Fman99

Look at little Mex out there at 1st! That was big.

Weaver out of the game and ol Penis-Nose pinch hitting another pitcher up there. OK then.

Oh our 7-8 hitters look just plain sad out there. Now with Martinez in at leadoff this is quite the spineless lineup. Beltran and Wright and turn out the light.

Ashie62 wrote: ="metsguyinmichigan"]Oh shoot, Reyes is hurt. Murphy now moved to SS as Mets sign Mr. Plum & Colonel Mustard I think you mean Professor Plum...

Swan Swan H wrote: Is that Jane Seymour sitting behind the plate? No, just a couple of chicks not paying any mind at all to the game. Unless they start making out I say they are bringing NOTHING to tonight's broadcast.

Murph with the nice leather! I have encouragement.

Darnit.

Wow, I was actually anticipating those outs with the hope that Livan could plate a run for himself. How sad.

Wow, Murphy dancing around the base on the replay there. Not encouraging.

Well crud. Nary a HR on this road trip, now seven games in? Gay.

Without Dave Duncan Jeff Weaver is, well, Jeff Weaver. Which is great news for Mets fans. He said hopefully.

Swan Swan H wrote: PBR has gone 360 on the wheel of cool. So it sucks?

I have more confidence now knowing that the Weave cut off his awesome mullet. He looks mortal now.

metirish wrote: ="Fman99"]The great thing about baseball is that you get a fresh slate every game. Put yesterday in the rearview mirror and start over, 0-0. Brand new game. Are you OK? I'm trying to sell myself the concept of eternal optimism in the face of repeated ineptitude and general suckliciousness. Plus I poured a vodka 7.

The great thing about baseball is that you get a fresh slate every game. Put yesterday in the rearview mirror and start over, 0-0. Brand new game.

My own profanity-and-idiocy-laced poetry. Worthy of The New Yorker? I say yes. http://cranepoolforum.net/phpbb2/search.php?search_author=Fman99 The CPF -- it's fantarded! No drinking = no late night wit and wisdom Sick. For Throneberry's sake Just fired up a four person challenge Oh, Lord, let's see if Mrs. Lima is in attendance please. I am sorry I ever doubted Timmy and his chin-merkin Kevin Burkhart interviewing some old crank while holding his ball. Yes, that's right. Is Ron Jeremy at the game tonight? The neon "Loudmouths" logo actually looks like two guys trying to suck the same cock. Frank McCourt looks like his face is in the process of imploding, like a neutron star. Ha!

The CPF -- it's fantarded!

