Vic Sage

the Mets were better with him than without him in the years immediately preceding and following his Mets manageriacy. And he won us a pennant. and before all that, he did better with Texas than was either expected or justified by the team's talent. which could be said of the Mets as well. and i'd bet (but do not know) he did well in Japan, too. Whatever happened in Beantown, i blame the players. Apparently the owner did too as he shipped half of them out of town for a sack of magic beans. But Bobby is a whipping boy for the media (cuz he's smarter than them and he lets them know it), so he's demonized. Hell, for all i know about it, he deserved it this time. But he didn't deserve it here (with the Mets) and i wished he'd outlasted Steve (I'll fuck the cleaning lady now, thanks) Phillips and the Wilpons.

i think you should be able to have any or all of your 40-man roster at the BEGINNING of the season, in April, while guys are still getting into shape and pitchers are throwing fewer innings/pitches per game. You could give kids a longer look and give vets a running start. Then, you solidify the 25man roster on May1, and play with that roster through the rest of the season. I've never liked the big rosters in September, when some teams are just looking at their kids while playing teams competing for a post-season slot.

player / 2012 contract / 2013 status ("-" = under team's control) Johan Santana 23,145,011 / 25,500,000 Jason Bay 18,125,000 / 18,125,000 David Wright 15,250,000 / 16,000,000 Frank Francisco 5,500,000 / 6,500,000 R.A. Dickey 4,750,000 / 5,000,000 Jonathan Niese 819,500 / 3,050,000 Mike Pelfrey 5,687,500 / ARB Andres Torres 2,700,000 / ARB Manny Acosta 875,000 / ARB Daniel Murphy 512,196 / ARB Ike Davis 506,690 / ARB Bobby Parnell 504,000 / ARB Josh Thole 498,920 / ARB Dillon Gee 502,000 / - Ruben Tejada 491,209 / - Justin Turner 491,209 / - Mike Baxter 480,000 / - Matt Harvey - / - Jeremy Hefner - / - Kirk Nieuwenhuis - / - Garrett Olson - / - Jordany Valdespin - / - Tim Byrdak 1,000,000 / UFA Ronny Cedeno 1,150,000 / UFA Scott Hairston 1,100,000 / UFA Ramon Ramirez 2,650,000 / UFA Jon Rauch 3,500,000 / UFA Kelly Shoppach 1,350,000 / UFA

i don't care what anybody says, i love this stadium. I hate the TEAM, but i love the stadium. Their privateer owner doesn't deserve it.

A BOY AND HIS DOG is awesome. KRULL, however...

Your brief review totally disappoints (but hardly surprised) me. I had been on the lookout for this. Lee Majors? Chris Makepeace? Burgess Meredith? Dream cast! my "review" was just a two-word synopsis of general critical opinion about the flick ("bad SciFi") because i had not seen it. Have you? Please describe.

I'm always surprised that Vertigo is so well regarded: Hitchcock made far better films. It's good, but not like Psycho, North by Northwest, Strangers on a Train or Rear Window. The same with The Searchers; Ford was far better with She Wore a Yellow Ribon, Fort Apache, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. And 2001 is hardly Kubrick's best, either. It suffers because Kubrick painted himself into a corner, then gave up, using a flashy psychedelic light show instead of resolving their problem. It was the triumph of bright, shiny objects over plot and characterizations and is ultimately responsible for all the empty films that are special effects and nothing else. i don't think these judgments are that surprising. The voters in these types of polls are critics and directors, and what they are voting for isn't which film is most entertaining to an audience. Surely NORTH BY NORTHWEST (and a number of Hitchcock's other films) are more generally entertaining than VERTIGO. But VERTIGO is an excessively personal depiction of obsession leading to tragedy and it doesn't seem to care whether you like it or not. Same with SEARCHERS and 2001 (and other selections like ERASERHEAD). They speak of artists with guns blazing, balls out, with little to no interest if an audience finds their work entertaining or not. And that's what stands the test of time, and that's what critics respond to, IMO. Also, they are making lists of "greatest" films, not "best" films. Unlike "Best", "Greatness" speaks not just of quality but of largeness (of size and/or number); of something of an extreme or notable degree; and of something unusual or considerable in degree, power, intensity, etc. So while there may be better Hitchcock films than VERTIGO, i don't know that there is a greater one. ditto Ford/SEARCHERS and Kubrick/2001.

my problem with Fatscessa's rant isn't that its not factual or accurate -- it basically is, as far as that goes -- it's that it's not TRUTHFUL. The truth is that anybody looking at this team before the season started (at least anybody not looking through blue and orange colored glasses) would've had a hard time seeing a .500 team much less a playoff team, and most pundits predicted they wouldn't be... hell, i bet even Fatscessa predicted they wouldn't be (i don't listen to him anymore so i don't know what he predicted, but it seems likely enough that i'd bet it were so). So why all the outrage that they're 10 games under as September approaches? We're just about where everybody thought we'd be. Why the forced, phoney, fake vein-popping outrage? To get people to listen and talk about him, that's why. and here we are, doing it. move along, nothing to see here. no rubbernecking.

that's because the cut off man isn't a pitched ball. That's the Ceetar i wanna see more of. biting, cynical, tinged with anger. come, come to the dark side...

