Frayed Knot

I missed what Miller/Morgan said (as I was only half-listening) but I assume it had something to do with the throw being to high for the cutoff man (which it was). What makes that throw even better is one-hopping it to LoDuke so it's lower and cut-off-able in the infield instead of hitting him on the fly - but there's no way Beltran should just concede the run and toss it into 2nd (and I soitenly hope that's not what M&M were saying). But, despite that imperfection, the accuracy was effin' perfect and I'm going give Beltran a few sips for it. And while the camera angle obviously shouldn't factor into things, it was just a really cool shot.

Sounds like the Wright to #2 experiment is over before it began. Willie has used LoDuca back in his old spot for the last few games now and has apparently said he's going to stick with that decision. Not that it means they'll stay that way through the entire year, but for now the front 5 BO slots will be as they were last season.

]We'll have to invite him here to discuss his middle name I'm betting it's a family name and Rich inherited the common WASP-ish tradition of carrying your mother's maiden name (or other such family moniker) as your middle name. Could also be a name that is an Anglicized version of Gerhardt or something along those lines. I remember this hockey player from years ago whose name was Larry Goodenough. When I first heard it I assumed they were saying Godunov as some similar Eastern European name even though this was before the flood of pro players from that area. It wasn't until I saw it in print that I realized that it was spelled and pronounced exactly like you'd spell and say the phrase; 'Good Enough'. I always wondered about the origins of that one. Not surprisingly, his nickname was Izzy.

Nymr83 wrote: Didn't Gore make money in oil? Not oil, tobacco.

]Anything that gets you into a box score counts as playingOr just announced into the game technically. There's the case of one pitcher (forget his name - he was the brother of an ML player I think) who was announced into the game as a relief pitcher. He then heard a pop while warming up on the mound and had to be pulled before ever pacing a hitter. He never pitched again but he IS listed as having appeared in an ML game.

The Long Island Press is a free weekly newspaper here on Long Island (Duh!). They took the name from a deseased daily which existed from the days of Walt Whitman but eventually went under upon the ascension of Newsday. In fact, it was 30 years ago this week that they ceased publishing. So to commemerate their bygone namesake, the current Press honored the dead relative by putting out a kind of retro issue depicting the news from late March 1977. Among the articles was the last L.I.Press byline for the recently deceased Jack Lang, approx 3 months prior to the midnight massacre. March 25, 1977 - ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. Contrary to their denials, the Mets have promised Tom Seaver they will trade him if they can work out an equitable deal, The Press learned today. And Tom Terrific has advised the brass it is the Dodgers he prefers to be dealt to. Now it is up to them to complete arrangements. Seaver, M. Donald Grant and Joe McDonald had a secret meeting at 6 o’clock last Wednesday night at Huggins-Stengel Field after the rest of the troops had journeyed across town to play the Cardinals at Al Lang Stadium. Grant requested the meeting with his star pitcher and the general manager, McDonald, also sat in on it. "They wanted to tell me how unhappy they are with me," Seaver revealed, "but it also gave me an opportunity to tell them just how I feel. It was quite a session." Short of calling him an ingrate, Grant accused Seaver of creating unrest in the Mets’ camp with his constant carping over last year’s salary negotiations. "I kept it inside me all last year," Seaver says. "I bit my tongue many times when I wanted to say something and didn’t. But I found it was affecting my family life and I wasn’t going to let myself get sick over it. That’s why I said what I said earlier this spring. I had to get it out of my system." Not all the details of the Wednesday night meeting are available but apparently there were some heated exchanges between the player and the chairman of the board. "They accused me of creating this trade talk but I advised them it was they who started it all last spring when they challenged my loyalty to the club just because I said I had to think of my family first," Seaver related. "They were the ones who threatened to trade me." Grant’s intention, according to Seaver, was to scold him at the Wednesday meeting but "The Franchise" instead wound up giving the chairman of the board a piece of his mind. "At least I let them know where I stand," said the pitcher, appearing relieved and happy that he had said his piece. "Yes," he admitted, "we talked about me being traded and we both agreed that maybe it would be better for both of us if I were traded." But Seaver must approve of any deal the Mets make. His veteran status assures him of that. They cannot send him to a team he will not report to. Seaver declined to say if he gave Grant and McDonald a list of clubs he would accept. But he did say the Dodgers are the team he would prefer. That could dreate a problem. Two snags have developed, and for all the bitterness that currently exists between Seaver and Grant, Tom may wind up pitching the entire year for the Mets. Could Seaver live with that? "No problem," he assured. "Now that I’ve told them how I feel, I’ve got a load off my mind. I’d be perfectly happy to go right on pitching in New York." Dealing with the Dodgers will not be easy, much as they want Seaver. In the first place, Don Sutton, whom the Dodgers are offering in exchange, has some second thoughts about joining the Mets. Last year he would have jumped at the opportunity. Now he is of a different mind. Secondly, the Mets want an infielder (Bill Russell) or a hard-hitting outfielder along with a pitcher. The Dodgers refuse. "I’m not going to bust up this team just to get Tom Seaver," says Dodger GM Al Campanis. As for a Tom Seaver-Pete Rose deal, it does not seem likely. Rose has told the Reds of six clubs he would join. The Mets are not one of them. "I won’t go to any team unless it is offense-oriented," says Rose. "The Mets are not offense-oriented. The Yankees are." Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the current situation is that following the meeting at which he assured Tom an effort would be made to trade him, Grant appeared at Lang Field where he told one reporter: "No, no, a thousand times no, we will not trade Tom Seaver." Someone speaks with forked tongue. Also: Tommy Hutton, who usually delights in facing Tom Seaver, did not miss him yesterday. Instead the Phillies’ reserve first baseman hit a three-run homer off Dennis Solari in the bottom of the ninth at Clearwater to give the Phillies a 10-8 victory … it was the Mets’ fifth loss in the last six games. They are now 7-7 for the spring after a 6-2 start … Jerry Koosman was clipped for nine hits in four innings, including a five-run second. Greg Luzinski slammed a two-run homer … then the Mets rallied with seven in the seventh only to lose in the ninth. Roy Staiger had two doubles in the seventh, one with the bases loaded … Randy Tate and John Pacella were cut from the squad and sent to the minor league complex … Lee Mazzilli is 22 today.

