. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes I had to count my infielders to see if they were still alive. (A long succession of third basemen really hated me) Hitting: I was a righty “sweep type” hitter, which means I was all arms and no wrists. As a result, I could never get around on a decent fastball, but had pretty good power to right center field. Fielding: I always wore my chest protector and shin guards. And that was when I played infield or pitched. As you've probably figured out by that statement, I played ground balls like they would explode on contact. Any pictures of me probably have me in the "maiden surprised" pose. When I was pitching, my theory was: "I threw it. He hit it. Now you other guys chase it." Later

If you used to play baseball, or still do, at the top of your game, how good were (are) you at: Pitching? Hitting? Fielding? Be brutally honest. Tell us some stories. Later

Omar should bring in Frank Cashen as a consultant. When Frank was hired as GM, the first thing he did was model the Mets development system after the very successful Orioles' system he had left (to join the Mets). He standardized everything as much as he could, from having similar dimensions at all Met minor league ballparks, to teaching player positioning on the cutoff play. That way, the players moving up in level wouldn't be forced to learn new ways of doing things, based on the personal preferences of coaches and managers at each new level. And it was during that era, the mid 80's, that had the greatest infusion of home-bred/ developed talent to the major league club. Today, we talk of the "braves way" with envy. We need to start an environment that is the "Mets way" for winning. Later

Yancy Street Gang wrote: Omar Minaya has interest in Jose Contreras, and the White Sox will listen, considering Brandon McCarthy is ready to step in. However, the Sox surely would insist on Lastings Milledge, and a Mets official insisted: "Milledge isn't going anywhere. He's going to be our leftfielder in 2007." I had read that Millege has a strong enough arm to play right field. IMO the fact that Omar sees him as a left fielder tells me that he sees Victor Diaz sticking around as the right fielder for a while. I guess another way to look at that statement is that Cliff only has one more year left on his contract. Whaddaya' think? And wasn't Omar the GM who traded Jason Bay away when he was at Montreal? Later

Nice to see the nice words about my adopted kid, Carlos Gomez/. I've seen conflicting reports about whether Hernandez will actually start his pro career in 2006 or 2007. Does anyone know for sure if his age is the issue according to MLB rules, or whenther the Mets feel he needs another year of "extended training camp" or Academy-type seasoning? Later

Tim Ireland Germany Schafer Later

Centerfield wrote: Chad Bradford Nice Later

Didn't someone post here that Buckner is not a recluse, but that he often shows up at card shows and picture signings?Later

Israel Sanchez Later

ScarletKnight41 wrote: If I want to worry about every painstaking detail about something, I'll go back to the Bar Mitzvah planning. Oooh! Please do. We're waiting breathlessly to find out your decision-making process for the font you'll use to write the name and date inside the give-away yarmulkas. Later

One example of incompetence I recall (I googled it and didn't find anything) was something I read involving Mookie Wilson and Frank Howard. Mookie never had the strongest arm when he came up, and one year he suffered an injury to his throwing arm. Next year in ST, Howard told Mookie something like- "the only way it will get better is by stretching it out". But instead of easing Mookie into a regimen prescribed by team trainers, Howard took Mookie into the outfield and started him out by having him make long tosses (the number 250 feet sticks in my mind). Not only did that not help him get it back to its original strength, but Mookie's arm was never the same after that. Is that the kind of stuff you were looking for? Later

Marte is one of the best third base prospects in the game. And Shopach is a very highly regarded lefty hitting catching prospect. He is supposedly a good defender, and has shown power. Doc is right. I wonder what Cameron would have brought in return. Either one of those prospects probably has at least a higher upside than Nady. But both of them together? For a centerfielder? Echhhhh! Later

Frayed Knot wrote: Now all you have to do is figure out how to hologram bronze and your idea is in business. My job is to come up with the ideas. Then I turn it over to the chipheads and engineers to make it happen. Sorta' like in the Dilbert strip. This one's too good to oitsource to elbonia. Later

vtmet captured my sentiments. Now that Mike's no longer a Met, I could care less where he signs. His contributions to the Mets spoke for themselves. Its just that some folks heard it through different filters. I wish him well, but would not get heartburn over which team he continues playing for. About that Hall of Fame hat issue. For players who have made substantial contributions for primarily two teams, I'd like to see them use a hologram on their plaque hat, that would change team logos depending on where you were viewing it from. (For example, Carlton Fisk played more games for the Pale, rather than Red shade of Sox, but most people remember him best from when he played in Boston) Later

