batmagadanleadoff

Casey headed to Mets clubhouse, last home game, 1963 June 1, 1962, Giants at Mets Pre-California Giants. The home clubhouse was still on the right field side of center.

Now I know where Grote's Royals card came from.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: As a writer who specializes in repackaging other writer's magic quotes, Megdal ought to know that Tracky quickly published an official disavowing of the "all but given up" remark. From Martino's July 31st column: What happens to Ike Davis, Lucas Duda and Josh Satin? Well, that is very much in flux. The Mets appear to have all but given up on Duda, and are torn on Davis -- it is difficult to cast aside a former first-rounder who hit 30 bombs last year, but his rising arbitration costs create the real possibility that the club will non-tender him this winter. The next two months will likely determine his future here. http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/baseballinsider/2013/07/after-a-quiet-trade-deadline-what-will-ny-mets-do-to-become-contenders-next- I'm looking for the disavowing ....

Edgy MD wrote: Poor Howard Megdal. I think that Duda posed some difficult problems for the organization because he appeared to be so promising with the bat. But Duda's not an outfielder, and he's never gonna be one. He can learn to catch and to react to batted balls quickly and to gauge their landing spot from the instant the ball is struck, but he's too goddamn slow to play the outfield at the major league level and he ain't never gonna get any faster just like Mike Lavalliere wasn't ever gonna grow tall enough to play NBA center. Or guard. I don't blame the Mets for not going with Duda at first base. It wasn't so unreasonable to give Ike first crack at the position. Ike's also shown that he can hit major league pitching quite well and Ike's a far better fielding first baseman than Duda.

FIRST PITCH: The Mets will miss Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke during a three-game series at Dodger Stadium. They nonetheless face a supreme challenge. L.A. is 37-8 since June 22 and has turned a 9�-game deficit in the NL West into a 7�-game lead. The Dodgers are unbeaten in their past 15 series (11-0-4). According to the Elias Sports Bureau, only five other teams since divisional play began in 1969 have turned a 9�-game deficit into a division lead in a 30-or-fewer-day span: the 1995 Seattle Mariners (25 days), the 1993 Boston Red Sox (24), the 1990 Mets (22), the 1982 Dodgers (12) and the �69 Mets (26). Jenrry Mejia (1-1, 1.96 ERA) opposes right-hander Ricky Nolasco (8-9, 3.65) in today�s 10:10 p.m. ET series opener at Dodger Stadium. http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/75190/morning-briefing-bring-on-l-a

I'm gonna miss the ol' lug when he's smashing 30 HR's as the Rays' DH. Poor Lucas Duda 09 August 2013, 11:16 am by Howard Megdal You really have to wonder what Lucas Duda�s career would have been like in another organization. Duda is 27 years old. There�s ample evidence he can hit major league pitching quite well. His career OPS+ is 114, in 1167 plate appearances. In 2013, he�s at 123, in 269 plate appearances. To put that in perspective, among first basemen qualified for the batting title, his 123 OPS+ would rank tenth of 22. Add DHs to the mix, and he�d be 13th of 27. So to summarize, Duda is in his prime years, with all evidence pointing to the fact that he�s about league average, as a hitter, at a pair of positions that value hitting above all else. So the Mets should be a great place for Duda! Team is 14th in the National League in OPS, 14th in slugging percentage. They�re third in walks, so somebody needs to drive those guys in, and David Wright�s on the shelf. But no. Duda is at Triple-A. And according to Andy Martino, the Mets have �all but given up on Duda�. Now, that�s a strange formulation, right? Look, it is understandable that with Ike Davis hitting well, the Mets want to see what he gives them over the final two months of the season. There�s the inherent problem that no matter how good his August-September period is, the Mets, by committing to Davis, leave themselves vulnerable if he has a third straight April-June like his 2012 and 2013. I might be inclined to sign up for the higher floor of Duda at first base, but I can see why the Mets are prioritizing Davis, who seems to have a higher ceiling. So that leaves Duda position-less. Why the Mets are coming to this now, rather than after starting Duda in RF in 2012, where he was the worst defender, per UZR, in baseball at any position, or LF in 2013, where he has been the third-worst outfielder with at least 300 innings logged in baseball, is hard to fathom. Two years closer to free agency, two years older, and two demotions later, Duda�s trade value is almost certainly exponentially lower. And if they deal Duda now for whatever spare part another team offers, they have zero first base insurance for the highly volatile Davis. It�s not the Mets� responsibility to find Duda a proper home. But his career has indisputably been hijacked by the team�s lack of outfield options over the past two years, and the dubious decision to not once, but twice, try to make Duda into what he clearly was not. Just think: if Duda played virtually anywhere else, especially the American League, where every night�s lineup has two positions he can capably fill, he�d probably be an established regular by now. Instead, he�s in Triple-A without a job. Poor Lucas Duda. http://mets.lohudblogs.com/2013/08/09/poor-lucas-duda/

Cannizzaro wearing the one year only Dodger road uni with the stripe across the shoulders.

