batmagadanleadoff

How many Willie Randolph's does it take to screw in a light bulb?

I once saw Willie put on the squeeze play with a runner on third and two outs. After the batter was predictably thrown out at first by the pitcher, Willie came out to argue the play with the ump for about half an hour. Willie wasn't arguing the play at first, which wasn't even close; Willie argued that the run should count because the runner crossed home plate before the out at first was made.

="batmagadanleadoff"]You know .... one of the reasons that David Wright is cutting back on his late night carousing is because Willie thinks that Wright should be practicing the squeeze play more often. And then David told Willie that he is practicing the squeeze play when he's out late at night.

I would concede that the squeeze play is a productive out. Especially when the runner from third scores.

You know .... one of the reasons that David Wright is cutting back on his late night carousing is because Willie thinks that Wright should be practicing the squeeze play more often.

I'm supposed to keep this a secret but if you promise not to tell anyone .... Willie's gonna start today's game by having Reyes squeeze as soon as he leads off the game.

I heard that interview. Willie also said that he likes to squeeze a lot with Reyes on first base. Willie said there's less of a risk of injury to the runner.

HEARTBREAK KID CARTER UPSET OVER 'STRAIN' WITH METS By HOWARD KUSSOY April 18, 2008 -- Despite a career that was mostly spent with the Montreal Expos, former catcher Gary Carter considers himself a Met and wanted to go into the Hall of Fame as one. And his allegiance to the franchise is why he finds himself bewildered and disappointed that he is no longer working with the team that provided his only championship. Carter, who was at the 46th Street Barnes & Noble yesterday signing copies of his new book "Still a Kid at Heart: My Life in Baseball and Beyond," served as a roving catching instructor for the Mets New York Mets for four years before managing the Gulf Coast Mets in 2005. He also led the Single-A St. Lucie Mets to a championship in 2006. In December 2006, Carter was offered the managing position for the Double-A Binghamton Mets, but Carter declined, citing an ultimatum to decide before the holidays and the belief that his advancement through the system might be halted. Carter asked, "Are you grooming me to possibly be the future manager of this organization? I also said, 'If I go there, does that mean I manage Triple-A next year? Do I continue to move up?' " Without receiving any concrete answers, Carter listed other options to remain with the organization. "I said let me go to New Orleans (the Mets' Triple-A affiliate) and be the hitting coach," Carter said. "I don't even have to be the manager. It'll diversify my opportunities at the major league level because ultimately that's where you want to be. They said no to that. Port St. Lucie? No. Roving? No. My only option was to go to Binghamton. They never gave me a reason why." Carter said his relationship with the Mets is currently "a bit strained," but he doesn't carry any animosity, only confusion. Despite his desire to remain in the organization, Carter felt he needed to search for other coaching opportunities. He interviewed for the Dodgers' Triple-A managing position and was a candidate to become the hitting coach for the Rockies, but ultimately did not receive either job. Carter said he called Mets general manager Omar Minaya in November to discuss the team's opening at first base coach and was perplexed that Rickey Henderson, a Met of less than two years, who was never known as the consummate teammate, was given the job last summer. "I don't know what their thinking was," Carter said. "I'm sitting at home dying to come in and wanting to be a part of it, but I was never called. It's disappointing because I feel disenfranchised." After taking 2007 off, Carter will manage the Orange County Flyers of the Golden Baseball League in California this summer. "I hope to revitalize my opportunity to manage someday at the major league level," Carter said. "That's where my heart's desire is." http://tinyurl.com/4u5try ************* Note: A large portion of the highlighted text above is the author's words, and not a direct quote from Carter. FWIW.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I don't think there's anything magical about the Phillies that makes Heilman ineffective against them even if he has been ineffective. And managing that way is nuts, sayeth MASATO (Metfans Against Statistical And Tactical Overkill). +1. If it's anything, it's a Heilman thing.

Willets Point wrote: CWCID, Heilman recovers against the next two batters. I like that Willie left him in to regain some confidence because we're going to need him this season Heilman always does recover. CWCID. Right after he's done giving up a HR to the first batter he faces.

