Frayed Knot

Mini-KTE Philly lost 2 of 3 to the Braves in Atlanta to open the season, giving up 27 runs in the process. Their lone win came in the 12th inning of Game 2 So, in addition to their new, and apparently somewhat unprepared manager, the 2018 Phils have a few other changes to their squad: FA signing Carlos Santana mans the 1B job JP Crawford now seems to be permanently entrenched at SS now that former SS Freddie Galvis moved on to San Diego over the winter in a trade for a minor lg pitcher. Cesar Hernandez & Mikael Franco at 2nd & 3rd, although Scott Kingery, their all-purpose rookie to whom they awarded a long-term deal before he ever played a ML game, has already played both 3rd & LF even though it's 2B that's his supposed 'natural' position. Rhys Hoskins, the rookie who went on a HR tear late last year following his call-up, along with Odubel Herrera and Aaron Altherr man the OF. We'll see an all Righty crew of [crossout:3olegcvm]Blake[/crossout:3olegcvm] Ben Lively on Monday (vs Harv), their ace Aaron Nola on Tuesday (Lugo), and then Nick Pivetta vs Thor in the 'Facebook Live' day game Wednesday.

And the Braves manager got ejected from that game because the umps decided to give the incoming, but not fully warmed-up, Philly reliever extra warm-up pitches on the mound even though the new rule says that once the 2 minute time limit is up the incoming hurler gets no more practice pitches. The ump's reasoning was that he didn't want to see the guy get hurt but that's not his job or his decision. These speed-up rules aren't going to work if they're just going to be ignored whenever someone feels like it.

Yanx, David Robertson specifically, intentionally walked Josh Donaldson to load the bases w/2 outs in the 8th, opting to face Justin Smoak instead. Probably a defensible move, but Smoak messed it all up by going yard with a Grand Slam. He had also hit a 2R HR in the 7th when the Yanx held a 4-1 lead. 7-4 Jays was your final thanks to the late-game six-run Smoak-Show. Hey, if the Mets are going to suck today then I'm going to revel in Yanqui misery. The two teams wound up splitting the opening four games in Toronto.

I have no problem with the patch. If that's Rusty's signature than that's Rusty's signature and altering it so as to make it more readable would be a worse alternative, as would simple block letters. My first thought also was orange on a field of blue (or a blue sig on an orange background). But instead it's black for mourning with the orange representing both the team and his nickname, and that's fine. Met fans will all know what it means and if other fans don't then their announcers will explain it to them in games against the Mets and then hopefully also give them an education as to what Rusty was all about both on and off the ball field.

I look at the 2003 Yearbook and ask myself, 'How much more blue can this be?', and the answer is, none, none more blue.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I was in Japan for two weeks in 2006, and I found that most people who were younger than me were able to speak English. Not necessarily fluent, but able to hold a conversation. My brother has a friend from grade school days who somehow became fluent in Japanese and wound up living in Japan teaching English to Japanese students (a mixture of young & adult, I think). Anyway, the thing about Jimmy S. is that he looks and speaks like the classic New York Italian stereotype so I always imagined these students who learned under him speaking their English with all the accents and inflections of Martin Scorcese gangster film characters.

Things could always be worse ... six teams are idle tomorrow as the league adjusts to this new longer season and it's Thursday kick off.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: A lot of these later covers suffer from the existence of digital photo editing tools. It allows the cover designer to easily go overboard. Yes. By trying to show more they wind up showing less.

The '96 yearbook gets eliminated only slightly more quickly than the '96 Mets were.

MLBN is picking up the game, so those out of the area might get access that way.

Benjamin Hoffman at the NY Times makes the case that, while still short of the HoF, Rusty was a lot better than often given credit for. And while you don't want to give too much weight to single stats in isolation, the phrase "reached base 1,000 times more than DiMaggio" (and, yes, he means Joe) kind of leaps out at you.

Those tumbling/sliding sequences are spot on Z, that's exactly what I was talking about. And, again, I doubt he was the first to do either but he was the first on my radar for both and I spent decades using each move in countless softball games. I should probably also add that, like a lot of NY'ers, I got to meet and/or see Rusty on several occasions since he was so visible around town. His restaurants weren't just a place with his name slapped on them. I went to the uptown one numerous times and the one in midtown once or twice and saw him working the floor, or at least walking around, more times than not. Also met him up close once or twice and my main impression was just how damn big he was; big tall, big wide, big deep - and most of that was while he was still playing and not nearly as big-overweight as he later became. In one instance I was at a function my father took me to and while standing around in small circles, as groups tend to do during cocktail hour, I realized that he and my father were in separate little circles but standing back-to-back only a foot or so apart. So I motioned to dad to turn around and when he did he found his average-sized self staring eyes-to-shoulder blades with what looked like a gray flannel covered section of the Berlin Wall that had somehow been transported to a NYC hotel space.

