batmagadanleadoff

"I know everybody here missed me". [fimg=555]http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/harvey-korman-blazing-saddles.jpg[/fimg]

cooby wrote: I remember a Banner Day banner that said "What the heck happened to Schneck?" Now I know I wish some fan would make that banner for this season.

I think that Terry Collins might be the new Mets record holder for most baseball cards as a manager. He's been with the org for quite some time, now.

[fimg=433]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8563/16730452152_bc8d79d063_o.jpg[/fimg] [fimg=444]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8675/16109215284_1a01ff8867_o.jpg[/fimg]

More. [fimg=333:jblev7gb]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8682/16111572853_e79746d618_o.jpg[/fimg:jblev7gb][fimg=344:jblev7gb]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8600/16543963078_3ef55c9fee_o.jpg[/fimg:jblev7gb][fimg=333:jblev7gb]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8636/16730311521_826537e09b_o.jpg[/fimg:jblev7gb] [fimg=333:jblev7gb]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8642/16731525685_ff6d47fc10_o.jpg[/fimg:jblev7gb] [fimg=466:jblev7gb]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8576/16730450922_3c9a2a7802_o.jpg[/fimg:jblev7gb] [fimg=433:jblev7gb]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8635/16111573843_59539c2b1a_o.jpg[/fimg:jblev7gb] [fimg=333:jblev7gb]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8596/16109214764_d74729c1db_o.jpg[/fimg:jblev7gb]

These cards sure do get me in the mood for some Clapton Bluesbreakers tunes. And Batman. [fimg=544:wssmp6ic]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8566/16544120200_08b0290477_o.jpg[/fimg:wssmp6ic] [fimg=433:wssmp6ic]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8635/16730449702_39e6f6c92b_o.jpg[/fimg:wssmp6ic] [fimg=333:wssmp6ic]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8594/16544111750_f8743cbb28_o.jpg[/fimg:wssmp6ic][fimg=333:wssmp6ic]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8601/16544111960_e3aec24372_o.jpg[/fimg:wssmp6ic] [fimg=333:wssmp6ic]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8573/16730310741_7312a87033_o.jpg[/fimg:wssmp6ic]

Edgy MD wrote: There's a Billy Bean issue? Great, Mets, you've created a Billy Bean issue. I'm sure there's a good deal of hindsight going into what I'm about to write, (and some Wilpon antipathy, too) but the more I think about this, what the fuck were the Mets thinking? They invited an openly gay ex-player into camp for a day and created a whole event focusing on his sexual orientation, and didn't consider that one of their own dumb and narrow-minded jocks, unfiltered, and apparently unprepped, might say something colossally stupid and insensitive to a reporter covering the event? This is #lolmets, right? Give the Mets an "A" for intent and, as usual, an "F" for execution. And that was just day one of the official Spring Training season. Between Murphy and Thor's lunch, the clueless Mets picked up right where they left off last year. Maybe Jay Horwitz is getting too old and too slow for his job.

Goddamn you Leiter and Sage. For being on the right side. I called Murph clueless in my first post in this thread, and then immediately felt guilty about that because I knew that my post wasn't gonna please everyone here. So I backtracked and waffled and then wrote that Murphy could have his opinion if he wanted it. And then I was mad at myself as soon as I clicked the send button on that second post for not being honest with myself. I knew I was right the first time. Murph is clueless. And the idea that he should get a free pass just because he's following his church's beliefs is absurd and counter-intuitive. If Murph's church is spreading that message, then that church should be called out as well.

I'm struggling to date this photo. As a starting point, the photo could only have been taken in the Spring of either '64 or '65: Harrelson first signed with the Mets in the Summer of '63 and so wouldn't have appeared in St. Petersburg that year, at least not simultaneously with Stengel.... Plus, the tall fence in the background has that horizontal pipe that divides the fence in half. So it's the newer fence that first appeared in '64. More proof that the photo can't be from '63, Harrelson's first year with the organization.

