Willets Point

I forgot to ask for one. Is it too late?

Yancy Street Gang wrote: ="Nymr83"]where do you see that? or is this something only visible to admins? Yes. I can peek under the covers and see who's leading for the day. I don't have it exposed to visitors because they might be tempted to manipulate the results. It's been known to happen! Who would do a thing like that? It would be unfair to the Billy Wynne's of the world.

More?!

="MFS62"]I wonder if they'll give the turncoat a reversible blazer to wear when on camera. Later Mazilli + blazer =

Is this shit not settled yet?

Well sarcasm doesn't work if actually say what I mean.

Omar already signed the Great Glavine and the Indomitable Duque. What more do you people want. Those are two bona fide aces!!!

duan wrote: I'd be MUCH happier with Floyd as a hitter then Shawn Green. Seconded.

cleonjones11 wrote: ="metirish"]] Did I mention that Burgos is more than 3 years younger than Bannister? Or that he�s moving to the inferior league? Or that the scouting impression of Bannister is that of a #4/#5 starter at best? inferior league?........ We don't have a 4th or 5th starter Correction, we have nothing but 4th and 5th starters.

Scary thought: The way things are going Tom Glavine is going to be the Mets "ace" next season.

Edgy DC wrote: But it's going to take at least a dozen warheads to take out those cities, Steve. POTD.

Without looking at hard statistics I'd gather that 50+ years ago the most popular spectator sports in the USA were baseball, boxing, and horse racing. With the exception of some over hyped heavyweight title bouts and the Triple Crown races, these sports have moved to the fringes. In fact, I think NASCAR has taken over the racing niche in a high-tech format and professional wrestling by being blatantly fake is more acceptable the boxing's corruption. Compared to these baseball is still going strong and nothing has replaced it's niche. The sports market is a lot wider than it ever has been and people have a lot more time and money to spend watching sports on TV and in person, and obviously people follow more than one sport. Baseball has lost it's unique place as the National Pastime and most popular sport, but at the same time I think more people are following baseball now than they did in its glory days. So I'm not worried about baseball, it has its place, it has its fans, it has its tradition and I don't think any of that is going away anytime soon. Oh, and cats are better than dogs.

Johnny Dickshot wrote: Seaver once recited that poem in Sweden, where inspired audiences included musicians from a young ABBA wannabee band searching, until that moment, for a name. One could even say they saw it as a sign, and it opened up their eyes.

Best baseball/football comparison ever, by George Carlin: ]Baseball is different from any other sport, very different. For instance, in most sports you score points or goals; in baseball you score runs. In most sports the ball, or object, is put in play by the offensive team; in baseball the defensive team puts the ball in play, and only the defense is allowed to touch the ball. In fact, in baseball if an offensive player touches the ball intentionally, he's out; sometimes unintentionally, he's out. Also: in football,basketball, soccer, volleyball, and all sports played with a ball, you score with the ball and in baseball the ball prevents you from scoring. In most sports the team is run by a coach; in baseball the team is run by a manager. And only in baseball does the manager or coach wear the same clothing the players do. If you'd ever seen John Madden in his Oakland Raiders uniform,you'd know the reason for this custom. Now, I've mentioned football. Baseball & football are the two most popular spectator sports in this country. And as such, it seems they ought to be able to tell us something about ourselves and our values. I enjoy comparing baseball and football: Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game. Football is a twentieth-century technological struggle. Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park.The baseball park! Football is played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium. Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life. Football begins in the fall, when everything's dying. In football you wear a helmet. In baseball you wear a cap. Football is concerned with downs - what down is it? Baseball is concerned with ups - who's up? In football you receive a penalty. In baseball you make an error. In football the specialist comes in to kick. In baseball the specialist comes in to relieve somebody. Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness. Baseball has the sacrifice. Football is played in any kind of weather: rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog... In baseball, if it rains, we don't go out to play. Baseball has the seventh inning stretch. Football has the two minute warning. Baseball has no time limit: we don't know when it's gonna end - might have extra innings. Football is rigidly timed, and it will end even if we've got to go to sudden death. In baseball, during the game, in the stands, there's kind of a picnic feeling; emotions may run high or low, but there's not too much unpleasantness. In football, during the game in the stands, you can be sure that at least twenty-seven times you're capable of taking the life of a fellow human being. And finally, the objectives of the two games are completely different: In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line. In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! - I hope I'll be safe at home!

Selig retires in 2009. Bush's term ends in 2009, but he's probably not ready for quiet retirement. I think we're getting an inkling on who's in line for the next commisioner.

Quotes from Kamp Glavine: "Oh! They drove a dumptruck full of money up to my house. I'm not made of stone! But I'm going to make it up to you kids. I'm going to take you to the happiest place on Earth...Tijuana!"

Glavine has a camp? He's not demanding that his contract include a tent is he?

Edgy DC wrote: Why is it so important or so beneficial to the game if the commissioner announces his retirement three years in advance? Seeing how long it took to find a new commissioner last time (and then they just officialized the de facto commissioner), perhaps the three year lead time gives them a head start in finding Selig's replacement.

Oh and make all contracts for one year. That's right, each and every offseason every single player is a free agent. That will ensure that players are given fair pay and opportunity for movement while avoiding ridiculously high salaries. (Even as I type this I'm sure there's something dreadfully wrong with this proposal, but what the hell, I'm throwing out ideas).

