I guess congratulations are in order to Andre Dawson for his election into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Hawk was a solid baseball player and from what you read, was a very nice guy and it seems as long as you’re a very nice guy to the media, you eventually get in the Hall. That would explain why Albert Belle is no longer on the ballot. Belle was an unbelievable offensive player putting up big numbers and one of the great run producers of his time, but the guy made Ron Artest look stable. It’s not just that Belle was a nasty sumnabitch, I honestly think the reporters covering the teams he played for and the out of town media we’re scared shit of him. The only way for payback is to not just keep in out of the HOF but knock him off the ballot altogether.

The only segment of baseball fans that doesn’t have bad feeling for Robbie Alomar not getting in the HOF, are Mets fans. During the reign of the Alomar disaster in Queens, I was dining in one of my favorite spots, the RF food pavilion at Shea Stadum, when I encounter a guy wearing an ALOMAR 12 uni top. When I mentioned that he was one brave Mets fan to wear that jersey, he told me his was a cousin of Alomar’s. We spoke for while and I ask Robbie’s cuz, “what’s the problem with your cousin” he told me the whole family was stumped. He said Alomar was so happy to be in NYC as there was a lot of family there to keep him happy but the cuz then said “he feels like he can’t do it anymore”  The problem that Mets fan had with Alomar was he was coming here off a strong year in Cleveland .336/.415/.541/.956 20HR 100 RBI 30SB so when the deal was made to come to the Mets, we were farting through silk WHAT AN ACQUISTION!!! But what followed was one of the classic crash and burns of a player in baseball history. All said in done, Alomar should have gone in as a first ballot HOF’er his Mets years aside, he is one of the greatest 2^nd basemen of all time.

Supposedly 5 voters sent back blank ballots, two of which are Jay Mariotti and Lisa Olson of AOL. Mind-boggling!.  I know it’s in vogue to call Mariotti a douche bag but a few years ago, Mariotti did a radio show on the defunct One On One Radio Network (620 AM here in NYC) along with Jim Lytke of the AP. It was one of the better sports radio shows I’ve listened to. Mariotti was not the dickhead he has evolved into today. As for Olson, she has always sent in a blank ballot since becoming eligible to vote. I don’t know what to say about that but why even be a member of the BBWA?   The Hall of Fame would be better off letting bloggers pick the Hall members; at least we’d take it seriously.

Wayne Coffey in today’s Daily News has a great two page story on Dwight Gooden and his road back into baseball and leading a life free of drugs and alcohol. Coffey zones in on Doc’ 1985 season which is one of the greatest pitching season in baseball history. I love that Coffey mentions that the Gooden phenomenon back then has not been matched in this city.  No player in any sport in this city can match what Gooden and the Mets did back then. I remember that any start Gooden made was a must see event and as hard as this is to believe where I lived in Brooklyn we did not have cable. So when any Gooden starts were not on Ch 9 the choice was either get to Shea or get to a bar that has one of those huge satellite dishes to watch his starts.

I’m glad that Doc is back in baseball as he is working for the Newark Bears but with this new found thinking of management bringing back players who actually have a winning pedigree with the Mets in coaching positions, you would think there would be a spot for Doc.

I know I’m late with this but kudos to Mike Silva and Joe DeMayo over at NYBD for breaking the story on the hiring of Wally Backman by the Mets to manage the Brooklyn Cyclones. Not only is great to have Wally back in the family but to manage Brooklyn makes it even sweeter.

By the way all of the folks who are attacking Mike and Frank Russo over his report that Carl Crawford has asked out of Tampa need to grow up. What, you think Crawford is going to retire a Ray?

To me the biggest question of the off season is still how much power does Omar Minaya have, Joel Sherman shines some light on the subject:

Rival executives and agents described a man not fully in charge of baseball operations regardless of what Mets ownership says. One NL official said that lag time between discussing business with Minaya and the time it took him to respond suggested he had to run the information through a committee.

An agent said, “You might not like what Omar had done in the past, but he was always aggressive and decisive. He looked old, beaten and without a plan this time.”

