Zvon

Vic Sage wrote: i was 12 in 1973, and that was very much my team (more so than even `69, when i was not quite so absorbed by my Metdom). But the 73 team was a mediocre .500 team that overachieved by beating the big red machine in the playoffs. I had no expectation of winning against the As in the series, and have no great need to right that "wrong", where the better team won. any of you who lived through 2000 and yet are still willing to pick any other year to change the result of, are dead to me... dead to me, i tell you. That's 10 of you so far... i'm keeping track. oh wait, Gweck said he meant to vote 2000 but accidentally voted 2006. So he's alive again. But the other 9 of you... dead to me. I didn't count so I don't know if you're counting me. I said earlier I made no choice. I amend that to say I choose em all. Undead?

Edgy MD wrote: I might support that rule. No way he breaks Seaver's percentage record under such circumstances. This is my only concern. Does he beat Toms record? If he does that'll bug me.

BTW, great photo for my collection, thank you

Was a '67 card right for him? He must be in that '67 SGT PEPPER parody cuz I know that ugly mug all too well.

I saw this at F&FiF and I'm glad you shared it here, because what I want to say would be too long a reply. To choose between those years......they all were important to me. 1973: I was so tight with the team. Went to so many games. Went to the playoffs. I really felt, right up until the last out, that they would and could make '73 as big a Cinderella story as '69. But I was there this time, for this one. They had to win it all. It was their destiny. Nope. Valuable lesson though. We fell short but in my thinking we excelled far. I was very happy and proud that the '73 Mets played 176 games. Bonus baseball! But if they won this one....might have changed my whole outlook on a number of things at such a young age. I learned that no matter how hard you want to win (very badly in this case) you have to take losing in stride and still hold your head high. 1988: Even though I moved hundreds of miles away I went to a bunch of games at Shea. Went to the playoffs. Was big into baseball cards again after many years away from the hobby. This was the second 80's championship that never came to be. This was gonna be a shoe in. Nope. Don't feel as strongly about this one but I felt we had the best Met team of the 80s there, and shows how baseball is so interesting in that there's what you expect to happen, and what happens. 1999: Another big dry spell for us. But so far we had won one championship every decade, so this was gonna be our one. I had no doubt. It had to happen. I even told friends at the time (none Met fans) that the Mets went all the way one time every decade and they were just gonna get this one in the nick of time. Nope. This was important. The Mets broke their spiritual promise to me to go all the way once every ten years. 2000: So I tried to lie and tell everyone that this was still part of the last decade and the Mets would get their due. No one called me a lair. Ignoring me was easier. But on top of that, this was the bout of the century for us Met fans. It was the ultimate face-off, Mets vs. Yankees in the big show. A subway series!. We were gonna make history by beating the Yanks in the World Series! Met history, Yankee history, baseball history, New York City history, etc,etc. Nope. I blame Timo, who I thought was there to be our savior. 2006: At this point I changed my story to say that the Mets made the post season once a decade, not making winning it all a factor. So for this decade (2010-2019..or 2010 to 2020 if they wanna stretch it) we still have 6 years to get back there. I've learned to give the Mets a wide berth when it comes to demanding or expecting anything from them. Like Jon Stewart said the other night, or his guest, when Endy made that catch it was one of those things where the script was already in, the story set, the Mets would win it all after a fantasic show of game saving leather. It was so Met-hodical. Nope: Fat Ass. ___________________________ So I can't pick one and that's why. I wanted em all! And they all shudda been!

Damn. He's even in his ChiSox uni on the card. I shudda got this one.

Edgy MD wrote: The Soreno looks as much like a prison as a Florida hotel. The Mets were the first baseball team integrated from day one. I wonder if that was done as a moral choice or a P.R. choice? Did that go unnoticed back then (the hotel thing)? Maybe, simply a logical choice (because they would want the team together in one place)?.

Edgy MD wrote: I really don't see Brown getting quite so many appearances to qualify for the title of "platoon partner" with Grandie, but I guess he'll help out there. Hmm, good point. We need Grandy in more than out. But I figured he meant backing up Grandy in right will be Browns priority. I like it when someone looks a little ahead because the best laid plans...blah x3.

I looked for a Mets one for those years to compare prices but I'm not finding it. Back in the day 99.9% of the time I paid upper level (IIRC $1.50) and snuck down. Or just walked down, cause as long as it wasn't crowded with paying customers, 99.9% of the attendants had no problem with it.