="Gwreck":2zbz3uwt]="Benjamin Grimm":2zbz3uwt]There are times when I'm listening to Gary, Keith, and/or Ron and I think, if I wasn't a Mets fan watching right now, I'd be groaning and calling them a group of clowns.[/quote:2zbz3uwt] I can see that. My general impression is: Gary + Ron = always very intelligent Gary + Keith + Ron = mostly good, although too much joking can distract from focus of game Gary + Keith = problematic, as Gary can get dragged down by Keith's irreverence/goofiness/etc. The problem generally is Keith. A little more focus and a little less buffoonery would do him well.[/quote:2zbz3uwt] I disagree. I love all three of them. The best combo is all three but any of the above choices are great. I like Keith's non-chalance and I think both Darling and Mex bring some intelligent analysis mixed with humor as well. The only guy doing Mets games these days that I still do not like is Wayne Hagin on the radio. He's a hack. Maybe it's because he used to work for another MLB team and doesn't have the former Met/long-time Met fan weight that Howie Rose, Cohen, Mex and Darling all carry. Plus national broadcasts of Mets games starring the boobs of ESPN and Fox (Morgan, Phillips, Buck, McCarver, etc.) are, of course, all just terrible. They should throw themselves collectively down a well and survive on eating each other's small and unimaginiative brains, entrails and anuses. Gwreck May 20 2009 07:44 AM ="Fman99":2zwys8h1]The only guy doing Mets games these days that I still do not like is Wayne Hagin on the radio. He's a hack. Maybe it's because he used to work for another MLB team and doesn't have the former Met/long-time Met fan weight that Howie Rose, Cohen, Mex and Darling all carry.[/quote:2zwys8h1] Realizing that we're really at split territory in this thread... Wayne's hardly a hack. It took me a while to acclimate to him but he's brought good perspective to the team and I appreciate his honesty (he doesn't hold back when criticism is warranted). The two things I don't like about him are that his otherwise laid-back style is in sharp contrast to his home run calls, and that on hits with men on base, he's slow to tell the listener about the advancement of the runners around the bases. Seems like he focuses on the ball first and the runners' movement gets passed on after the play ends. Frayed Knot May 20 2009 07:58 AM My only reservations about Keith concern what he'd be like with a bad team in front of him. I'm afraid he'd get bored rather easily and would slip into full Phil Rizzutto mode except that his occasional bouts of 'I'd rather be in Sag Harbor' disinterest wouldn't be as cute. Other than that for the high-school jock sandwiched between two Ivy Leaguers he plays the role well enough without overdoing the stereotype. John Cougar Lunchbucket May 20 2009 07:59 AM I still haven't warmed much to Hagin either. I like him only sometimes. It's not just that he doesn't call plays fast enough for me; he often gets caught up in the middle of anything he's saying and forces out some crap just to complete the sentence. It's as if he catches himself making a cliche and decides mid-stream not to go through with it. It's not good rythym. Plus he's got that creepy Midwestern/other team perspective that clashes with Howie's hopeless New Yorkishness. Howie wants to talk about Rusty Staub and Grover Powell; and Hagin wants to talk about Mark Clear and Gene Tanace. Howie wants to talk about My Mother the Car and Hagin wants to talk about Bonanza. It's a little off. SteveJRogers May 20 2009 09:56 AM ="seawolf17":1lpp27t8]="soupcan":1lpp27t8]The whole Yankee broadcast team - Sterling, Waldman, Kay, O'Neill, etc. are just one of the many reasons I'm glad I'm not a Yankee fan.[/quote:1lpp27t8] The problem is, MFY fans must eat this crap up, or it wouldn't sell. I don't know what I'd do if Gary Cohen was that unlistenable. Would I even notice? I don't know.[/quote:1lpp27t8] Actually two popular threads on NYYFans.com are "Petiton To Remove Michael Kay From YES" and "Petition To Remove John Sterling From CBS Radio" so I'd gather it is mixed in terms of Yankee fandom with their annoucing teams. John Cougar Lunchbucket May 20 2009 09:58 AM Nice of Rogers to take some time off that place to visit his enemies here. SteveJRogers May 20 2009 10:12 AM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on May 20 2009 10:34 AM ="John Cougar Lunchbucket":1gwq7fqn]Nice of Rogers to take some time off that place to visit his enemies here.