batmagadanleadoff

Banner day banner Jay Horwitz bans Noreen Harrington from participating in the Mets upcoming Banner Day. See link, below.

Who the fuck is Keith Hernandez and who the hell is he to hit .344?

metirish wrote: ... but damn that Flynn is really hot". Eric Hillman agrees, but doesn't know why he agrees.

I've generally loved Sandomir's work of late. But did he really just pad out this article with 2-3 paragraphs of this-guy-with-the-same-name stuff? He might as well have made the title really big, and increased the page margins. Another Sandomir piece on John Maine, but this time without any reference to John Maine: Mets Owners� Witness Facing Scrutiny Again By RICHARD SANDOMIR Published: February 6, 2012 In 1999, a stockbroker working for Dean Witter Reynolds was convicted of fraud for selling fake or dubious investments in what was ultimately described as a Ponzi scheme. The broker, Dean Turner, spent time in federal prison. But he was not the only one punished in the case. The Securities and Exchange Commission went after his supervisor at Dean Witter, accusing him of failing to properly oversee Turner and ignoring a �red flag� that might have helped the brokerage�s customers avoid millions in losses. The supervisor, George Kolar, fought the charges and enlisted on his behalf an expert witness � a former stockbroker and Smith Barney executive named John Maine. Maine testified that the supervisor�s responsibilities for protecting against fraud were limited, and effectively ended when he reported suspicions about the broker up the chain of command at Dean Witter. The expert testimony didn�t fly. Indeed, the S.E.C. judge overseeing the case against the supervisor actually offered a withering critique of Maine�s testimony. Maine �had not read any case law on the topic� at hand, Thomas Kelly, the administrative law judge, wrote in his opinion. The judge also said that it appeared Maine�s �written expert testimony was prepared in large part� not by Maine, but by the supervisor�s lawyers who had hired him. The supervisor was ultimately fined $20,000 and suspended from being a brokerage supervisor for six months. As for his admonished expert, Maine continued his career, eventually testifying hundreds of times in courts, arbitrations and mediations. Today, Maine is the sole expert witness for the owners of the Mets, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz. They are battling accusations by the trustee for Bernard L. Madoff�s victims that they turned a blind eye to signs that Madoff might have been up to no good during what the world now knows were his years of orchestrating a historic fraud. Maine, in this different, much more significant case, has submitted a report saying that investors like Wilpon and Katz would have had no reason to suspect Madoff. �The customer has no way of policing the broker�s internal operation and consequently is not required to be concerned about it,� Maine wrote in court papers submitted last month. Maine�s submission was part of the latest legal filings in a case that appears headed to trial next month. At trial, lawyers for the Madoff trustee hope to lay out what they argue is substantial evidence that Wilpon and Katz, their status as mere investors notwithstanding, ignored ample evidence that Madoff�s operation was too good to be true. Wilpon and Katz contend that the evidence is twisted or fabricated. The trustee�s lawyers have met Maine�s expert opinion with a critique that is more pointed � and adversarial � than the one offered by the judge in the 1999 case. They attacked what they claimed was Maine�s lack of experience and expertise. They said his opinion about the case, and the obligations of Wilpon and Katz as longtime and profitable investors with Madoff, was unsupported by �surveys, sources, books, treatises, industry guides, periodicals, studies or any other objective third-party analysis.� Actually, Maine cited in his report 36 cases that support his view that customers like Wilpon and Katz, unlike professional brokers or government regulators, had no special duty to be alert to, much less uncover, Madoff�s fraud. Maine, contacted by telephone last week, would not discuss his work for the Mets. Of course, in this yearlong legal battle, the lawyers for Wilpon and Katz do not think much of the trustee�s experts. Both sides, in fact, have formally asked the judge to toss the contributions of the other side�s experts. Such requests are not unusual. Last year, some of the testimony by Steve Pomerantz, one of the trustee�s experts, was ruled inadmissible in a class-action case in Illinois. It is interesting at minimum to see that Maine has again come under tough criticism. The trustee�s lawyers have noted that Maine has been out of the day-to-day financial securities business for more than two decades. They assert, instead, that he makes a full-time living as an expert witness. Thomas O. McGarity, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, said that jurors tended to be skeptical of experts who made their living as witnesses. �It takes away from their credibility,� said McGarity, who said that the best witnesses were usually people still employed in the industry they were testifying about. McGarity, who has written about the admissibility of expert testimony in trials, agreed with the trustee�s assertion that an expert�s report needs third-party analyses because they are �performed by competent experts unrelated to case,� and therefore unbiased, he said. As for the written testimony Maine gave in 1999 that the judge noted was prepared largely by Kolar�s lawyers, McGarity said: �Lawyers always play a role in the drafting of expert testimony. But to have it track the language of their briefs sounds like the expert didn�t put in much independent thought.� http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/sports/baseball/mets-owners-witness-facing-scrutiny-again.html