Wow, thank you. So it is neither. And the Colonial was a hotel/motel, when you could call em both. The more I look at the structure behind Neal the more I think that it's a haunted motel.

Edgy MD wrote: I like Bucket's notion that the outfield will be multi-position platoons moving across all three positions. But is Terry willing to be that creative? I like this too. And the E. Young super-sub business. But I hope to see Eric playing OF, 2b, and, but not as much, 3b & SS. I think he has the right mind set and tools to be really good in this role.

Is this shot from the fields in St. Petersburg (Miller Huggins/aka/Butterball and Clendenon Fields: I doubt there was ever a hotel like that around there)? Could this be Al Lang Field (more hotels are in that area I would think). I'm reading a Met book that says when the team first got to St Petersburg in '62 the hotel they were set to use would not accept colored people so they had to find another. They were going to stay at the Soreno Hotel. They ended up staying at the Colonial Inn. It would be kool if that hotel in the pic was one of those two.

Edgy MD wrote: Zvon wrote: 5) Not up on the business of catching. Recker? Sorry, competing for the Ron Hodges seat are Recker, Juan Centeno, Taylor Teagarden, and Kevin Plawecki. Is that the extent of your scouting report? Okay,hmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Recker.

Who else was in the Agee deal? I have to go look at my baseball cards. Buddy Booker?

Edgy MD wrote: In order for you to show your presence, you need to file your predictions now. 1. Who opens the season as the Mets main firstbaseman? Davis? Duda? Satin? Flores? Some dude not currently in the system? 2. Who opens the season as the Mets main shortstop? Tejada? Quintanilla? Tovar? Seratelli? Flores? 3. The Mets opened the season with two entrenched outfielders and then went out and signed two more, both versatile. Bad news for somebody, right? What will the regular alignment be come April 1? 4. Barring injury, Bartolo Colon, Jon Niese, Dillon Gee, and Zack Wheeler look to open the season as members of the Mets rotation? Whos's number five? Pretty much a huge field to pick from: Matsuzaka? Mejia? DeGrom? Torres? Lannan? Montero? Syndergaard? 5. Backup catcher? 1) Davis 2) Tejada 3) C. Young, Lagaras, Granderson. 4) Torres 5) Not up on the business of catching. Recker?

And field box and mezzanine box were the same price? I always thought mezz box were some of the best seats in the house for actually seeing the action on the field. They didn't go by Met prices? What did they do? Send a scout to see what they were worth from their perspective?

haha, thats some crazy shit. I was still living in NYC and going to lots of game in '75, don't recall anything about that.

Lets make it video, personal checks, and art. JOES BACK!

Kong76 wrote: It was a crappy car, I think. Maybe a sponsor thing. Funny how he made his eights. I make my eights like that too. Got it from taking Blueprint Reading and Mechanical Drawing in High School and it stuck (well, not 100% of the time). I wonder why he does.

Id usually shrink an image this big down in size but maybe one of you guys want this for your files. Excellent picture. It would be quite a project, but I'm thinking about colorizing this.

I scrolled down pretty far and I'm not finding it- it was on the TRUE NEW YORK METS FANS page.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: SNY now showing some B&W film footage from the Spring of '62 featuring Ralph and Casey being interviewed at the Sadecki Spot at Butterball Field, (pre-cage area in background). I saw that. I don't get SNY but David Rothenberg was nice to share the footage on fb.. Image? Link? I'll have to hunt it down. Pretty sure it was David. I hit a lot of links yesterday. Anything Ralph I checked out, thru all media outlets I frequent (ha,like 3 including the pool). But links led to other links and I viewed a lot of Kinerstuff. I'll track it down.

Heritage reboot, actual autograph. I may have to get me one of these cards.

We all knew we would be losing Ralph more sooner than later... I hope that doesn't sound insensitive. What I mean is that this wasn't something that was shocking or surprising. In that way, we were prepared emotionally, or I was (shouldn't speak for all), when this happened. Therefore I was not upset emotionally. I joined the masses in talking and reading about him, and thought in terms of he had a good, full life. Then I saw this video a blogger was sharing. Its just Ralph signing a few baseballs this last summer. When I saw the effort it took (at 90), and the time he gave to each autograph to assure the signature would look good, it brought a tear to my eye. I think I'm going to find out that Ralph's even classier than I imagined he was. [youtube:2y0ytru5]YOQVpPxhW90[/youtube:2y0ytru5]