Centerfield

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Vic Sage wrote: He played with that easy effortlessness that smacks of disinterest and a lack of passion. It's the same odor i used to get from Kevin McReynolds, another excellent OFer who i wouldn't piss on if he burst into flame. but that's my own personal aesthetic judgement. You're entitled to your usually-on-point opinion, Vic, but... come on, man. "Disinterest?" For a guy who played his best years for us with degenerating-to-nonexistent knee cartilage? Come on, man. I'm not sure I'd wave the flag for 15 on the wall, but I sure as hell wouldn't have a problem with it. He also played with a broken face. I don't see the disinterest at all.

Gwreck wrote: dgwphotography wrote: I think this is one thing the Mets get right. Enshrine players of the Koosman, Harrelson, Franco level in the Mets Hall of Fame. Only those enshrined in Cooperstown as a Met get their number retired. Exactly, exactly. At the risk of sounding heartless, it's time to put #8 back in circulation. And there, you have two examples of why it (meaning which team on the plaque) matters. It may be arbitrary, but such is the nature of fandom.

sharpie wrote: Retiring marginal numbers is a MFY thing to do. I've heard this repeated many times, and some Met fans cite to the lack of numbers on the wall as a source of pride. "We don't just retire any number." I'm calling bullshit on this. The Mets have retired three numbers: 37, 14 and 41. (42 as retired by MLB) Seaver is a no-brainer. The other two are marginal. That means two-thirds of our retired numbers are questionable. Stengel won 175 games (19 fewer than Jerry Manuel) and posted a .302 win percentage. Colorful? Sure. He's a legend and people loved him. But retiring his number? Come on. This is silly. There is no way this would fly today. Hodges is, at least, a stronger candidate coming in at 339 wins, good for third on the Mets' all-time list. He also has a World Series title. But his win percentage comes in at .523, which is lower than Willie Randolph and Bud Harrelson. By illustration, Davey Johnson has the most wins, the highest win percentage, and a World Series title. I've heard people say that Gil was the heart and soul of the '69 team, but this is a silly argument to retire his number. By any objective standard, if Davey Johnson's number is not retired, then Hodges' number shouldn't be either. Whether or not to retire a number is obviously subjective, so there is no right or wrong answer. But pretending that the Mets hold to some higher standard and believing that this makes us better than the Yankees or any other franchise is a weak argument to me. I guess, if you are reaching, you can make the distinction that the Mets hold a higher standard when it comes to players rather than managers. So I guess one can take pride that the Mets retire the numbers of marginal managers only. I think it's going to become more and more rare that a player plays his whole career with one team (or at least as big a chunk as Seaver did with the Mets). I've often heard that this honor should be reserved for Hall of Famers who made their most significant contributions as a Met. That seems ok to me. Personally, I have no set criteria, but I think Piazza should qualify. As much as I love Beltran, I don't think he hits my cutoff.

Later on, when I am King, I will reduce the All-Star Break to one day. I need some Mets baseball.

Jeter is a first-ballot Hall of Famer with a handful of rings, played his whole career for one team, and has managed to avoid controversy his entire career despite living in NY. Let's face it, young players should be modeling themselves after him. From many different reports, he is great with charity work, especially kids in the hospital where he really puts in the extra effort. He was also really cool to my son when we met him in person. My biggest complaint about him isn't even really his fault. It's that he's incredibly overrated by the fans, the media, etc. He's gotten himself to the point where if he strikes out, he's applauded for not hitting into a double play. Even when leading off an inning. Let's hope that Harvey follows this model. Plays his whole career with the Mets, wins a slew of rings, bangs a bunch of models, then gives a really douchy Hall of Fame induction speech.

Harvey 2 Wright 2 Beltran 1 Diamond 5

Great pics! All I've got is my goofy-ass son and his best friend.

Carlos Beltran was one of the best Mets ever. I loved watching him play and rooting for him while he was here. I don't know if he will make the Hall of Fame, but I hope he does, and I hope he has a Mets logo on his plaque. It bothers me that so many Mets fans gripe about him and remember him for one at-bat. I think it's wrong. I'm a sap. I hope that Reyes and Beltran are the significant additions we make to our lineup next winter. I hope that the Blue Jays continue to free-fall and dump Reyes to us paying half his salary. I hope Beltran signs a reasonable one-year deal and has a career year and sparks conversation of moving the CitiField fences back. And I hope they all get World Series rings. So it matters to me. Your mileage may vary.

They said he was Canadian. I think i posted my writeup in the wrong thread. Sorry. Admins feel free to move.