I remember Tanana the one-season Met well ... maybe even better than I recall some recent Met hurlers ... probably because Tanana was once such a big-name pitcher and the toast of Anaheim. He was simply toast - hold the town- by the time the Mets got him. Tanana set the Mets single season record for most HR's allowed by a LHP (26). The record stood until last season when Capuano yielded 27 taters (pitching half his games in the Citi Field Cavern).

I hear ya. It ain't 1972 no more.

Why is there a Jason Isringhausen card? The set usually reflects the prior year. I like that there's an Izzy card. I bought some packs today and snagged a Wright and Justin Turner. Will post them later. Current sets reflect prior years only because of production deadlines. But Reyes signed with Miami one day after Pagan was traded to SF. So you would think that if Topps could produce a current Reyes card, then why not one for Pagan? I don't have an answer, but I know that Reyes's Miami card was not produced in the same quantities as Pagan's Mets card. The Reyes card is an extremely short (limited) print: it's fetching $200+. Topps probably made a special exception for Reyes because he's a superstar still in his prime. Anyways, so long as Pagan plays somewhat regularly this season, Topps will likely produce a Pagan/Giants card for its update set at the end of the season.

I wonder if Jay Horwitz reads The Pool?

Topps' 2012 set is here: 2012 Topps '87 Mini's:

smg58 wrote: It's too early to assess the wins and losses from this offseason. I agree. I'd even extend Alderson's wait and see beyond this offseason. It's tough for Sandy to impress so soon when his mission impossible is to replace five million dollar players with bargain bin cutouts. If Sandy succeeds, it'll likely be through the players that went through the Mets minor leagues on his watch. Why judge a turkey based on how it tastes after just 15 minutes in the oven?

"Anatevka" from Fiddler on the Roof: Anatevka, Anatevka It's my tumble home town shtetl Delivering milk on my gimpy workhorse Or in a pinch, my mule named Mettle.

So tell us about the memorabilia collector. What's his name and what'd he show?

Sandomir Good STOP Each sentence = paragraph STOP So 2 Maine sentences, only STOP

Part II of Rubin series on Mets financial crisis: http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/7495353/new-york-mets-wilpons-clear-many-hurdles-retain-control