I don't see where a chance has anything to do with it. - For simply a game played stat it doesn't matter whether you field a chance or not - To continue a streak record you need to complete the half-inning, again, regardless of chances - and for purposes of determining the 800th Met, since there is no "official" standard and we're pretty much making them up as we go along, Yancy says he's going with batting order.

The technicality that got the Matsui streak busted was [u:2ffc610885]not completing a half-inning[/u:2ffc610885] on defense or coming to bat - so his streak wouldn't have continued even if he wound up catching that ball on the play that injured him in the top of the 1st inning. But minutae like that is put in simply to negate the ability to manipulate streak-type records. Matsui (I'm almost certain) received credit for a game played in that case (just like a pinch-runner would) just not for credit for purposes of "streak" records. So if Alou were to run into the wall while chasing Eckstein's hit off of Glavine's first pitch of the game and never play again, I'm sure the official record book - not to mention both UMDB & MBTN - would still consider him to have played for the Mets and, for purposes of this discussion here, to have been Met #800. BTW, this thread screams out for a listing of the other "100's" Mets. I think someone doped out the first 7 a while back.

]What?Park accepts a demotion to New Orleans (nice reward for 3 hitless innings) meaning Burgos makes the squad.

Park accepts a demotion to New Orleans (nice reward for 3 hitless innings) meaning Burgos makes the squad. I guess that means the roster is set ... for now.

]I'm surprised that he never called it Port Salud when the lineup was cheesey2005- Port St. Peek-a-Boo Except that you gotta stay with the 'L' theme. Port St. Limberger & Port St. Leering maybe.

Meanwhile, Rogers problem IS a blood clot - will be out the first half of the season.

Do they at least admit that they're swiping it from the Post or are they pretending that it's some kind of exclusive info they dug up on their own? ESPN has ben known to take credit for everything in sports short of their invention.

]espn insider is saying mets are going after todd williams.... I believe the NYPost mentioned it yesterday - something like: sources say Mets have asked Baltimore about ... - which is likely where espn picked it up from. Isn't it great how "inside" that info is? Certainly worth the price if you ask me.

]Of the players acquired by the Mets since the end of last season, two who will probably be on the 25 man roster coming North are Moises Alou and Damion EasleyDon't forget Schoenseis, Newhan, Smith, Sele, and prolly either Burgos or Park. What I believe we decided a while back was that it would be the first one to "take part" in a game. IOW, whoever batter or pitched first since all would "appear" on the lineup card at the same time. That makes Alou the best candidate as he'd bat no later than the 2nd inning and none of the new pitchers are likely to throw a pitch before then.

]Do you have a link to any whispered stories?Well several of the stories were very public. He passed out at the funeral of old NFLer Otto Grahm, and again at his college aged granddaughter's play. Less direct have been various newspaper stories that have started popping up over the last year, usually mentioning declining health and/or sharpness in deep background terms (insiders say ...). Not one by itself is enough to serve as proof, but the accumulation of whispers is starting to get louder. I've also just finished the recently published; ''The Pride and the Pressure', the New York Post's Michael Morrissey's account of the 2006 Yanks. In it he tells a handful of incidents - some witnessed directly, some relayed through others - about falls, forgetfulness, having to physically lean on employees, and what seems like confusion at times.

Park threw 3 scoreless & hitless. Then Burgos came in: first hitter = HR Got through the rest of the inning after that.

