batmagadanleadoff

Two more from the 2013 Topps Heritage set: Johan Nohan Memorable Moment: RA Dickey oversized, based on the 1964 Topps Giants subset:

This is the year that Murph finally does it. Murphy backpedals far enough for a fly ball hit over his head that he crashes entirely through the right field wall, sustaining fatal head injuries. A lavish Bump Bailey type funeral is promised by effWilpon, complete with flying overhead jets and a bagpipe choir -- a funeral that effWilpon has no intention of paying for, instead contriving some scandal involving Johan Santana's DL stint as cause to weasel out of the funeral.

themetfairy wrote: Talk about setting the bar low.... This way, I won't be disappointed.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Ceetar wrote: That's because it's not hypocrisy. They aren't claiming they're in financial ruin to avoid Picard judgement, they're claiming they're not at fault to the point of not having to be the ones to pay the other victims. Quite different than not having any other money or prospects for improvement. Picard essentially let the Mets off the hook because of their perceived inability to pay a large judgment, not because Picard doubted their culpability. And besides, if the Mets claimed financial ruin, it's a hypocrisy in light of their recent claims to the contrary, no matter what the reason. Megdal's point was that Picard had the resources and the talent and the legal force of court orders to thoroughly comb through the private financial picture of Wilpon/Katz/Sterling, and that the Mets couldn't strong arm Picard they way they always brush off news reporters with their "It's none of your business, we're private" mantra. Therefore, Picard's judgment that the Mets are broke is more credible than effWilpon's recent statement painting a rosy financial picture for the Mets near future.

Ceetar wrote: That's because it's not hypocrisy. They aren't claiming they're in financial ruin to avoid Picard judgement, they're claiming they're not at fault to the point of not having to be the ones to pay the other victims. Quite different than not having any other money or prospects for improvement. Picard essentially let the Mets off the hook because of their perceived inability to pay a large judgment, not because Picard doubted their culpability. And besides, if the Mets claimed financial ruin, it's a hypocrisy in light of their recent claims to the contrary, no matter what the reason.

A sampling of 2013 Topps Heritage Flashback cards

Edgy MD wrote: Hey, since the 'Pons bought out Doubleday, we're legally obliged to whitewash Nelson and praise any move that was championed by him. I can do that. Except for Doubleday's disastrous trojan horse of a move that let effWilpon buy into the franchise in the first place.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Yes, but will Amway approach us in our seats, or in line at Shake Shack? Megdal may sound one-note at times, but when he does some legwork-- gimmicky or no-- he's devastating. Yeah. I thought that Megdal's latest Amway piece was terrific. Brilliant thoughts often seem so obvious with the benefit of hindsight. But Megdal, I believe, is the first reporter to note the hypocrisy between Wilpon, on the one hand, recently boasting of a major financial recovery while simultaneously presenting himself in such financial ruins so as to be declared essentially judgment proof by Picard, the Madoff litigation trustee.

2013 Topps Heritages ('64 style)

24-3, 269 K's, 2.11 ERA, 8 shutouts. Back to back Cy Young Awards for Met hurlers.

Marcum and Hefner then pray for rain.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: [crossout]Nails 2[/crossout] Cowgill plates two with a double off Deolis Guerra (!), and it's just 13-9, Socialism. Cowgrill's on the WBC team? Maybe he's better than I gave him credit for? I will endeavor to memorize his entire name.

This proves that Venezuela baseball is better than United States of America baseball.

