Edgy MD

That's my second memory fart of today. Earlier today I called the Bellamy Brothers "The Statler Brothers." I have to put my neurologist on speed dial.

Someday you'll be watching Logan Verrett pitch in a game. He won't be great, but he'll be solid. And you'll wonder how the Mets let him go. And you'll remember how tight the team's roster pinch was at the time, and they must've said to themselves, "We'd hate to lose Verrett, but Tyler Pill is practically the same guy, only at Bingo. Got his wildness from 2013 under control too." And you'll think, "That more or less makes sense. You can't keep everybody. That Pill guy is darn good." I'm Tyler Pill. I've got 1 1/3 inning of shutout ball logged in camp so far and, well, they haven't farmed me out yet. What do you think I have to offer in 2015?

Murphy's been the most reliable Met to produce like the back of his card for years. Remains to be seen: Whether the burden of being the-guy-who-said-that-thing will be a weight on his shoulders. I tend to guess no, as he's hit while bearing the weight of being the-guy-who-can't-field-that-position and the-guy-who-is-batting-cleanup-despite-not-being-suited-for-it. I like to think there'll be enough stories circulating around the Mets that Murphy will get to do his thing. His baseball thing, not his lifestyle-commenting thing. And yeah, that should look like the back of his card, and his 110-ish OpS+

Other things that could get him fired: Openly drinking, in the dugout, during games. Deliberately setting fire to the clubhouse. Overturning the post-game spread. Every day. Win or lose. In the opponent's clubhouse too. Carrying a Fred Must GO! banner in the Banner Day Parade. Working on Flores' footwork by shooting live ammo at his feet. Letting his game drag on in the CPF Scrabble Classic.

Kewl. Wonder what those lift tickets are about.

If only Syndergaard hadn't eaten that damn sandwich.

A lot of talk about "what it will take to get Terry fired" in the blogosphere this last week.

Balance is the key.

Thanks for the update. McLouth had a really tough season with Washington last year, but Taylor has never done anything as a big leaguer. Reports have Taylor scheduled to get the bulk of the reps, but I'm going to pencil NMcL in there for now. [fimg=250]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7b/New_York_Mets.svg/1024px-New_York_Mets.svg.png[/fimg][fimg=250]http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg180/bohob_4_life/WashingtonNationals_PML1_2011-9999.png?t=1290008638[/fimg]Mets=#FF0000]NatsLagares, cfGranderson, rfWright, 3bDuda, 1bCuddyer, lfMurphy, 2bd�Arnaud, cFlores, ssColon, sp=#FF0000]Escobar, 2bRendon, 3bWerth, rfHarper, lfZimmerman, 1bDesmond, ssRamos, c=#FF0000]McLouth, cfStrasburg, sp

The real concern is when he's halfway home, in the initial live shot before the replay. He's trying to accelerate and his feet aren't really coming off the ground. If the throw had gone through, it would have been surprisingly close.

Yeah, I guess that is Arnie. Still, though, those mooks have little growing to do. Neither looks like he's particularly worried about being drafted.

Mets have announced a free opening day watch party at CitiField. Watch TV. Get drunk. Buy mercy. Freeze your ass off. BASEBALL!

Zvon wrote: I saw the Mets /Braves game. Conforto had 3 solid hits (inc a double) and drove in 3. His at bats were very impressive. He has a sweet swing that reminds me of a young Tony Gwynn. I swear to God that Flores looked like he was running on broken ankles. Check out footage of his scoring from 2nd. I really don't understand how an athlete could be so bad at lifting his feet up and down. I just saw this. I don't know if he just turned his ankle a little at third or it was his seemingly larger, chronic problem, but man.

Freddy kinda dug his own grave though. He had a chance to show some heart during Daniel's fight at the beach and then at soccer tryouts. His crew gave him this "That guy's a loser, just leave him there to bleed" attitude, and Freddy turned away with them. Peer pressure. Still, one might expect an official closing of that circle, either through a reconciliation or a "You weren't THERE for me, Freddy!" outburst from Daniel.

Let me tell you something. Who knows what to expect of a fireballer, who at one point hit 103 (?!), in his first year back from Tommy John surgery? But be assured of this: Noah Syndergaard's will NOT be the last lunch I steal this season. I'm Bobby Parnell, and it takes a village to keep my beard clean. What do you expect of my 2015?

Daylight savings + sunny drive from DC to Baltimore + 10 walks + Boston radio booth made me very sleepy.

The simplest solution is always the most likely. And the simplest solution is that he's a time-traveler from the future.

Stirrups.

How about an almost-perfect contemporary of Mookie's — Lou Whitaker with 244? That's going to be tough to top.

Mookie had 67, and he strikes me as as good a place to start as any. Richie Ashburn had 29 and his career high was the seven he hit in his final season with the Mets.

Maybe not, but that's two good years of Low-A ball, unless you don't think Brooklyn counts. Two fairly great ones.

