metirish

Murray Chass is not a happy man.]By MURRAY CHASSPublished: August 23, 2005IT was bad enough that Los Angeles stole the Dodgers from Brooklyn. Now the poseurs have hijacked the only World Series the team won in its rightful home.Disclaimer: I am not a Brooklyn native. I have never lived in Brooklyn. I have never spent any money in Brooklyn. I have hardly ever been in Brooklyn; the first time I penetrated the borough's borders, I almost didn't find my way out. In other words, I have no link to the former home of the Dodgers, no ax to grind about Walter O'Malley's absconding with Brooklyn's team. My friend, on the other hand, might have wanted to do something with that ax and O'Malley, as many Brooklyn natives might have done if given the opportunity.My friend Richard Latkin, now a resident of Fair Lawn, N.J., was born and reared in Brooklyn and was a typical Dodgers fan; a fanatic, in other words. Like all Brooklyn fans, Latkin has no choice but to watch the accessories to the O'Malley larceny celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1955 World Series championship this weekend. But he doesn't have to like it.I asked him how he felt about having the Los Angeles thieves celebrate Brooklyn's championship."When people used to ask me if I still rooted for the Dodgers after they moved to L.A.," he said, "my answer was, 'If my wife divorced me and left me for another man, would I root for her?' It's like they're thumbing their nose at the whole borough."If you took a vote of Dodger fans still living in the New York area, I'm sure 98 percent would say it's a shanda; it's an insult."Shanda is the Yiddish word for shame. And indeed it is a shame that this celebration will be held in Los Angeles. "Hey, they have to do it because it's a franchise," said Bob Rosen, a Brooklyn native, who in his capacity as a statistician with the Elias Sports Bureau views the offending act more pragmatically than his fellow Brooklyn fans. "But it breaks my heart that it's being celebrated out there. It was done here."The celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1955 World Series belongs in Brooklyn, and the Brooklyn Historical Society is celebrating. Located on Pierrepont Street, at Clinton Street, the society is displaying exhibits and holding programs to commemorate the triumph over the Yankees. It was the only Brooklyn Dodgers victory in six World Series between the teams in a 10-year period."Stroll through playful environments and travel back in time to experience the agony and ecstasy of each of the seven games in the World Series and Brooklyn's deep-rooted love for baseball," the society's Web site says."The Dodgers' victory," it also says, "was Brooklyn's victory, and it was felt across the borough, permeating social and racial barriers and unifying all of Brooklyn."What did it ever do for Los Angeles? My point exactly.Tours of the historical society exhibit are scheduled for each Saturday in September, though the society is shutting out the Dodgers' many Orthodox Jewish fans, like Latkin, by not scheduling tours for Sundays.Other events are scheduled elsewhere in Brooklyn. In one, on Oct. 1 at the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza, my Times colleague Dave Anderson will talk about growing up in Brooklyn and covering the Dodgers for The Brooklyn Eagle.The Hall of Fame, another rightful sponsor, is recalling the Dodgers' championship with events on three weekends in September and October.The faux Dodgers have been "celebrating" the anniversary in a season-long series of events. They have co-opted players from the 1955 team to participate, and the team's 13 living members have been invited to the culminating event Sunday. As former players, these guys will go anywhere someone wants to recognize them. They most likely have not given a minute's thought to loyalty to Brooklyn and rejecting the invitations.Some of them actually played in Los Angeles - 9 of the living 13, although only half of the 32 who played for the 1955 Dodgers later played in the western outpost.For their game on Sunday against the Houston Astros, the Dodgers, for the second time this season, will wear Brooklyn throwback uniform jerseys and caps with the letter B on them. The club is also staging a promotional giveaway of a variety of prizes. This is all supposed to be in honor of a World Series championship won nearly 3,000 miles away, but it is a blatant revenue-raising gimmick, proceeds to go into the owner's pocket."The Dodgers are a club steeped with a rich history," a team news release quoted the owner, Frank McCourt, as saying. He also said the 1955 players "left an indelible mark on our history." Whose history would that be? Not the Los Angeles Dodgers' history.The Los Angeles Dodgers' history began with the kidnapping of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1958. They had no history, no existence, before that heinous act. The Los Angeles Dodgers have built their existence on the tombstone of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and now they are stealing their history as well.

