batmagadanleadoff

AG/DC wrote: Is that McGraw with the big buckle? Yeah. The Mets are, for the most part, in alphabetical order by last name.

And check out Tug's groovy belt buckle!

Maybe I've been too saracastic about this topic. Maybe sometimes you really do gotta have some heart.

AG/DC wrote: Is batmagadanleadoff Rickey Henderson? Yes. batmagadanleadoff is Rickey Henderson, says batmagadanleadoff in true illeist fashion.

Frayed Knot wrote: But it needs to be noted that the Messier-led '92 Rangers were also the best reg season team .... Keith was a great leader for the Mets but [what about] his 'left the dugout to drink beer and sulk' act ....." Nice post. You didn't get bonus points though, because there was nothing in there about enough of the Rickey Henderson playing cards crap because without Rickey, there wouldn'ta been any 1999 post-season in the first place and I don't see how Rickey playing cards even if he did which I don't know, prevented the always crappy Ordonez from hitting the ball past the pitcher all series long.

Johnette Howard wrote: So if it's not Wright who leads the Mets, then who is it? I think that Willie Randolph should be the team captain.

mario25 wrote: All those things mentioned ... are exactly why a Met needs to step up and become a leader of the team. I'd bet that having a team captain is worth, on average, 2.43 extra wins a season. How many games out did the Mets finish last season?

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Then again, maybe not. Does David know how to say "We want a pitcher, not a belly-itcher" in spanish? This could be like that "Yo la tengo" anecdote, but in reverse.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: I thought that Ollie Perez would've been more effective last game if it was David Wright yelling at him "We want a pitcher, not a belly-itcher" instead of, say, Beltran or Delgado. Then again, maybe not. Does David know how to say "We want a pitcher, not a belly-itcher" in spanish?

Johnette Howard wrote: "Wright is too good to give way to Beltran and Delgado anymore...." I thought that Ollie Perez would've been more effective last game if it was David Wright yelling at him "We want a pitcher, not a belly-itcher" instead of, say, Beltran or Delgado.

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Rockin' Doc wrote: batmag - "Does Wagner think that Ollie pitched poorly today on purpose? " I think Wagner is questioning Perez's heart.... I once saw a game where you could see that the pitcher just plum ran out of gas. Well, I could see it anyway even if you couldn't since I was the one watching the damn game like I said I was at the beginning of the sentence before this one. Anyways, with two outs this pitcher loaded up the bases in the bottom of the ninth with just a one run lead and there was no one warming up for him because all the relievers were used up the day before. And you could see he had nothing left even if you couldn't see it. His fast ball was slow and his curve couldn't reach the catcher on a fly. He was in trouble. He managed to get two strikes on the batter but only because the 400 foot line drives he just finished giving up just barely went foul of the foul pole. So with nothing left, he dug deep into his jersey with his pitching hand, and even deeper than that until he pulled his heart right out from inside his chest. Then he flung his heart towards home plate with the blood and all that was squirting all over the place from his homebound heart and the batter just stood there dumbstruck as the heart went by him for called strike three. That last pitch was a real bleeder. And that pitcher definitely had heart. And probably some guts too. So some pitchers do have heart. That coulda been a karate movie I was watching, though.

TheOldMole's got some soul. Cool KTE.

AG/DC wrote: It would be some consolation if they had a longer recent track record of pitching, hittin,g or fielding otherwise well. Here's some consolation that might've gotten lost in yesterday's drubbing and all the talk about the when will willie go poll and the bad food at Shea: The Mets are in sole possession of first place in the NL East. Johan Santana, the notoriously slow starting pitcher who is off to another notoriously slow start according to many, is two strikeouts behind league leader Aaron Harang who has pitched eight innings more than Santana has. And among pitchers with at least one inning pitched for each game played by his team, Santana is second in the NL in K/BB ratio, 2nd in the NL in WHIP, 2nd in the NL in OBPagainst, 6th in the NL in BattingAverageagainst and 7th in the NL in Runs Created ERA. Of course, I cherry picked a little - Johan is 27th in SLGagainst, for example. But try and cherry pick Mark Bomback into this level of success. Did I mention that the Mets are in first place?

Triple Dee wrote: The Genius is a different proposition. While I don't dispute he can be a sound baseball manager, there is a view the Mets missed out on FAs during his reign because players didn't want to deal with his personality. Yeah. Re-hiring Valentine means the Mets can never re-sign Cliff Floyd.