Hefner'll pitch better than Chris Schwinden did. Probably.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: Mets � Willets Point wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: I just look for it all to be over so that the real games can start. I find that I can't pay attention to a spring training game for more than a few minutes. Same here. Triple that. It'd be a minor miracle if I watch as much as two Spring Training innings cumulatively in any given year. I'm even less interested in the WBC, if you wanna know the truth about it and all of that David Copperfield kind of crap. Ditto for the amateur draft and baseball's post-season unless the Mets are in it. Those last two are just big stinking crap-shoots. Of course, I root for a team that has one first place finish in the last 25 years, and less first place finishes than the lowly Marlins have World Series titles during that span. So fat chance on the playoffs for the Mets. Nice job, Fred. You're all aces. Keep up the great work. Helluva job. You almost had Michael Bourn. First place finishes since 1989 (not incl. 1994) Braves 14 Yankees 13 A�s 8 Cards 7 Indians 7 Twins 7 Giants 6 Phillies 6 Angels 5 D-backs 5 Rangers 5 Astros 4 Blue Jays 4 Cubs 4 Dodgers 4 Padres 4 Reds 4 White Sox 4 Mariners 3 Pirates 3 Red Sox 3 Tigers 2 Rays 2 Brewers 1 Mets 1 Nats 1 Orioles 1 Royals 0 Marlins 0 Rockies 0 Playoff appearances since 1989 (not incl. 1994 and losers of WC qualifying one-game elimination round). The Red Sox have been the WC more than any other team (7x). Yankees 17 Braves 15 Cards 10 Red Sox 10 A�s 9 Indians 7 Twins 7 Giants 7 Angels 6 Astros 6 Dodgers 6 Phillies 6 Cubs 5 D-backs 5 Rangers 5 Blue Jays 4 Mariners 4 Padres 4 Reds 4 White Sox 4 Mets 3 Orioles 3 Pirates 3 Rays 3 Rockies 3 Tigers 3 Brewers 2 Marlins 2 Nats 1 Royals 0 It's a good thing that eff Wilpon has the major advantage of running his team from NYC. Because if the Mets were in Kansas City, they'd be three times as bad as the Royals with ol' effW running things. Way to leverage the greatest city in the world!

This movie had always intrigued me, especially it's Oscar winning triumph despite the X rating. I read the novel about 20 years ago and the feeling of dread and loneliness that surrounds the two main characters is all too pervasive, the major theme of the book, and not quite captured in the film to the same degree. The film is also somewhat fuzzy and vague as to Joe Buck's past and the events that shaped him. But I suppose that, as you wrote, the plot was secondary. Midnight Cowboy harmonica theme. ZGORPUzLxtU "I'm walkin' here!" c412hqucHKw Everybody's Talkin' at Me Dz6GzKWiIAs

Frayed Knot wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: ... Ditto for the amateur draft and baseball's post-season unless the Mets are in it. Those last two are just big stinking crap-shoots. Are there post-season sports that you do watch? What does the non-crapshoot factor have to be for you to tune in? And does the idea that those sports where you (presumably) have a better idea/i] who is going to win at the outset make it better? I like the NCAA tournament, though I realize that's as much a crap-shoot as any champion crowning tourney out there. And I like the NFL playoffs. That's also a crap-shoot but there's not much that can be done about it. The game's too violent and physically demanding to have the teams play more than a few handful of games each season. I've gotten away from the NBA in a big way over the years thanks to the Knicks utter head-scratching putridness and destructive management. And though I don't like the expanded playoff format of the NBA, where more than half the teams qualify for the playoffs, the format nevertheless protects the integrity of the sport by making it highly unlikely for a team to capture the crown without being one of the league's elites. The best of seven format is a reliable way to determine which of two competing NBA teams is the better one. I've lost interest in the MLB playoffs ever since the wild card expanded the playoffs to an extra round. There's too much to keep track of, and given what I think is the extremely high degree of luck that determines the outcome of every baseball game (more than in any other sport, I'd say) the wild card format doesn't ensure that the very best teams will compete for the crown. I don't mind upsets, but in baseball the best team will win the WS less than it deservedly should. I also think that the announcing that takes place in a baseball playoff game is the absolute worst, unlistenable tripe on the air. For example, for the opening game of every series, the networks display the season stats for ever player as he takes his turn at bat. But beginning with the second game of the series, you might not see those season stats ever again. They're replaced with each player's stats for that particular series or for the entire playoffs, as the case may be. And then the announcers (all of them, it seems) go on and on interminably about how so and so is two for twelve in the series as if those limited plate appearances are more representative of the player's skills than the 600 or so plate appearances he accumulated over the course of the season. It's an analysis that one would have expected 25 years ago and it seems to dominate almost every utterance and observation the announcers make.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Mets � Willets Point wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: I just look for it all to be over so that the real games can start. I find that I can't pay attention to a spring training game for more than a few minutes. Same here. Triple that. It'd be a minor miracle if I watch as much as two Spring Training innings cumulatively in any given year. I'm even less interested in the WBC, if you wanna know the truth about it and all of that David Copperfield kind of crap. Ditto for the amateur draft and baseball's post-season unless the Mets are in it. Those last two are just big stinking crap-shoots. Of course, I root for a team that has one first place finish in the last 25 years, and less first place finishes than the lowly Marlins have World Series titles during that span. So fat chance on the playoffs for the Mets. Nice job, Fred. You're all aces. Keep up the great work. Helluva job. You almost had Michael Bourn. First place finishes since 1989 (not incl. 1994) Braves 14 Yankees 13 A�s 8 Cards 7 Indians 7 Twins 7 Giants 6 Phillies 6 Angels 5 D-backs 5 Rangers 5 Astros 4 Blue Jays 4 Cubs 4 Dodgers 4 Padres 4 Reds 4 White Sox 4 Mariners 3 Pirates 3 Red Sox 3 Tigers 2 Rays 2 Brewers 1 Mets 1 Nats 1 Orioles 1 Royals 0 Marlins 0 Rockies 0