Damn Jacobs has a sweet swing, likes that change-up to hit, WOW.

Gary and Howie can't help but take jabs at the MFY's, giving the OoTSC and talking about Escolona's game winner Howie said..] Escolona is a yankee hero,they'll be wiring him up any minute for a half hour interview you could hear Gary laughing in the background.

Good one Steve, Willie himself has said that the manager he learned the most form is Martin and that out of all the people he has worked with Martin has had the most influence.

I luv # 7, what a joy to watch.

As an update, just heard on the FAN that the police are still looking for Gooden, most likely he's holed up with some junkies in a crack house."now where could this Gooden fella be "

Not a terrible article form Klap, a few lines though.]Klap: Willie rubs off on Mets Tuesday, August 23, 2005 By BOB KLAPISCHSPORTS COLUMNIST PHOENIX - The door to Willie Randolph's office was closed, and even his coaches knew better than to walk in or even knock. Business was being transacted inside, and you didn't need very long tentacles to know why Mike Jacobs had been summoned and what the rookie and the manager were talking about.Only a few hours away from his first major league start, Jacobs may or may not have been surfing on a tidal wave of adrenaline. Randolph studied the kid's face for clues, then ushered him inside for a one-on-one the Mets say has become their manager's calling card this summer.When the door opened, the rookie was smiling, and so was Randolph. "I appreciate it," is what Jacobs said. No other words were necessary. It was a subtle triumph, and a revealing moment in Randolph's evolution as the Mets' leader.Slowly but surely, Willie is carving out the personality traits that could be critical to his team in the final 38 games. He's a compelling mix of Lou Piniella's passion and Joe Torre's wisdom, with just enough of Billy Martin's edge to remind the Mets never to cross him. Randolph has taken the Mets a long way in 2005 - further than they should've gone, considering how flawed they truly are. Yet they began a critical seven-game road trip Monday night with a 4-1 win over the Diamondbacks prompting Randolph to say, "I feel a different energy right now. If you are a manager you're attuned to your team, and I feel good about [the road trip]."The Mets aren't the best team in the wild-card race, but their blessing is knowing the field is stocked with similarly blemished teams. The Astros can't hit, the Marlins and Phillies have underachieved all year, and the Mets just took two-of-three from the Nationals.So now it's a sprint, starting with this trip. For all the weight that Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran will be asked to assume at the 11th hour, no one will have a greater impact on the Mets' fortunes than Randolph. If he panics - if he fails to negotiate that fine line between having to win this week and preserving his engine parts for late September - the Mets are sunk. But if Randolph can keep the Mets in that perfect state of cool - Hemingway called it grace under pressure � they have a chance to survive a brutal stretch between now and Sept.�11, when they're on the road for 17 of 20 games.Working the clubhouse, talking to players, getting in their heads is what Randolph does best. He says, "I've been in these situations before. This is my environment. It's all I know, so I wake up excited about what's in front of me."Randolph got his schooling from Torre, who's earned his millions as a Yankee from the moment the game ends until the first pitch the next day. He wrote the patent on keeping the clubhouse free of turmoil, and it's obvious how Randolph has borrowed that formula with the Mets.There aren't a lot of team meetings in Randolph's world, nor is there much deep-tissue anxiety whenever the Mets lose. That's partly because Randolph is in the first year of his contract, and he doesn't feel Steinbrenner's hot breath on his neck.Still, Randolph and Torre are alike in how they regard their place in their team's day-to-day fate."I'm responsible for this team, and that's why I don't feel any pressure," Randolph said. "My job is to keep players confident and motivated and I'll do whatever I can to help. The rest is up to them."It won't be easy. Randolph has a difficult decision ahead regarding Steve Trachsel, who's coming off the disabled list today just in time to be sent to the bullpen, where he'll be impatiently waiting to pitch.It'll be up to Randolph whether to let Trachsel suffer a bruised ego, or perhaps go to a six-man rotation. That would preserve Martinez's shoulder. But the Mets also need Pedro to throw more, not less, as the pennant race heats up, which is why Randolph is so careful not to commit to any policy changes. No contender uses six pitchers in September. Conventional thinkers would call that lunacy. But how does Randolph muscle Jae Seo out of the rotation after he allowed just one earned run in three starts? Then again, how do the Mets keep pushing Pedro, who's thrown nearly 400 innings in the last two seasons and doesn't come close to the 95 mph radar gun readings of his prime? No wonder Randolph seems so intense these days. The spring training feel-good aura has morphed into something much edgier - which isn't necessarily bad, not when you compare Randolph to the oblivious Art Howe.It's impossible to think of Howe dealing with a race this tight, having to navigate the Mets through a path that will take them through Florida, Atlanta and St. Louis on the next road trip.If the Mets are still breathing by mid-September, it's because Pedro's arm is still intact and Beltran is finally driving in runs. But that karma comes from the manager's office, too, where Randolph is teaching the Mets about September's holy grail - grace under pressure.E-mail: klapisch@northjersey.com Randolph got his schooling from Torre, who's earned his millions as a Yankee from the moment the game ends until the first pitch the next day. He wrote the patent on keeping the clubhouse free of turmoil, and it's obvious how Randolph has borrowed that formula with the Mets.well that's just funny, Joe wrote the patent, WTF?

