metsmarathon

Edgy DC wrote: I'll guess the kid was over it by the time America got wind of it. no doubt. kids are fickle. it helps that someone in hte rangers dugout eventually tossed him a ball, too. i'm pretty certain the toddler in question will be bringing that baseball to bed with him every night, like it's his new favorite stuffed animal.

also, yes, it's one thing for the clip to become internet famous. its another entirely for it to make actual news.

well, as you can see on the video replay, the ball is tossed into the crowd, in the general direction of the kid, and probably right towards him. he's the only munchkin in the vicinity, and ballplayers have an uncanny ability to toss balls at munchkins. the kid also has a glove on, so he's primed to expect that he'll get a ball. the ball is coming towards them, the dad stands up or is standing, and reaches up for the ball. the ball drops, and hte dad bends over to reach for it. at this point, the movement and jerking around has clearly begun to upset the tyke, but he also recognizes that the ball is intended to be his. as a toddler, everything is intended to be his, but hte actions of his dad and the expectations of the glove have magnified this assumed intention. the ball was coming to him, because it was thrown to him, and it is his. the toddler knows it to be true. the old dude picks up the ball and holds it up, right in the face of the toddler. not intentionally, but still, it's right there. the toddler thinks he is being presented with the ball. he reaches. he expects the ball to be given to him. the ball is given to the fiancee instead. the kid cries. having been in the company of toddlers, i know for dead certain that the kid, while blubbering away, is saying "i want the ball!" "i wanted it!" and "my ball" and words to that effect, and the parents are surely tring to soothe him by saying, "you'll get another ball" "we'll catch a different ball" and "do you want some ice cream?" i don't care how loud hte stadium is. if you're sitting next to a toddler yelling "i want the ball" after you just picked up a ball that was at his feet, you cannot claim to have neither noticed nor heard nor realized what had happened. especially since they claim ot have kids of their own, who surely once were toddlers. they surely noticed the toddler before the play in question, and tehy certainly noticed him afterwards. they were tying relaly hard to pretend not to so as not to feel the need to make the kid happy. if they were a bunch of college kids, or oblivious young adults, fine - maybe its excusable because they're ignorant of how awesome it is to make little kids happy. but they should know better. in fact, i'm certain they do know better. and for that, shame on them. never in the history of baseball has a foul ball been tossed into teh stands by a ball player or a ball boy to an old guy sitting with his better looking, younger fiancee instead of hte toddler sitting next to them. never. the ball wasn't theirs to begin with. it was always the kid's.

for once, i actually agree with michael kay. i know. shocker. since when in the history of ever is a ball tossed into the stands by a ballplayer or ballboy intended to go into the hands of an okay-looking woman with an older lover, when there is an unrelated toddler immediately nearby? now, look, i'v e never been on the receiving end of a foul ball, or a ball tossed into the stands, and i know that when i've gone to ball games in the past, i've always dreaded getting such a ball and having a little kid nearby that i'd be tempted to hand over my loot to. but i'm pretty sure that i would. especially if i didn't catch a batted ball all by my lonesome. a ball tossed into the stands goes to the munchkins. everybody knows that. and when you're sitting next to the muinchkin, and he's asking for the ball, and crying that he didn't get the ball that everybody knows was meant for him, you give it to him. you don't pretend that the kid doesn't exist. he's right. next. to. you. do the right thing. on a related note, i really need to take minimm to a game soon, so that we can get a baseball given to [crossout]me[/crossout] [crossout]us[/crossout] him just for being a cute little munchkin.