No way should MLB go to 4 team divisions, that NFL crap weakens competition. My realignment plan creates 4 larger regional divisions. NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST Baltimore Boston New York Mets New York Yankees Philadelphia Pittsburgh Toronto Washington Schedule v. East = 14/team v. Central = 8/team NATIONAL LEAGUE CENTRAL Chicago Cubs Chicago White Sox Cincinatti Cleveland Detroit Milwaukee Minnesota St. Louis v. Central = 14/team v. East = 8/team AMERICAN LEAGUE SOUTH Atlanta Florida Houston Kansas City Tampa Bay Texas v. South = 20/team (18v. one team) v. West = 8/team AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST Arizona Colorado Los Angeles Angels Los Angeles Dodgers Oakland San Diego San Francisco Seattle v. South = 8/team v. West = 14/team (16 v. one team) Post-season: top 2 teams of each division qualify. #1 team of each division plays the #2 team of the opposing division in the first round. Winners advance to the LCS, with the World Series to follow. I'm a traditionalist but the differences between the NL & AL have been obliterated and what we have now with the 4-6 team divisions and interleague play is half-assed. My plan puts all the historical baseball regions in the senior circuit and most of the expansion/movement franchise in the junior circuit. Regional play should encourage rivalries, reduce games played in a different time zone and the amount of travel for the players, while encouraging fans to travel to away games. Plus almost every game is against a divisional rival so they'll all count towards going up or down in the standings in a pennant race. There's room for expansion in the smaller AL South division (where expansion is most likely to occur under current demographic trends) but I wouldn't promote actually expanding until the circumstances are ripe for expansion. Another idea I think might work would be a European football-style promotion/regulation system, but I think the initial implementation would probably be too difficult. Basically in that case all the cities currently with AAA teams would gain independent franchises added to the current MLB franchises and the 60 teams would be divided into 3 twenty team tiers. These other proposals put forth by Ralphraddsage, I enthusiastically second: ]- WS winner plays winner of Japan/Europe/South-Central American championship series 3) other rule changes: - eliminate DH - expand roster to 26 - municipal funding for ballparks ONLY if municipality owns a majority interest in the team; - eliminate draft, arbitration and anti-trust exemption - 50% revenue sharing with visiting team; and 50% revenue sharing between players/owners (with a % off the top going to a fund for retired players in need); - requirement of at least 10% of each team's games sold to broadcast tv; - 7pm weeknite starts, 1pm on weekends (including post-season) - kids tix (3-12) 1/2 price for all games - Post-season awards: Ruth = best offensive player Cy Young = best starting pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm = best reliever Ty Cobb = best baserunner gg = best fielder at each position / ss = best hitter at each position + Robinson/Clemente citizenship award; and post-season MVP

Frayed Knot wrote: Am I the only one who noticed that Glavine was our best starter last year? ... I don't get the view that Glavine departure is some kind of addition by subtraction. Maybe you don't get it because no one has actually stated this as a case of "addition by subtraction" until you mentioned it. As stated above -- and ignored by you in favor of mischaracterizing my position with your typical condescension -- I was in favor of bringing back Glavine to be the veteran presence in next year. The problem is that Omar (foolishly) signed Orlando Hernandez to a two year contract. The Mets cannot afford to compound that mistake by building their rotation around two (or more) aging former star pitchers in decline. The NL East will not be a cake walk next season. The Phillies were great and you can expect them to get better. The Marlins caught everyone by surprise last season and should continue to be challenging next season. And the Braves faded last season, but I suspect they'll be back in form in the coming year. Hell, even the Nationals while not very good are not an "easy win". In this state of competition the Mets may finish first but could easily finish fourth if they chose to rest on their laurels. Thus Omar needs to aggressively rebuild the rotation through trades, free agent signings, investigating the international market and developing young pitchers from within the system. Starting out with a rotation lead by Glavine, Hernandez, and a questionably healthy Martinez and hoping that because they used to be great and have shown flashes of their former brilliance in their time as Mets just seems like a cross-your-fingers-and-hope-for-the-best type of plan, and I cannot support that. As you state Glavine was our best starter last season, and if this is the case then that's a sign of trouble. If the Mets retain Glavine it must be in a situation where he is the 4th or 5tht best pitcher in the rotation, not the ace, because Glavine's best is just not good enough for a team that wants to win the division and hopefully a championship.

Frayed Knot wrote: Boy, wouldn't that just solve all our pitching woes if true! Well, hopefully it would force Omar to commit to building the rotation without pitchers who were great for the Braves and Yankees in 1998. I actually would have supported signing Glavine, but after signing Orlando Hernandez I can't be in favor of it assuming the Mets want to be serious about contending next season on something more than wishes and faded glory. Besides, this way the Mets get to bat against Glavine, which should be fun.

'Twouldn't be the first time I got coal in my stocking (or an overpaid has-been pitcher clogging the rotation).

It's like Christmas in November. I tingle with anticipation.

No more insular than Canada or Japan (for example). You'll notice that Babe Ruth (nor any other gaijin) is not in the Japanese Hall of Fame even if it could be argued that his tours in Japan helped popularize the sport there. In a sense, I think it would be arrogant for the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown to just declare themselves the worldwide Hall of Fame. I think it would be better to start an International Baseball Hall of Fame or work things out with baseball federations worldwide first.