batmagadanleadoff

Mets and Royals Share Many Common Threads (Not Just the Blue Ones) By TYLER KEPNER OCT. 25, 2015 The 111th World Series begins Tuesday night with the first of two games at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo. The Royals� home park, it has hosted three World Series before � in 1980, 1985 and 2014 � while Citi Field, the site of Games 3 through 5, hosts its first. Here�s a look at some of the off-the-field sights, sounds and connections between these infrequent rivals, who, through a scheduling quirk, will also meet on opening day next April 4 in Kansas City. FIRST EXPANSION MATCHUP Major League Baseball first expanded in 1961, with the Mets joining the National League the next season and the Royals making their debut in the American League in 1969. That season, the Mets became the first N.L. expansion team to reach the World Series, and in 1980, the Royals became the first A.L. team to do it. Incredibly, though, this is the first World Series matchup ever between two expansion teams. DOMINICAN DOMINANCE The Royals� top three starting pitchers � Johnny Cueto, Edinson Volquez and Yordano Ventura � are among the 76 natives of the Dominican Republic to pitch in the majors this year. The three have combined for 505 career starts, just barely more than the Mets� Bartolo Colon, the career leader in games started by a Dominican pitcher, with 467. Colon, who won the National League Championship Series clincher in relief, is seeking his first career appearance in the World Series. PENNANTS PASSED DOWN Jerry Koosman got the final out of the Mets� first World Series championship, against Baltimore in 1969 (on a fly ball by the future Mets manager Davey Johnson). When the Mets traded Koosman to Minnesota after the 1978 season, they received a pitching prospect named Jesse Orosco, who went on to record the final out of the Mets� other championship, in 1986. The Mets� last two pennant winners also share a connection. When Mike Hampton, the most valuable player in the 2000 N.L.C.S., left as a free agent for Colorado, the Mets used their compensatory draft pick on a Virginia high school player named David Wright, who, of course, became the captain of the 2015 N.L. champions. TRUE TO THE BLUE The Mets and the Royals both have clean, crisp uniforms with the same cap logos they have worn during their entire existence. (And, no, the Mets� interlocking N.Y. does not stand for Ned Yost.) Both teams have a classic script wordmark on their home jerseys that is essentially unchanged over time, and both committed the same fashion faux pas in the same era. The Royals wore alternate black jerseys from 2002 to 2005, during the period when the Mets wore the color often. The Mets, who wore black jerseys for Games 1 and 4 of the 2000 World Series against the Yankees, finally dropped black from their color scheme in 2012. FUNNY FANS With Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Kevin James, Jimmy Kimmel and Jim Breuer, the Mets count plenty of comedians among their fans. Heck, Bill Maher is even a minority owner. But the Royals have a strong following in the comedy world, too. Paul Rudd, Jason Sudeikis, Eric Stonestreet and Rob Riggle are well known around Kauffman Stadium � and their fandom is not just recent. �Nobody can dislike you for being a Royals fan,� Rudd said in a 2011 interview on MLB.com. �People are like, �Oh, that�s cute.� But they�re a team to be reckoned with � they will be.� OUTFIELD ATTRACTIONS Both ballparks have a distinctive feature just beyond the outfield fence � the Home Run Apple at Citi Field and the fountains at Kauffman Stadium. But the fan pavilions behind those attractions are really the place to be. Among other features at Citi Field, you�ll find a Wiffle ball diamond, a dunk tank and, of course, Shake Shack. But the outfield plaza at �The K� is a virtual wonderland for young fans. Besides the usual baseball-themed interactive attractions, there is a playground, a carousel and a five-hole miniature golf course. And, naturally, a picnic area with a barbecue pit. BALLPARK SONGS Paul McCartney and Billy Joel have played together at Citi Field, but it is Billy who gets the singalong every eighth inning when the loudspeakers play �Piano Man� � an odd choice redeemed a bit by the presence of a cheery Terry Collins on the scoreboard during the line �The manager gives me a smile.� As upbeat ballpark songs go, it is hard to beat McCartney and the Beatles belting out �Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey,� which plays at Kauffman Stadium after every Royals win. The Beatles opened with that song when they played at the old Municipal Stadium in 1964. MASCOTS The last time these franchises won the World Series, neither had a mascot. The Mets had scrapped Mr. Met throughout the 1980s, reviving him in the mid-1990s around the time the Royals introduced Sluggerrr � yes, with three r�s. Sluggerrr is a musclebound lion whose gold crown blends into his face in a Bart Simpson kind of way. Sluggerrr is 7 feet tall (two inches taller than Mr. Met), and seems more aggressive than his New York counterpart. According to the Mets� website, Mr. Met throws �T-shirts, Cracker Jacks, and great parties� � while the Royals� website says Sluggerrr throws �Hot dogs, T-shirts, and visiting fans out of the park!� The mascots, who follow each other on Twitter, have at least one thing in common: They both wear uniform number 00. COMMON ALUMNI The teams could put together a solid rotation of pitchers who worked for both, including David Cone, Bret Saberhagen, Kevin Appier, Rick Reed and Glendon Rusch. The Royals� Game 4 starter in the A.L.C.S., Chris Young, pitched for the Mets in 2011 and 2012, and the Mets� hitting coach, Kevin Long, spent his eight-year minor league career with the Royals. Amos Otis hit .151 for the 1969 Mets and � after a regrettable trade for Joe Foy � made five All-Star teams for the Royals, spending several years playing for the Hall of Fame manager Whitey Herzog, who had overseen his development as the Mets� farm director. Other position players who wore both uniforms include Carlos Beltran, Jeff Francoeur and Gregg Jefferies. One player who spent his career exclusively with the teams is the former pitcher Brian Bannister, who sent this tweet after the matchup was set: �My #Mets jerseys have already started talking trash to my #Royals jerseys.� http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/26/sports/baseball/mets-and-royals-share-many-common-threads-not-just-the-blue-ones.html?_r=0