Niese 4.1 Nieuwenhuis 2.3 Ramirez 1.3 Tejada 0.7 Thole 0.6 Wright 0.5 Davis 0.5

sharpie wrote: Pineda out for season. Torn labrum. good for the yankees! you know, not that i think the mariners knew he was injured, but i'm fairly certain they suspected that an injury was on it's way. his second half was bad, and his velocity was way down at the end of the year. if those aren't impending shoulder-failure warning signs, i don't know what is. it may have been the case that he developed some amount ofweakness or tiredness or fatigue in the muscles around his shoulder last year, and maybe he didn't work hard enough in the off season, but that weakness followed him to this season. and when he tried to turn it on and get back the velocity, or power thorugh some soreness, he shredded it up good. i hate to see a promising career fall to pieces, but if a promising career is to fall to pieces, i'm glad for it to happen to a yankee. particularly when their fallbacks include freddy garcia, phil hughes and andy i haven't pitched in a year pettitte. i'm really rooting hard for montero to be the stud everybody thought he would be. as a side note - any time a team is willing to trade a sophomore pitcher who had an impressive rookie campaign, particularly a rookie campaign wherein the latter half had som red flags a-waving, you might not want to trade your top slam-dunk uber-prospect for him. i'm just sayin'

Wright 2.0 Duda 0.6 Baxter 1.0 Dickey 4.5 Parnell 1.1 Acosta 0.8

Good Robot

now how have i not yet thought to take that photo?

Santana 5.6 Francisco 1.2 Duda 1.1 Rauch 0.9 Thole 0.7 Murphy 0.5

interestingly, if you go by bbref's WAR, the AL MVP voters got it right in 1965, as Zoilo led the league wih 7.6 WAR.

Parnell 3.1 Acosta 1.9 Duda 1.8 Turner 1.2 Murphy 1.0 Bay 0.5 Baxter 0.5

Hefner 2.5 Tejada 2.5 Ramirez 1.4 Duda 1.4 Acosta 1.4 Parnell 0.8

Pelfrey 4.8 Tejada 2.2 Murphy 1.1 Duda 0.9 Byrdak 0.7 Bay 0.3

Nieuwenhuis 2.7 Bay 2.0 Niese 2.0 Byrdak 1.5 Wright 1.1 Ramirez 0.7

if you're relatively young for a given level of the minor leagues, and perform to league average levels , you're doing really really well.

yeah, i don't know why that's so conceptually difficult...

Nieuwenhuis 3.1 Davis 2.0 Murphy 1.5 Wright 1.2 Rauch 1.2 Batista 1.0

Batista 3.7 Baxter 1.6 Thole 1.5 Murphy 1.3 Acosta 1.2 Nieuwenhuis 0.7

if bagwell can't get in, they should close the fucking place down. without looking at any numbers, i'd say pudge should be a hall of famer. good-to-excellent offensive catcher, premiere defensive catcher, long career.

friggin' calf injuries.

Ceetar wrote: There is a case to be made for retiring his number even, so to not honor him.. and... go! ... i got no problem with giving reyes and beltran a video montage. they were both important parts of the team while htey were here. and while their shared tenure didn't end up the way it was supposed to, they were both key ingredients to a resurgence of metly pride. their own battled with injuries diminished that resurgence, but the greater sins of the era fall on omar and the winpons. when healthy, they each did their part. and i'm certainly not one to fault a player for finding himself injured. neither left entirely of their own volition. sure, each could have elected to stay here, but would have had to volunteer to do so at a significantly below-market value. and while baseball money is funny munny, its still a lot to ask of a guy to turn down many tens of millions of dollars, especially since they would be asked to stay with a team with a shaky financial base, and no solid promise of a better future. were the wilpons in better financial straits, they could've made a push to retain each player, surely, and whatever love each player might (or perhaps might not) have for the blue and orange and all its faithful might then have bridged the gap between what a prudent offer was and what they could expect to see on the free market. but the 'pons were in no shape to make that gaping chasm anything less than would cause the daringest of daredevils to reconsider his leap.

Pelfrey 4.7 Davis 3.8 Nickeas 0.6 Wright 0.5 Thole 0.3 Duda 0.1

Niese 3.9 Wright 2.0 Duda 1.4 Parnell 1.2 Baxter 0.5 Murphy 0.5 Rauch 0.5

Dickey 4.7 Bay 1.8 Hairston 1.1 Murphy 0.8 Parnell 0.8 Francisco 0.8