Zvon wrote: [fimg=300]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/2c/6f/c1/2c6fc1c50199e5cc206e1ade6cee3536.jpg[/fimg] Could it be possible he posed in someone elses uni just for the photo? Like maybe The Man From Topps came down and wanted a photo of Bud for his card so the equipt guy said, here, slip this on for now. Yeah. Because just before the Man From Topps got there, Buddy was fielding grounders in an Irish Fisherman's Sweater. [fimg=844]http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2857/10332279293_613c7c8967_o.jpg[/fimg]

Zvon wrote: The mystery thickens. Everyone always forgets poor Mr.Murphy! Maybe his presence is an indicator of the year. In 1964 he was the Mets Administrative Assistant. In 1965 he was Mets team Vice President. Which of those gigs puts him on a field with Casey in Spring Training? If you say both I'll Moe you in the eyes. But I suppose it could be both. GAH! Johnny Murph's presence at The Butter doesn't help any here because Murph was a Met from day one, and even before day one. Murph coulda been there any year. So Moe me. Even if I'm just the poor messenger.

OK. But #6 was Bobby Klaus's uni # in the Spring of '65.

Even if M&N truly did have a photo of Tug from ST '65, the photo would have, more than likely, been shot from in front of Tug, as most photos are, thus hiding whatever number Tug was wearing because the Mets ST '65 unis were numberless in the front. [fimg=544:qscot1yv]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8638/16103647074_7ee37f01ac_o.jpg[/fimg:qscot1yv]

Mitchell & Ness once sold a 1965 Tug Mcgraw #56 Mets jersey. When skeptical Mets fans noted that Tug never wore #56 with the Mets, M&N, I suppose, backtracked rather than admit their error, suddenly claiming that Tug wore 56 in ST '65. Whatever the case was, M&N never produced photographic evidence of Tug in a #56 Mets jersey, even though it claims to have that proof. Even if Tug did wear #56, which he probably didn't, the M&N jersey is still inaccurate because the Mets front numerals were not introduced until the start of the '65 regular season -- not ST. And why would M&N issue a ST jersey in the first place? That's gotta be a coverup for an embarrassing mistake, right?

Edgy MD wrote: Do these patches tend to appear during spring training? Depends on the year. In '64 and in '65, the Mets wore the previous year's uniforms in ST. So in ST '64, there was no WF patch on the Mets unis and in ST '65, there was a WF patch on their unis, but no numbers on the front of their jerseys. Anyways, the Harrelson number mystery deepens. Bud couldnt'a been #8 in ST '65 because Yogi was with the Mets by then. I shoulda known this from my vast photo collection, which I looked at just now (at least the shots from ST 64 and 65 and was reminded). [fimg=655]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8638/16103647074_7ee37f01ac_o.jpg[/fimg] So now, I really don't know what year that Harrelson photo was shot.

Did you ever see Mr. Met's tongue? Wanna see John Milner take batting practice at Shea? Mr. Met, but with an enlarged head? Nickelodeon's green slime? The Supreme Courthouse in The Bronx? Details of Mr. Met's health insurance package? Then this video's for you. http://grantland.com/features/its-not-crazy-its-sports-being-mr-met/

You know what? You don't need seven ace pitchers to win a WS. If you can get into the post-season with three very good pitchers, you have as good a chance as anybody to win it all.

Maybe I was too harsh on Murph when I wrote that he was clueless. I mean, his comment is vague enough that it could mean almost anything. So I might not know exactly what he meant even if I think I do. And besides, everybody gets judged. Everybody. People get judged for the haircut they wear. They get judged for the diner they frequent. They get judged for having too much money and they get judged for not having enough money. And nobody's ever gonna change this, especially the 20 of us on this forum in this thread. So maybe Murph should be entitled to his own opinion anyways, especially since he isn't breaking any laws and doesn't seem like the sort of guy that would settle a score with his neighbor by kidnapping his neighbor's cat. The only thing that I can be certain of that Murphy did wrong was to decide to speak his opinion into a live microphone or tape recorder for the benefit of millions of people. I don't know.