I wasn't invited to pitch a tent at camp this year, but today they asked me over to roast some marshmallows. I roasted them to the tune or three hits and three RBI. [fimg=550:cvsoqa1c]http://www.bloggingmets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Michael-Conforto.jpg[/fimg:cvsoqa1c] What's happening? Where will I play this year? How will I do?

d'Kong76 wrote: Four-pronged fork... a> enjoying what posters predict b> acquainting and re-acquainting myself with org spots c> bumping and ocd'ng on order of things.. which is my nature d> after today, there's still no Conforto thread yet? That's a good point. I just put 'em up in alphabetical order, including only guys who were in major league camp. Comforto wasn't/isn't but got floated over to the big league side in order to round out the roster for one of them split-squad games, but he sure looks like he belongs there now. It used to seem like a default honor, that first-round draftees would get invited to the big league camp the next season, especially if they've had some college. But it hasn't been that way under Sandy.

Karate Kid in the archives: The Karate Kid (ranked). (I also puzzle over the dousing-Zabka scene here. It's interesting that he's dressed as a shower and he showers water on his enemy.) Karate Kid Villain Deathmatch. Karate-Kid-ettes. WSo8M: (2) The Karate Kid v. (6) The Terminator (This ended in a tie!) The Karate Kid, Part II (ranked)

We've talked about this film plenty. I'm not sure these factors have come up, but I was cooking an elaborate dinner and watched this again and they piqued my interest. Standard cheap remote location shot as the film opens in Newark and uses broad shots and voiceovers of the actors so doubles can play them as the car pulls away. Ralph Macchio and Randee Heller are also not there as the green station wagon drives through a symbolic Iowa. Cheap but effective. Less effective is the stereotype-laden first line: "Tony, don't forget to tell Uncle Louie that I left the red wine and the parmesan in the refrigerator." Daniel makes a friend in Act One. Freddy Fernandez, I think his name was. Helps Daniel with his stuff, and invites him to the party. This kid briefly talks with Daniel at soccer tryouts the next day and then disappears. He's like the gun in the first act that never goes off. This movie is a near masterpiece of dramatic arc, but they blow that one. Or it was genius misdirection, I'm not sure. Imitation Beach Boys song that plays at the party to establish that "this is California and this is the beach" is called "(Bop Bop) on the Beach." The composer credit on the soundtrack album goes to Mike Love. Not lyrics credit, but the whole song. I've been reviewing the Beach Boys catalog and I'm up to the Friends album of December 1968 (their 15th non-"Greatest Hits" album) and I haven't discovered Mike credited as music composer for anything. The artists credited with performing it are The Flirts ("(Don't Put Another Dime in the) Juke Box") and Jan and Dean ("Surf City"). In a second nod to the budget, when Daniel arrives at school, there is an extended shot of the dedication plaque. This shot has no contextual purpose, and is clearly included as part of the payment for the school allowing the production to shoot on campus. [fimg=600]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6mltTIqaRjs/VAaD1sLHhBI/AAAAAAAAFtk/YtGvV1LOTyg/s1600/KarateKid3.JPG[/fimg] An artist self-help book can be written about Mr. Miyagi's technique of bonsai sculpting. Close your eyes, see the tree in it's entirety, completed, and only then will you know what you have to do. The artist's way. Ever give somebody a bonsai as a gift? They always die, and everybody feels bad. Teenagers are stupid, and I was no exception. I'm going back and forth with whether I would have been stupid enough to have pulled the hose-from-the-slopsink-pouring-water-onto-Johnny/Zabka's-head maneuver. I tend to think that, as poor as a teenage male's judgment is, he remembers pain, and this move might have been, like, fifth-grade dumb. But yeah, maybe I might have done this stupid thing, especially after a slow dance with a pretty girl, which has a way of killing brain cells. But I like to think I might have removed the shower costume apparatus. Never realized it because Daniel is such an ungrateful and ungracious whiner, but he's right when he says that Miyagi has to get involved because he already is involved. Cobra Kai is going to come down on him so much harder because of the beating that Miyagi handed out. GO THE DISTANCE, MIYAGI. Chad McQueen's hair dye is hilarious. He looks like a college grad and was actually 24 at the time of the film's release. I figured he was Ali McGraw's son. I in fact thought maybe that was kind of a production in-joke, the female lead explicitly spelling her name in tribute to the supporting player's famous mother, but he was in fact the product of Steve McQueen's prior marriage with Filipina actress Neile Adams. [fimg=300]http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m723iw3GnP1r1r7rjo1_1280.jpg[/fimg] That shot was taken in 1960, the same year Chad was born, so there's a good chance that she's carrying legendary bully sidekick Dutch the Cobra Kai at that moment. The two middle-aged fools at the beach who harass Mr. Miyagi by drinking on his car and refusing to move. One of them � and this will shock you � is a visitor from the future wearing what we didn't recognize in 1983 was... a Washington Nationals hat. Black Cobra Kai kid is so doomed. So doomed. The subtle/not-so-subtle racism of eighties movies, man. When Daniel is getting his gee with the Miyagi patch sewn on the back, it's sort of reflected in the scene behind Mr. Miyagi, where a golden paper lantern is shining behind one his bonsai trees. This was either a very nice touch or some strange luck. I'm sure it's been done and done better than I could, but I think I'd like to write a book-length shot-by-shot exegesis on this film. (How did we never notice the cap before?)