- Kenny Rogers to start the seson on the DL. "Tired arm" is given as the reason (tired from making the Yankees look silly last October maybe?) although there are also rumors of a blood clot. - Eric Gagne, now with Texas and coming off two almost complete DL seasons, will start this one on the DL too. - Mark Prior to start the season in AAA. Shows you that even sure things aren't. - Todd Pratt does NOT make the Yanx as their backup catcher. That could spell the end of the line for that 40 y/o

The biggest change over the next few years is likely to be the introduction of the MLB channel and whatever programming will wind up being shown exclusively there. The sheer volume of MLB games means that it'll never be able to control their product the way the NFL does. But, after several years of just providing "extra" programming, the NFL is now trying to tempt fans towards their channel (and to their exclusive provider: DirecTV) by hording a handful of late-season games so that most fans could get them by no other means.

He has said he'll retire if he doesn't get a ML job. I think he knew he had little chance to get one here but hoped that maybe he'd catch the eye of some other team. So unless that happens in the next 2 days ...

Milledge went 1-fer-2 today and it was apparently enough to convince them he's good to go as they sent Ben Johnson to the minors. Also Andy Handy. On the pitching side, they added Joe Smith & Aaron Sele to the ML roster.

Are the points derived from a ranking in any given year affected by the number of games the team won that year or by how far it advanced into the postseason? Both. The points accumulated by rank (30 down to 1) are multiplied by the wins for the team that season plus a sliding scale for "bonus" points for post-season success. For example, the 10th best player on a 90-win team would receive 50% more points than his equivelant from a 60-win team. So the system does (to a certain extent) take into consideration not only where a player finished in a season but also to whom they're being compared. This doesn't necessarily address my main complaint, however, which is that, even under an adjustment based on the performance of a team, a player can only accumulate points and cannot lose points. Once points are earned, they're there for good. The points earned by a player are essentially meaningless except how they relate to others. If we were to change it to say a scale from +15 points down to -15 (to satisfy your desire to see lower ranked players punished) it wouldn't really change anything, it would merely lower the scores for everyone while keeping the order of them more or less the same.

As I recall, Stearns did it more on a whim than actually being mad at anything. "It's just something I always wanted to do", he said (or something along those lines). I remember the story of him doing it but don't remember seeing it or know if there ever was any video of it much less surviving video. It's probably one of those things that a lot more people claim to have seen than actually did. P.S. There was always plenty of room for Noc-a-homa's teepee cuz in those days nobody went to Braves games.

Well it depends on whether that statement is accurate or just bluster for pr purposes. NYY employees all claim that George is still engaged and consulted about everything. Whispered stories, on the other hand, hint at an older, sometimes confused man who has fallen and passed out in public several times; needs to lean on aides on times; forgets names and faces; and has been seen walking the wrong way out of his car and had to be steered back towards the stadium he's been to thousands of times. There's a definite old USSR General Secretary kind of feel about this whole thing where massive strokes were often described as "colds" and "the flu" probably meant he had been in the ground for two weeks already. btw, Brian Bannister NOT on the Royals roster. Will take his ~10.00 ST ERA and ply his trade in AAA Omaha for the time being.

... is Marty Noble's name for this year's Spring Training camp. Latterly (adverb): In later part of life or later part of a period. Obviously he chose this one for all the elderly players in camp. Noble has been naming Met spring trainings since their move to Port St. Lucie in 1988 1988 - Port St. Lonesome: When they first arrived there it was a no-traffic light town with more snakes & gators than people 1989 - Port St. Leisure reflected Davey's penchant for, and toleration of, golf as a way to pass the time 1990: Port St. Lockout was a natural for when the owners decided to keep the gates closed until mid-March in response to labor disputes 1991 - Port St. Limbo marked the camp where Bud Harrelson had many unanswered questions for position players 1992 - rape charges turned that year into Port St. Lurid 1993 - Port St. Lucifer: named retroactively for firecracker & bleach incidents 1994 - Port St. Lengthy was a nod to Dallas Green and his long wrokouts 1995 - Port St. Elsewhere is where the real players were as camp was full of replacement players 1996 - Port St. Ligament was in honor of Bill Pulsipher's elbow 1997 - more and varied injuries made this one Port St. Lame 1998 - Masato Yoshii brought the Japanese word for 'union' into Port St. L'rengo 1999 - Upgraded facilities turned camp into Port St. Lavish 2000 - Portside Lucie was named for a slew of southpaws brought into camp 2001 - Rickey Otero, Ricardo Jordan, & Desi Relaford's presence brought about Port St. (I Love) Lucie 2002 - Port St. Lethargic was due to the old blood imports like Alomar & Vaughn 2003 - Port St. Lemon seemed appropriate for the Art Howe era 2004 - Port St. Larvae marked the opposite of old blood with youngsters lke Reyes, Heilman & Wright 2005 - Port St. Latino was almost too easy a name with the arrival of Pedro, Carlos & Omar 2006 - Port St. Lamisil marked that Pedro's toe was the subject of month-long stories