Edgy MD

What did Gee do? Does Second Spitter need to comfort his wife?

2004 Red Sox are definitely top two or three to me. Pros: To have the only comeback ever from being down 3-0 in a seven-game series. That'is enough. To have it done to the Yankees, well, that's really, really special. Pedro is such a cartoon character. It just seemed to make the people of Boston better people. It elevated the city. Fenway stood in the face of the mallpark movement. The redemption over the failure of Grady Little. Tim Wakefield's dancing knuckleball, in sudden death extra innings, with his personal catcher on the bench and Jason Varitek doing his best to hang in there. Bill James, Theo Epstein, and the triumph of deep analysis. The aloofest superstar in baseball in left field, and the drama of a team committed/resigned to living with his bullshit. The mystic sock. It's almost like the year could be divided into thirds by who was playing shorstop --- Nomar Garciaparra, Pokey Reese, Orlando Cabrera. That I liked all three of those guys. The emergence of David Ortiz. How can Mo Vaughn happen twice in a row to the same team? Doug Mientkiewicz going in as a defensive replacement at the end, in a poetic way, cancels John McNamara's oversight of 1986. Keith Foulke freezing up at the last moment, afraid to throw the ball to first, and running halfway before underhanding it. Breaking through the psychological wall that was the drought also damaged the psychological notion of Yankee inevitability badly. Cons: Led to the most tremendous bandwagon-jumping movement ever. Either those latecomers were distinctly made un-special, or worse, they collapsed the moral elevation of the greater civis. FOX's whole Bambino curse/Goat curse narrative. The exile of Garciaparra. That's a bad tasting raisin in a sweet tart of a championship. Johnny Damon sapping so much meaning out of the whole shebang by jumping to the Yankees. Doug Mientkiewicz, who I've come to really dislike because of his forced white-guy-skills narrative, grabbing a disproportionate amount of the glory, despite playing really badly.

I like me my 1980 Phils Pros: Finally broke free from the 77-78 pattern where they would lose to the Dodgers, who would lose to the Yankees who had beaten the Royals. Steve Carlton's second great Hall-of-Fame year. (I wasn't really paying attention to the first.) The two best third basemen ever squaring off in the World Series against each other, as (it wasn't official yet, but was clear) MVPs, and at the height of their powers. Every great team should have a monster that could hit the ball a mile, but you prayed wouldn't have the ball hit to him. The Phils had one of the monsteriest in Greg Luzinski. First World Series for Lonnie Smith, who somehow seemed to almost always be a part of championship teams. Also, the very notion that, at this point in his career, Smith was used for defense --- for Luzinski. A great playoff series against Houston before that World Series. May have been the greatest playoff series before the Met-Houston series of 1986. Dallas Green, unafraid at that point in his career to go away from the designated closer concept and instead play the hot hand, becomes utterly reliant on Met legend Tug McGraw down the stretch after he has eclipsed Ron Reed and Dickie Noles. Green ends up throwing McGraw in all five playoff games and four of six World Series games, where he has a part in seven decisions, going 1-2 with 4 saves in the post-season. Could only appreciate this in part, but a team's first World Series championship in their 98th season is a big deal. That it was for a crumbling eastern city, with Newark seemingly collapsed, Legionnaires Disease (also called Philadelphia cancer), the city going up against the MOVE movement, yadda-yadda, it must've really been a civic boost. Bake McBride --- was it a beard of giant pork chop sideburns that somehow found each other? The normally unpoetic Ralph Kiner coins his famous description of Garry Maddox that year or thereabouts. Cons: Lent way too much (any) credibility to the stupid Pete Rose mystique. (Schmidt: "He taught us how to win." --- as if they hadn't averaged 95 wins the previous four years. First all-artificial turf series, I believe. Nothing looks as good as it should in synthetic doubleknits and powder blue road uniforms. This goes for the Royals also. Ex-Met Nino Espinosa had to pretend to be injured so they could sneak red-hot September rookie Marty Bystrom on the post-season roster. They're my number one. Or number three, as it were.

�I have more hits than last year at this time." --- a 4 for 27, but apparently unconcerned, Ike Davis

Frayed Knot wrote: 2004 - Not actually a good series, but it's memorable just for being the capper to the ALCS and that accomplishment would have been ruined had the series not gone Boston's way. Yeah, keep in mind, I'm asking after your favorite champions, rather than championships. Though I insult the Marlins/Indians series, this may well speak to the character of the team gleaned throughout the year, and have relatively little to do with the final series ('cept that they won it).

Second Spitter wrote: ]1. '87 Twins Homer Hankie, I see that. Second Spitter wrote: 2. '97 Marlins Most boring series ever. Don't see that. Second Spitter wrote: 3. '92 Blue Jays KAMOOM finish. Second Spitter wrote: 4. '91 Twins You really liked Chili Davis. Second Spitter wrote: 5. '03 Marlins Broke the Yankees. Had a bunch of guys transtioning from one city to another, having neither been there long nor destined to stay long. Strange character. Dontrelle's debut. 1997 Marlins is the toughest call there. I didn't give up on baseball during the strike, but that World Series shook my faith.