Executives and agents said they thought Minaya has yet to be told a true budget by ownership, and that is leading to the belief that the Mets do not want to spend big. A second agent said, “The Mets are not a destination spot right now, especially if you are a hitter. You would be going to a questionable team playing in a huge park. So if you’re Jason Bay, why would you leave the Red Sox for the Mets unless you were blown away (financially), or if you were Matt Holliday, why would you leave St. Louis for the Mets unless you were blown away?”

If this info is right then the Skill Sets fucked up again by not firing Omar and not giving the job to either John Rico or going out and hiring a younger more aggressive GM. This is what bugs the living shit out of me with Jeffey Skill Sets, all along he states that Minaya has “full autonomy “ over the baseball ops but according to Sherman’s sources he has to run his moves though a committee so in effect you’ve cut Omar’s balls off. Great move Jeffey, you little shit.

OH WHAT A NIGHT

Where were you on October 25^th 1986? I was in my living room in our brand new railroad flat in Bay Ridge watching one of the great comebacks not only in Mets history but all of baseball history.

We haven’t seen a Daniel Murphy post in a while so thank you John “Metsradamus” Coppinger for bringing up Murph and remember what will happen when you mess with The Murph.

A Mets minor league pitcher Rafael Castro died of a heart attack at the Mets Venezulan academy. It’s sad when anyone dies like that but the fact that Castro was 18 years old is stunning.

The TV remote will get a good workout tonight as Game 6 of the ALCS goes up against the New York Football Giants and the Phoenix by way of St Louis and Chicago Cardinals at Giants Stadium.

If the Angels can get ahead of the Highlanders early like they did in Game 5, then it will unleashed the panic stricken Joey G to go one pitcher per hitter and deplete his bullpen. If you’re a Highlander fan you have to be concerned that the Great Mariano has to sit down with Phil Hughes and give him a pep talk as it’s clear Hughes has that deer in the headlights look about him and that the total clusterfuck that is the Joba Chamberlain Experience has been ineffective to the point, if you’re the Angels the key here is to get to the Highlander pen.

Not to break balls or anything but the baseball fan in me wants an Angel win tonight just to have some Game 7 drama.

Today is a day off in SOCAL for the ALCS, if The Used Car Salesman is not meeting today in Anaheim with this umpiring crew, not only should Selig be relieved of his Commissionership but he should be investigated as well.

Something stinks here folks, these are not just bad calls, these are atrocious mind numbing mistakes. If Tim McClelland was umpiring a Little League game and made a made a call like he did with the Posada, Cano missed double play, he’d never leave the field in one piece. What I don’t get is, why didn’t Mike Scioscia filp out? I know the game was in laid back La-La land but a call like that if it went against me I’d have a stroke. I’m still seething from it and I don’t even give a shit who wins this series, if this happen to the Mets I’d have taken hostages by now.

The Used Car Salesman better hope this series or the NLCS or World Series goes to a 7^th game and the any of these series are determine by such stunning mistakes like the McClelland call (both the non DP and the Swisher left early play) or Dale Scott miss of the Nick Swisher pick off and don’t forget Phil Cuzzi :the lines are crossed” misplay. What a fucking joke and Bud Selig is the dumb ass  Court Jester.

Is Tim McClelland the baseball version of Tim Donaghy? If I were the Commissioner of Baseball I’d be in Anaheim investigating that right now and suspend McCleland indefinitely.

I’d love to go on about Steve Phillips and his latest sex romp mess but just when I’m ready to make a wise ass statement, I think about his wife and kids and the embarrassment and hurt they are feeling and it doesn’t make this episode so funny, especially since he’s put his wife and family through this before.

So much for the Skill Sets going broke with Bernie Madoff, it looks like these knuckleheads made money, to the tune of $48 mil? The one thought I had was just how involved was Freddy Skill Sets with Bernie Madoff in dealing with getting investors? I’m just asking.

I was an 11 year old 6th grader at P.S. 105 in Boro Park Brooklyn. Our teacher, Mrs. McGuire, brought in the big ass city issued black and white TV so we could watch part of Game 5 of the World Series with the New York Mets one win away from completing one of the greatest seasons in baseball history. 

