Centerfield

What is amazing is that I know quite a few MFY fans that were rooting against A-Rod in the MVP race. I hear "The choker doesn't deserve it" and other garbage like that. It's astonishing how unfairly a player of his caliber is treated in this town...and it shows how badly some fans are in need of a scapegoat. I wonder if A-Rod is somehow becoming the MFY's Benitez. And maybe that means he'll end up getting traded across town. (to play second base).

Great writeup Greg.

Found this writeup while searching for a pic for another thread: http://www.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb_news_story.jsp?article_id=mlb_20010617_nyynym_news&team_id=mlb

And to think you almost zapped this thread. Btw, re-post your originals. I liked the one about the booing.

I didn�t see a Closer thread so I figured I�d start one up. (I know there's a Wagner thread, but I wanted to discuss Hoffman too) This article suggests that lowball offers to Billy Wagner and Trevor Hoffman could open the door to one of them ending up at Shea. And of course, it may just be a way of driving up interest, but both seem open to coming here. One thing that pissed me off in the article: (listed as �con� for Hoffman) He is 38 and has shown symptoms of Benitezitis - great in regular season, not great in the big spot. In his one trip to the World Series, he gave up a huge home run to Scott Brosius. This is absolute garbage. First of all, it�s not as if Wagner has been lights-out in the post-season, (0-4, 7.71 ERA, 1 blown save in his only save opportunity). So to say this about Hoffman while staying silent on Wagner is simply idiotic. In fact, I remember people making that same "big spot" criticism about Wagner when he struggled a bit last September. And for real, how many closers does this label have to be applied to before the NY media starts realizing blowing saves in big games is something that comes with the territory of being a closer and not some malady exclusive to one guy.

I felt like I was dreaming or watching one of those horrible movies on the Lifetime channel. But I wasn’t. Powerful, powerful stuff.

MANNY RAMIREZ PERFECTLY HAPPY WITH CURRENT SITUATION Says existing contract pays him "Plenty enough to get by" MICHAEL KAY MAKES INSIGHTFUL, RELEVANT POINT Announcer can see much more clearly after removing head from anus SHINGO TAKATSU TESTS POSITIVE FOR STEROIDS Selig: Reliever won't be reprimanded because "he has no muscles anyway." KNICKS WIN Larry Brown cites outscoring other team as key to victory

I liked them. I was going to work on some of my own during lunch. But feel free to ace away if you please.

Where did the headlines go?

That's a great point FK. I say we kick Ed Coleman out of the booth (if that's who it ends up being) and give Gary his old job back for those games.

We've discussed this, but this article hasn't been posted. For the record, if it's anything negative about Roger Clemens, feel free to post it, seven or eight or thirty three times. You can never have too many negative posts about Roger Clemens.

I am really sorry to hear that Gary and Howie will be split. They had a fantastic dynamic on the radio last year. I'm happy for Gary that he'll be making the switch to TV, but I think his style was a better fit for radio. And I will miss him during my sunday drives.

What the hell...no love for Howie?

Happy Birthday Ed! And there was much rejoicing at the Crane Pool. Rejoice!

If Vlad were here there would be all this talk about how he can't handle playing in New York because of his struggles in the post-season. "I can't describe it man, it just takes something extra to handle the pressure of playing in New York and this guy clearly doesn't have it."

No need to apologize for the new thread (I actually dislike threads that get too long). I was just asking because I wasn't sure if we had discussed this or not.

Thanks Yancy. For a minute I thought I was going crazy. I saw that the article was from today, but I remember reading about it (or an incident remarkably similar to it) before.

Didn't we have a thread about this incident before?

Once upon a time, KC spawned a name game that spun ridiculously out of control.

What it does is give you three very nice options for interim manager for when Torre is bounced mid-season after getting swept by the Mets. Twice.

Did Humber have TJ surgery? What's the timetable on his return?

Well, Felix is technicially our's....

Hail! (How is it possible that jb only has 41 posts?)

I got no problem with A-Rod playing Poker. I'd rather have him do that than electrocute his nephews.

Which is why I was so surprised that in the midst of all those meaningless games we never once saw Mike Jacobs don the tools. I mean really, would it have killed us to see Ramon Castro start one less game?