[/quote:1gwq7fqn] Could be worse, over at PhilaPhans.com they've been bashing Tom McCarthy for drawing Mike Piazza references to Ryan Howard tape measure blasts. Over at Dodger BlueBalls they actually consider Vin Scully a bit overatted because he is such a sacred cow out there. soupcan May 20 2009 10:19 AM ="SteveJRogers"]Over at Dodger BlueBalls they actually consider Vin Scully a bit overatted because he is such a scared cow out there. Hmmm, that doesn't look like Vin. LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr May 20 2009 10:48 AM ="soupcan"]="SteveJRogers"]Over at Dodger BlueBalls they actually consider Vin Scully a bit overatted because he is such a scared cow out there. Hmmm, that doesn't look like Vin. It's play by play-- I think he meant that Vin sounded like a scared cow. And speaking of scary... http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090518&content_id=4799820&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb A Boy Named Seo May 20 2009 10:59 AM ="Frayed Knot"]My only reservations about Keith concern what he'd be like with a bad team in front of him. I'm afraid he'd get bored rather easily and would slip into full Phil Rizzutto mode except that his occasional bouts of 'I'd rather be in Sag Harbor' disinterest wouldn't be as cute. Other than that for the high-school jock sandwiched between two Ivy Leaguers he plays the role well enough without overdoing the stereotype. Keith gets bored now with a pretty good team. His bafoonery is what makes him my favorite, though. I think Gary is a supremely knowledgeable Met guy, clearly a fan but not annoyingly so. Ron is very knowledgable, but (sometimes) a bland cliche-machine. Keith brings life to the booth, though because he's so not polished and he doesn't pander to the Mets or the network. He knows the game, has fun most of the time, but will tell you when he'd rather be at home watching Cavuto or whatever. Sometimes we'd all rather be somewhere else. I can't argue it's not unprofessional, but it's refreshing to me anyway and I think he's damn funny. G-Fafif May 20 2009 01:04 PM Keith Olbermann story about Vin Scully that makes even Michael Kay seem likable. Gary referenced it one of the last two nights. ]The advent of the Mets' annual visit to Dodger Stadium always reminds me of one of the greatest baseball stories nobody tells. Let's correct that. A decade ago, when I was still working full-time in sports and in Los Angeles, it was the Yankees coming to town for an exhibition game, and, with them, my friend Michael Kay, at that time still a member of their radio team. Michael is usually pretty direct, but on the field before the game, he was hemming and hawing something awful until I finally blurted "out with it!" He explained he was just too nervous to introduce himself to the legendary Vin Scully, even though both were not only major league broadcasters, but also alums of Fordham University in New York. Mike was still repeating his apology when I explained I knew exactly how he felt. When I had first worked in Los Angeles as a local sportscaster in the '80s, it had taken me two years to screw up the courage to introduce myself to this nonpareil of my business. As I reassured Michael, Vin was easily the nicest famous person in the sport, maybe in the country. And he always had a story that in some way related to you. Little did I know. As Michael began to hyperventilate, I made the introductions. Vin asked about Fordham, about Mike's youth, about his newspaper career, about the Yankees. And then came the story: "Michael, did you know; Keith, I don't even think I told you this -- I nearly became the Voice of the Yankees?" Absolute silence for two or three beats, and then, from Kay and Olbermann, a joint "whaaaat?" "When the Yankees let Mel Allen go in 1964, I got a phone call from the man who they had brought in to run their broadcasting operation, Craig Smith," Vin began. "He had been in charge of the World Series broadcasts forever, so I'd known him about ten years by then. And he asked me if I'd like to come home to New York and become the lead announcer. He offered a very handsome salary, and a long contract. "Well, I was amazed, as you can imagine. I'd found a wonderful home here in Los Angeles, but remember, this was only seven years after the Dodgers left Brooklyn. I was still a New Yorker through and through. Plus, here was a chance to work again with Red Barber. And recall, too, that this was just before the Yankee dynasty collapsed. As much as Mr. O'Malley had done here and in Brooklyn, the Yankees were still the marquee name in sports. If it had been 1958 or 1959, when I still missed New York so, I would've said yes before he hung up the phone." "So, I thought long and hard about that one. But I had a young family, and I think we had all just truly adjusted to living here - takes just about seven years, I think - and in the end I turned it down." Michael and I each sputtered various observations about how changed the baseball world might have been. Vin Scully doing the Yankee games? Would the franchise still have ebbed with such a benign but effective salesman at the microphone? Would the Dodgers' roots, still growing in 1964-1965, have gone in as deeply as they did? Would CBS's failed experiment in corporate ownership have succeeded, and George Steinbrenner never have bought the Yankees? What would have happened to the man to whom the Yankees gave the job Scully turned down? Would Joe Garagiola have ever wound up on The Game Of The Week, or The Today Show? Vin laughed. "Oh, to tell the truth, I don't think it'd made that much difference. It's not very important." He excused himself to go back to preparing for his broadcast, and, as usual, made it seem like I had done him a great favor by introducing Michael to him. After Vin had left, Michael and I sat there on the Dodger bench for a few moments in silence. Then he said "If he had been the Yankee announcer when I was growing