Last night on PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL, Lenny Nesslin of LenNYs Yankee blog and Rich Mancuso of NY SPORTSDAY were our guests as we discussed the Highlander-Angles ALCS. At one point during our discussions Myself, Joe Mc Donald and Rich, three big time Mets fans, wondered if the worst day of our baseball life, a Highlanders-Phuck Phaces World Series comes to fruition, who would we’d root for or in other words what is the best case scenario for Mets fans?

Between the three of us, it was unanimous; there is no way in world that we could ever root for the Phuck Phaces. Now it’s not like we are going to be donning “SWISH-O-LICIOUS t shirts or lighting votive candles in Monument Park but the consensus was the Highlanders were the lesser of two evils. Now if it’s Highlanders-Hollywood Bums, then there is no question that we will join our owner in rooting for the former tenants of Mc Keever Pl, in fact we are hoping if the Brooklyn Dodgers of Los Angeles win the World Series we can get a good seat at $iti Field for the raising of Dodgers World Series flag on opening day and the unveiling of the George “Shotgun” Shuba statue outside the RF gate.

Back to this date in 1969. It’s times like these that I feel bad for the younger generation of Mets fan. Believe it or not kids, the Mets were THE TEAM in town once upon a time. As a young gutter snipe growing up in Brooklyn, Highlander fans were mocked and ridiculed. It was all Mets all the time in the papers, the NY Daily News ran COLOR front pages just for the Mets. COLOR FRONT PAGES!!!! The moon landing didn’t get a COLOR FRONT PAGE!!!! ( I guess you realize that COLOR FRONT PAGES in the Daily News were a HUGE event)

I remember hearing Curt Gowdy calling Game 5 and hearing the fans screaming in that last inning. But the images that stick with me as I watched on TV was Cleon Jones making the catch in LF and dropping to one knee and the fans pouring out of the stands and covering the field. The next day the stories were of fans tearing up the sod and digging up home plate and the pitching rubber. Where are those artifacts today?

The post game celebration was legendary not just for the new World Series champs but for me as well. The site of Seaver, Kossman, McGraw and my man Kranepool pouring beer and champagne on each other led me to the kitchen where my mother was making dinner. (Mom was never a big sports fan but with three sons the woman washed more uniforms than most clubhouse personnel in fact she excelled in getting grass and blood stains out of white uni tops) and to the fridge to grab one of the old man’s Rheingolds. My mother then screaming at me “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” and me telling her, “Relax Ma, I’m not going to drink it, I’m just going to pour it on my head like the Mets. They won the World Series Ma! They’re World Champs!!!!!

I was very lucky as I went to a ton of games as a little kid and many were during the season of ‘69. My brothers being 20 years older than me, took me to games and most of the time we sat in box seats in the field level. Whenever I’m asked about my fondest memories of Shea Stadium the memory that always sticks with me are the Friday night games I went to when the Dodgers or Giants came to town. There was a Madi Gras atmosphere at Shea. Mrs. Payson was always stationed at here seat next to Mets dugout. There was a Dixieland Band that would roam the stands, fans would yell LET’S GO METS thru their Mr. Met megaphone, and in between innings Jane Jarvis would entertain us with melodies on her Thomas organ. No awful teenybopper music screeching from the sound system, no one talking on their phone or checking their CrackBerry during a second and third no out jam, no racing garbage trucks. None of that, just baseball and baseball fans enjoying both their new found love, the Amazin’ Mets and lamenting the love their loss, the Bums and ‘Jints.

Join us tonight  at 9PM EDST for PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL and our guest Bert Sugar as we talk about his new book Bert Sugar’s Baseball Hall of Fame: A Living History of America’s Greatest Game (Running Press) We will also talk about the Mets-Pirates mantinee at PNC and the injury epidemic hitting the Mets. Listen live at Blog Talk Radio or listen to the podcast here or at the Eddie Kranepool Society.

