batmagadanleadoff

[fimg=444]http://www.tradingcarddb.com/Images/Cards/Baseball/342/342-573Fr.jpg[/fimg] "Timeout! What about me?"

[fimg=444:2dstpazd]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hcFDPSRSKPU/T8TWdfJ98HI/AAAAAAAAa0Q/USJ3QdoySQY/s320/damon+buford+(5).jpg[/fimg:2dstpazd] "My father, too."

[fimg=444]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/John_Mayberry%2C_Jr._%2816156751174%29.jpg/800px-John_Mayberry%2C_Jr._%2816156751174%29.jpg[/fimg] "My father would be in this club if only he played for the Mets. I think."

[fimg=444]http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1605104.1391729738!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_750/garyweb7s-2-web.jpg[/fimg] "I never played for the Mets but this club could use an announcer. I should be an honorary. Here's one of the earliest meetings of some members of this club. We're in the Hall of Fame, too. Is Olerud? Did Olerud fuck Elizabeth Taylor?"

[fimg=444]https://villagevoice.freetls.fastly.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/ny_dn0620_thumb.jpg[/fimg] "Any room for some small balls in this club? How about no balls?"

"I love John Olerud, but no way should he be the president. Who the hell decided that, that ****, Ivanka?"

I'm hungry. What's for lunch?

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I'm not sure I would offer anything, but if I were inclined to make the gamble you propose, I'd go for more like $18 million over the two years. Maybe $16 million. He might not be inclined to take it, but I think the odds are that his upside is pretty mediocre from here forward. From what I've been reading in the press this off-season, I don't think the Mets can afford to offer Harvey 2/$18M. Their budget appears to be severely limited and starting pitching, even with all of last season's injuries, is still the Mets biggest strength -- even without Harvey.

SteveJRogers wrote: Metly connection Twin: Gardenhire. Good guess, but no! Johan.

Edgy MD wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Why do you hate Ashie? I'm wearied by continued reports that X team (the Mets) can't trade for big league talent because they don't have the prospects. As if their players graduating to the majors and not appearing on prospect lists suddenly makes them untradeable. Every team has enough talent to trade for any player in the league, just about. It may not match up as a good deal, but the idea that a trade is suddenly out of the question is absurd. Maybe we can send Pat Zachry, Steve Henderson and Dan Norman to the Angels for Mike Trout. I like how you somehow make this deal while hanging on to Doug Flynn. Nice! If it's up to me, I'm not looking to overpay.

Edgy MD wrote: Why do you hate Ashie? I'm wearied by continued reports that X team (the Mets) can't trade for big league talent because they don't have the prospects. As if their players graduating to the majors and not appearing on prospect lists suddenly makes them untradeable. Every team has enough talent to trade for any player in the league, just about. It may not match up as a good deal, but the idea that a trade is suddenly out of the question is absurd. Maybe we can send Pat Zachry, Steve Henderson and Dan Norman to the Angels for Mike Trout.

G-Fafif wrote: On a more personal level, I maintain a different order of preference: 1999 and 1985 at the very top, with 1986, 1997, 1980, 1975 and 1970 filling the next tier of full-season experience, and special places reserved for the stretch drives and postseasons of 1969 and 1973. A lot of honorable mentions as well. I thought this piece was the most enjoyable one of the year, and that's saying a lot. I would have liked to read your "personal level" list. The way I figure it, it's your subjective list, so tell us how you really feel. Why paint yourself into a corner by imposing self-constraints with rules about these kind of seasons having to be ranked over those kinds of seasons which in turn need be ranked higher than the ones over here? Anything unexpected or counter-intuitive would make for an interesting read and you, of all people, have the expertise and credibility to pull off any "crazy" take on the rankings.