I love this set, and it was the first time I collected the entire series. And I have no recollection at all of this Hank Webb card. Looks like a bad air-brushing of his Mets uni, too. The Webb's a fake. http://garveyceyrusselllopes.blogspot.com/search?q=webb And right you are ... used webb's 1976 topps card for the image, and photoshopped the logo on the hat and 'bleached' his uniform. Webb was a lefty version of Lewallyn. He spent the better part of his time shuttling between Tidewater and Shea before being dealt to the Dodgers for the immortal Rich Auerbach. He would pitch 8 innings in 5 games and have a low 2.25 ERA for the National League Champs. He would not make the post season roster and would never pitch in the majors again. This is actually an airbrushed version of his 1976 Mets card that I found on a blog called garveyceyrusselllopes.blogspot.com/ http://1977topps.blogspot.com/2011/10/1977-los-angeles-dodgers.html

quiz at end of post.... Wilmer! Wilmer Flores became the first player in Mets history to have at least one RBI in five of his first six major-league games. He also became the second player this season to have a pair of three-RBI games within his first five career games, joining Dodgers rookie sensation Yasiel Puig. Flores is one of eight players to have a streak of five straight games with an RBI within the first six games of his career. Only one of the other seven players is active -- Diamondbacks outfielder Gerardo Parra. Flores is the 383rd player in Mets history to hit a home run. Wheeler! Zack Wheeler had the first walk-free outing of his career in earning his fifth win of the season on Saturday. Niese did a nice job in three-ball counts, retiring four of the five hitters who got to a three-ball count against him. In his previous three starts, he�d gone to three balls on 11 hitters that he was not intentionally walking. Ten of those did end up walking. The Mets' infield also did a nice job behind Wheeler, turning nine of the 11 ground balls he yielded into outs. Opponents are 8-for-66 (and have not reached via error) when hitting a ground ball against Wheeler this season. Ike can do no wrong Ike Davis was 3-for-5 with five walks in the series. He�s now 15-for-40 with 20 walks in his last 17 games. Amazingly, Davis� .583 on-base percentage is not the best in the majors in that span. He trails Jayson Werth and Mike Trout, each of whom are at .589. Niese good enough Jonathon Niese won the series finale despite allowing four runs in six innings. If there were any concerns about Niese�s velocity, he held those off for now. His fastball averaged 89.8 mph, matching what it averaged this season, and peaked at 92 mph. Niese had a good curveball, one that netted six outs without yielding a baserunner. The walk-off Paul Goldschmidt became the second Diamondbacks player to hit a walk-off homer against the Mets. The other was Steve Finley, who did so 10 years ago to the day against John Franco. Useless stat of the series Carlos Torres became the second pitcher in Mets history to pitch less than an inning, allow at least four baserunners, and not allow a run to score (either have his own guys score, or allow inherited runners to score). The other was ??????????????????

bump

Zvon wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: In game quiz --- Who is the only other player this season besides our Mr. Flowers to have two 3-RBI games in his first five ML games? Puig? Winner, winner!

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: I wonder if they could get Breaking Bad on there, should things get ugly in this 8th or 9th. Oh they could alright. If they wanted to splurge for the licensing fee.

In game quiz --- Who is the only other player this season besides our Mr. Flowers to have two 3-RBI games in his first five ML games?

As soon as I start Wheeler's K corner, they go and yank him.

Zvon wrote: Zvon wrote: A Boy Named Seo wrote: Gary name-dropping his good bro, Greg Prince. Caught that. Very kool. Jeez, what'd I miss? Gary gave a shout out to G on the air. What does that mean? That apropos of nothing, Gary suddenly shouted out Prince's name Lloyd Lindsay Young style?

Zvon wrote: A Boy Named Seo wrote: Gary name-dropping his good bro, Greg Prince. Caught that. Very kool. Jeez, what'd I miss?

