Edgy MD

My favorite quote from the Strawb was from a war in the press between him and Wally Backman. Backman dropped some shit about how Darryl was letting the team down to a reporter. The next day, every reporter in town gathered around Darryl's locker for a comebacker and he didn't disappoint: "He thinks he's like Mex but he doesn't have Mex's game. That little redneck. I'll bust him in the ass." It was great because he didn't say the common street threat that he'd bust Wally's ass, but that he'd bust him in the ass. It somehow made him sound more country than Wally.

So you're not on board for Eric Langill's monster season prediction, I guess.

The final turnoff was when their "pro football expert" Tex Maulle predicted the Colts would beat the Jets in Super Bowl III by the score of 66-0. (as Casey Stengel used to say, "you can look it up") At that point, they lost all credibility as a sports magazine. Maule's prediction was 43-0.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Straw looking pretty menacing, tho. The "Mr. Long Ball" nickname never really stuck. That's what I was thinking. Coinages that don't stick can make for goofy covers in retrospect. "The Greatest Infield Ever" kinda stuck. Even if it's a disputable designation, they remain in the conversation, in a large part due to the cover.

I went with Seaver. I like that follow-through. Do you think he's throwing the (rare) changeup, or did he let his fingers fly open on all his pitches to keep from tipping?

Lee Mazzilli spent the night in the hospital after taking a batted ball off the noggin in Tampa. Hopefully he comes out OK.

Handsome Ransom has come for your women. https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/QIwAAOxy83JRH25S/s-l640.jpg>

Who is getting Tommy John surgery in 2019? Well probably more than a few people, certainly including Drew Smith. But you can add Michael Fulmer to the list. It adds a poetic — if tragic — balance to the world, considering the guy the Mets traded him for will also be out over a year following surgery.

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oFhCAJzbKLpxSug9ngCQpv1T09Q=/0x0:3200x1800/2070x1164/filters:focal(1344x644:1856x1156):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/59346501/sports_illustrated.0.jpg> Do you think they realize how badly they repeated themselves with covers A5 and B7?

Wally Backman's Long Island Ducks have signed a former underling of Wally's from his days managing in the Mets' system — none other than free-swinging, drama-making, hard-to-spell outfielder https://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/kirk-nieuwenheis-1.28711088Kirk Nieuwenhuis. Former Mets starter and Cubs GM Ed Lynch will serve as Backman's pitching coach in 2019, and former Mets prospect Tyler Badamo will return for a second season as part of Lynch's staff. A native of Mount Sinai in Suffolk, Badamo will certainly be a candidate for the all-time Duck record for growing up closest to the home ball park in Bethpage. The stupid Atlantic League, dying for a purpose, have agreed to become a guinea pig league for the majors, serving as subject for experimentation for rules the majors are pitching but haven't yet adopted, including electronic ball/strike assistance for the home-plate ump, and the banishment of shifts. Backman has switched from the fu manchu to a Gardenhirerian Van Dyke, and it doesn't look half bad: http://liducks.com.ismmedia.com/ISM3/std-content/repos/Top/2012%20Websites/Splash%20Page/Images/2019-Opening-Night-Ticket-Sales-Splash-Page-Update.png>

You're all going to look dumb when Langill puts it all together and has a monster season this year.

Was Johnny's from a physics or engineering magazine?

https://cdn.newsday.com/polopoly_fs/1.16902048.1519253149!/httpImage/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/display_960/image.JPG> I'll be honest. I'm totally glad to be here. Likely the most peripheral of all the uniform and dugout personnel there are, I'm the bullpen catcher. Actually, I'm the backup bullpen catcher, which is, like peripheral peripheral. I'm Met personnel and not really Met personnel at the same time. I'm, like, quantum personnel. I came on board mid-2011, and this will be my eighth camp. And while the higher ranking (or longer-tenured, anyhow) bullpen catcher Dave Racianello is a good citizen, a fitness fanatic, and BFFs with David Wright, I drew a DWI after flipping a car during my first spring in St. Lucie, have gotten pretty fat, and am not known to be a fave of any of the guys. Still, I've stuck around for a reason in a highly replaceable role, so I'm clearly good for something, and game for anything. I do a good job protecting the foul territory bullpen during exhibition games when they have so many catchers that they don't need me to warm anybody up. I DH'd once in an exhibition game, and I'm Canadian who grew up on the ice but was turned on to baseball by the Expos. These are ... almost qualities. Plus, I have a .532 career OPS across seven minor league seasons, and that's pretty good compared to your random insurance adjuster or falafel vendor. I guess the difference between asset and liability isn't a great measure in the world of bullpen catchers, and guys like me can hang on a while. I'm not even sure I've had any headlines since my DWI. Oh, wait, I was in Harvey's golf outing photo where he was playing social media kissy face with then candidate-Donald Trump. But that shit's behind me and nobody can deny that. Or something. Oh yeah. I set a dubious record by eating 17 cheesesteaks in a three game series in Philadelphia. There's that. Mostly, I guess, I won't make the papers unless I act like a tool. But maybe my season holds something. Maybe you can tell me.