up, I never would have dreamed of applying for a job as his gopher, let alone as his partner." I told him that once again I knew how he felt - it was very tough knowing that my sportscasts often preceded Vin's play-by-play on cable. It seemed somehow a sacrilege to pretend to deserve to be on the same channel. Still, think of it: 45 years of "Hi again everybody, it's time for Yankee Baseball!" Or maybe Steinbrenner would've quarreled with Vin and eased him out. Or, likeliest of all the alternate-galaxy theories: working in New York, where in the '60s all the network and advertising executives were still located, Vin Scully would've gone on to the Game Of The Week, or something even higher up on the tv food chain, a lot earlier than he actually did. Who knows - maybe he'd still be doing it - and doing it on NBC. Frayed Knot May 20 2009 01:41 PM ]Keith brings life to the booth, ... Yeah, I'm just afraid he wouldn't if stuck with a team going nowhere. There's a difference to going off the tracks every once in a while during a dull game or long pitching-change filled innings, it's another if it's all game every game. But that's just my speculation and am getting ahead of myself here. Hope we don't find out anytime soon. G-Fafif May 20 2009 04:01 PM State of the booths as heard from here: Keith Hernandez is a wild card/loose cannon. Some nights a gem, some nights a goof. Not the baseball genius I thought he'd be. An original, to be sure. I'd miss him if he left. Ron is a real jock, which is not a bad thing. He really likes being part of a team in there. Sounds happy when he doesn't have to be "Ron Darling, Yalie" and can be Ronnie, one of the guys. A good fit with each of his partners. More comfortable in contemporary climes than Keith. Someday Wayne Hagin will be doing the Royals or the Twins or the Astros and bring up the way David Wright charges a ball and his listeners will scratch their heads at why he's always referring to some random New York Met. Conversely, those among us who aren't obsessed with such matters will say, in five years, "oh yeah, Wayne Hagin, I forgot about him." He's an insightful observer of baseball matters, a pretty good announcer of baseball games. I don't know that he'll ever be a Mets broadcaster except in name. It's not that we have high standards; we have specific standards. I like him a good deal, but I can't quite get used to him. Howie Rose is a conversationalist, which is a lost craft in broadcasting today. He came into the business when civility and boundaries were implicit and sports was something people loved, not an all-pervasive industry. He's a bit of an anachronism in that sense, and a welcome one, even as curmudgeonliness slips into his delivery more and more. I don't think of him as a great play-by-play guy probably because I think of him as a great talk show host. He's wonderful between the pitches, sounds like he's putting on when he becomes an announcer (though not as badly as Michael Kay does). He and Hagin will never, ever mesh. That's neither's fault. Howie should keep his seat as long as he wants. Mets fans deserve a Mets voice on the radio. Gary Cohen is a conductor. He is a maestro. He grows as a broadcaster every year. He was the best thing since Vin Scully on radio and he's lifted his game to a high level on TV. He conducts. He moves the game along. He moves Keith and Ron along without stopping traffic. He still calls the action brilliantly. He questions what needs to be questioned, he emphasizes what needs to be emphasized and he sees what's coming. I'm in awe that he's the Mets' voice of record (and am ever thankful that SNY's original offer to Dave O'Brien to serve in that role was rejected). Whereas Howie seems like a Mets fan who grew up to broadcast Mets games, Gary seems like a broadcaster who was a Mets fan when he was a kid. Gary Cohen and Bob Murphy were a great team. Gary Cohen and Howie Rose were a great team. Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling are a great team. I don't think the common denominator is a coincidence. bmfc1 May 22 2009 06:37 AM G-Fafif said what I would have said, so I will just recommend your watching this video (NSFW!!!):

Swan Swan H wrote: Never read the Hobbit, but I know a 1-2-3 inning when I see one. Back tomorrow, same bat-time, same bat-channel. Only went four innings last night. No drinking = no late night wit and wisdom from me. But jeez, we don't get a getaway matinee today? I was hoping for a 4 PM start or something I could watch/listen to in its entirety. Fuck.

Twenty unearned runs so far in 2009. Ten years ago the Mets allowed 20 unearned runs over all of their games. Sick.

For Throneberry's sake. That is some bad defense, glove blocking his view of the ball as it comes at him.

Fman99 wrote: Ron Darling rightly calling out the Mets for their god-awful extra innings play last night. Good. Not that they listened. Murphy runs the Mets out of the inning with white-hot David Wright at the plate. D'oh.

Ron Darling rightly calling out the Mets for their god-awful extra innings play last night. Good.

Funny that Church could go from being benched for the better part of two weeks to being the #5 hitter. :sigh: Need more lineup depth methinks.