Zvon wrote: Do you have to take those pills after a meal, or is on an empty stomach OK?

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Sounds like a fun event, sure. But it's priced at It Better Fucking Be Fun At This Much levels, so. Plus ya gotta spend the whole game staring at The Ugliest Scoreboards in Baseball. And they're so oddly close together, too.

Let's see ... The Mets at $700.00 (sleeping bag not included) or a Breaking Bad all nighter for free? Mets fans invited to sleepover in outfield tonight while team plays in Arizona You know it�s been a tough season when a baseball team invites its fans to a 15-hour party at the ballpark � and the players are 2,400 miles away. But that�s what�s happening at Citi Field tonight, when the Mets host the first ever Citi Field Sleepover. For $200, each fan gets the chance to sleep in the outfield, enjoy dinner, a late night snack and breakfast, and watch the Mets-Diamondbacks game � being played at the D-backs� Chase Field in Phoenix � broadcast on the jumbo screen. The event, which also includes a ticket to the Mets-Brewers game Sept. 28 at Citi Field, is one of many special promotions the Mets organization is hosting this season. "It�s a different, unique experience for fans. A lot of them have never been on the field," Mets spokesman Jay Horwitz said. The team is capping the event at 500, and have sold more than 350 tickets. "You�re not looking to make money, you�re hoping you build, get more next year, more the third year," he said. "You try different things and see how it plays out." The Chicago White Sox and Texas Rangers are among the Major League teams that have hosted similar overnight events, and many minor league teams have done them, too. They�re very popular in Camden, where the Riversharks usually sell out the 800 spots to each of the four overnights, group manager Kim Perno said. But the Riversharks host their sleepovers when the team is playing at home. And the tickets are $25. "We really try to incorporate the game," Perno said, adding that this season�s final sleepover is next Friday. The Riversharks package includes a 200-level ticket, dinner, post-game fireworks show, a movie, breakfast and a 90-minute baseball clinic on the field the next morning. That�s the big draw, Perno said. "A few Rivershark players assist in that, so the fans are getting one on one time with Rivershark players." The Mets have held many special events � from Star Wars night, when hundreds of Obi-Wan Kenobis and Darth Vaders paraded on the field to post-game concerts featuring Foreigner, Nas and O.A.R. "We get a four to five thousand bump when we do these concerts," Horwitz said. The final is Aug. 23 with Third Eye Blind. Going into last night�s game, the Mets are 52-60 and 16 1/2 games back in the National League East. Average attendance at the 45,000-seat Citi Field in Queens hovers around 27,000-28,000, Horwitz said. A boost of 20 percent for a post-game concert is a good return, said Laurence McCarthy, a business professor from Seton Hall University who teaches sports marketing. "There�s food and drink and parking at least, and if you have children along, look at Disney when they come to town and how much they make on concessions," he said. Some promotions � including tonight�s sleepover � are intended to deepen the team�s relationship with current fans. The concert promotions are meant to bring new faces to the park. "It�s not a baseball crowd that�s coming, they�re not there for the game," McCarthy said. "But the hope is having come, they�ll have a great time, they�ll consider coming back." The cross-town rival Yankees haven�t jumped on the bandwagon, even during this season, when many of the star players have been hurt and the team�s break-even record has them in fourth place. "If people are knocking down the walls to get in, you don�t have to do these promotions," McCarthy said. http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/08/fans_outfield_sleepover_citi_field_mets.html

Wright not returning this season a possibility By Anthony DiComo / MLB.com PHOENIX -- Though the Mets still hope David Wright can return to active duty before the end of August, manager Terry Collins admitted Friday that there's a chance Wright will not play again this season. "No question," Collins said when asked if Wright might not return from a strained right hamstring. "There's nothing etched in stone. We're hoping certainly that it's four weeks. If it's five, it's five. If it's six, it's six. If he gets back, tremendous. That means the healing process and all the rehab stuff will work. But there is absolutely no timetable at all." Wright is currently taking part in a daily physical therapy regimen at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. Until he is ready to begin baseball activities -- and there is no timetable on that, either -- he will remain in New York. At some point, Wright's rehab will progress to Port St. Lucie, Fla., where he will begin daily running, fielding and hitting drills. Only then will the Mets have a more concrete idea of when -- or if -- he might be able to return this season. In the interim, Collins said, he will keep Wright out of his thoughts as much as possible. Clearly missing Wright's team-leading .309 batting average and .904 OPS, the Mets have averaged three runs per game since their captain landed on the disabled list. "You can't worry about a month from now," Collins said. "All I've got to worry about is making sure those guys in there are ready to play, and that they play up to their capabilities, and we get them ready for tomorrow. And when David calls me and says, 'I'm ready to go,' [he] will be in the lineup. Book it." http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130809&content_id=56484194&notebook_id=56484470&vkey=notebook_nym&c_id=nym

