DocTee

Voted. They should show the results like they do with other polls

Oh my. I..got nothing. Hilarious.

Thanks for all the help-- please don't waste your weekend looking for old pdfs on my behalf! I knew the connection between Mets and the Metropolitan Baseball Club (both 1880s and the 20th century corporation) but was confused why Metros was not the preferred shorter version. WP and Edgy, and Golenbock's anecdote, seem to answer that. Thanks again, EDIT: I know the houston franchise was the Colt .45s but wanted to see if SJR would take the bait or see if he had learned from Swan's NHL Playoffs lesson!

OK... While driving earlier this week, a radio report told of the collision of two Washington DC trains. My daughter asked why they were called METROS. I explained that they served the greater WDC metropolitan area. She then asked why the Mets were not called the Metros. I told here that the 1962 expansion brethren were the Astros, and MLB may not have wanted two new teams with such similiar names, but actually, I have no clue. I mean, Metros is probably more accurate, no? SJR? JCL?? FAFIF???

I said it before and I'll say it again: put Sheff at short. And fire the medical staff.

One series win this month (vs. Washington) I remember Bobby V stating that winning series was far more important than just about any measurement (Home-Road, Lefty-Righty) in determining a quality club.

I'd ax the medical staff. All of them-- doctors, trainers, masseuses. This is crazy.

Melvin Mora

]no one is the Yankees...the Mets do belong on...eh, maybe a third tier of great franchises. no comments needed

There are at least ten former major leaguers on the Newark team, if the roster on that page is current. 13 by my count if you look at the full roster.

Meet the Matz: Mets tab local lefty with first pick.

Giants take Wheeler with sixth pick. Zack Wheeler, that is, and not the one I had projected. He's still (surprisingly) on the board. OE: To Colorado with the last pick of the first round.

What a surprise...he manages a Hooters.

That'd be cool, since then I could hit his uncle up for free tix and whatnot.

I work with the uncle of Sacramento State CF Tim Wheeler (BA prospect #15). He's a great talent and a good kid. Only a Junior, but he holds all sorts of school (and some league) records. Wouldn't be surprised to see him go to the Giants at #7, who had him in recently for a look-see.