Zvon wrote: Zvon wrote: I'll share (or re-share) some of my colorizations here, sans the MFC logo or my sig. I don't recall ever sharing this one, especially full sized. Ashburn doing what he did alot. I'd love to make money through my color work but then I couldn't share it in this manner. Once the image is out there, especially a big bare version like this that would print up excellently, it's worthless. It's flown the coup. Bye bye Richie. Jeez, this is so good, it's even better than a real color photograph. How the hell do you do that? Determination and an eye for detail. I see now, at this size, there's some real light blue in Ashburn's uni that should have been removed. That's only supposed to cover the pinstripes. Oh yea, and you need to be real anal, lol. Pinstripes, I think, are the baddest bitches in baseball colorizations. I'm working on a Brooklyn Dodgers project and it's a blessing that their unis have no pinstripes. Could you post the b&w of that Ashburn? TIA.

Zvon wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Though the Failing Ultimate Mets Database and the Fake News Mets by the Numbers don't include him, Olympic gold medalist and Nazi humiliator Jesse Owens was ... briefly a coach for the Mets! Yeah, it was as a spring training instructor, but still! Here is as as newly signed player coach Yogi Berra and GM George Weiss celebrate his first day by attempting to cripple him. Another take, different angle --- Jesse smiling, and in the background, Howard Cosell smoking a cigarette, and Johnny Murphy [fimg=777]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4593/39524553381_5ab073d91d_b.jpg[/fimg] Looks like two different efforts, unless he had a quick smile. Did they keep on raising the bat every time? Different takes. Compare Yogi's grips.

Zvon wrote: I'll share (or re-share) some of my colorizations here, sans the MFC logo or my sig. I don't recall ever sharing this one, especially full sized. Ashburn doing what he did alot. I'd love to make money through my color work but then I couldn't share it in this manner. Once the image is out there, especially a big bare version like this that would print up excellently, it's worthless. It's flown the coup. Bye bye Richie. Jeez, this is so good, it's even better than a real color photograph. How the hell do you do that?

Edgy MD wrote: Though the Failing Ultimate Mets Database and the Fake News Mets by the Numbers don't include him, Olympic gold medalist and Nazi humiliator Jesse Owens was ... briefly a coach for the Mets! Yeah, it was as a spring training instructor, but still! Here is as as newly signed player coach Yogi Berra and GM George Weiss celebrate his first day by attempting to cripple him. Another take, different angle --- Jesse smiling, and in the background, Howard Cosell smoking a cigarette, and Johnny Murphy [fimg=777]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4593/39524553381_5ab073d91d_b.jpg[/fimg]

A nice story about this Neil Leifer photograph from Sports Illustrated here: two Mets fans, their friendship and, of course, the ever camera-ready Casey Stengel. I remember your original 2008 piece about that photograph very well and in fact, immediately thought of it as soon as I saw the photo in your post above, even before I read any of your post.

41Forever wrote: Centerfield wrote: Think of the absurdity of our situation. In other cities, the owners are criticized for artificially limiting their payrolls to $197 million. Revenues are soaring, but player salaries are capped. This is greedy and unfair. In Flushing, the Mets have one of the highest revenues in baseball. But they went "over-budget" at $155 million, and are threatening to reduce payroll further. I don't know if it's fair to point out the revenues without noting the expenses as well. None of us have access to the Mets books, but expenses go beyond player payroll.... I don't understand your stubborn and desperate determination to defend the Mets owners at all costs. And the thing of it is that you have even less evidence to support your position than the supposedly scant evidence you claim CF has. It's not necessary to inspect the Mets books with forensic expertise. The existing evidence, which is more than anecdotal, is devastatingly powerful. The Mets payroll is expected to rank around 20th this season, less than most teams, including the poor Kansas City Royals even though the Mets play in the world's greatest city. They sign a top tier still in his prime free agent, on average, every 10 or 15 years. And since Fred Wilpon assumed control of the team's day to day operations more than 35 years ago, the Mets have just two first place finishes. How the hell do you defend this record? Why aren't the Mets outspending most of MLB's other teams every ... single ... season? If they don't have the money, then the ownership is incompetent. If the Mets do have the money, then the owners are cheap. It's not that complicated.