Mets retain John Maine as expert witness in upcoming Picard trial. No, not that John Maine. Expert Witnesses Faulted in Suit Against Mets� Owners By RICHARD SANDOMIR Published: January 27, 2012 Lawyers for the victims of Bernard L. Madoff have accused the Mets� owners of enriching themselves with illegitimate profits from his Ponzi scheme. The owners, in turn, have called the lawyers shakedown artists bent on ruining their good reputations to extort money. It has, then, been a mean year all around since the Madoff trustee sued Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, the Mets� owners, for $1 billion. Now, the two sides are less than two months from going to trial. Hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake. So perhaps it�s no surprise that new court filings show that neither side thinks much of the expert witnesses recruited by the other side. The trustee�s lineup includes Harrison J. Goldin, a former New York City comptroller who faced ethical questions while in office. The Mets� owners hired John Maine. No, not that John Maine, the sore-shouldered Mets right-hander whom the pitching coach Dan Warthen labeled a �habitual liar� during his last, injury-marred season with the team, in 2010. This John Maine graduated from Dartmouth with a history degree and worked as both a stockbroker and Smith Barney executive, but has not been directly involved in the financial sector since 1990. He now makes his living testifying at trials. As part of the new court filings, this Maine submitted a report supporting one of Wilpon and Katz�s bedrock defenses � that despite their real estate holdings, they are not sophisticated investors and had no reason to doubt, or investigate, Madoff while he was their trusted broker. The trustee, Irving H. Picard, in turn attacked Maine much the way National League teams pounded John Maine the pitcher during that last Mets season, when he was not forthcoming about his injuries, thus angering Warthen. Picard said John Maine the expert witness had issued a report that lacked �any principle or methodology� and cited no �surveys, sources, books, treatises, industry guides, periodicals, studies or any other objective third-party analysis.� He said Maine had been too long removed from a full-time financial post, and he even cited Maine�s failed attempt at running a trout farm. Goldin was treated far more nicely by the Mets� lawyers. Goldin wrote a report for Picard that stated that Wilpon and Katz did not carry out due diligence before offering employees at their holding company, Sterling Equities, an option to invest their retirement money with Madoff. Another Picard expert, Steve Pomerantz, who holds a doctorate in mathematics, cited 26 red flags that he said should have alerted Wilpon and Katz that something was, well, fishy during their many years of investing with Madoff. The Mets� lawyers called their conclusions �irrelevant and unfounded.� But Goldin�s and Pomerantz�s credentials � and any fishing sidelights � were not questioned. The Mets had no comment on the case Friday or the factors that went into hiring Maine. Actually, United States District Judge Jed S. Rakoff has more substantial motions before him than whether he will eliminate any expert witness before the jury trial of the Mets� owners starts on March 19. It is a serious case that turns on whether Wilpon and Katz willfully turned a blind eye from indications that Madoff was up to no good. Rakoff has already dismissed most of the trustee�s claims against the Mets� owners and has ruled that Picard cannot recover more than $386 million from Wilpon and Katz. In their motion for a summary judgment on Thursday, Wilpon and Katz asked Rakoff to dismiss the last three claims against them and asserted that the evidence gathered by Picard since last fall proved that they were unaware that Madoff was engaged in a fraud. They said that the trustee �has an unlimited budget and has spent millions of dollars trying to find support for his baseless allegations.� Nevertheless, they said, Picard �has no evidence that any defendant was suspicious of Madoff.� Picard�s narrowly focused motion that was filed on Friday asks for a summary judgment on a claim that would let his office recover $83 million in fictitious profits the Mets� owners received through their Madoff accounts. In his ruling last September, Rakoff said that the trustee �might well prevail� on such a motion. Maine did not return a call seeking comment. He retired as an executive vice president of Smith Barney in 1990 and, apparently looking for something different to do, tried to raise trout in Idaho. In a deposition taken this month, David Sheehan, Picard�s chief counsel, asked Maine about his credentials and knowledge. Maine talked about his experience, along with his failure as a trout entrepreneur. �And my trout herd swam away one morning,� he said. �I hate when that happens,� Sheehan said, in apparent deadpan. �It ruins the whole night,� Maine said. Picard contends that Maine�s work as a stockbroker and office executive in the 1970s and �80s, and his �brief stint trying to raise trout,� were �outside the scope of the issues to be tried to the jury in this litigation.� In any case, Maine has built a business as an expert witness, mediator and arbitrator in the securities industry. His r�sum� says he has been retained 1,600 times and testified 600 times. In 2004, he testified for Peter Bacanovic, Martha Stewart�s former stockbroker, when they were tried for conspiracy to hinder a federal investigation into her sale of shares in a stock. Asked by Sheehan in the deposition about the Stewart trial, Maine said: �I was a very minor witness. My mother was so disappointed that my picture was never taken.� As for John Maine the pitcher, he spent 2011 with the Colorado Rockies� Class AAA team and has now signed a minor league contact with the Boston Red Sox. He once played Santa Claus at a Mets Christmas party, back when everything was considerably more cheerful in Flushing.

The Houston Scuffs (It rhymes with Buffs)

Ceetar wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: Well, sure. Who would want to admit to being from New Jersey? I don't mind being from Jersey, I just want to make sure they know it's NY Jersey, not Philly Jersey. ew. So where's the New Jersey Jersey?

