batmagadanleadoff

Mets fan Jerry Seinfeld returns to the broadcast booth to offer analysis He�s Jerry Baseball. Jerry Seinfeld is back to talk about nothing � and this time it�s his beloved Mets. With the team more than 20 games out of first place, long-suffering fans who may not have tuned in to Tuesday night�s game against the San Francisco Giants will at least have Seinfeld in the broadcast booth alongside Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling, Bobby Ojeda and ringmaster Gary Cohen. It�s Jerry�s second time since 2010 offering analysis of a Mets game on SNY � and his old friend Hernandez is thrilled. �We just let him run, because he�s funny,� says Hernandez. �People want to hear what he has to say and his sense of humor comes out, so it�s our job just to step out of the way.� Hernandez, of course, appeared in two episodes on Seinfeld�s classic sitcom and almost two decades later Jerry has returned the favor. �Obviously there�s a connection with me and Jerry,� says Hernandez, who thinks Seinfeld should put in an appearance on SNY annually. �Four guys who love to talk sharing one broadcast booth sounds like a bad idea on its face. I don�t even know if the chairs will fit,� said Seinfeld, who refused to be interviewed, though he released a statement about the gig. �But to spend an evening with Keith, Ron and Gary, I will stand if I have to. Those guys, and the incredible Bobby Ojeda, are the all-star team of baseball broadcasting.� Jerry�s 2010 booth appearance was a Father�s Day gift arranged for him by his wife and SNY bigwig Curt Gowdy Jr. This time SNY reached out to him after he spent much of the summer enamored with Ojeda � whom he frequently contacts on Twitter, although the two have never actually met. Earlier this summer during a game that he was presumably watching at home, Jerry tweeted: �Bob Ojeda is my favorite person on TV.� Then he added the following hashtags: #insight #smart #energy. But being a sportscaster isn�t just sitting in the booth yapping about stats and cracking jokes � or at least it shouldn�t be. There�s timing, insight and knowing when to shut up. �Gary [Cohen] is in control of that,� says Hernandez. �He�s the orchestra leader, as he is in every broadcast; he�ll know exactly what to do � it went really seamlessly last time. We had fun and by no stretch of the imagination did it get in the way of the broadcast.� Hernandez calls Jerry�s arrival in the booth � just as the Mets sputter into their final stretch of games � �a nice diversion.� Seinfeld, who stuck around for about seven innings last time, is not likely to last through the entire game, Hernandez says � but he might. �After he leaves it�s our job to try and hold the viewer,� he says. It sounds like when he�s in Flushing, Jerry will *be master of this domain. http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/jerry-seinfeld-returns-broadcasting-booth-mets-game-article-1.1455359#ixzz2f4w5fJ5n

Zvon wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: In my mind, this fringy Met never escaped the Minors, even though he actually did play for the Mets. Above, he's standing at the Sadecki Spot years before it would be named for the versatile early '70's Met hurler. Just came across a '68 card of his. That's Larry Miller. I pictured him, from that photo, to have a full head of hair. He doesn't. Miller's only two Topps cards below. His '69 card, like many others from that set, used a picture from the photo sessions for the '65 set. He's wearing a Dodger uniform on his Mets card. (the road uniform lacks piping). His best Topps photos are in the archives.

Zvon wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: What was so great about the early 1970's? Tom Seaver, All in the Family, Mad Magazine, The Rolling Stones and Shea Stadium. And the guy up above? Like most Met acquisitions of his era, he was better before he got here. You might say that he was in decline by the time he suited up in the orange and blue. I wanna say Gene Clines for that one. The declining Gene Clines.

themetfairy wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: The stands are confectionary colored ribbons that swirl around and around the playing field, creating the sensation that you're inside of a spinning cotton candy machine. And that's the only thing that's right with this picture. Who is this ex-Met? The Franchise. Duh

themetfairy wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: Toppless in Oakland. This ex-Mets' last paycheck as an active major leaguer was signed by Charles O' FInley. Probably grudgingly, like every other check he signed. I wonder if the ex-Met has an Oakland A's WS ring? Wouldn't be his first WS ring. Is that Art Shamsky? This might be the only color picture of Shamsky in an Oakland uniform on the web. And if it's not the only one, it might be the best one. He was with the A's for about two weeks. In 1972.

I have a quick back of the envelope eyeball formula for determining whether a hitter who spent most of his career as a Colorado Rockie deserves to be in the HOF. If he's a corner infielder or outfielder, then his numbers, before adjusting for anything, oughtta look like Lou Gehrig's numbers.

You could see the white clubhouse structure in this photo that ran alongside today's NYT piece on the Mets clipboard giveaway. Is that the Sadecki spot behind Maz?