I have had the pleasure of meeting both Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry and both are delightful guys. Even with all the troubles they have had in their personnel lives, they are still embraced by Mets fans and they have both found renewed love for the franchise and it’s fans. A Doc Gooden start at Shea was a happening, a festival a celebration of Mets baseball that has not been matched since. The sight of Darryl Strawberry whipping that bat and hitting tape measure home runs reminds us of when the Mets were the toast of the town and I am so happy that both guys have come home again and have nuzzled in the Mets family bosoms but with all that I’m not ready to retire their numbers.

I agree 100 % that management needs to embrace its past more and the one knock I’ve heard about $iti Field is the lack of a presence of Mets history. I’m still waiting to here what the plans are the 40^th Anniversary of one of the most famous teams in baseball history winning the World Series (and why no patch on the uni top sleeve for this anniversary?) . Not just that, in this the first season of $iti why couldn’t management bring back the old fan favorites like Banner Day or an Old Timers Day (I still like my idea of brining back every player who ever played for the Mets for the opening day ceremony to start a new era in Mets history and passing of the torch if you will)

Maybe someday the Skill Sets will re-connect with its fan base a fan base that is true Orange and Blue and gives way more to the organization than it ever gets in return.

As much as I love the Mets, I’ve always had a bit of a fascination with the Boston Red Sox. Part of that comes from Boston being the place my father settle in with his brothers and sister came to the U.S. from Ireland and that I have family there and I love spending summers on Cape Cod. As a kid whenever the Sox played on the Game of the Week or against the Highlanders I always made it my business to take in those games. In his new book It Was Never About The Babe,(published by Skyhorse Publishing) author Jerry M. Gutlon breaks the myths of curses and bad luck that have become folk law in Red Sox Nation.

Gutlon uncovers how misguided anti-Semitism by AL President Ban Johnson towards Harry Frazee (Frazee was not Jewish but Johnson believed he was) that forced Frazee to trade Babe Ruth to the Highlanders. The author also uncovers the racism and wild decisions made by Tom Yawkey under the influence of alcohol that were an embarrassment to the organization and set the franchise back decades.

Now under the guiding hands of Theo Epstein, Larry Luchino and John Henry the Red Sox have become the model franchise in baseball combing statistical work along with good old fashion bird dog scouting and using their vast revenues to build the team on the major league level and keep the farm system fertile.

Even if you are not a Red Sox fan, Gutlon’ book is a great read for any one interested in baseball history.

Not only could Dock pitch whale trippin’ he had a kick ass attitude when it came to taking no shit from the opposition like when it came to the Big Red Machine:

{Perhaps Ellis’ most startling act occurred on May 1, 1974, when he tied a major league record by hitting three batters in a row. In spring training that year, Ellis sensed the Pirates had lost the aggressiveness that drove them to three straight division titles from 1970 to 1972. Furthermore, the team now seemed intimidated by Cincinnati’s “Big Red Machine.” “Cincinnati will bullshit with us and kick our ass and laugh at us,” Ellis said. “They’re the only team that talk about us like a dog.” Ellis single-handedly decided to break the Pirates out of their emotional slump, announcing that “We gonna get down. We gonna do the do. I’m going to hit these motherfuckers.” True to his word, in the first inning of the first regular-season game he pitched against the Reds, Ellis hit leadoff batter Pete Rose in the ribs, then plunked Joe Morgan in the kidney, and loaded the bases by hitting Dan Driessen in the back. Tony Perez, batting cleanup, dodged a succession of Ellis’ pitches to walk and force in a run. The next hitter was Johnny Bench. “I tried to deck him twice,” Ellis recalled. “I threw at his jaw, and he moved. I threw at the back of his head, and he moved.” At this point, Pittsburgh manager Danny Murtaugh removed Ellis from the game. But his strategy worked: the Pirates snapped out of their lethargy to win a division title in 1974, while the Reds failed to win their division for the first time in three years.}

and the man had the balls to wear hair curlers 

Ellis did time with the Mets back in 1979 when he was at the end of his career, too bad as his attitude would be a breath of fresh air in Flushing these days. 

Big tip of the Blue and Orange Mets cap to BBTF for the fantastic link.