bell replaced Koo I think, but in order to activate Traschel a player has to go, I really can't see the Mets trading hm, what team would take a guy coming off back surgery?

yep, it must be true though, players talk all the time about cahnfidence.

Great game from Glavine, sometimes the stats don't lie, he pitches great at the Bob, I'm hoping Jacob stays up, chances are he won't though.

Glavine pulled, Looper in for the save....

Zvon who is that in your avatar, I'm squinting my eyes but can't make him out, Cameron?.Glave going for his second ever complete game as a Met.

And he ran the bases as Fran noted at a nice clip, Willie had a chat with him before the game, no more trotting was the message. Jacobs hit a screamer to 2nd, Glavine hitting, I like it.

I like it Zvon, this kid Jacob can pick it at first.

Turns out ex-Met Alberto Castillo din't sign with the Mets, he signed with the A's, Gary and Howie are confused about this one because it was apparently true that he did sign.

Yep , Glavine seems to be a different pitcher than before, some different looks and pitches.

Jeez my Kaboom is lame compared to Willets..LOL

Reyes goes deep with a big..Glavine pitching a gem

Good game so far, before the game FSNY had Fran's "Halls of Fame" with Jennie Finch, I never tire of watching it, Healy at his best.this post was brought to yoy by LEVITRA.

Good thread Zvon, Mets attendence is up 25% this season, apparently quite a few wankers are now going to games, the abuse Heilman, Koo and Graves had to endure is sickening,no call for that shit.

Good job Frayed Knot, like you I know very little about this team, although I know a bit more from the KTE, I honestly am having trouble remembering who the D-Back manager is,do the Mets play good overall at the Bob?