The BestCoolest Players I've Ever Seen: Pitchers By Jonah Keri on August 8, 2013 3:00 PM ET Any time a discussion of best-sports-anything starts, it has a tendency to get heated.... The BestCoolest Players I've Ever Seen: Hitters By Jonah Keri on August 9, 2013 12:30 PM ET After writing about pitchers yesterday, a refresher on the rules: [***] � Finally, we expanded the list to 20 for position players because, well, baseball teams carry more position players than pitchers (or they used to, before managers lost their damn minds). There are already enough omissions on this list to fill multiple All-Star teams. Had we restricted this list to just 10, there might�ve been a riot (or whatever it is you call it when people on the Internet register their disgust throughout the world). 15. Eric Davis and Darryl Strawberry If you�re a baseball fan younger than 25 and your dad�s not from Cincinnati, it�s entirely possible you�ve never heard the name Eric Davis. This is really too bad. Injuries may have cut his career short, but in his prime, Davis would put up numbers in 130 games that most couldn�t manage in 230. In his first season as a full-time player, Davis cracked 27 homers and stole 80 bases � despite missing 30 games. The next year he cranked 37 bombs, swiped 50 bases � and missed 33 games. He became something of a medical marvel later in his career, sitting out the entire 1995 season because of injuries and coming back to slug 26 homers the following season, then receiving a colon cancer diagnosis in 1997, only to return and slam 28 more in 1998. But for those of us who remember baseball in the '80s, it was young Eric Davis who stood out, a player blessed with a better combination of power and speed than all but a few players ever. You couldn�t find anyone cooler either. Just look at this. [youtube]3Fvuk__F2Zw[/youtube] Born two months before Davis, Darryl Strawberry grew up in the same neighborhood of South-Central L.A. Like Davis, Strawberry�s star burned bright from an early age. He slammed 26 homers and won the Rookie of the Year award as a 21-year-old with the Mets in �83, then teamed with Doc Gooden to form the dynamic duo of young talent in baseball. Tall and rangy like Davis, Strawberry used lightning-quick hands and wrists, not bodybuilder brawn, to launch tape-measure home runs. On Opening Day 1988, Strawberry pulled off the most indelible moment I ever witnessed from an opposing player. Having already hit one home run earlier in the game, Straw faced Expos reliever Randy St. Claire in the seventh inning. On the first pitch of the at-bat, St. Claire tried to sneak a fastball by him � and failed miserably. Strawberry did something no one else ever did at Olympic Stadium, crushing a ball all the way up to the concrete ring around the roof; it might still be flying today if it hadn�t bounced back down to the turf. And hey, any player who inspires classic taunts in every stadium, and, totally hypothetically, a bunch of Canadian teenagers to chuck strawberries at him in the middle of a game, is a big winner. 10. Tim Raines [some unfortunate Met content here] It�s tough enough writing about Pedro Martinez or Larry Walker while maintaining a thin veneer of objectivity. But Raines was my favorite player of all time. So we�ll skate through the stats (808 stolen bases with the highest success rate of anyone with anywhere near that many attempts; more times on base in his career than Gwynn; considered Henderson�s peer when both were in their prime) and just offer two anecdotes: � Baseball�s owners actively colluded against players in the mid-�80s. It got so bad that in the winter of 1986-87, several elite players couldn�t get even a single offer from other teams, leaving them to decide if they wanted to go back to their old teams for no raise or even a pay cut, or just not play baseball. Andre Dawson was so pissed off by the intransigence of the Expos and the rest of the league that he showed up to Cubs spring training, told them to put any number they want on a contract, and he�d sign it; the Hawk hit 49 home runs the next season and won the NL MVP. Raines and the Expos couldn�t come to terms for months, so thanks to an arcane contract rule, he couldn�t come back to play until May. On May 2, 1987, Raines made his return, figuring to be well behind the pitchers and other players who�d already played a month�s worth of regular-season games. In that first game back, he faced the Mets, on NBC's Game of the Week. All Raines did that day was bang out a homer, a triple, two singles, a walk, a steal, three runs scored, and four knocked in, capping the performance with a game-winning grand slam in the 10th inning. � Reposting one of my favorite Raines stories: Of all the kooky traditions the perpetually weird Montreal Expos had, none topped the scoreboard chickens. Every time a pitcher threw over to first, a supremely low-tech image of a chicken � possibly an actual cardboard cutout � would flash on the screen, "Bawk-Bawk-BAWWWWWK" echoing through the stadium. We lost our minds the day Tim Raines goaded an opposing pitcher into 13 chickens during one turn on first. Decades later, I finally got to interview Rock. "Did you ever notice the scoreboard chickens?" I asked. "Sure! We'd all compete to see who could get the most. I always won." http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/70992/the-bestcoolest-players-ive-ever-seen-hitters