Loved it. That bus ride Joe Buck takes from the midwest, through the rust belt, the bible belt and into New York City is a classic. Neat soundtrack, too. Still in print. But missing "Orange Juice on ice". I love movies filmed on location in NYC during the '60's and '70's. [youtube]SGyTnG543Kk[/youtube] Leslie Miller belts out He Quit Me, a relatively obscure Waren Zevon penned lowdown soulful blues tune. KKzNodK9U_E John Barry worked as "Musical Supervisor" on this classic gem of a movie to integrate found pop with his original themes. Many of the "pop tunes" were culled from fledgling United Artists acts of the late sixties such as The Groop ("Tears and Joys" and the Mamas and Papas-sounding "A Famous Myth" are included herein), and someone had the great sense to steer him to the avant garde New York group Elephant's Memory (whose influential work - see Stereolab and Komeda - on Buddah records remains sadly out of print)to patch together a soundscape for the film's psychedelic Warholesque party scene where Joe Buck gets high and Ratso steals all the salami. Of course, it was the inclusion and reorchestration of Fred Neil's folk tune, "Everybody's Talkin'", as sung by Nilsson, that made the soundtrack a hit in 69 and has kept it in print all these decades. The lasting impression that this time capsule of a soundtrack leaves is the abundance of vocal energy and inventive harmonizing that proliferated in the late sixties, and how styles were changing from cool lounge and orchestral scoring to topical pop music placement to reflect the moment. Modern day soundtrack producers would do well to study this package and the film from which it was borne. Barry's themes - "Midnight Cowboy", "Fun City" "Science Fiction" "Joe Buck Rides Again" and "Florida Fantasy" reflect and refract pieces of the pop tunes while draping pivotal scenes in a lovely sadness. Outstanding is Toots Theilman's wailing harmonica on the Main Theme; the piece is a wee bit overproduced for the soundtrack edition and I wish the version used in the film - just harmonica and stummed guitar - had been included here. http://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Cowboy-Original-Motion-Picture/dp/B00000DQWS/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1362421406&sr=1-1&keywords=midnight+cowboy+soundtrack