37-20 is a pace which would get you to 105 wins if projected over a full regular season. The home opener pace of 22-9 translates to around 115 wins over a full year. And if you want to eliminate those first eight seasons and call it 37-12 over your living memory, then you're talking about the equivalent to a 122-40 record. That's about as lopsided as you can get.

Josh Smoker blew a save for the Pirates today, in a game they won in extra innings. Yeah, but seemingly everybody blew a save in that game, or at least contributed to the blowing of leads. Pitt led 4-2 until giving up 4 in the 7th The Tigers took their newly found 6-4 lead and promptly gave up 2 in the 8th to tie the game ... and then 4 more in top 9th Not to be out-done, the Pirates gave up 4 in the bottom of the 9th as the home Tigers re-tied it Pirates finally put up a 3-spot in the top of the 13th and managed to hold on although not before Detroit got the tying run to the plate with just one out Somebody named Steven Brault pitched the final three innings for the win, so ultimately there was no save in the game. Oh yeah, and a potential walk-off run was erased by a replay review in the 10th inning; Tiger players had already had the on-field dogpile and sunflower seed showers and everything. Objecting to the reversal got Gardenhire ejected in his Detroit debut. I bet that's something even Earl or Leo never did. Nothing like a 5:27 minute opening day game (they had been rained out on Thursday) outdoors, in Michigan, in March.

Yeah, RF was the tough one, both for the guys and because it was the shortest streak of any position. As mentioned, it would have been Stanton and/or Bautista but neither played the field today. Calhoun (and, hell, most of the Angels) have been essentially anonymous here on the east coast lately. And even Puig has had his ups and down on the other side of town but I guess never to start the year. Gordon I thought would be snagged earlier. Same team his whole career and his rookie 3B days are now long in the rearview mirror.

For those of you who only saw Rusty as the somewhat roundish/father-figure/guru/pinch-hitting specialist during his second go-around with the Mets, you missed a real good all-around ballplayer. No, he never was fast (although stole 47 bases in his career) but he was a real good outfielder with a terrific arm (although it never quite came all the way back from that '73 playoff injury) and of course the bat spoke for itself. He was the first OF I remember seeing with the sliding (as opposed to diving) catch which he based on the idea that hitting the ground first and then making the catch made it less likely that the ball would be jarred loose than the other way around. He was also the first I remember as doing the forward tumble after a throw as a result of getting all his momentum behind it. I'm sure he didn't invent either of these techniques but he was the guy I remember pulling them off. I guess I was aware of him as a player during his days in Houston, but my first vivid memory was from his second game as an Expo. Gary referenced the '69 opener today where the Mets lost an 11-10 game to the expansion 'Spos (all four expansion teams won their first game that year). Dad and I were supposed to be at that game but somehow we BOTH got sick and so went the next day instead. Sitting in the RF I had a good view of Rusty catching a ball coming in as his hat fell off. In doing so I found out why he was nicknamed Rusty because I had ever seen hair quite that color. Keep in mind that black-and-white TV sets still dominated in that era and even the color sets that did exist weren't all that good, giving a kind of pastel-hued tinge to everything, so it took seeing him live to discover that that shade was one actually found in nature. His hair color softened in his later years but it was a unique shade in his early days. What sticks in my head from his later years was how he was almost automatic streak down the stretch in 1984. - (Sept 18) after not having played in eight days, he leads off the 9th inning of a 5-5 tie vs Philly (PH'ing of course) with a single. Three batters later his run (he was PR'd for) plus another one score on Strawberry's 3R HR - his next AB doesn't come until six days later, again in a 5-5 tie game vs Philly, this time in the home 8th. He doubled in two runs and the Mets went on to win. - the very next night the Mets trail the Phils 4-2 but get two in the 9th to tie it. So NOW Staub comes as a PH for Raffy Santana w/the winning run on 2nd: 2R walk-off HR He had just three ABs between Sept 11 and Sept 25, took three swings and the results were a single, a double, and a HR in last AB tie games, and all either won the game or set-up a win. It's too short to call such a run 'a streak' but the automatic and seemingly pre-ordained successful outcome in those appearances was one of the most freakish things I had seen from a hitter. And he was 40 y/o at the time.

Turning over the remaining cards: Catcher - Yadier Molina -- Seawolf 1B - Joey Votto -- JCL 2B - Jose Altuve -- JCL 3B - Mike Moustakas -- FMan99 SS - Elvis Andrus -- Edgy MD LF - Alex Gordon CF - Adam Jones -- Hahn Solo RF - Kole Calhoun (LAA) + Yasiel Puig P - Felix Hernandez -- Hahn Solo Incorrect: Andrew McCutcheon - CF Adrian Beltre - 3B Kyle Seager JJ Hardy Ryan Braun

It's also possible that he simply made the whole thing up and the 'Air Strip' never actually existed. Not sure if "Al" was a professional writer but it sure seemed like he could have been (this wasn't his only essay-like piece on the old site) and writers have been known to, y'know, make shit up. AFAIK, no one ever knew or met "Big Al" so the whole hard-drinking, divorced father whose minor league career was derailed by injuries to his 'left wing' (as he once put it) backstory could be entirely fiction.