You know that any truly good ideas posted on these threads will probably get stolen by the team up in the Bronx. An exhibit of Daily News front and back pages? Sure? Why not? And the Yankee version of that display could fill up an entire Jackie Robinson Rotunda that the Yankees don't have. A wall of Yankees Topps? You betcha. And their wall would cover the entire history of Topps.

You didn't ask me but I got lotsa ideas. Here's one: I'd put up an installation with one Topps baseball card for every single Met ever. The cards would be organized alphabetically by the last name of each Met, and would be reorganized every time there would be additions to the exhibit. For the Randy Bobbs and Billy Cowans and Dave Schnecks and Bob Friends etc., who never got a Mets card, I'd pay Topps to go into their photo archives so that they could create cards for this installation. Every Met would be on that wall. I love the idea, but would do the wall chronologically (but would have a corresponding list by name that would get updated with every new addition). Chronological's OK. But aesthetically, I'd like it more when the card styles and player eras are all mixed up. I'd like to see a Stengel Met right next to a Valentine Met, for example. That's the specific reason I went alphabetical. Also, I'd change some cards each year. Because, assuming this exhibit was real, when you first add a player to the existing exhibit, it would logically be his debut card. But a future card of his might be more appealing. Jason my blog partner has long advocated a wall in which every Met's name is engraved, like the Vietnam Memorial but only less depressing, he claims. I like that, but I think I like this one better, especially the creation of Topps cards for the non-Toppsers. Shoot, they create sad looking cards on the video screen for the guys who don't have them, so yes, do it up right. Dave Schneck. How did Dave Schneck never get a card? And since we're paying Topps to create authentic looking cards for the Toppless Davey Schnecks, I'd have Topps dip into the ol' archives once more to redo some of those ugly capless and headless shots, especially the ones where the Met isn't even shown in the proper uniform. And one more thing I left out: Those Mets whose only Topps appearance was on a portion of a rookie card, shared with other players, like Les Rohr, or Jesse Hudson or Bart Shirley --- I'd have Topps create full cards for them, too. And if Topps doesn't have unused Mets photos of those players, they could simply use the photo already used on their original rookie cards, but uncropped, and bigger, to fill out the whole card.

Toppless as a Met, this hurler threw his last major league pitch in a Met uniform. Above, the Man From Topps snapped him in the uniform of the new Washington Senators - a rare picture because the mystery pitcher was never Toppsed in a Senators uniform. This looks like Tom Sturdivant. http://www.baseballtoddsdugout.com/sturdivant.html

Met Hunter wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: This ex-Met was a Toppless Brewer. His lone Mets card had to be adjusted just before Topps went to press because his name was sort of misspelled. This is Tommie Reynolds. Reynolds's first name was spelled "Tommy" instead of "Tommie" on his 1967 Topps proof. So Topps decided to airbrush the last two letters of his first name -- thus the unusual gap between his first and last name on the final version of the card.

Frayed Knot wrote: So was it Bones who kept saying 'Hawkins me boy' or was it his rival whose name I can't remember right now? I don't think I've read that book since my father read it to me and my sister a bunch of decades ago, but the 'Hawkins me boy' line still sticks in my head. I'm not sure. Bones departs pretty early on in the book. If I hadda guess, I'd say the treacherous Long John Silver, who throughout the book, tries to conceal his intentions from Hawkins by acting friendly.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Zvon wrote: Bob Botz's back. Super! Duper! Remember how we weren't sure whether or not Botz is standing at the Sadecki spot? Well I think he is. If you look very closely, you could see the outline of that metal street light lamp post buried or camouflaged in the tree foliage over Botz's left shoulder.

They built a 1990's stadium 20 years after 1990. A 1990's stadium modeled after a stadium that opened in 1913. The Mets are always late to the party. They incorporated black into their uniforms right about when that trend began to wane, and then clung to that hideous mistake for 13 or 14 seasons.

As Billy Bones was known to say in 'Treasure Island': "Ahh, Hawkins me boy" Jesus H. Christ. That's what I'm reading right now. At my current pace, I should be done by Sunday night, early Monday morning.

Zvon wrote: Bob Botz's back. Super! Duper!