Johan Santana gets the Reyes treatment By Howard Megdal 10:42 am Mar. 4, 2013 You could field a really good baseball team made up exclusively of players the Mets have criticized in the media for not returning fast enough from injury. There was Jose Reyes, who the Mets decided should come back late in 2009 to play in a meaningless final weekend series. When he objected, a whisper campaign from management led to a teary Reyes news conference. Oh, and a ramped-up comeback attempt followed, complete with tear that then required surgery. When the Mets were unhappy with Carlos Beltran's decision to follow a third doctor opinion recommending surgery, they held a conference call to blast Beltran for the decision. (Beltran's post-surgery production only reinforces it was the right move for him.) When they didn't like David Wright's concern about playing with an injured thumb, they leaked to the Daily News, as he made his decision, a reluctance to offer Wright a long-term deal because he might be "injury-prone." Now it is Johan Santana's turn. On Saturday, general manager Sandy Alderson described it as "self-evident" that Santana, the team's highest-paid player from a contract signed in the era just before ownership's involvement with Bernie Madoff was discovered, hadn't arrived in camp in pitching shape. And those nameless "club officials" that always seem to be around when the Mets might get blamed for something "have wondered aloud why Santana did not do more before spring training to strengthen his shoulder." There's so much that is strange about this story. By going quasi-public with intimations that Santana was somehow to blame for following the very plan recommended by doctors, according to Alderson himself last August, the Mets took what should have been an anodyne story about a 34-year-old pitcher with multiple recent surgeries attempting to come back, and turned it into a story with a villain. Santana has responded by largely boyotting reporter questions, which is the equivalent of receiving an upsetting text message and getting angry at Verizon. Most disquieting is the suspicion, shared by both a friend of Santana and the Mets themselves, that the stories about Santana motivated him to return to the mound and throw earlier than he'd planned to. A pitcher trying to do right by his body, who'd previously been more committed to the significant objectives of pitching well for the 2013 season, not just making a symbolic opening day start, and resurrecting a career, was exactly what the Mets should have supported. Instead, those criticisms are all it took to get the same Santana who threw an ill-advised bullpen session in an attempt to pitch through a torn anterior capsule in his shoulder in 2010, the way he pitched with bone chips in his elbow in 2009 and a torn meniscus in his knee in 2008. He tried to do the same thing with an ankle injury in 2012, with disastrous consequences on the field. In all cases, the Mets failed to protect Santana from himself, and much of their six-year, $137.5 million investment was the ultimate casualty, with Santana missing all of 2011, while 2012 ended early. Why exactly the Mets haven't learned from both their mistakes and the wisdom of many (not all, but most) other teams, who protect their star players with both public media cover and are more concerned with long-term recoveries than quick comebacks, is impossible to know. But there's nothing new about it; this phenomenon goes back to Mike Piazza, who wrote in his new book that Jeff Wilpon once asked him to play, injured, in a spring training game because it was a sellout. According to Newsday's David Lennon, just writing this in his book could be enough to keep Piazza out of the Mets Hall of Fame. http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/sports/2013/03/8123200/johan-santana-gets-reyes-treatment Here's the Piazza story: Mike Piazza's chances at Mets' Hall of Fame a 'Long Shot'? March 3, 2013 9:16 PM By DAVID LENNON david.lennon@newsday.com When John Buck changed out of his uniform and into workout clothes after Saturday's game at Tradition Field, he put on a blue T-shirt with the No. 31 across the chest. The circle emblem, with a pinstriped background, was designed by a fan-run company as part of a movement to get Mike Piazza's number retired by the Mets. But when Buck was asked by a teammate about the shirt's meaning, the catcher shrugged. "I don't know," Buck said. "It was just in my locker." Piazza's No. 31 has not been seen on a Mets' jersey since 2005, his last season in Flushing before signing with the Padres. It was an amicable parting back then -- Piazza even said so in his newly released autobiography, "Long Shot" -- but his relationship with the Mets has cooled some over time, according to people familiar with the situation. What that means for the fate of the No. 31, as well as Piazza's candidacy for the Mets' Hall of Fame, is uncertain. If everything had followed the fairy-tale script, Piazza would have been elected in January to Cooperstown, which then could have paved the way for the Mets to honor him at Citi Field a few months from now -- and possibly retiring his number during that ceremony, as well. Instead, Piazza received only 57.8 percent of the vote, appearing on 329 of 569 ballots, and landed far short of the 75 percent needed for induction. Though Piazza's hitting resume made him a no-brainer for Cooperstown, the cloud of PED suspicion apparently was enough to deter a large segment of BBWAA voters. As for the Mets, the jury is still out. The committee for the franchise's own Hall of Fame has yet to meet on any of this year's candidates, including Piazza, but the Mets weren't thrilled by some of the catcher's comments about the club in "Long Shot." COO Jeff Wilpon, who has the last word on both the Hall of Fame's recommendations and the retired numbers, was criticized in the book as Piazza claimed Wilpon urged him to play with an injury in a spring training game because it was a sellout. Piazza also ripped longtime media relations director Jay Horwitz, who happens to be a member of the Mets' HOF committee, for not doing a better job of shielding the team's players. "I felt he was more loyal to the writers and the broadcasters than he was to the players," Piazza wrote. Are a few stinging sentences enough for one of the Mets' most popular stars of the past two decades to be alienated? That depends. Piazza also declined an invitation to attend SNY's unveiling of the team's 50 greatest players last year (he was No. 6) and team officials buzzed about that dis for months. There is little -- if any -- communication these days between Piazza and the Mets, who are confused as to why he's pulled away to this degree. In the meantime, the No. 31 stays on the shelf. The Mets have only four retired numbers: Tom Seaver (41), Gil Hodges (14), Casey Stengel (37) and Jackie Robinson (42). In addition to Piazza, they have two other numbers in limbo, as in not retired but out of circulation: Gary Carter's No. 8 and the No. 24, famously worn by Willie Mays in Flushing but last donned by Rickey Henderson as both a player (2000) and coach (2007). As one Mets person explained, the team's Hall of Fame does not have to be tied to what transpired this winter in relation to Cooperstown. In fact, Piazza failing on the first ballot might actually nudge the Mets to induct him into the Flushing Hall, which currently has 26 members. John Franco was admitted last season. Back in 2010, the Mets inducted Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Davey Johnson and Frank Cashen. The odds are that Piazza's percentage for Cooperstown will climb in the coming years, perhaps helped by a more lax attitude toward the so-called Steroid Era over time. If he ever does get in, Piazza likely would be fitted with a Mets cap based on the length of his tenure in New York and the impact he made there. But how his former club chooses to treat Piazza's legacy in the coming months will be interesting to see. Other than a few stray T-shirts, Piazza has been mostly ignored in these parts recently, like a distant relative. And that's not a good thing for him or the Mets. http://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists/david-lennon/mike-piazza-s-chances-at-mets-hall-of-fame-a-long-shot-1.4744940

