soupcan

-Did you know that the part of the Toy Maker in the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was played by Benny Hill? -My mom spent part of her childhood in an orphanage in England. Benny Hill was a radio personality at the time and he came to visit the kids. She said he was incredibly charming and handsome. Charming okay but 'incredibly handsome'?

="Elster88"] Let's all stop talking about it!

I think this is a good cover...

Regale us with Rusty stories!

That's awesome.

KC wrote: D: How was that box thing? Ant said he stopped by and you met Rusty. Is he still fat? K: He ain't really fat, he's large. Awesome grip for a sixty-something year old man. Is this Le Grande Orange that you are speaking of?

Edgy DC wrote: Two plays I missed: a supposedly good one by Anderson Hernandez in the first, and a supposedly bad judgment one by that same Anderson Hernandez about the seventh, that got him a talking-to from Sandy Alomar and/or Julio Franco. What were these plays? What did they say? 1st inning was a Derek Jeter type play. Hernadez going to his left picks up the grounder and as his momentum takes him into leftfield he jumps, spins and throws to first whilst in mid-air to get Nick Johnson at first. Nice looking play. The crowd appreciated it. He flashed a smile and got kudos from Reyes right afterwards. The other play - I don't remember the inning - man on first maybe one out. Ground ball to second, instead of throwing to short to start the dp, he kind of sort of stared the runner back and threw to first. After he threw, the runner continued toward second and was safe. I think Hernandez was thinking 4-3-6 instead of 4-6-3. Didn't work. In his defense he executed that exact same play and it worked in one of the last spring training games.

I understood Bret to be saying that LoDuca is 'average' because he is not a gold glove caliber catcher. Ergo, since Piazza is worse defensively than Piazza, Piazza is below average' I was using his logic.

abogdan wrote: Mama Said Knock You Out by LL Cool J. Ooh, that's actually a good one. Good title and the music is appropriate for a closer's entrance. "I'm gonna knock you out! Mama said knock you out!" I like it.

="Elster88"] Let's all stop talking about it! Amen to that.

="Bret Sabermetric"]="soupcan"]="Bret Sabermetric"]"]Does Lo Duca have a prayer of winning a Gold Glove this season? A guy has to win a gold glove to be considered 'above average'? Of course not. Then if LoDuca is above average and better defensively than Piazza, then Piazza can be considered average. ="Bret Sabermetric"]But Lo Duca is, I don;t know, the fourth or fifth best defesnive catcher in the league. No prayer of winning a Gold Glove or anything, but he's clearly better than average. If there weren';t a huge difference between LoDuca and Piazaz defensively, it wouldn't make a shred of sense to dump Piazza, who's clearly still better offensively than Lo Duca. But even the Mets, who've twisted themselves into pretzels excusing Piazza's defense, couldn;t do that. Does that tell you nothing? I addressed this in my previous post - .And why is it wrong to simply believe that the Mets didn't want to invest another year and $$$ in an aging catcher who seemed as if he was starting to break down physically? Perhaps they weighed their options and thought 'Yes Piazza is fine defensively and calls a satisfactory game but he is getting older and is getting hurt more. He's not as consistent a hitter and can't throw anybody out. His contract is up why don't we just let him go and start fresh?' Do you want a rational debate or do you just want to keep posting the same things until I just simply agree? You make your points and I'm making mine, how about giving my opinions some thought as well? You're bitching and moaning that no one wants to simply debate the issue with you but you don't seem to want to read or take into consideration other people's points. ="Bret Sabermetric"]Proof isn;t forthcoming from either side in this discussion, which should be a comfort to those committed to hanging on to their opinions. Including you.. ="Bret Sabermetric"]Mets who actually say damaging things about ex-teammates, or the organization (see Mientkiewicz) are characterized as malcontents with agendas, so "proof" tend to be taken as meaningless by those who prefer to do so. If I somehow got Glavine to say damaging stuff about Piazza, you'd find some way to spin it as irrelevant or misquoted or kidding around because you don't want to accept it. That's quite a large assumption you are making about me. You sure do like to assume things but get really upset when other people do. ="Bret Sabermetric"]That's cool. Think what you like. I don;'t have to agree with it, do I? You're the guy who never saw Piazza shy away from contact at home plate--if you don;t believe your eyes, or don't believe KC's claim to prefer catchers who through their supreme intelligence avoid risking injury, what could my words possibly tell you? See, I didn't say that. What I said was that if there were an overabundance of Piazza's shying away from contact or passed balls I think I would've noticed. I didn't notice it. Why is it so important to you that we all believe Piazza was a bad catcher? I think we would all agree that he was not gold glove caliber or even necessarilly above average. But why does it rankle you so much that the majority of Mets fans liked the guy and considerd him an adequate backstop? You didn't? Great. I did.