Thoughts on the Game: It was crowded. Everything was really expensive. Nice hand for Wright. Bigger reception for Harvey. I guess this is expected since he is the new phenom, but would have liked to see David get more love. Love how Collins and Davey Johnson got big hands. Laughed at the reception given to Wainright and YFM. Seaver looked a bit frail from where I sat. Everyone cheered when he toed the rubber, then groaned a little when he didn't go into the windup. I think not everyone knew he was sick. A bit awkward. Surprised Piazza was not asked to catch. That's like, you know, what we do. American Idol winner for the anthem? I guess it's on Fox. She sucked. Mets and Yankees fans were trying to get along in the crowd. Got tense when Cano got hit, even worse when he had to leave. The scoreboard said X-Rays negative and that eased things a bit. Mascot races are stupid. I'm so glad we don't have one. Not sure how I feel about Mrs. Met yet. Wish Beltran had gotten a better reception. Some idiot was booing. "I'll never forget 2006." Fucking idiot. Obviously he has forgetten about all of 2006 except one at-bat. Made me more upset than I can logically explain. Some Mets fans don't deserve a winning team. The seventh-inning stretch was stupidly long. Then they cut off Lazy Mary. Stupid stupid stupid. This made me mad and cranky. Stupid Mets. The game sucked. I guess whatever team I root for can't score runs. Cool moment. Trivia question about who had the most shutouts in one season. Everyone around was yelling Gooden but the guy on screen guessed Seaver. He got a prize, and then Gooden showed up to hand it to him. Great moment. Neil Diamond offered the most interesting moment of the night. When they announced he was going to sing, I couldn't imagine a worse fit than Sweet Caroline at a New York All-Star Game. Big groan from everyone around us. But then he started singing. I never thought I would ever see Yankee fans putting up their hands to touch hands. By the chorus, lots of people were into it. And Neil was having a blast. Turns out it's a catchy-ass song and Neil is charming and oblivious. I don't know. I still couldn't get into it. Maybe if it were presented another way. If I were king, I'd have intro-d it by saying let's be classy NY and show our support for Boston. Boston Strong bla bla blah. Nice hand for Mariano. Enter Sandman really is a fantastic song for a closer. Yankee fans irate that they would waste Mo in the 8th. Nice performance overall by the Mets. Harvey 2 scoreless, 3K. David 1 for 3 and an A as master of ceremonies. Had to drive so I limited myself to one beer. Thinking this is a bad idea and don't anticipate repeating that mistake again.

If Parnell is traded.... ...it will be awesome having Giancarlo Stanton in the lineup. SC=1000

I'm waiting for the fire sale where Jose is returned to the Mets.

Shinjo was "colorful". As were Jose Reyes and Jose Lima. At first I thought this phrase was limited to the darker pigments, but then I remembered Turk Wendell. So it turns out you don't have to be a person of color to be "colorful". "Blue collar", on the other hand, seems to be exclusively white. Wallly Backman. Randy Myers. I think it helps to have a moustache.

Vic Sage wrote: You can shoot the messenger all you want, but the issue is not about Megdal. It's about maximizing assets so you can build a franchise that doesn't just win a few more games in a down year, but has a sustainable process in place to build winning teams over an extended period. We SHOULD have traded Hairston last year, since he was having the kind of "sell high" year that Byrd is currently having. Evidence for that is the fact the Cubs just got a live A-ball arm for him when he is hitting like shit, at a higher salary. And we should sell high on Byrd as well (in what one could easily consider a career year for him, when you compare CitiField with the launch pad of Arlington), before he turns back into a pumpkin. In this business, you maximize value and collect as many chips as you can when you can, thereby increase your odds of cashing them in down the road. Keeping the fans happy? Fans are going to be happy because we end up 5 games under .500 instead of 10 games under? I don't think so (even if Byrd ends up being worth 5 wins, which i doubt), but certainly not THIS fan, so you can speak for yourself on that point. I'd be happier knowing that the management had a consistent and sensible approach to team building (like, for instance, the Cardinals seems to), rather than clinging to a guy who was out of baseball last year, having a last hurrah on his way out the door, because he'll make Zach Wheeler feel better knowing how well the franchise is supporting him. Oh, and as for OFers I'd rather see getting the ABs currently going to Byrd, so the Mets could make some informed assessments going forward: Nieuhenheis, Valdespin, Lagares, Brown, DenDekkker, Duda (when he comes back), Satin (to see if he can play out there), and (eventually) Puello. Will any of these surpass Byrd's Herculean sub-.800 OPS in RF? NO, probably not, but at least one of them might surpass that fair-middling level of production next year and over the next few years, when the Mets have a shot at contention and Marlon is playing with his grandkids on the porch. So if we can turn him into a lively A-Ball arm at the deadline, we should do it. Whether that "duplicates" what we already have is entirely irrelevant, since redundancy is essential when the likelihood of players making it up through the system is so unpredictable (especially with pitchers), and top prospects crash and unheralded ones make the grade. You collect as many chips as you can and let the gods of chance sort it out. Vic is, as almost always, the notable exception being his love of Jon Snow's redhead girlfriend, correct.