Mets � Willets Point wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: I just look for it all to be over so that the real games can start. I find that I can't pay attention to a spring training game for more than a few minutes. Same here. Triple that. It'd be a minor miracle if I watch as much as two Spring Training innings cumulatively in any given year. I'm even less interested in the WBC, if you wanna know the truth about it and all of that David Copperfield kind of crap. Ditto for the amateur draft and baseball's post-season unless the Mets are in it. Those last two are just big stinking crap-shoots. Of course, I root for a team that has one first place finish in the last 25 years, and less first place finishes than the lowly Marlins have World Series titles during that span. So fat chance on the playoffs for the Mets. Nice job, Fred. You're all aces. Keep up the great work. Helluva job. You almost had Michael Bourn.

I'd guess that both Reyes and Dickey will continue to shine in 2013. Dickey will probably pitch more than half of his games in a domed, and thus weather-controlled, stadium (Blue Jays, Astros, Mariners, and whatever NL domes Dickey pitches in in interleague play).

Loved it. That bus ride Joe Buck takes from the midwest, through the rust belt, the bible belt and into New York City is a classic. Neat soundtrack, too. Still in print. But missing "Orange Juice on ice". I love movies filmed on location in NYC during the '60's and '70's. [youtube:1xn5ajrv]SGyTnG543Kk[/youtube:1xn5ajrv]

TransMonk wrote: I'd be thrilled if provided what Joe McEwing did in 2001 (.283/.342/.449). I wouldn't be surprised if he puts up Joe McEwing's line from 2003 (.241/.309/.291). Anything's better than Joe McEwing in 2002 (.199/.242/.296). He's my favorite new Met. This guy's been reminding me of Joe McEwing ever since the Mets got him. Which means I'm gonna hate him. Because like McEwing, he looks like he'll be the next super crappy scrub that the Mets hype to absurd levels. And it's happening already. How could you predict those numbers while simultaneously declaring Cowgill your new favorite Met?

Benjamin Grimm wrote: So who is Ike Davis? The guy who hit .160 for two and a half months and looked completely lost? Or the guy who cranked it up in the second half and finished with 32 home runs? I'm counting on it being the latter. I'll admit there may be wishful thinking here, but I think Ike is going to come through pretty big in 2013. He'll approach 40 homers and may even break the club record of 41. He'll drive in about 110 runs. I'll even predict that he'll be the Schaefer Mets Player of the Year. What do you expect from Ike Davis? I'm still optimistic on Ike. Enough so that I could envision Grimm's latter scenario without offending my strict personal sense of realism.