Another view of Billy and Rickey (courtesy SF Chronicle, 31 May) In 30 years as the A's traveling secretary, Mickey Morabito has traveled roughly 1.65 million miles. If you add the four years before that, when he was the Yankees' publicist, he's flown nearly 1.8 million miles. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To put that in perspective, he has flown enough miles to circumnavigate the egos of George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin and Reggie Jackson. He has met the Queen of England, President George H.W. Bush and Frank Sinatra. Of the three, he was most in awe of Sinatra. He has worked for two of the most controversial owners in baseball history, Steinbrenner and Charlie Finley. He has worked with two highly successful managers, Billy Martin and Tony La Russa, and been to six World Series. "Tony would always say the season is a marathon," Morabito said. "He didn't want the players to be too high or too down. That wasn't Billy's way at all. Every game was the seventh game of the World Series." While making all the A's travel arrangements, Morabito has had to deal with numerous transportation problems, even though the A's and other teams stopped flying commercial in the mid-'80s. On one scary occasion, the A's plane had a near-miss while descending into Oakland just as another plane was climbing. A trusted confidante Along the way, he has become a friend and confidante of managers, coaches and players. Morabito insists that the tempestuous Martin saved the A's franchise in Oakland. He argues that La Russa's 1988-90 A's should have been considered nearly on a par with Cincinnati's "Big Red Machine" of the 1970s as one of the greatest teams of all time. It was Martin who lured Morabito, now 58, to the A's in 1980. The two had become close during Martin's first two (of five) stints as the Yankees' manager. That first year in Oakland, he said, was one of the most enjoyable of the 30. The previous A's team had lost 108 games under manager Jim Marshall, but Martin, who was born and raised in Berkeley, pushed them to 83-79 and second place. "You could say that Billy single-handedly saved this franchise," Morabito said. That year, Finley agreed to sell the team to Marvin Davis, who was going to move the team to Denver. The deal fell through, and Oakland officials and business people sought local investors to buy the team, leading to the purchase by Walter Haas. "If Billy doesn't come here in 1980 and create that excitement," Morabito said, "I don't know if the A's are even here." That might be overstating Martin's contribution. With the Raiders' announcement that they were moving to Los Angeles, Oakland wasn't about to let the A's out of their lease. Martin brought winning There was no disputing the fact that Martin had brought about a radical improvement in the A's. "What happens with a team sometimes is that losing begets losing, and people get comfortable with losing," Morabito said. "Billy was never comfortable around losing. After a game, he would slam his door shut or scream at the coaches or somebody. The guys would be frightened about this a little bit. I think Billy almost scared that team into winning." In the strike-shortened 1981 season, the A's reached the American League Championship Series before losing to the Yankees. Morabito, who grew up in New York, had been a Yankees batboy at age 18 and their public relations director at age 25. That meant he was thrust at a tender age into what he called the "Vicious Triangle" of Steinbrenner, Martin and slugger Reggie Jackson. In the late 1970s, they were the center of the infighting that made the Yankee clubhouse the Bronx Zoo. "You'd come in and some days Reggie and Billy would be together and they'd be mad at George," Morabito said. "Some days Reggie and George were mad at Billy. Or Billy and George were mad at Reggie. You'd come in and say, 'Who's on what side today?' " Martin gets mouthy Martin was fired in 1978 after telling reporters, "They deserve each other. One's a born liar (Jackson) and the other's convicted (Steinbrenner, who had been convicted of making illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon in 1972)." Steinbrenner changed his mind about Martin, and the Yankees announced he would return as skipper the following season. Without the owner's knowledge, Morabito and general manager Al Rosen arranged for a lunch meeting with Martin and the beat writers. "Somebody asks Billy about Reggie, and Billy's had a couple of glasses of wine, so he goes off on Reggie," Morabito said. "After the luncheon, I know I'm dead." Save by newspaper strike Incensed over the lunch idea, Steinbrenner said, "Morabito, if you're so smart, let's see how this comes out in the papers." Picturing banner headlines of Martin ripping Jackson and certain he was about to lose his job, Morabito found out - to his relief - that the New York papers went on strike that night. "So I survived." Martin died in a one-car crash in Fenton, N.Y., on Christmas Day 1989. He and a friend, who was driving, had been drinking heavily. Morabito served as a pall-bearer at the funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. Thousands lined the procession route. "It was like the president was coming through," Morabito said. "New Yorkers related to Billy. They loved him. They never related to Reggie. They liked Reggie, but if it ever came down to Billy or Reggie they were going to back Billy." What about between Martin and Steinbrenner? "Billy was their boy." The cast of characters Here are Mickey Morabito's thoughts about some of the people he has worked with during his 30 years as the A's traveling secretary and his four years before that as the Yankees' publicist. Mark McGwire - "One of the more misunderstood guys right now. Mac has always been quiet. He's getting the reputation that he's a recluse. He really isn't. This is just the way he was. He never sought publicity. It came after him." Jose Canseco - "Totally the opposite. A guy that was loud and brash and sought the limelight. The sad thing is, he was a five-tool player but fell in love with hitting home runs and unfortunately stopped working on (the rest of) his game." Rickey Henderson - "One of the funniest guys I've ever been around. He had an on-off switch. He could be moody and pout a little bit, but when he turned the switch on, there was nobody better." Tony La Russa - "The most intense, most organized guy I've ever been around. Constantly thinking about the game. At a bar or restaurant, you're trying to relax, and Tony will pull out a napkin and start writing the lineup for the next day." Bill King, the late A's broadcaster - "He could be the classiest individual out there. He loved fine dining, the ballet, the opera. On the other end, he could slop food, he was one of the more casual dressers you could see, and he had this beat-up old car. He was like two people." Billy Martin - "Billy managed by his gut. In this day with scouting reports and videos, Billy would say, 'I know what I want to do. I don't need charts and graphs.' They'd send matchups (statistics) to him, and he'd say, 'I already know what the hitter has done against this pitcher.' " Dennis Eckersley - "If he wasn't on your team, you hated him. You always thought he was showing you up. But as a competitor, you wanted him on your team." Dave Stewart - "One of the nicest people I've been around in this game. Cared about everybody around him. He's one of those guys you meet in your life who, if you were down and out, you could call and he'd be there to help you out." Thurman Munson - "We used to play hockey with a roll of tape in the Yankees' clubhouse. Once I stepped on his hand, and the other players (jokingly) said, 'You're done. You broke Thurman's hand.' When he died in the plane crash in Ohio, we had to find Billy, who was out fishing. When I told him, Billy broke down and cried like a baby." Reggie Jackson - "A little moody. When he got on the field, he played hard. He wanted to be in the limelight. He went out in New York. He loved to see and be seen. He was an interesting guy to be around." George Steinbrenner - "When a fireman or policeman got killed in New York City, he made sure the families had everything they needed, like money for the kids for school. With all the publicity he did want, he didn't want anybody to know about this."

I think tonight's starter (Snell) is the one who accused the Mets of stealing his signs the last time they met. Could bear watching.

Joel Pineiro: 3 H 5K CG Shutout of Cubs.

So much for the speculation that Church would be nailed to the bench.

]Angel Pagan? why the fuck does Jerry hate Church so much? Was he abused by a priest as a child? Post o' the month right there.

Play Sheff at Short. It's his original position!

Did Valadius just hack into Soup's account?

My little league teams were all cats: Jaguars, Panthers, Lions, Tigers, Bobcats...the Lions were the powerhouse. When we moved to majors, the four teams were Mets, Braves, Pirates and Giants... the uniforms were gray, with a colored logo-less hat and stirrups to differentiate the teams--Pirates were yellow, Mets blue, Giants orange and my braves, purple. Then to Babe Ruth (Green Machine). We played in Central Park and beneath the Queensboro Bridge on some clay tennis courts that left my sneakers and clothes perpetually ruddy.

My 8 year old daughter plays softball...this is her first year after two in boys-girls little league (tee ball and farms, where the machine pitches). Many of the girls on her team have played together and there's a bit of a parent clique(including the manager and two coaches). Rachel often bats near the bottom of the lineup, even though she is very close to the abilities of those higher in the order. She takes it all in stride and barely notices...I complained about the apparent favoritism, but realize that I shouldn't get worked up about it-- funny that I learn these lessons in sportsmanship from my child.

Castro and Ollie with much to prove