Other celebratory nights: Southern Heritage Night Opponent: NY Yankees Beanstalk Appreciation Night Opponent: SF Giants Mothers Against Drunk Driving Night Opponent: Milwaukee Brewers Steve Irwin Memorial Night Opponent: Tampa Bay Rays Nerd Appreciation Night Opponent: Oakland Athletics Individuality Night Opponent: Minnesota Twins

soupcan wrote: You know though, the Mets did offer alternate dates. I think its perfectly fine to do what the Mets did in deference to the Braves. Notwithstanding that in my opinion The Braves shouldn't be named 'The Braves' and the screaming Indian and Tomahawk chop shouldn't be things associated with the organization. Should the Mets have checked the schedule and seen that the opponent that day was The Braves and figured out that maybe Native American Day and the Atlanta Braves probably wouldn't be a good mix? Yeah, they should've but I'm not going to kill them for it. Eventually they did see it and - again - offered several options to the Native American group including doing it on another date. I like The New York Times but they can be just like The Post in that they often reach to make a story out of very little in order to further their own agenda. I have to disagree with you. Any time you set up something like this, you have to anticipate that emotions are going to run strong. It boggles my mind that no one would think that the Braves and American Indian Heritage night might be a bad mix. Or that no one would bother to check. It is the type of thing that leads to people being fired, and if the Mets are incompetent enough to let this happen, they should get their just criticism. They also butchered the situation by trying to curtail the festivities, instead of just immediately proposing the alternative dates. This is just a cop out instead of admitting their mistake about scheduling this against the Braves. To be fair, the A.I.C.H. is acting like a bunch of spoiled brats. If the cultural message is that important, it can be delivered in August just as well as July. And I'm sure there are logistics to be worked out, but if they wanted to do it, it could be done.

Don't look for a wife on the pole. Don't look for a wife on the pole. Don't look for a wife on the pole. Don't look for a wife on the pole.

More proof that we don't win latex games, condom games, or gay dames.

Soupcan got all bitchy at me when I poured ice on him while he was napping.

Prospects are prospects for a reason. Agreed. A lot of them don't make it. Agreed. And the ones that don't are called "disappointments". Simply adding a regular contributor to the mix is an enormous success. Depends on the prospect. If you trade a front-line player for a prospect you think will be a star, and he ends up being average, that is called a disappointment. If you add me to the roster, and I end up being a regular contributor, this is considered a huge success. And if it's only approaching league average? well, a lot of teams could use another one of those. Maybe, but apparently not us. See, we had Pelfrey, and let him go.

...what do you guys make of Wheeler? Is he going to be better than Harvey? Or is he Mike Pelfrey 2.0? Obviously enthusiasm is a bit tempered after last night. I'll admit I am a little concerned. Not the wildness, so much, because I think that will improve with time. I don't like that his secondary pitches seem pretty pedestrian, whether they are thrown for strikes or not. The slider doesn't have the bite that Harvey's does, the curve doesn't have Niese's movement, and the changeup just hangs there. Of course, I also thought Parnell was going to turn into Kane Davis, then he learned the knuckle curve, so I guess things can change quickly with these young guys.

Frayed Knot wrote: John Wall is only name I know (I wouldn't recognize him even if we were the only two stuck on an elevator ... but I at least know who he is). Well, he'd be the naked one. Duh.

Edgy MD wrote: I don't think Megdal correctly understands the legacy of Wally Pipp. Of course he does. He's saying Ike Davis is Gehrig. Megdal is nothing if not optimistic.

The problem is, other than that fish line, there's very little in that article. The Mets stink. The Wilpons are to blame. They are, and continue to be, the problem. That's about it.

vtmet wrote: Zvon wrote: OMG I shoulda been an ump. I thought you had to be good at umping to be one. That's not the case because 75% of the umps I see SUCK. It's not that I don't agree with that assessment...but, when my kids were in fast pitch softball, I would occasionally get suckered into being the Homeplate umpire...it looks so freaking easy from where the parents sit; but it's a bitch to call balls/strikes (especially in f/p softball because the ball has so much movement and it's moving fast with the pitcher about 30 feet from homeplate)...we had this one kid's parent that would stand behind the backstop and tell the ump every "mistake" that he called when his daughter was at bat... Agreed. I've been asked to ump my son's little league games and it is easily the most stressful thing you can do on a baseball field. As a player/fan/coach/parent I think I have a pretty good idea of what the right call is. The minute you're asked to be the decision maker the ability to make this distinction magically disappears (at least for me). One game I was asked to ump was particularly bad. In a league where even catching the ball is rare, there were about seven or eight bang-bang plays, including one to end a one-run game. On some of them, I was just blindly guessing. Afterwards I asked a buddy of mine (whose son is on the same team) if I was anywhere near right. He said I was a great ump, spreading my blown calls evenly over both sides.