This is just wrong, from the Daily News, booing is one thing but this is fucked up, read the last two paragraphs.]Home stand finale one bad trip No matter how the Mets tried to put a happy smile on it, one loss felt like two. Three dreadful innings Saturday night melted into one frightful inning yesterday, and when the screaming at Shea was over, the Mets didn't look or feel like much of a playoff team.It could be our imagination, but it sure seemed like they were packing their bags extra slowly following a 7-4 loss to the Nationals that wrapped up a 4-2 home stand. A dreaded road trip loomed, four games in Arizona followed by three in San Francisco, and the more Willie Randolph downplayed its importance, the more this upcoming week began to sound as if it would count twice in the standings.Randolph kept insisting we shouldn't make "too big of a deal" about the trip. "I don't want guys to get too crazy," he said, as if his players might otherwise head west whistling and skipping, and blissfully ignorant of their 23-35 record in the other guys' ballparks.Oh, but they knew. You could see it in their eyes, in the way they squinted when the subject was broached. You could hear it in the voices, their clipped responses to questions about failure, and not yesterday's failure, either. That's the curious thing. The Mets should have been thrilled to escape Shea's vicious clutch, its voracious fans who in the space of 24 hours had so viciously turned on a team that is still in the middle of the wild card race.Kris Benson was the first Met to feel the sharp teeth. His pitching line read like something out of Kansas City: two-thirds of an inning, 10 batters faced, six runs on eight hits. Benson lasted 25 minutes, threw 37 pitches and spent the rest of the day punishing himself. "We just couldn't stop the avalanche," Randolph said. "Just chalk it up to one of those days."One night earlier, Randolph made a decision that reverberated through breakfast. He pulled Pedro Martinez after six innings, after he threw 78 pitches (a statistic the Mets, like most teams, follow as closely as the dollars on their paychecks). Martinez left with an 8-0 lead, but hours later, after his teammates were booed more harshly than ever while narrowly pulling out a 9-8 10th-inning win, Pedro admitted his back had tightened up, probably from a bad night of sleep. There are tens of thousands of Mets fans who either ignored or never heard that hardly minor fact. If only Benson could blame his afternoon on a lumpy pillow, or a romp with one of his nine dogs. But he said his body felt fine, that his stuff wasn't any different from his last start, when he allowed Pittsburgh only two runs in seven innings. Rather than slip into the showers and out of sight yesterday, Benson plopped onto the dugout bench and stewed in his own sweat and grime through 8-1/3 innings. He was half slapping himself, half hoping his bad karma would have a reverse effect."I didn't feel right going back in the clubhouse," said Benson. The locker next to Benson's was the only cheerful spot in the house. It didn't have a name plate, and it might have a different occupant once the team returns home, but for now it belonged to Mike Jacobs, the only Met who dared to smile. He kept gushing about how "unbelievable" and "awesome" it felt to hit a three-run homer in his first big league plate appearance. He'd be wise to freeze the sounds of the crowd's clamoring for a curtain call, because there is no guarantee Shea will always be so kind.Jacobs' homer in the fifth provided the only reprieve from a crowd that appeared to have stayed overnight, too disgusted to move. Its grumbling reached fever pitch as the Mets kept teasing and retreating, leaving runners stranded everywhere. The seventh inning was particularly painful, as lefty reliever Joey Eischen struck out Cliff Floyd on three pitches with the bases loaded. Few were in the mood to give any Mets a break. People who were in the stands Saturday night during that bullpen meltdown say some of the vitriol went far over the top, into the racist sphere. Aaron Heilman was serenaded with chants about Hitler, Danny Graves had his Vietnamese heritage ridiculed and Dae-Sung Koo was viciously mocked. An organization that prides itself on family values might want to check out the action on the first-base line during the next home stand.To their credit, the Mets' relievers had nothing to say about these few fans who wear their bigotry like a badge. Graves was roughly booed when he came out of the bullpen yesterday, but he pitched an easy sixth and seventh and left to cheers. Heilman induced the Nats into a double play to end the eighth. Soon the clubhouse was swarming with reporters and TV cameras, jostling for position among suitcases and weary players. Nobody bothered talking with the relievers, the Mets who had done their job. They walked toward the bus, and what they hope will be friendlier environs.

Good call Doc Tee, plus he has that great friendship with Lasorda.Here is an open letter form Bobby to Marines fans, from the Marines website.http://www.marines.co.jp/

I could never turn against Bobby V, one of the best managers the Mets have ever had and a great person, IMO Bobby will get a chance again in MLB but not with the MFY, there should be plenty of other job openings for him before the job in the Bronx, having said all that by all accounts Booby is very happy in Japan, The Chiba Lotte Marines are in second place in the Pacific League, 4.5 games out.

Gary Cohen mentioned on the pre-game that the Mets have signed Alberto Castillo who will report to Norfolk.