G-Fafif wrote: Bobby V didn't much care for the way Rey O talked, either. Bobby Valentine won't make Rey Ordonez take English lessons, but the manager made it clear Thursday that the club would encourage the shortstop from Cuba to trust himself more with his second language. ''I'm not sure that it's to say that you have to stand up for your own team, but it's to say that we want him to be an integral part of our team, we don't want him as an independent contractor who comes in, catches the ball and throws it across the diamond for a highlight film,'' said Valentine. A more damning quote than I realized at the time, probably. That was definitely a shot, there.

Vic Sage wrote: if Valentine hated [Ordonez] him so much, he didn't have to play him. Maybe Bobby V did have to play Rey, though I can't prove it. But Bobby V didn't always get his way in the way of personnel decisions (e.g., Bobby Bonilla, 1999). Few managers do. My theory is that someone very high up was very high up enamored of Rey, and so Rey had to play. Probably the small-ball loving Fred Wilpon. Whatever the case, Bobby V is too fucking smart to have given Ordonez 3000+ plate appearances.

smg58 wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: Edgy DC wrote: Doug Flynnigan, and I loved him for it. I'd be impressed with anyone under 35 who can remember seeing Doug Flynn hit. (I'm almost 50, and I can't remember Doug Flynn hitting) I have no memory of Doug Flynn hitting, either. Although thanks to Flynn, I learned at a young age that when a team's front office goes out of their way to draw attention to a player's defensive value, it really says more about his hitting. In Rey's defense (no pun intended), his 1999 was as good a year with the glove as anybody I'm aware of has ever had. Yeah, it would have taken a full career of that to make his bat tolerable, but he does have that. I do remember Doug Flynn hitting. I just don't remember Doug Flynn hitting. I'd be surprised if Ozzie Smith didn't have half a dozen fielding seasons better than Rey's '99. Me, I remember Rey as a visually breathtaking fielder, exciting to watch. But the numbers never backed up the enormous hype about him, which suggested, no -- proclaimed -- that Rey's fielding was as valuable as Ruth's hitting. Or something close to that. From stitching Bobby V quotes, snippets and sound bites througout the Ordonez era, I'm absolutely convinced that Bobby V hated this guy, and the additional quote in the linked article at the top of this thread is one more data point of confirmation on that front. With respect to FAFIF's line about Rey's RBI total, I specifically recall Valentine shooting that down when members of the media were using that RBI total to suggest that Ordonez turned a corner for the better, bat-wise.

metirish wrote: Loved Ordonez , shitty hitter though, I tell you else was shitty, Burnitz and Roger Cedano......nice bodies , shitty bats. Rey might be my most hated Met. In my twisted mind, I also blame Rey for the Melvin Mora to the Orioles fiasco. Ordonez breaking his wrist that Memorial Day weekend, 2000 is one of my most beloved plays in franchise history. Well, maybe not exactly, but boy did I hate Ordonez.

Edgy DC wrote: Doug Flynnigan, and I loved him for it. I'd be impressed with anyone under 35 who can remember seeing Doug Flynn hit. (I'm almost 50, and I can't remember Doug Flynn hitting)

G-Fafif wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Keith's dad met Keith's mom -- a Buffalo gal, if you will -- when he was playing for Houston. Without the Buffs, there's no Keith. Without Keith, who makes the play on that bunt in Cincinnati after Mitchell and Knight are ejected? Ralph always talked about the size of the mosquitoes in Houston. Keith hints at the birds and the, well, bees. Was this anecdote retold on TV recently. The details are so fresh in my head, as if I heard this tale 20 minutes ago. Keith's brought it up on the Houston trip each of the past two seasons. You're exactly right. In 2010, he retold the tale during the beginning of the Mets game in Houston that Nelson Figueroa started for the Astros. I recall because I watched this game two days ago.

G-Fafif wrote: Keith's dad met Keith's mom -- a Buffalo gal, if you will -- when he was playing for Houston. Without the Buffs, there's no Keith. Without Keith, who makes the play on that bunt in Cincinnati after Mitchell and Knight are ejected? Ralph always talked about the size of the mosquitoes in Houston. Keith hints at the birds and the, well, bees. Was this anecdote retold on TV recently. The details are so fresh in my head, as if I heard this tale 20 minutes ago.