May I have Philly 9/5-9/7?

metirish wrote: Anyway that other fella liked the bunt play so you can't be him. Did he? Well now I'm pissed off again that I would be compared to that sac bunt lovin' guy. Plus he's got those nuclear meltdowns that I never displayed.

soupcan wrote: Never meant to piss you off, I never had an issue with him. Just mentioned it because your posts seemed very similar to his - but different. I know. You did post that you were fine with it in any event, assuming I was him even though I'm not. It was really the accumulation of several posts on this thread plus that I was newer here two days ago than I am today, and that today, I at least have a theory as to who that other poster is. There's no problem and there never really was.

metirish wrote: The Shea crowd would be booing him after the first 50 runs were in , you think Willie would pull him? No. Willie would try to sac bunt his way back into that game.

Looks like the Castillo shift is on, which is sort of based on the brand of baseball played in the LA Coliseum a few weeks ago. The Castillo shift, however, requires all three outfielders to be moved into the infield.

Okay. Top of the order. Let's start off with a sac bunt by Reyes. And then two productive outs after that. That should be worth 4 or 5 runs. I love Willie. I love Willie because he's better than Dallas Green.

metirish wrote: Look , Willie has been a winner all his life, he came from winning so I trust him..... Yeah. Willie's gonna bunt us all the way to the World Series. It's a plan that's working real well. Say, weren't you gonna pay me for my posts? When?

Exhibit #4,325 in the tenure of Willie Randolph on why not to freakin' bunt!

soupcan wrote: batmagadan seems very familiar to me.... Hey Soupcan guy: I was poking around the CPF today, especially what with me being new here and all and having a free day (stuck in the home but free) and so I ventured into the forums in which I've never participated or even browsed, and, well in short, I think I discovered who it was that you might think I am even though I'm only myself and really am a brand new poster here. Anyway, if I'm right about who that poster is that according to Grimm, no one should mention his name and so I won't either out of respect, well if it is that guy, I'm OK with it and not as pissed off as I was yesterday. Because that guy had a heck of a lot of funny posts, even though he did melt down here and there and not all of his posts were funny, but some sure were. I realize me saying this might bring even more suspicion that I really am that guy who I think was supposed to be me yesterday, even though like I said, I'm only me.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: That's nice sluething. Thanks. BTW, your side-splitting "Ron Hodges Day" article just might be my all-time favorite MBTN read.

I took care of a little housecleaning by shortening the length of my link with "tinyurl". Thanks fman99. I also reviewed video from a 1984 Mets game where George Foster homers and then takes a curtain call: The video portion is inconclusive because the Foster curtain call mostly occurs during the replay of his Home Run. By the time the video switches back to live action, Foster has already returned to the dugout. It appears that Foster is possibly captured on his way back to the dugout, descending the steps to the dugout, as opposed to being fully inside of the dugout, but this is not entirely clear either because the shot of Foster is somewhat tight. Still, Foster is the only Met facing the back of the dugout. All the other Mets have their backs to the back of the dugout and are facing the field. The good news is that the corresponding audio constitutes documented proof that Foster engaged in a curtain call. During the HR replay, the announcers inform the viewers that Foster is stepping out of the dugout for what they describe as a "curtain call", and that Foster did so only because the Shea fans kept on chanting for the curtain call. By the way, there is nothing in the tone of the announcers voices to suggest that the curtain call is some novelty, or some never before seen thing. It's all announced in a matter of fact, been there done that sort of way, with the usual excitement that is mostly for the three run homer. I wouldn't be surprised if this Carter claim is eventually explained away as some honest mistake where Carter meant to say "first curtain call of 1985" instead of first curtain call ever. And why would someone brag about that for?

Now if I could just figure out how to post a URL without stretching the web page beyond what should be tolerable!

