batmagadanleadoff

Frayed Knot wrote: Monday, October 8th, 1973 The series shifted to Shea Stadium for game 3 and, amazingly, both teams managed to make it there and were ready to go despite having played in southern Ohio the previous day. It�s a shame that baseball teams have lost the technology over the last four decades to be able to do that in October. But ready to go they were in Queens on Monday (afternoon, of course) after the weekend in Cincinnati and the Mets jumped on Reds starter Ross Grimsley early. In games 1 & 2 six of the eight runs had been scored in the 8th inning or later, but here a Staub solo HR in the 1st was followed by a Garrett Sac Fly, a Millan RBI single in the 2nd. That was enough for Sparky Anderson who saw Staub coming up again and quickly pulled Grimsley w/2 outs and 2 on in favor of lefty specialist Tom �The Blade�* Hall. But the strategy backfired as Rusty promptly hit a 3R HR giving the Mets an early 6-0 lead to Koosman before he went out for the 3rd frame. Kooz actually ran into trouble in the 3rd, giving up a leadoff HR to Dennis Menke and then 3 straight one-out singles for a second run. But he buckled down to get both Tony Perez & Johnny Bench with 2 on to end the inning. The Mets completed the scoring by tacking on a run in the 3rd (a Koosman RBI) and two more in the 4th as Koosman coasted to a complete game 8-hitter. Final score: Mets 9 - Reds 2 Mets lead series 2-1. * The nickname had to do with his thin build as Hall was listed at 6� 0�/150 Holy Shit, my high school self was thicker than that! This also happened in Game 3... CDkRC520-iY

Kong76 wrote: No real animosity here, but I know what you mean. Of course not. Because you say so.

The Wilpons are the baddest, most deplorable thing to ever happen to the Mets. The Wilpon problem dwarfs the Seaver trade in magnitude and in scope, and also, because the de Roulet Mets were probably a last place team even with Seaver. A year ago, these owners didn't even have the funds to keep the stadium lights on -- they had to borrow multi-millions of dollars from MLB twice just to meet basic operating expenses. There's overwhelming credible and compelling evidence that they had to have known that Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme, including the fact that Sterling even solicited investors for Madoff while simultaneously enforcing Madoff's bizarre raise-a-red-flag rule prohibiting those new investors from asking the most basic questions about their investments. This makes the Wilpons out and out crooks rather than dumb or unwitting sympathetic victims. They don't even deserve to own the team. Because looking back, it appears that the owners were able to get the loans they needed to buy out Doubleday based on a balance sheet full of imaginary Madoff holdings. The Madoff situation alone might set the organization back by 5-10 years, maybe more. Had enough? This doesn't scratch the surface. How about one first place finish in 25 years even though there are only four other teams in their division (five from 1989-1993)? How about one all star game in 50 years, even though hosting an all star game isn't like winning a World series: every team gets one -- usually every 25 years or so? want me to go on? I can, you know. Because it's all my fault, not the Wilpons. But you go ahead and be a real happy Mets fan because the NYT reports that mid and small market teams can have some success. If you're not obsessed with the Wilpons, then your head's in the sand.

Kong76 wrote: There are plenty of others who point out your OCWD lol. Like who? And what's OCWD.

I probably would. The owners are a disaster area. Just about everything Mets they've touched has turned to shit. But you'd find something to pick on in my posts no matter what I wrote. You've been doing this since about my first week here. But go ahead and blame me for the state of things with the Mets.

Gaaah. What a silly oversight. Well at least the principle holds true, if not the full $40M.

The New Yorker runs a weekly feature asking its readers to caption an illustration. Last week's contest is baseball themed. So ... caption this ....

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Ceetar wrote: I divined a fourth conclusion. Spending for the sake of spending just because you suddenly have the money to spend is not the best way to build a contender. And that's exactly what the Mets'll say if they don't spend what they implied they'd spend for 2014. And you'll never know if they're being honest or full of shit and still financially strapped. The real silver lining here is that the Mets don't have to increase payroll to buy more talent. About $40M worth of 2013 payroll was tied up in dead contracts (Santana & Bay). So the Mets can get an additional $40M worth of talent without increasing payroll. And knowing the Mets, what they'll probably do is reduce 2014 by about $20M and sell it to the fan base as increasing real talent by $20M.

Ceetar wrote: I divined a fourth conclusion. Spending for the sake of spending just because you suddenly have the money to spend is not the best way to build a contender. And that's exactly what the Mets'll say if they don't spend what they implied they'd spend for 2014. And you'll never know if they're being honest or full of shit and still financially strapped. The real silver lining here is that the Mets don't have to increase payroll to buy more talent. About $40M worth of 2013 payroll was tied up in dead contracts (Santana & Bay). So the Mets can get an additional $40M worth of talent without increasing payroll.