Zvon wrote: Is going full name on Tommie over the top? I'd read the Topps Style Manual.

An Open Letter To Bobby Bonilla Published: January 05, 1992 Dear Bobby: Congratulations on your new contract. It must feel great knowing that you and your family are secure for life. So Bobby, why are you so sour? Why do you persist in bashing the Pirates' management at every turn? Are you so concerned that selling yourself to the highest bidder doesn't square with your "great guy" image? Does maintaining that image require the presence of other, non-economic factors? Is that what's behind this modern-day tragedy you've created in which those simultaneously wicked and bumbling Pirates executives are solely to blame for your leaving Pittsburgh? Bobby, are you trying to kid us or yourself? Listen, forget the image thing and just enjoy your fortune; you're not such a great guy, anyway, and the money hasn't a thing to do with it. A great guy would have made a graceful exit. A great guy would have publicly thanked the Pirates for providing him the opportunity to grow into a $29 million player. A great guy would have thanked his teammates for giving him the thrill of participating in two National League championship playoffs. A truly great guy would have expressed his gratitude to the fans of Pittsburgh for their warm support. Look, Bobby, you've said this is a business; now you should start acting as though you mean it. The situation boils down to a very simple business proposition: You acted in what you perceived to be your best interests by signing with the Mets, and the Pirates acted in what they perceived to be their best interests by letting you go. Maybe the Pirates felt they couldn't afford to pay you $29 million. Or perhaps the Pirates felt that while they could afford the freight, you weren't worth more than their last offer. Interestingly, before you signed, many people opined that you should command a larger contract than you merited strictly for your on-the-field performance because of "intangibles"; i.e., because you're such a great guy. As I recall, the Pirates' last offer was for about $24 million, which would be about at the level where the "great-guy premium" part of your $29 million contract kicks in. That makes the Pirates' handling of your contract negotiations look pretty responsible. Bobby, there are no villains in this saga, and there are no heroes, either. There aren't even any great guys. JIM WHALEN Pittsburgh http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/05/sports/l-an-open-letter-to-bobby-bonilla-368292.html ________________________ BASEBALL; Boos Bounce Off Bonilla's Back By JOE SEXTON Published: May 31, 1992 The booing was bad Wednesday night. The booing was worse Friday night. Bobby Bonilla heard it, understood it and promised it wouldn't be long before he would be able to forget it. "We'll hear cheers here," Bonilla said before yesterday's game against the Braves at Shea Stadium. "We all will." Bonilla, in extended and explicit remarks about fan reaction to his struggles at Shea and his response to it, said yesterday that he had no gripes with the booing. It wasn't foreign or offensive to him, which no doubt is a good thing considering Bonilla was later in the afternoon booed mercilessly for his play in the field and performance at the plate in a 6-1 loss to the Braves. Bonilla, who wore earplugs yesterday, insisted it was only to increase his concentration at the plate. "I know the makeup of the New York fan, I know the mentality," said Bonilla, who was reared in the South Bronx. "People want to see you do well. It's nothing more than I ask of and want from myself." 'Where Does That Come From?' "People come to games for an escape," Bonilla said. "It's supposed to be entertainment, and to see a club get shut out nearly four games in a row isn't fun." Bonilla's comments were measured and precise, but beneath them was a deep confusion and dismay over what he said had been the misrepresentation of his position with respect to fans earlier in the week. He said he had been told by a club official that at least one newspaper had reported that Bonilla had said he did not like fans. He said, as well, he had been told by the club official that local radio shows had been full of less than complimentary talk regarding his reaction to the booing at Shea. Bonilla, as a result, made a point of addressing reporters after Friday night's game, threatening that he would limit their access to him if any "twisting" of his remarks took place. "I don't like fans? Where does that come from?" asked Bonilla. "Why wouldn't I like fans? Why wouldn't I want kids to come to a game? "Hey, I'm a Latin player who comes from New York. I have lots of responsibilities. People are looking at me, up to me. And my message to them is that anything is possible. It seems, though, that people are trying to test me." The booing, of course, has come because of Bonilla's failures at the plate at Shea. Bonilla, hitless in four at-bats with a strikeout Friday night, went 0 for 4 again yesterday as his average at Shea sunk to .130. He has not homered and has driven in only four runs at Shea. Bonilla, signed to a five-year, $29 million deal, was consequently booed even before the club left for its road