Elster88 wrote: Your post has new ones that I like. Not being a thread cop but pointing you to the ones on the other page that you might not have seen. There's a message on that thread from the real Chuck about the WWCND site, too. Thanks for pointing out that other thread. Some of those different ones were funny. True story. A few years ago, I was watching an old action-adventure movie. My (then) teenage daughter was with me. In the movie, Chuck Norris was playing a bit part as a bad guy. In a fight with the hero, Norris gets killed. My daughter turned to me and said, "Chuck Norris is dead? Who's going to rescue our MIAs?" Later Later

="Edgy DC"] There was a George Vecsey article in thte Times about the BAT ceremony honoring the 1986 Mets, focusing on Barry Lyons, but I couldnt' read it without TimesSelect privileges. They require you to have special priveleges to read the Times? What elitist pricks! Later

Elster, Because I have re-posted information about him, Chuck Norris will let me continue to live my miserable non-Chuck Norris life. Later

Well, since this thread has run screaming from its original topic- asking whether anyone wants to take over Curt's strat team, and Edgy brought up 80's fighting films, I might as well post this. This little slice of wonderful is called WWCND, for "What would Chuck Norris do?", for those who've seen it before, sorry: Since 1940, the year Chuck Norris was born, roundhouse kick related deaths have increased 13,000 percent. Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried. MacGyver can build an airplane out of gum and paper clips, but Chuck Norris can kill him and take it. Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants. If you ask Chuck Norris what time it is, he always says, "Two seconds till." After you ask, "Two seconds to what?" he roundhouse kicks you in the face. Chuck Norris only masturbates to pictures of Chuck Norris. Rather than being birthed like a normal child, Chuck Norris instead decided to punch his way out of his mother's womb. Shortly thereafter he grew a beard. Chuck Norris appeared in the "Street Fighter II" video game, but was removed by Beta Testers because every button caused him to do a roundhouse kick. When asked bout this "glitch," Norris replied, "That's no glitch." Chuck Norris lost his virginity before his dad did. Chuck Norris sold his soul to the devil for his rugged good looks and unparalleled martial arts ability. Shortly after the transaction was finalized, Chuck roundhouse kicked the devil in the face and took his soul back. The devil, who appreciates irony, couldn't stay mad and admitted he should have seen it coming. They now play poker every second Wednesday of the month. Filming on location for Walker: Texas Ranger, Chuck Norris brought a stillborn baby lamb back to life by giving it a prolonged beard rub. Shortly after the farm animal sprang back to life and a crowd had gathered, Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked the animal, breaking its neck, to remind the crew once more that Chuck giveth, and the good Chuck, he taketh away. Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits. Chuck Norris built a time machine and went back in time to stop the JFK assassination. As Oswald shot, Chuck met all three bullets with his beard, deflecting them. JFK's head exploded out of sheer amazement. Chuck Norris was the fourth Wiseman. He brought baby Jesus the gift of "beard". Jesus wore it proudly to his dying day. The other Wisemen, jealous of Jesus' obvious gift favoritism, used their combined influence to have Chuck omitted from the Bible. Shortly after all three died of roundhouse kick related deaths. There are no disabled people. Only people who have met Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris uses ribbed condoms inside out, so he gets the pleasure. There is no chin behind Chuck Norris' beard. There is only another fist. The original theme song to the Transformers was actually "Chuck Norris--more than meets the eye, Chuck Norris--robot in disguise," and starred Chuck Norris as a Texas Ranger who defended the earth from drug-dealing Decepticons and could turn into a pick-up. This was far too much awesome for a single show, however, so it was divided. The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain. Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs. It was once believed that Chuck Norris actually lost a fight to a pirate, but that is a lie, created by Chuck Norris himself to lure more pirates to him. Pirates never were very smart. Chuck Norris recently had the idea to sell his urine as a canned beverage. We know this beverage as Red Bull If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can't see Chuck Norris you may be only seconds away from death Chuck Norris can make a woman climax by simply pointing at her and saying "booya". Chuck Norris can mathematically make two wrongs equal a right. The quickest way to a man's heart is with Chuck Norris's fist. Chuck Norris died ten years ago, but the Grim Reaper can't get up the courage to tell him. Crop circles are Chuck Norris's way of telling the world that sometimes corn needs to lie the bleep down. There is no theory of evolution, just a list of creatures Chuck Norris allows to live. When Chuck Norris goes to donate blood, he declines the syringe, and instead requests a hand gun and a bucket. In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Chuck Norris could use to kill you, including the room itself. Chuck Norris has two speeds: walk and kill. Chuck Norris is the only man to ever defeat a brick wall in a game of tennis. It takes Chuck Norris 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes. When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn't lifting himself up, he's pushing the Earth down. Later

Is Sal Butera bringing along his witnesses? Later

I loved the way he was not only the first ML manager I read about who knew how to use a computer*, but he used it to maintain statistics that helped him make some managerial decisions. *= IIRC he had a Masters Degree in Mathematics. Later