Hey, Lunchbucket! Are you sleeping on the job? You should be doing this. The Millan-Martinez-Schneck triple uniform swap of '74 is explained. I noticed that swap immediately back then because at that age, I was an absolute eagle eye or hawk eye for Mets uni stuff. But I don't remember ever hearing or reading about an explanation for the swap, until now. [fimg=172]https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/uploads/blog/sbnu_logo/35/large_amazinavenue.com.full.82120.png[/fimg] The Mets' historic three-way uniform-number trade of 1974 By Kevin Duffy on Mar 5, 2015, 12:00p Mets fans might notice something different about Travis d�Arnaud when the team begins the season April 6 in Washington against the Nationals, a subtle change that might call to mind a more complex one from a long time ago. Gone will be the catcher�s customary uniform number 15 in favor of 7, his preferred number, which he wore through the minors up until coming to the Mets from the Toronto Blue Jays after the 2012 season. The switch came about with the cooperation of bench coach Bob Geren, who wore the number previously modeled with distinction by Jose Reyes and, before him, Ed Kranepool. Formerly a catcher himself, Geren agreed to d�Arnaud�s request and exchanged numerals with him before the full squad convened in Port St. Lucie, Florida, for spring training. The trade between catcher and coach calls to mind another pre-season swap, somewhat more convoluted, from 41 years ago. Changing numbers during spring training isn�t all that uncommon, but many fans of the defending National League champion Mets were probably scratching their heads, rubbing their eyes and double-checking their scorecards when the 1974 season got underway. That year, with the help of the equipment manager, a three-way deal occurred. Bob Scheffing, the general manager at the time, had made only one actual trade that offseason before the team assembled in Florida, but dealing pitcher Jim McAndrew to the San Diego Padres for a minor leaguer didn�t exactly get the fans in New York chirping. So Felix Millan, the steady second baseman best remembered for choking up at the plate like nobody before, decided to mix things up. For Millan, switching from 16 to 17 was a chance to be more comfortable wearing the number he�d chosen for good luck with the Atlanta Braves, who traded him to the Mets before the 1973 season. And according to him, teammate Teddy Martinez, number 17 in your Mets scorecard during the �73 season, wanted to wear 23, the number of his idol, San Francisco Giant infielder Tito Fuentes. Martinez, ever amiable, agreed to give up his number to Millan. "Teddy liked number 23 and I liked number 17," Millan said recently. "All I wanted was a number that I could wear in the big leagues, that�s all I cared about" But in order for the deal to come to pass, a third player, outfielder Dave Schneck, would have to cooperate. The stocky center fielder from Allentown, Pennsylvania, drafted by the Mets in the 38th round of the 1967 amateur draft, had logged brief stints with the team in 1972 and 1973 and would break camp with the club that year. Twenty-three belonged to him. He was only too happy to oblige. To Schneck, any number was fine, as long as it was stitched to his back with the Mets. "All I wanted was a number that I could wear in the big leagues; that�s all I cared about," he said. And that�s how the most significant Mets trade going into the 1974 season came to pass. Nowadays, players with long track records and oversized egos think nothing of requesting their favorite number when moving to another team, oftentimes offering monetary or material compensation in return. But times were different in �74. "I didn�t offer him nothing," Millan said of Martinez, the infielder/outfielder who played for the Mets from 1970-�74 before moving on to the Cardinals, A�s and Dodgers. "He liked Tito Fuentes a lot; he gave me the number 17 easily." Millan waited a full year to make the request, feeling it wasn�t his place to ask it of Martinez when he first got to New York, along with pitcher George Stone, for pitchers Gary Gentry and Danny Frisella. Upon arriving and finding out 17 was taken, Millan said he didn�t ask his new teammate to give it up. "I won�t say it�s superstitious, but I like the number" "No, no I never did - at that time I was a newcomer and Teddy was there before me, and I wasn�t going to try to make him give me the number," he explained. "I took 16 because it was closer to 17." Why 17? Millan will tell you that luck and superstition don�t necessarily go together. "It was my favorite number when I was a kid � number one is good, and seven they say is a lucky number," he said. But don�t confuse that with being superstitious, he clarified. "I won�t say it�s superstitious, because I don�t believe in superstitions, but I like the number," Millan said. Schneck, who went on to open a batting cage after his playing career ended before starting another business waterproofing basements, will tell you that he doesn�t remember much of anything about the three-way deal. He took Millan�s 16 and that was that. "To me back then, a number was a number � I�m in the big leagues, I don�t care," he said. He agreed that many ballplayers are superstitious about what numbers they wear, even if his former teammate, "El Gato", was not. "Oh yeah, a lot of them are, but I was never that way," Schneck said. An accomplished fullback in high school who once rushed for 179 yards in one game for Whitehall High, Schneck wore number 61 back then. Did he simply reverse that number in 1974 for good luck? No, he says. Was there any reason he picked 23 when he was called up in �72? No again. "It was given to me and that�s what I wore,� he said. There would be no more numerical shifts after �74 for Millan, who was named to three all-star games while with the Braves and batted .278 in his five-year career with the Mets, which ended in 1977. Why did he, like Martinez and so many other ballplayers, obsess over the number on his back? "Maybe because when they have a number and they do good, they want to keep that number, and if you don�t do good with a number you try to change it right away," he said. Unlike Millan, who batted .279 over 12 years in the bigs, Schneck�s time in the show was brief. After making the Mets in �74, he batted .205 and was dealt to the Phillies after the season in a six-player trade and never appeared in the majors again. To him, a more significant numeral is 50 � that�s the number of years he�s been with his wife, Suzanne, who he married after they began dating when both were 15. What�s their secret? "Every day we laugh; we have a good laugh every day," he said. But to some ballplayers like Millan and, perhaps, d�Arnaud, the number you wear is no laughing matter. http://www.amazinavenue.com/2015/3/5/8152203/mets-uniform-number-felix-millan-dave-schneck-teddy-martinez