I never had any hate for this franchise, probably going back to my teen age years when the baseball enemy of my baseball enemy was my baseball friend. With just a little bit of luck on their side, those Royals might've gone to the WS four out of five years, making disco era baseball more enjoyable by orders of magnitude.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: What? No picture of Gordon's Cornhusker wife? Now that you've seen pics, how about telling us about their catcher or their best lefty or whatever. Oooh! An assignment. OK. Catching for the Royals will be Salvador Perez, no backstopping slouch he -- this season, he was selected to the AL all-star team for the third straight season. He's a catcher with pop. His 21 HR's this season are a career high and he's been Murphying the ball this postseason - clouting two HR's in the NLDS and another pair in the NLCS. Not as Murphy as Murphy but more than enough to take notice. Obligatory [crossout]wifey[/crossout] girlfriend shot. Can't find one. He might have a girlfriend stashed away in his native Velenzuela, but my light research is sketchy, as are details of his love life. Still, the girls on this website want to devour Salvador and his meaty thighs, girlfriend or no grirlfriend. Especially 'cause he's a 29 year old making $6M a year. Anyone here planning on attending any of the WS games should think twice before reflexively chanting "Salvador Perez Stinks". He doesn't. "Near the end of the 2013 season, teammate Alcides Escobar sprayed P�rez with Victoria's Secret women's perfume and he had four hits. P�rez continue to wear perfume during games as a good-luck charm, switching to 212 VIP cologne by Carolina Herrera in 2014." That's woman's perfume. Still, I'll take our cologne over Perez's cologne. [fimg=333]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5783/22489606441_e80f71b979_o.jpg[/fimg]

What? No picture of Gordon's Cornhusker wife?

G-Fafif wrote: That 1995 draft pick wasn't Carlos Beltran. Who was he? Story here. Jeez, You spotted another interloper besides the first interloper that isn't Whitey Herzog. Talk about a way to sneak into a card thread. Would you like a Bob Miller '73 Padres DIY Topps as a prize?. It's got Steve Rogers name on it, you might've heard by now.

Zvon wrote: [fimg=300]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/723/22400965296_18daeda63e_o.jpg[/fimg] There is no way you can post this w/o sharing the details on Ray's origin story! Tease! I wouldn't know the Sadecki origin story because I never read that comic book. It's a #1 issue so I sealed my copy in a protective sleeve. There's an even rarer alternate #1 issue, but I've only seen pictures of the cover. I never even saw the alt issue on ebay. [fimg=330]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/647/22289668509_fd42651b57_o.jpg[/fimg]

[fimg=433]http://www.flagpro.com/store/media/National_Decorations/Pleated_85_Fan.jpg[/fimg][fimg=433]http://www.flagpro.com/store/media/National_Decorations/Pleated_85_Fan.jpg[/fimg] Plus an interloper that ain't Whitey Herzog. [fimg=257]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5726/22400965216_6ef7fe5a04_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=265]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5738/22400965266_358089174e_o.jpg[/fimg] [fimg=260]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5689/21805694203_41d0253c06_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=260]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/695/21805694183_5f2970dc4d_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=255]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5774/21855012933_03aa7bae1a_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=220]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5733/22400965336_2f137b4a6a_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=255]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5722/22400965326_0ce3e9660e_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=265]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/723/22400965296_18daeda63e_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=250]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5759/22429243835_0342785c72_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=260]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5630/22240031379_8e5840553f_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=260]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/629/22240031359_9ceb53bc0d_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=255]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5782/22240031329_663e4e481f_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=240]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5771/21805660873_952e6b54fe_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=255]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5761/21805660853_843db430a1_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=255]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/692/22240031319_7aa70058ba_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=255]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/603/21865323684_ed0d869e50_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=255]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5785/22240031279_9f31662e69_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=255]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5638/21805694223_d0da8bfae1_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=255]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/776/22242728560_ecef5053a7_o.jpg[/fimg] [fimg=263]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5658/21805660803_122a9a9a07_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=463]http://img.comc.com/i/Baseball/1970/Topps/702/Bob-Johnson-Ron-Klimkowski-Bill-Zepp.jpg?id=e7973f46-d428-4c07-8bd7-0ef768d7688b&size=original[/fimg][fimg=345]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/632/22400965236_b02a2d3bf8_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=344]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/709/21805694163_1ba1c67eb9_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=354]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/745/21805660823_d4eca09cd7_o.jpg[/fimg][fimg=354]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/621/21805660783_cb1f81c80c_o.jpg[/fimg] [fimg=384]http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/OTA2WDcwNw==/z/dtEAAOSwDk5Tsb5v/$_35.JPG[/fimg]