I'm adapting this thread about the St. Lucie uniforms into the St. Lucie season thread. A 4-0 shutout pitched by Luis Mateo, Randy Fontanez and T.J. Chism brings St. Lucie to 5-0 on 2013. Amazingly, they sit merely tied for first, as the Ft. Myers Miracle (the Minnesota Twins affiliate in the Florida State League) is also undefeated after five contests. Something's gotta give!

The greatest champions of the Mets era were the 1969 Mets and 1986 Mets. Reasonable minds can disagree on who is foremost of those two, but on the fact that they rank one and two, there can be neither doubt nor debate. There have been 48 other champions in that period. For which teams do you hold the most affection? Feel free to give your top five, your top 10, or your top 48. #YearTeamSkipperLeague11962New York YankeesRalph HoukAL21963Los Angeles DodgersWalter AlstonNL31964St. Louis CardinalsJohnny KeaneNL41965Los Angeles DodgersWalter AlstonNL51966Baltimore OriolesHank BauerAL61967St. Louis CardinalsRed SchoendienstNL71968Detroit TigersMayo SmithAL81970Baltimore OriolesEarl WeaverAL91971Pittsburgh PiratesDanny MurtaughNL101972Oakland AthleticsDick WilliamsAL#YearTeamSkipperLeague111973Oakland AthleticsDick WilliamsAL121974Oakland AthleticsAlvin DarkAL131975Cincinnati RedsSparky AndersonNL141976Cincinnati RedsSparky AndersonNL151977New York YankeesBilly MartinAL161978New York YankeesBob LemonAL171979Pittsburgh PiratesChuck TannerNL181980Philadelphia PhilliesDallas GreenNL191981Los Angeles DodgersTom LasordaNL201982St. Louis CardinalsWhitey HerzogNL#YearTeamSkipperLeague211983Baltimore OriolesJoe AltobelliAL221984Detroit TigersSparky AndersonAL231985Kansas City RoyalsDick HowserAL241987Minnesota TwinsTom KellyAL251988Los Angeles DodgersTom LasordaNL261989Oakland AthleticsTony La RussaAL271990Cincinnati RedsLou PiniellaNL281991Minnesota TwinsTom KellyAL291992Toronto Blue JaysCito GastonAL301993Toronto Blue JaysCito GastonAL#YearTeamSkipperLeague311994Not held due to�players' strike.321995Atlanta BravesBobby CoxNL331996New York YankeesJoe TorreAL341997Florida MarlinsJim LeylandNL351998New York YankeesJoe TorreAL361999New York YankeesJoe TorreAL372000New York YankeesJoe TorreAL382001Arizona DiamondbacksBob BrenlyNL392002Anaheim AngelsMike SciosciaAL402003Florida MarlinsJack McKeonNL#YearTeamSkipperLeague412004Boston Red SoxTerry FranconaAL422005Chicago White SoxOzzie Guill�nAL432006St. Louis CardinalsTony La RussaNL442007Boston Red SoxTerry FranconaAL452008Philadelphia PhilliesCharlie ManuelNL462009New York YankeesJoe GirardiAL472010San Francisco GiantsBruce BochyNL482011St. Louis CardinalsTony La RussaNL492012San Francisco GiantsBruce BochyNL

So, next night off for Davis goes to Duda. I think we can all agree on that, jocks and nerds alike.

We quite literally need more.

Gary Matthews is a real disappointment as a broadcaster.

It's still early. It'll be earlier if we chase this guy now.

Act like you been there before, Jordany.

Michael Young may be Jeteriffic, but I don't dislike him.

That was a pretty Wrightly piece of hitting by Buckminster.

Izzat Jeff or Fred?

Day off for Ike. Cowgill, cf Murphy, 2b Wright, 3b Buck, c Byrd, rf Duda, lf Turner, 1b Tejada, ss Gee, p You might expect Duda to slide up to first when Ike has the day off. But you'd be wrong. Because what you're not thinking about is that Terry <3's Turner.

The album should have everything in this thread. I also created an album of Oscar Madison shots and another of Ed Koch shots if you want to send any further promos out. Thanks a lot for sharing your audience.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: metirish wrote: This is great stuff....I am surprised this doesn't have a Facebook page already. Some of these have been stored in an album on the CPF Facebook page. Maybe I'll "share" that album from the UMDB Facebook page. That may get about 2,000 or more eyes on it. (Something like 2200 people saw the photo I posted of David Wright in a Cap'n Crunch hat.) That'd be great. Just make sure you give 'em the Crane Pool address with that so the Facebook page isn't the end of the line for those eyes.

Or here.

Downtown Jeff.

There's some crazy misreporting in that blog. For one, it makes Warthan's statement seem like it comes in response to Maine's recent Times comments, when it was said after Maine's fate-sealing start about Maine's insisting that he was OK to pitch when he wasn't. It's also a little incomplete. The full comment was, "John is a habitual liar, in a lot of ways, as far as his own health." (The Times link has the full quote and the correct timeline.) It also unfairly conflates the team's training staff, diagnostic physicians and rehabilitation team.

Douchewhistles? OK. Douchetubas? Not OK!

Douchey as he wants? Sorry, I got to keep limits on my douche tolerance. Stupid haircuts? Locker room farts? Rockin' out to Survivor? OK. Date rapes? Rocker-like thinly veiled but public racism? Christina Aguilera? Not OK! Smug-douche? OK. Douche-douche? Not OK!