Me too. These new cards are too busy, too cluttered with junk and gimmicks. And they look like every other card from the last couple of years. [fimg=277]https://img.comc.com/i/Baseball/1967/Topps---Base/165/Cleon-Jones.jpg?id=19bb816b-a3eb-4d1c-a2a9-e916695c6e62&size=zoom[/fimg] Now that's a card.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I've seen estimates that the Mets may be worth $2 billion. Back in 1980, the Doubleday-Wilpon group purchased the team for $21 million. If I had known how much the value of the team would appreciate, I would have bought the team in 1980 for $21 million, even though I was 17 years old and broke. Maybe our best hope is that after Fred is gone, Jeff might decide that he'd rather have $2 billion than a baseball team. It gets even better. Or worse. Wilpon was a minority investor. I think his initial stake was five percent, or about $1Milllion. He parlayed one million dollars into about two billion. And when it came time to buy out Doubleday's share, the rumor is that Wilpon wouldn't have been able to do so without leveraging financial data for credit that, in hindsight, was phony ---- a portfolio based on Madoff's then undiscovered fraudulent and inflated holdings.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: The Wilpons care so much for their fans that in a city that's closing in on a population of nine million, they built a 40,000 seat stadium. But what am I talking About? The team's so chronically disappointing, no one bothers to go to their games. If he cared about the fans, he'd sell one of his office buildings and the Madoff debt might be done with. But he couldn't give a flying fuck about the fans. He wants to eat his fucking cake, too. Instead, he'll ride out the financial crisis even if it means keeping the Mets in mediocrity for as long as it takes for the debt to be paid back with Mets baseball revenue, knowing full well he's covered because the value of the franchise is rising to astronomical proportions. If the Marlins are worth a billion, what the hell is the NYC NL franchise worth?

Centerfield wrote: I will say this. To anyone saying that the Mets should spend like a big market team, there is no dumber counter argument than "It's not like they're the Yankees". It's infuriating. Not once, ever have I said the Mets should spend like the Yankees. We know that they are not the Yankees. Can we put that issue to bed and not raise it again? It's so fucking aggravating. One of these days, this will be the reason I end up in jail. I know. People say the Mets don't have Yankees money to justify the Mets spending at less than KC Royal levels. But we should accept that Fred Wilpon could be as terrrble an owner as he possibly can so long as there's at least one other owner who's even worse. I guess it would be delusional to have a realistic conversation about the Mets signing Bryce Harper after next season, right?

d'Kong76 wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: This is more of the same hooey gooey cotton candy up with people nonsense you always get here. If one can take a moment to see above their hate for a few posters here and leave their forum prejudices at the door, there's really very little hooey gooey cotton candy nonsense regularly posted here. Certain not always? C'mon. You spent eight years mocking me. Mocking me as if I was some Larry "Bud" Melman chump too oblivious to even realize you were mocking me. Eight years. Even though I never did anything to you other than, after a while, to retaliate. Then after eight years, you finally figured out how to attack my posts, colorably at least, on the merits, so that it would appear that you didn't have some crazy personal obsession with me and that you simply had a difference of opinion. With every single thing I ever wrote.

Nymr83 wrote: NY fans would not accept the path the Astros took to win that WS. the Wilpons would never be allowed to bottom out like that. "would never be allowed?" Who wouldn't allow them? You? The Wilpons are supposed to be scared of you?

Centerfield wrote: 41Forever wrote: The Wilpons have their issues -- some pretty big ones -- but they are far from the worst owners in baseball and not worthy of a revolt. I'm willing to listen on this one. I don't really know a lot about other owners. Who is worse? I'm not willing to listen. This is more of the same hooey gooey cotton candy up with people nonsense you always get here. Whether the Wilpons are or aren't the worst owners is a meaningless and pointless standard by which to judge them. You're gonna tell me that it'd be a huge consolation if there were worse MLB owners out there? And besides, the Wilpons might in fact be baseball's worst owners when you consider what they have to work with, and the gargantuan competitive advantages they have from owning a team from NYC.