trip through California two weeks ago. He smiled and worked through those episodes, and yesterday he pledged to do similarly through his current trial by ire. "It won't change the way I go about playing the game," Bonilla said. "What do people think I'll come to the park and sulk? That's not my makeup. And what about when I hit a three-run bomb to win a game here. Do you think I'd tell the fans to stick it? Of course not." http://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/31/sports/baseball-boos-bounce-off-bonilla-s-back.html ________________________ Sports of The Times; Can Bonilla Get Along In New York? By GEORGE VECSEY Published: April 16, 1993 IT always makes me nervous when I hear people say "we are working on our relationship," because that sounds like trouble, big trouble. This is exactly where Bobby Bonilla stands with his hometown of New York. They are working on their relationship, and I'm not sure it can be saved. Bonilla just may not be cool enough to have a long career in New York. Nothing against him. This is a hard town these days, and only the strong survive. He might have been better off in Pittsburgh, with a couple of camera crews and a couple of reporters and a couple of microphones. I feel badly for Bobby Bonilla, because he is not a sourpuss from "out there," like Kevin McReynolds, who hated every minute at Shea Stadium. Bonilla was no Roberto Clemente in Pittsburgh, and he would have settled for being Bobby Bo from the Bronx, but now it might be better for him elsewhere. Bonilla went way over the line the other day, challenging Bob Klapisch of The New York Daily News to step forward and fight. It was pretty normal street talk, but it happened in the locker room of the Mets right after a game, so of course it became big news. Bonilla was angry because he had heard bad reports about "The Worst Team Money Could Buy," a book written by Klapisch and John Harper of The Daily News. He said he hasn't read the book, if that matters. His main complaint seems to be that the reporters abused their access to the team; the writers argue there is no major news in this book that was not reported last season. But the book is only the symptom of the real problem between Bonilla and New York: there is no place to hide anymore, not even where you dress. Make no mistake: New York is no innocent in this affair. Sports is big business these days. Sports is good for commercials and ratings and circulation and book sales. Everything is hot. If you can get a player to react, film at 11. If a player goes off at an author, a book company can whip up an advertisement in a day or two. Sometimes it resembles a bullfight, with the picadors and the matadors and the toreadors, but in this bullfight the central character is being paid $29 million for five years. So why doesn't Bonilla just take the money and relax? Could you? Could I? This is not merely some little intramural media squabble, because it affects how sports are perceived these days, how athletes live their lives. When Bonilla chose to play for the Mets last season, he was caught in some inconsistencies. He was thin-skinned. He was overweight. He had a mediocre year. This spring he reported with a slimmer body and allegedly a thicker skin, but within days there were unconfirmed reports that he was taking it easy in workouts, and the battle was back on. Now comes the book, the book he hasn't read. And Bonilla and every other player has to know that 24 hours a day on talk radio they are being called "chumps" and "losers," and not just by the callers, either. There has always been tension between athletes and the press, but it has gotten worse. Before the electronic swarm, a reporter could stand by an athlete's locker and have a conversation. Maybe things were explained off the record, just as they are in the real world. Maybe journalists broke a confidence or wrote the truth. Maybe athletes threatened reporters. It's tougher now. Watergate made the press more skeptical, which was good. The players have figured out they cannot be misquoted or even "interpreted" by a benign television camera. After George Steinbrenner raised the tensions around his ball club, "baseball writers" needed the outlook of a house dick. Meanwhile, anonymous people went on Oprah and Donahue and discussed things you didn't used to mention in public. Gary Hart dared the press to find scandal in his private life, which wasn't hard. One newspaper sent a gossip reporter on the road with the Mets. These guys are not exactly negotiating nuclear arms reductions, are they? So it's open antagonism between the press and the athletes now, and maybe it's more honest that way. Many athletes no longer sit in their lockers and chat about the sport they play, and I submit that something has been lost. There are some bright people in this town like Doc Rivers and Sam Bowie and John Vanbiesbrouck who can handle it. Jim Abbott's going to be fine, and so will Boomer Esiason. Maybe Bonilla could laugh it off if he hit .320, but I don't think that's going to happen. New York is not for everybody. Not even locals. It may not be right for Bobby Bo. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/16/sports/sports-of-the-times-can-bonilla-get-along-in-new-york.html