The Met prospect with his back to the photographer at Butterball Field never made it to the big show. Who is he and where is he now? Playing his french horn? Golf? Something?

Kong76 wrote: You are one bitter prick. No. You're the bitter prick. You work yourself into a godammn frenzy every time you check into this forum and see one of my posts. And then you have to muster every ounce of self-restraint you can possibly muster just to stop yourself from writing some stupid insulting post directed at me. Right? Bingo? Which you can't do anyway. So how does this work again? You take another shot at me. And then when I respond, I'm a bad guy for responding. Right?

Kong76 wrote: Amusing you stopped quoting when you hit the next sentence that didn't fit your agenda. If I really did have an agenda (and I can guess accurately as to what you probably think my agenda is) then the portion of the NYT article that I didn't quote would support rather than undermine that agenda. I suppose you can claim that some small and mid market teams are somewhat successful, but this would depend on how you define success. You wanna call the Pittsburgh Pirates a success because they're in the playoffs this year? I can't stop you. The truth is that the wealthy or big market teams are twice as likely to make the playoffs as their poorer cousins. And the bottom 10 or so market/payroll teams have virtually no chance to win a World Series. I'd be very happy to support a mid-market team, especially if I was paying Pittsburgh cost of living expenses and Miami ticket prices. You've been fucked up the ass by the Mets owners: they built a small market stadium and figured to make up the revenue lost from a smaller seating capacity by raising ticket prices to among the highest levels in MLB. But you can't notice that because you're half crazed from your own forum agenda, which has absolutely nothing to do with the Mets.

Sports Business Mets� Promise of Cash Isn�t Promise to Spend By RICHARD SANDOMIR Published: October 5, 2013 excerpt: Sandy Alderson�s comments last Monday about the Mets� off-season spending could not have comforted fans whose patience and desire to buy tickets are understandably frayed after five consecutive years of losing. Alderson, the Mets� general manager, said the team had plenty to spend now that about $40 million in contracts was coming off the books. He called that flexibility, and perhaps it is, given the bind that contracts like Johan Santana and Jason Bay�s put the team in. But it is not the sort of flexibility that induces gleeful dancing on the 7 train. Why? Because he said that the team�s payroll might not exceed this year�s, about $87 million. Or, he added, it could go down. Three conclusions can be divined from Alderson�s statements: ? The Wilpon family is still too strapped to let Alderson elevate the payroll much beyond where it was. ? Alderson had better spend that $40 million with the combined savvy and wizardry of past and present general managers like Pat Gillick, John Mozeliak and Walt Jocketty. ? The Mets are, for now, a middle-market franchise playing in New York. That is what happens when a team�s owners have been fleeced by Bernard L. Madoff and have made some bad free-agent signings, and their ballpark grows emptier each season. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/sports/baseball/mets-promise-of-cash-isnt-promise-to-spend.html?_r=0

Anybody here on dial-up?

Edgy MD wrote: The funny thing is that, injuries aside, Wright had a perfectly good year. May not have dominated any one month, but he put up his best OPS+ ever. Rate-wise, Wright's 2013 was about as good as any season he's ever had.

He was also carded by the Stros and Jays -- two teams the Mets didn't play in 2013.

metirish wrote: Can I request that you please pollute my KTE with cards?, some people might still be on dial up and that will sure make them happy. Done. Check your thread. Always happy to help the dial up people. How's their ice boxes workin'?

I've been keepin' track of every baseball card thread of one time Mets in the uniforms of their current opponents. The cities. The Mets. Pittsburgh and Philly and Ginsberg and Willey. I've got my checklist and my ballot for the 2013 winner of the I've Been Everywhere, Man award. [youtube:3g7giz4f]ov4epAJRPMw[/youtube:3g7giz4f]

"How am I weird ... motherfucker"?

metirish wrote: John DeMirit's card will haunt me in my dreams. "Hi there".

Mets � Willets Point wrote: I really can't believe the amount of hatred and bile I had for the Braves circa 1995-2001. I expect that a big portion of it was me being in my 20s and basically being an asshole, but that team really did drive me crazy. Why would you hate the Braves? They did what they were supposed to do. Me? I hated Wilpon. Rey Ordonez taking 500+ plate appearances every season? And then you'd go to a game and every two innings there be some Rey Ordonez infomercial on the Diamond Vision exhorting everybody to vote for Rey for the ASG and then Howie Rose practically having a seizure every time Rey caught a grounder, as if he was the best baseball player ever to play baseball. Butch Huskey? The Mets got what they deeserved. One first place finish in 25 years. I don't know how Doubleday would've topped that run.