Des Moines is great. But they're not wrong about the usual niches that The Meredith Corporation shoots for. Their titles skew female-oriented, white, middle-American, midwestern/southern. Fitness, diet, craft, and home decor magazines with (frequently) legacy titles aimed at the US homemaker. This of course doesn't mean they don't want to perhaps expand beyond that. They also grabbed Money from TimeLIFE.

Sure, but we're looking for predictions rather than assessments of who we like.

After this, we should start doing a thread of fake Mets magazine covers.

And correctly or not, they got the idea that the main sports fans left who were willing to plunk down the money for print were absolute fantasy sports maniacs.

Frayed Knot wrote: That SI cover landed three weeks after Swoboda took an 0-fer-10 (including leading off an inning six different times with an out) w/5 Ks in the Mets' 24-inning 1-0 loss in Houston. Agee also took a double-digit oh-fer that night (although w/only 4 Ks) hitting right before Swoboda in the lineup and often making the final out in all those innings which allowed Rocky to lead-off the next. So while that year's Mets may have been movin', they weren't movin' very fast. Wow! http://leaptoad.com/mets/gamedetail.php?gameno=978April 15th, 1968 - UMD Kase, is that Ellery Queen part of your collection? I suddenly feel a need to solve the mystery of what angle got Ron Darling that cover.

Based on the big teasers about Steve Allen and Miss Manners, neither of which imply anything mysterious going on, I'm guessing Ellery Queen's target audience was evolving at the time from "people who love a good mystery" to "people who are about 91."

Bridge journalism is from a world and a time that overlaps with my own, but damn, it is something I am entirely unfamiliar with.

I'm trying to suss a meaning out of GOREN 3: DOUBLE MORE OFTEN.

Lefty Specialist wrote: Classic Seaver with the drop-and-drive delivery. And why the hell was Ron Darling in a mystery magazine? Strange. I'm a sucker for the simplicity of old SI covers, though. Swoboda staring into the future with no batting gloves. Yeah, the Ellery Queen is compelling as heck, but Swoboda looks like a hero and a half there. A western sheriff who is half indian/half white man, who gets his white citizens grudging respect for coming back from his military service with short hair and whitey ways, along with powerful arms but a personal restraint about using them. He nonetheless solves crimes by flashing back to the lessons he learned when he when he was a long-haired semi-rejected child on the Indian reservation, at the foot of the elders, listening to their venerable wisdom. "The Moving Mets" it is.

Tracky, the Angels had the second-best attendance in the league last season.

Verlander is within reach of some pretty royal company. He's going to need a better nickname than "JV," which just makes him sound like a minor leaguer, but from here on, he's breathing some pretty royal air. 1) Tom "The Franchise Seaver:16 starts T2) Steve "Lefty" Carlton: 14 T2) Randy "The Big Unit" Johnson: 14 T2) Walter "The Big Train" Johnson: 14 T2) Jack "Mount" Morris: 14 T6) Roger "Ha Ha!" Clemens: 13 T6) Robin Roberts: 13 T8) Grover Cleveland "Pete" Alexander: 12 T8) Bert "Be Home" Blyleven: 12 T10) "King" Félix Hernández: 11 T10) CC "Dub" Sabathia: 11 T10) Fergie "Fly" Jenkins: 11 T10) Dennis "El Presidente" Martinez: 11 14) Justin Verlander: 10

Clark's like a generation removed from Keith, baseball-wise, though, isn't he? The parallel doesn't work for me. I'm more likely to associate Clark with Mark Grace, Wally Joyner, and/or Andres Gallaraga. Keith's contingent would be Bill Buckner and Steve Garvey. Maybe Darrell Evans or John Mayberry. John Maine's smile is kinda smackable, isn't it?