Gwreck wrote: Again, this isn't the "predict what the Mets will do" thread. oh sorry, i thought you were asserting that Bay was gonna be gone as a factual matter. like "trade Hairston, cuz he ain't gonna be here next year anyhow". or "why give up anything to get shoppach, since we don't control him next year?" you know, like that.

Sorry to Jason Bay and Andres Torres, I guess you're not playing ever again this year. I just don't care, though, seeing as how you won't be back next year. Torres may get non-tendered, but Bay ain't going anywhere. He's signed through next season with an unmoveable contract (and a buyout required for the following season) and i don't believe for second that the Wilpons will just eat it and release him outright. He WILL be back next year.

Ceetar wrote: What's with this down on Ike stuff? last 7 days OPS: 1.118 last 14 days OPS: .866 last 28 days OPS: .886 second half OPS: .858 August: .844 July: .794 (poor July really, only .257 OBP but 9 HR) okay, didn't realize this; he's had an excellent month, so i take it back. He's basically returned to form... a .260 power hitter who doesn't walk enough, and can't hit lefties or at CitiField. and streakier, apparently, than The Flash. yippee.

but what about the zither music?

Play the kids, plus whatever vets are signed for next year. You know what? that includes Bay. At least he works hard and doesn't make stupid mental errors. He catches the ball, throws to the right base, runs out grounders, knows when and how to steal a base. I don't know if he'll ever hit again, but guess what ... we've got $17m going to him next season, so lets see if he can. Bat him 7th. At least it will demonstrate that we're committed to sound fundamental mistake-free and attitude-free baseball, which is what Terry is ostensibly about. Play Valdespin (all `tude, but no gude) in CF; i don't think he can hit enough to be a corner OFer so lets see if he can play CF (like they began to do with him in the minors). Frankly, i think he's shiite, but certainly Torres is useless and Niewy and VDK are not ready. RF is good for Baxter for now. I've liked what i've seen from him so far. You can try and trade Hairston (we could have gotten more for him when i recommended this a month ago, but whatever). IF? Trade Murphy. seriously. let Cedeno finish the season. Bring up whatever MI has been doing well in the minors to give them a reward, even if not much playing time. but some. AS for Ike, he came back a bit in the 2nd half, but never all the way back and has regressed again. Put him on the 60-day DL and let him come back fresh next year. Give Duda the ABs. I'd also rather see Cam Maron, no matter how raw, or one of our other catching prospects, than see another game appearance wasted on Shoppach. Put Santana on the DL; he's done. if there's anything to be gotten from him, it'll have to be next year. Cut Hefner and bring up Wheeler and Mejia. Bullpen by committee, the way the baseball gods intended. no bunting. Sit any guy who fails to run out a grounder, throws to the wrong base, runs at the wrong time, mouths off, or otherwise displays a bad attitude. pick lineups out of a hat. fireworks nite every nite. mandatory tailgating; nobody over the age of 21 admitted to the park sober. live zither music a fan contest where the winner gets to whack Mr. Met's melon with a polo mallet until it busts open like a pinata and bobbleheads fall out. the contest losers have to keep the bobbleheads. disco demolition night Bring Koosman back as a 5th starter. Hell, as the 3rd starter. a dunking tank with Jeffy inside, wearing a tutu. wait'll next year.

i have no illusions about Jeter being denied 1st ballot HOF status 5 years after he retires (unless some damning personal facts come to light). But is he an all-time great, or more of an accumulator who benefited from the luck of hitting atop a high scoring (high priced) lineup for a very long time, without loss of skills or significant time to injury? What are the arguments against, if any? Just his deficit in the Black Ink test, and his overrated defense?

I wish i had the exclusive Haldol distributorship for this website.

Mets � Willets Point wrote: It looks like a 20-win season is not going to happen. what are you talking about? We've already got 57 wins, and with 40 games to go, we should at least triple 20 wins. maybe more!

wild horses couldn't drag me to this movie

to avoid a tag, not to beat a throw.

what FK said. ditto. dislike. This is a move you make if your in a race and you have a need. Otherwise, you don't give up a 25-year old power arm (whom you can control for a few more years) for 6 weeks of a 32-year old platoon catcher who will be a FA. It's not like Beato didn't show some promise last year; and it's not like he was given much of an opportunity this year. We do not yet know what he will be, while we DO know what Shoppach is, and its a barely adequate RHed platoon partner for Thole for the next 1 1/2 months. the only reason i didn't vote "hate" is because i don't want to overstate Beato's potential.

i could see a baseball game instead of ONCE? oh wait... a METS game. that's not quite the same as a baseball game now is it? ONCE more, with feeling!

PTBNL = Pedro Beato. me no likee.

nobody ever tells me nuthin.

so let me get this straight... we traded the future of a 25 year-old power-pitching reliever for 6 weeks of a mediocre old catcher whose best as the short end of a platoon? I'm sorry... are we in a pennant race that no one is aware of?

no, that's saying that the more times you flip the coin, you more likely you'll reach it's true balancing point (50/50, in the case of a coin). If you have a run of heads, the more likely you'll have a run of tails. Now that's meaningless in projecting what the next single toss is (its always a 50/50 shot with a balanced coin), but over the long run, "reversion to the mean" isn't an opinion. It's mathematical reality. of course the Mets don't have a 50/50 balancing point. Their balancing point is only knowable retroactively. But Pythagoras does give us some objective guideposts along the way to see where we are and allows us to estimate if a correction or reversion (or "adjustment" as you like to say) is likely.