Never mind. I figured it out. Dressed to the Nines is wrong. (see below) [fimg=633:x8z12vv9]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8680/16697211216_b74781cbb2_o.jpg[/fimg:x8z12vv9] The Mets wore the WF patch on the right sleeve. So Bud likely has a WF patch that's not in view in that photo. Because it's on his right sleeve. Stupid Dressed to the Nines!

Mets by the Numbers & Uni Watch nerdiness. Or: this is what's on my mind when I have 25 minutes to kill at six in the morning. I'm struggling to date this photo. As a starting point, the photo could only have been taken in the Spring of either '64 or '65: Harrelson first signed with the Mets in the Summer of '63 and so wouldn't have appeared in St. Petersburg that year, at least not simultaneously with Stengel. The lack of a World's Fair patch on Bud's left sleeve means that the photo had to have been taken in '64. While the Mets wore the WF patch in '64 and in '65, the team did not debut the WF patch until the beginning of the '64 regular season -- they didn't wear the WF patch in ST '64. But if the photo is from the Spring of '64, Harrelson would not have been assigned either #6 or #8, the only possible numbers on his jersey. Those numbers belonged to, respectively, Larry Burright and Chris Cannizzaro, who were each on the Mets roster at the end of the '63 season and at the beginning of the '64 regular season. In the Spring of '64, those numbers were accounted for. If the picture is from the Spring of '65, then #8 was available. 8 would eventually be assigned to Yogi Berra, but not until after the '65 season had begun. #6 belonged to Bobby Klaus in the Spring of '65, who was a Met at the end of '64 and at the start of '65. But if Bud's wearing a #8 jersey in the Spring of '65, where the hell is the WF patch, which the Mets wore in ST that year?

Wanna see older pictures of Derrel Mckinley?

Chooses All the (Young) Girls Love Alice as his walk up to the plate music.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Parnell and Wright team up to punish Noah Syndergaard for the crime of eating lunch in the clubhouse while a game was going on. Parnell reportedly threw plate loaded with food into a trash can. Riveting stuff. I know I'm not the first person here to have said this in the past week or two, but I've been sick up to here of Spring Training and offseason baseball and all the coverage since January. Must be the age. I'm glued to my computer, waiting for the inevitable follow-up about how Syndergaard has matured from all of this and how he's since bonded with his potential teammates and how this is all proof positive that this is finally gonna be the year that Ordonez hits .320.

Following up on FK's Stanton mask post in the Spring Things thread, some other historical baseball masks. [fimg=444]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7144/6628205891_3c0db3f3fd_b.jpg[/fimg] [fimg=344]https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3076/2691442370_414c2e1dbc_b.jpg[/fimg] [fimg=433]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5068/5748861862_8f68fcce61_b.jpg[/fimg][fimg=333]https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3138/2659504371_0aa60fc8bc_b.jpg[/fimg] [fimg=633]http://www.uni-watch.com/wp-content/uploads/Screen-shot-2015-03-02-at-12.47.53-PM.png[/fimg] [fimg=333]http://i3.cpcache.com/product/1249389988/ellis_valentine_football_mask_light_tshirt.jpg?color=LightBlue&height=460&width=460&qv=90[/fimg] Gary Roenicke [fimg=533]http://www.uni-watch.com/wp-content/uploads/roenicke.png[/fimg] Charlie Hayes [fimg=644]http://www.uni-watch.com/wp-content/uploads/hayes.png[/fimg] Marlon Byrd [fimg=333]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bxtc2SZIYAAAT0C.png:large[/fimg]