="Bret Sabermetric"]All you'll have to do, as I said, is read between the lines when Mets pitchers discuss Lo Duca's skills as a catcher this season, and if you're willing to see, you'll see what they thought of Piazza's defense. I don't expect you'll be convinced but I'll take comfort from it. It's amazing that you still think Piazza was a good catcher. If he was even an average catcher, there would have been no reason at all for the Mets not to have signed him again this year, and I would have endorsed the move, but he isn't, and they didn't, so I didn;t have to. But your opinion identifies you as stubbornly deluded, and I'll preserve it as Exhibit A if anyone tries to claim that I;'ve overstated the degree of denial around here. Ah what the hell - I'll jump in. How can you be so sure that that when the pitchers are talking about LoDuca that there are in fact things to read inbetween those lines? Can't they just like him without disliking Piazza or are these ideas not mutually exclusive of one another? Now maybe you are right, maybe they never wanted to criticize Piazza because, well, he was Piazza and maybe they think that LoDuca is just a much, much, much, much, much better catcher in every single way. But you don't know that. You can opine and that's fine (I'm a poet and I know it), but we all know what happens when we assume don't we? And why is it wrong to simply believe that the Mets didn't want to invest another year and $$$ in an aging catcher who seemed as if he was starting to break down physically? Perhaps they weighed their options and thought 'Yes Piazza is fine defensively and calls a satisfactory game but he is getting older and is getting hurt more. He's not as consistent a hitter and can't throw anybody out. His contract is up why don't we just let him go and start fresh?' Why is this so unbelievable? I understand your point but you are pounding it home as if its the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth and all you have is your belief that he couldn't stop a 15 mph tumbleweed rolling lazily towards him coupled with your inbetween the lines theory. Give me something more concrete and maybe I'll come over to the dark side but until you've got Tom Glavine on a tape recorder telling me that Mikey P. had hands like a spaghetti strainer I'm not buying what your selling . ="Bret Sabermetric"] Let's try some elementary logic: Is Lo Duca an improvement defensively over Piazza? Yes. ="Bret Sabermetric"] Is he a big improvement? He's an improvement. ="Bret Sabermetric"]Does Lo Duca have a prayer of winning a Gold Glove this season? A guy has to win a gold glove to be considered 'above average'? ="Bret Sabermetric"]Final Question: does this make Piazza anywhere near average? I've never heard anyone, anywhere, besides you, deride Piazza's defensive ability so much. We know the guy can't throw but after years of watching him I think I would've noticed an overabundance of passed balls and a tendency to get out of the way of runners barreling down on him. I didn't. Take away his noodle arm and yeah, I think Piazza is an average defensive catcher.

Who cares?! Play freaking 'Abracadabra' for Christ's sake!

Bret Sabermetric wrote: if I were Wagner, around this point I'd ask if I could wear Mariano's number, start affecting a Panamanian accent, and commence electrocuting a few relatives in my swimming pool, too. The accent and dead relatives maybe not - but it would be a great tweak if he started wearing 42.

I cannot believe these morons are STILL talking about this song 'controversy'. 'It's a Yankee thing..!" No, dumbass, it's a stupid thing. Drop it!

"I Touch Myself" by the Divinyls.

="Rotblatt"]But seriously, I would suggest the following: Example: I bought my girlfriend a shiny new Mets hat on Sunday and "suggested" she wear it yesterday. She did. The Mets won. Therefore, during the first game of every series, I will try to get my girlfriend to wear her hat. Maybe it only works on Opening Day or against the Nats, but I won't know until I try. And damnit, if it will help the Mets, I'm willing to risk my relationship. I interpret this to mean that you must BUY your girlfriend a shiny new hat before every Mets game. I realize that's an expensive pursuit but hey, its called dedication. On my end I will continue to boo Carlos Beltran as that apparantly leads to Mets victories in 2006.

I was dumbfounded to turn on WFAN yesterday and hear that Wagner's song and the traffic getting into Shea were the hot button issues. God Bless America for letting these two have a career when these are the topics they choose to give weight to on Opening Day. Wagner's song? Are you kidding me? The traffic getting into Shea on a day or night when the game is sold out (Opening Day, Yankees-Mets, post-season) is well documented. It sucks but its not unexpected and if one gives oneself plenty of time to get there and get into the lot, there are no problems. Hopefully these guys will be talking about sports today.

"Woman #6" You go Brian!

Rotblatt wrote: My girlfriend's going to like SNY even less now. As will my wife. "Isn't this the game you were AT today?

="sharpie"]Is this the first Met 4-hit debut? Howie Rose said on the postgame radio that Nady was the second Met to go 4-4 in his Met debut. The first...Richie Hebner. Great time today. Said hi to Scarlet, DDad, KC and wife, all 3 of the mini Knights and I met cooby. Lat year I was stumping for 'Monkeywrench' as Mientkiewicz's nickname. This year I want 'X-Man' for Nady and when he's up, stand up and make an 'X' with your arms. ...at least while he's playing well.

I thought this was the Kelly Clarkson thread. '....I'm barely haaaang-in' on...'

I happily accept my assignment.

I glom off my brother-in-law's plan and he has a full package. I assumed they offered it with some other plans.

That's where I was sitting too - upper deck third base side.