G-Fafif wrote: The second one is simply inaccurate. The curtain call may have been perfected by Gary Carter and may have taken on a life of its own once he came here, but I can remember several pre-Kid episodes of bows demanded and given, clear back to Steve Henderson in 1980. Keith Hernandez wrote about how he didn't want to do it when he came over in '83 in "If At First" but was told by Rusty that the fans expect you to do it here. I can even remember Charlie Puleo being called out for a competent start (and whoever covered it for Newsday, probably Noble, expressing amazement that 7-2/3 innings of three-run ball rated such a reaction, even with a big Met lead). I personally remember curtain calls for Steve Henderson as well. Also, I provided a link to many New York Times articles blurbs referencing the following search terms: "Mets", "1984" and "curtain calls". As someone else around here sort of likes to say: "Carter misremembers". I 'm also positive that I have video of pre-Carter Met curtain calls - irrefutable video proof debunking Carter's just plain wrong claims. http://tinyurl.com/59otbz

Triple Dee wrote: Considering [Lanier and Ordonez] didn't play at the same time...., how exactly does that disprove he wasn't the worst regular [bML] ever saw I'm aware of Lanier's hitting ineptidute. And I did see him play, if only literally. I have no lingering memories of any Lanier at-bats, and in any event, would have been too young to appreciate his prowess as an out making machine when I did see Lanier play during that brief period of time when his stint as a SF Giant and my interest in baseball overlapped. (Edit: I just remembered that he was a Yankee, too. But still, no visual memories. Lanier's Yankees, like Lanier's Lanier, sucked. Thanks, in part, to Lanier himself, who contributed in his own small and out-making Lanierish ways to ensure that his Lanier Yankee teams would suck. There were no Mays's and McCoveys and Marichals and Cepedas and Perrys and all the 27 other Hall of Famers a team would need to cover up for Lanier being Lanier just to break even on account of having Hal Lanier in there. And so even Yankee fans ignored the Yankees back then. So why would a Met fan bother to take notice? I don't remember this Hal Lanier.) I did however collect his baseball cards. Not that I purposely sought them out, but that I wanted them, needed them really, as we used to say, in the completist sense. Also, I managed Lanier in my 1971 Strat-O-matic set for years and years. And years. Alan Gallagher was the better Giant third baseman in 1971. (1971 Strat-O-Matic SF Giant - Met-centric related notes: Dave Kingman's rookie year. He was a devastating destroyer of LHP in that season, albeit in a limited number of at bats. Kingman even hit for average against lefties (over .400!) If you could get him a full season's worth of AB's against lefties only, his final numbers would constitute an awesome almost Ruthian season combined with the best of Ted Williams (Well, more Ted than Babe really, but I temporarily shifted into hype mode just now, not that settling for Ted instead of the Babe is supposed to be some sort of booby prize)..... Fran Healy backed up Dick Dietz.... Willie Mays' last full season as a Giant and his last overall effective season.... Very respectable year for the future Met Ken Henderson.... George Foster's first full MLB season began in SF but ended in Cincy, where he accumulated the majority of his '71 AB's. As one would expect, Foster was not represented as a Giant in that SOM set, assuming anyone actually ever does any "expectering", anticipating whether some player will ultimately be included in this team's SOM set or that team's SOM set which probably wouldn't matter as much as I'm making all of this sound anyway because most SOM players eventually assemble their own teams from scratch anyhow. But for the record, George Foster was mostly a real Red in 1971 as well as an SOM Red. Therefore, this George Foster SOM Met centric note is tenuous and somewhat contrived because, like I said, Foster's '71 card was as a Red, and not as a Giant. After his Red Stint, George would go on to play for the New York Mets. Many fans thought Foster sucked as a Met. Most Met fans were willing to at least concede that even if Foster didn't suck, he was a disappointing Met who played well below expectations. Still, the acquisition of Foster, one of baseball's best hitters at that time, was a clear indication that the new Mets management was serious about building a contender. Foster's SOM cards during his years as a Met were, as one would expect, also as a Met.

Number 6 wrote: I think giving playing time to Lanier and Rafael Belliard-types is less defensible now. Yeah. Lanier especially. He's almost 70.