The BestCoolest Players I've Ever Seen: Pitchers By Jonah Keri on August 8, 2013 3:00 PM ET Any time a discussion of best-sports-anything starts, it has a tendency to get heated. Float a couple of top-of-the-head tweets even hinting at ranking the best baseball players of this generation, and suddenly everyone wants to chime in. "This guy can�t possibly be on the list." "How could you forget that guy?" Basically, the Internet was invented for three purposes: arguing about your favorite athletes, cat videos, and that other thing (Troy McClure movie poster Tumblrs). With all that in mind, and in the grand how-could-you-be-so-wrong tradition of my own heavily biased ballpark rankings, it�s time to unveil the BestCoolest Players I�ve Ever Seen power rankings. Why am I making up words? Doing a straight ranking of best players of the past three decades could be accomplished with one click on your website of choice, for your stat of choice. This is more of a hybrid approach, combining the best players of the past generation with the coolest ones, the ones that were the most fun to watch. Here are the rules: � "Best" remains the most important criterion here. We�ll lean on objective metrics as we always do. But there�ll be some subjectivity too. I�m not above giving bonus points for flair, or for a pitcher who, say, threw a no-hitter at a game I attended. Of course that means � you guessed it � Tommy Greene at no. 1. Roughly speaking, we�re counting a player�s accomplishments as 70 percent of the equation, cool factor as about 30 percent. � To be eligible, players had to have played at a time when I was old enough to watch and appreciate baseball. I was born in 1974. Ed Delahanty just misses the cut. � Players are ranked by both peak and career achievements. This is similar to the concept behind Jay Jaffe�s excellent JAWS system of player evaluation, and the same way I�d vote for Hall of Famers, if I had a vote. � All-time greats who did their best work before my time don�t count. I only got to see players like Tom Seaver, Steve Carlton, and Pete Rose when they were near the end of their amazing careers, so they don�t make the cut. My first vivid baseball memory is from 1981 (it was very painful, let us never speak of it again). So the players likely to get the most consideration either broke in around or after 1981 (or not much earlier), or were so great that even if a decent chunk of their career happened beforehand, they still warranted consideration. Today, we cover the pitchers. Tomorrow, the hitters. Let�s go.... 7. Dwight Gooden The good Doc isn�t anywhere near the rest of these guys on career value; his is a case built entirely on a ludicrously great peak, and cool factor. Gooden launched his career with a spectacular rookie season at age 19, leading the league with 276 strikeouts, posting a 2.60 ERA, and doing more than virtually any other teenage player has done before or since. The next season was something else altogether. Per Baseball-Reference, Gooden�s '85 campaign, in which he led the league in innings pitched (276?), strikeouts (268), complete games (16), and ERA (an unbelievable 1.53) ranks as the best season by any pitcher in the past 99 years. If it�s possible for a pitcher to be more transcendent than numbers that suggest he was better than anyone in a century, Gooden was it. His fastball was terrifying and on many nights unhittable. It was a high-90s ball of flame that echoed through the park when it smashed into Gary Carter�s mitt. His curveball was a nightmare, a 12-to-6 home-wrecker that offered only one possible solace: the slim possibility it might not break for a strike. So many tributes have been written about those early, precocious years of Gooden�s short-lived prime, that it might be hard for younger fans to believe he earned all that hype. But Gooden did. He was better than everybody else and cooler than everybody else, forming a 1-2 punch of young talent that for a time made the Mets into the celebrity team, demoting the Yankees to second-class citizens, if you can imagine that. Doc Gooden was a comet sent from some faraway galaxy to destroy hitters, and to burn so bright that he self-combusted. http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/70881/the-bestcoolest-players-ive-ever-seen-pitchers