Catcher - Yadier Molina -- Seawolf 1B - Joey Votto -- JCL 2B - Jose Altuve -- JCL 3B - Mike Moustakas -- FMan99 SS - Elvis Andrus -- Edgy MD LF - AL, 8 CF - Adam Jones -- Hahn Solo RF - 1 AL + 1 NL, 5 each P - Felix Hernandez -- Hahn Solo Incorrect: Andrew McCutcheon - CF Adrian Beltre - 3B Kyle Seager JJ Hardy Ryan Braun

Edgy MD wrote: And his jumps from third to the outfield. The shorty stop is Elvis Andrus. Yes! He was one of the guys I hadn't realized was around for as long as he's been. Hell, he's still only 29 y/o Catcher - Yadier Molina -- Seawolf 1B - Joey Votto -- JCL 2B - Jose Altuve -- JCL 3B - AL, 7 SS - Elvis Andrus -- Edgy MD LF - AL, 8 CF - AL, 11 RF - 1 AL + 1 NL, 5 each P - Felix Hernandez -- Hahn Solo Incorrect: Andrew McCutcheon - CF Adrian Beltre - 3B Kyle Seager JJ Hardy Ryan Braun

Centerfield wrote: Ryan Braun. Nope. Perhaps you forget his drug suspensions?

Catcher - Yadier Molina -- Seawolf 1B - Joey Votto -- JCL 2B - Jose Altuve -- JCL 3B - AL, 7 SS - AL, 10 LF - AL, 8 CF - AL, 11 RF - 1 AL + 1 NL, 5 each P - Felix Hernandez -- Hahn Solo That asterisk was there to indicate that in only five of those seven years were Altuve's Astros in the AL. He was an NL'er for the first two even though it was obviously the same team. Seager looked like he was going to be the answer for 3Bmen until the FA market didn't come through the way some hoped it would. Incorrect: Andrew McCutcheon - CF Adrian Beltre - 3B Kyle Seager JJ Hardy

Hahn reaches into his bag of tricks for the correct answer Catcher - Yadier Molina -- Seawolf 1B - Joey Votto -- JCL 2B - AL*, 7 3B - AL, 7 SS - AL, 10 LF - AL, 8 CF - AL, 11 RF - 1 AL + 1 NL, 5 each P - Felix Hernandez -- Hahn Solo And that asterisk is not a typo Incorrect: Andrew McCutcheon - CF Adrian Beltre - 3B

Name the first Met to: 1. Record a base hit. - Cespedes 2. 1st single - Cabrera 3. Double - Despedes 4. Triple - Rosario 5. Home Run - Plawecki 6. Run batted In - Bruce 7. Multiple runs batted in on a single plate appearance - Bruce 8. Steal a base - Rosario 9. Draw a walk - Nimmo 10. Reach safely on an error - Frazier 11. Be hit by a pitch - Cabrera 12. Score a run - Cespedes 13. Enter the game as a pinch hitter - Flores 14. Record a sacrifice hit, including a Sac Fly - Frazier 15. Get picked off or caught stealing - Nimmo 16. Drive in multiple runs in a single plate appearance that takes the team from behind in the score to ahead. -- Adrian Gonzalez bitches!!! 17. 1st "walk-off" RBI -- d'Arnaud * Name the first Met pitcher to: 18. Record a strike out - Syndergaard (if it's not him we're in trouble) 19. Reach double figures in strikeouts in a single appearance - Syndergaard 20. Issue a walk - Syndergaard 21. Hit an opposing batter with a pitch - Harvey 22. Get a win - Syndergaard 23. Get a save - Familia 24. Appear as a relief pitcher - AJ Ramos 25. First pitcher to record a hit as a batter - deGrom 26. Throw a complete game - (prolly no one) deGrom 27. Be credited with a "hold" -- AJ Ramos * Name the first guy: 28. Not on the opening-day roster called up to the team - Robles 29. Placed on the disabled list after 1:05 p.m. opening day - Swarzak 30. Pictured on the back cover of the Daily News and the Post on the same day, beginning with Friday's edition - Cespedes Tiebreaker: Which Met will be the last man to bat on opening day? -- Frazier

HahnSolo wrote: 3b: Beltre No. I believe he was hurt to start the season in one or two years. Catcher - Yadier Molina -- Seawolf 1B - Joey Votto -- JCL Incorrect: Andrew McCutcheon - CF Adrian Beltre - 3B