I thought the Mets were baseball's best in '06. They had, easily the best 3-4-5 in baseball, and that's a lot. Four of their first five hitters had MVP caliber seasons and the other guy (Lo Duca) was only an all-star, in the midst of what was probably his career year. That they were mismanaged --- well you know where I stand on that one. They had some flaws, but every team does. You play those three seasons over (06-08), Monte Carlo computer style, and it's not so far-fetched for the Mets to win the pennant three straight years on some of those rolls.

I never ever said or wrote a single bad thing about Sandy Alderson. But I'll have some of that crow for thinking that Granderson was not too far from done.

[fimg=755:bwdw8fu9]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5737/21830606963_075686d373_o.jpg[/fimg:bwdw8fu9]

[fimg=726:1ombzy6y]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5827/22433138336_d3890685d2_o.jpg[/fimg:1ombzy6y] [fimg=726:1ombzy6y]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/774/22308009199_1eb0fb38b5_o.jpg[/fimg:1ombzy6y] [fimg=726:1ombzy6y]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/719/22317001568_159de11fc1_o.jpg[/fimg:1ombzy6y]

dinosaur jesus wrote: I've had dreams like this. They're not nice dreams. And this. How did you get that lobster boy effect? I've been trying to do that (not lobster boy, but that look) for months.

Zvon wrote: God, this is great. I don't remember this one. How long did it take you to do that one? I'd buy that if it was poster size, like 14" x 20", say.

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Benjamin Grimm wrote: You're putting these in the wrong thread. If you want them to be part of the "permanent collection" you should put them in the thread mentioned above. Thanks. It said archived so I figured it was a closed thread. I never go to that section. I have a thing against this forum's archives, but I see that those are active threads. Are we supposed to post there? It looks like up until your recent post in the Jeff thread, no one's posted there in almost a decade. To tell you the truth, I barely knew that section existed. As far as I'm concerned, when a thread is archived, it might as well be sucked into a black hole the way the search engine here works. Nice find. I was just poking around that thread after following up on the link from your message above. Man that Dinosaur Jesus is a real pro at this.

This one's downright sacreligious. [fimg=655:y9eg49ze]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5739/22215710768_9f2c736976_o.jpg[/fimg:y9eg49ze] [fimg=333:y9eg49ze]http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jimclash/files/2015/07/disraeligears.jpeg[/fimg:y9eg49ze]

[fimg=855:kyprmtco]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5712/22220349368_585b17b08f_o.jpg[/fimg:kyprmtco]

Zvon wrote: [fimg=500]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-4176VpV-cSY/ViltM8DwtgI/AAAAAAAAiVY/omQssAzmbV0/s912-Ic42/2015mfcNLCSgm4-DUDA-BTTF-z15.png[/fimg] [fimg=364]http://35qgk3t2wfnkd8qn39gepcwh.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/shutterstock_129314522-1024x876.jpg[/fimg]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Did we dislike Hampton when he was still a Met? It's possible, but I don't recall that. I seem to think we wanted him back, but were miffed at the way he left. Jeez. How far back does this forum go?

Farmer Ted wrote: The best was Murph getting the MVP trophy next to Jeffy, who was stone-faced the whole time ("holy shit, I don't have money to pay that guy. Please don't look at me"). Where's that Find Jeff Wilpon thread? That could use some updating. [fimg=955]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5791/22405244705_8e2ca1fbc5_o.jpg[/fimg]

One more for the road: [fimg=500:33z61tzu]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5636/21776981813_454995e0e3_o.jpg[/fimg:33z61tzu]

I'm Bartolo Colon and none of my teams have ever gone to a World Series. Until now.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: MFS62 wrote: I picked option #1 because I still prefer Noah pitching at Citi than on the road. Well, yeah, that's just, like, your opinion, man. (Again, most EVERYONE pitches better at home, including deGrom and Harvey.) Give me deGrom, Harvey, Syndergaard. Or Harvey, Thor, Dutch. Or Noah, Dutch, Jake would be Jake. Honestly... I trust deGrom just a little bit more, but the order is almost immaterial to me. Same exact here. I have no preference and can't decide anyways.

Mets Sketch Journal Guy has a lot of catching up to do. Here's his last entry. It's from August. It's Murphy related. Because everything's coming up Murphy. Remember that play (below)?

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