And another thing. That Hall of Fame sucks. It was a day late. And a dollar short. It's tiny and dinky. And now that I've seen it for four seasons running, I can see that, like everything this FO does, it's unimaginative and maybe even somewhat neglected at this point. All of this Mets history, a lifetime's worth, and all the Mets seem to do with their HOF is display a Mookie Wilson jersey that they'll swap out for a Gary Carter jersey come next season. Why don't they contact Syracuse University, which houses the largest collection of Willard Mullin illustrations in the world, for an exhibit on the great cartoonist's Mets work? Why not collaborate with the Daily News for an exhibit of the paper's archives, including reproductions of Mets themed front and back page news stories. Plus an exhibit of Bill Gallo's work, or Bruce Stark's? Rheingold Beer was the Mets' first sponsor and the Mets Rheingold memorabilia and paraphernalia from the '60's is exhibit worthy and could fill up twice the space of that closet the Mets reserved for their HOF. Why not a thorough exhibit on the Mets uniform history? With examples and meaningful textual information? The kind of info that you wouldn't mind looking at and reading even if it took you a half an hour to do so? This is the tip of the iceberg. They hosted the All Star Game this year for the first time in almost 50 years -- a perfect occasion to celebrate the '64 ASG in their HOF -- which they did -- by exhibiting like three or four items (including a game ticket and a print ad that ran in The Sporting News in '64) that you could absorb in 12 seconds. The news articles that the NY papers ran in the week or so before the ASG were a thousand times more informative and visually interesting than what the Mets, with their resources, access and connections, exhibited. It's the 40th annivesary of 1973. What about a Willie Mays exhibit? The Mets should be able to fill up three rotundas worth of Willie Mays stuff. I could go on. They could also fill up three rotundas with Tom Seaver stuff, and without having to include anything that isn't Met themed.

Edgy MD wrote: Zvon wrote: The media would have a field day if they ever pulled the plug on the JRrotunda. It'd be a lot more transcendent than that, as it would be more than a day and more than the media. Yeah, there's no way you can kill that beast at this point. Short of building a new Mets stadium, you can only hope to contain the Jackie Rotunda. If I suddenly owned the Mets though, I'd mothball that Jackie Rotunda in a heartbeat. What I'd do is create an exhibit --somewhere other than in the Rotunda-- honoring NY National League baseball before the Mets existed. It would, naturally, also honor the NY Giants and --hello -- their stadium, The Polo Grounds, first home of the Mets. The Mets! Who never played in Ebbets Field. I'd also include artifacts and history from the Continental League. I'd incorporate the Jackie stuff, including the big stupid 42 into the new exhibit. I could care less if the Jackie Robinson legend is given a disproportionate amount of space in this new exhibit, but I wouldn't have that big centerpiece of a Rotunda dedicated exclusively, or at all, to the former Brooklyn Dodger. It's inappropriate. I doubt that the Wilpons would ever go for this idea. For one, they'd be loath to have to allocate another space to some fan exhibit that isn't generating money from the sale of $10 hot dogs and $45 t-shirts. And as a matter of pride and ego alone, they're not gonna back down from their beloved idea no matter how unpopular it might be. But they wopuldn't have to create a new space for this exhibit. Instead, they could simply scatter the artifacts throughout the stadium, on walls and in the walkways and wherever else space and feasibility allow.

metsguyinmichigan wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: I have no problem at all with them honoring Jackie Robinson. But the whole rotunda idea was way too much. And they shouldn't have made the park look like Ebbets Field. I don't think they should have made it look like Shea either. I would have preferred a new design entirely. Start to define what a 21st Century ballpark looks like. (Like the Nets did in Brooklyn.) But of course, it's too late for that. We're stuck with a Disney Ebbetsland Park. Keep in mind, there was a lot of pressure at the time to name the whole park after [Jackie Robinson]. Pressure? From whom? From Fred Wilpon? Z_JOGmXpe5I

What was so great about the early 1970's? Tom Seaver, All in the Family, Mad Magazine, The Rolling Stones and Shea Stadium. And the guy up above? Like most Met acquisitions of his era, he was better before he got here. You might say that he was in decline by the time he suited up in the orange and blue.

The stands are confectionary colored ribbons that swirl around and around the playing field, creating the sensation that you're inside of a spinning cotton candy machine. And that's the only thing that's right with this picture. Who is this ex-Met?

Toppless in Oakland. This ex-Mets' last paycheck as an active major leaguer was signed by Charles O' FInley. Probably grudgingly, like every other check he signed. I wonder if the ex-Met has an Oakland A's WS ring? Wouldn't be his first WS ring.

This ex-Met was a Toppless Brewer. His lone Mets card had to be adjusted just before Topps went to press because his name was sort of misspelled.

G-Fafif wrote: metsguyinmichigan wrote: VHF in the NYC area was six working channels 2, 4, 7, 5, 9, 11 and 13. And in the pre cable era, that was about as good as it got. Oh man, and in the pre-remote control days, there was that dial that my sisters would spin through so quickly that it would eventually break and we'd need pliers to turn the knob! I remember 2 was CBS, 4 was NBC, 7 was ABC, 9 was WOR, and 11 was WPIX, with 13 being public television -- which Billy Joel immortalized in "Pressure," one of his cool New York references. But what were channel 5's letters? WNEW. Channel 5 was Creature Features and Horror Hotel, the scariest movie I ever saw as a seven or eight year old. _4Mb60KMOJc