... which brings it all back to Ollie bringing his "A" game. And then what if the Pirate players also brought their "A" games? How would that be Ollie's fault? Seems to me that what Wags shoulda done is to sneak into the Pittsburgh locker room and stolen everybodys' "A" game when no one was looking. He coulda also replaced their "A" games with "C" games so's no one woulda noticed that any kind of game was missing. Or "D" games. That'd work, too.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Obviously some of the concerns coming from OM are well-founded. * In a pure matter of taste, it's distressing to see guys who cannot write make a living writing. Absolutely. But OM won't get my sympathy if that's what they're concerned about. Because you could say the same thing about any discipline. Steven Seagal can't act. A few plumbers are incompetent even though most plumbers get the job done, some better than others. That's the way it goes for plumbers, accountants, bus drivers and everybody else. The free market will decide what to do with the truly crappy writers.

AG/DC wrote: Steve Henderson, unless I'm grossly misremembering, had already hit the clubhouse, shed his jersey and maybe his shoes by the time he returned for the CC. It's funny how I missed this message even though I read this thread a few times, having already written a few posts here, myself. Henderson was in full uniform when he came out for that Curtain Call. It was a rare call in a number of ways: There was an unusually longer gap in time between Hendu initially entering the dugout right after his HR and then reemerging for his CC. Henderson as well as the rest of the Mets were all in the clubhouse, as you remember, before Hendu finally realized what to do. Of course, there was no recent precedent at Shea for curtain calling and so Hendu's innocence was excusable, and probably preferable. When Hendu did come out, he walked out about 15 or 20 feet away from the dugout, closer to the infield foul line than the dugout, before turning around to acknowledge the excited fans. In a typical CC, the player will sort of straddle the dugout and the field itself, half in and half out. For that brief moment, Henderson was more rock star than baseball player in what was surely the most magical game of the manager Torre era. Oddly enough, Hendu was almost completely surrounded by a few field box ushers during the CC; their job was to step out onto the foul territory at the end of the game. And Gary, if you're reading this thread: that was 1980.

Does Wagner think that Ollie pitched poorly today on purpose? Edit: Did Perez ask to be taken out of today's game?

G-Fafif wrote: Shea has tried to do some interesting and local things, like the aforementioned Daruma.... Next time I'm at Shea, I'm gonna give this one a shot. I've never tried the Shea sushi before because of some preconceived notions I harbor about eating sushi from a baseball stadium ... Shea Stadium, particularly.

G-Fafif wrote: Shea has tried to do some interesting ... things ... like the late, lamented Rusty's stand, but they haven't been priority. Rusty's stand was very decent, especially by Shea's standards. If I remember correctly, Rusty's stand didn't even survive it's lone season. One game, it was there. Another game, it was gone for good.

="KC"]bml: >>>I can't say for sure where the Mets food ranks league-wide because I haven't been to most MLB stadiums<<< We, and other forums I frequent, have been over this a thousand times. Shea ranks last or near last. No scoop on SI's part. Yeah. I suppose that participating fans weren't technically asked to compare one stadium's food offerings to another. Fans merely assessed the stadium foods that they were familiar with. And then SI assigned rankings accordingly. And even by that system, one stadium necessarily had to come out on top, one in 2nd place, etc.

I'm gonna do a lot of agreeing here .... with MFS62 and G-Fafif on the not soon enough comments. And with KC on his observation that maybe, the Mets have to fall out of contention for the axe to fall on Willie in mid-season. Does anyone think Willie gets fired during this season with the Mets reasonably in contention? I'd like to hope it can happen. But what has to happen for that to happen?

G-Fafif wrote: A captive audience will often buy whatever is available, no matter what is charged. I agree. I suspect that the "taste" threshold at which fans will refuse to buy stadium food is not so demanding, certainly above rancid or putrid, but maybe not that much higher. And then maybe, the Mets recognize this and are ruthless businesspeople who exploit this to the fullest, deliberately charging the most for the least. I can't say for sure where the Mets food ranks league-wide because I haven't been to most MLB stadiums. I do know that Shea hot-dogs suck and have always sucked -- a somewhat soggy water logged stick of pork with a gelatinous texture on the inside, as if you were biting into ham flavored Jello. Only more Jello-y than porky. And you don't need a modern stadium to serve up a decent hot dog.

From the survey: SI: What is the must-have food item offered at the ballpark and what makes it so good? One Response: "Something brought from home."