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.

Santana can claim he is fit to fight all he wants but why do I have a feeling he might accompany Gary Sheffield to New York Hospital for a special 2 for1 on MRI’s?    

This Date in Mets History, in 1969, Donn Clenedenon after turning down a trade from the expansion Montreal Expos to the Houston Astros, agreed to be traded to the New York Mets. Clink went on to be the 1969 World Series MVP

This Date in Mets History in 1983, The St. Louis Cardinals sent Keith Hernandez to the New York Mets after Mgr. Whitey Herzog had had enough of Hernandez and to teach him a lesson he was sent to the woebegon Mets. Hernandez who at first was miserable to be sent to NYC became the Captain of the Mets and lead the team to World Series Championship in 1986 and has become one of the most popular Mets of all time.

On This Date in Mets History in 1977 it was the Day The Music Died as The Franchise George Thomas Seaver, still the greatest player to ever wear a Mets uniform was sent to the Cincinnati Reds run out of town by to of the biggest scumbags to ever walk the earth in M. Donald Grant and Daily News baseball writer Dick Young. Seaver was and still is considered THE FRANCHISE and should have a staute of his famous pitching delivery outside of Ebbits$iti Field. Today Seaver, is a successful wine producer and Grant and Young are still burning in hell.

With Bill Wags rehabing from Tommy John surgery, Ollie Perez in la la land and with sore knee, John Maine with dead arm and now questions about Johan Santana’s health do you think Rick Peterson is getting a good laugh and maybe some vindication?

I’m sure you have seen all the Few and Chosen books in this series at your local book store and now there is a Mets volume added to this great series in Few and Chosen: Defining Mets Greatness Across the Eras written by Rusty Staub with Phil Pepe , foreword by Keith Hernandez (published by Triumph Books)

Amazing as it seems but we are heading toward the 50^th Anniversary of the first game in Mets history (April 2012, those awful black uni tops better be a bad memory by then) so it is a great time for this book to come out.

Staub and Pepe go position by position to name who they feel are the five best players ever at each ion in Mets history. There are a few surprises like Bud Harrelson rated over Jose Reyes as the best Mets shortstop ever and Bobby Bonila as the second best right fielder in Mets history (Staub left himself off the list which is foolish as he contributed in more in a week than Bonila did in all the years he stole money from the Mets) and Lee Mazzilli the third best center fielder over Tommy Agee and Lenny Dykstra ? NO WAY IN HELL!  In fact Lance Johnson was better than Boardwalk Lee sections like this are what make this book a great conversation starter.

It’s not just the inside of this book that is mesmerizing the cover is a thing of beauty as well with the traditional blue cap on it.  

I’m sure you have seen all the Few and Chosen books in this series at your local book store and now there is a Mets volume added to this great series in Few and Chosen: Defining Mets Greatness Across the Eras written by Rusty Staub with Phil Pepe , foreword by Keith Hernandez (published by Triumph Books)

Amazing as it seems but we are heading toward the 50^th Anniversary of the first game in Mets history (April 2012, those awful black uni tops better be a bad memory by then) so it is a great time for this book to come out.

Staub and Pepe go position by position to name who they feel are the five best players ever at each ion in Mets history. There are a few surprises like Bud Harrelson rated over Jose Reyes as the best Mets shortstop ever and Bobby Bonila as the second best right fielder in Mets history (Staub left himself off the list which is foolish as he contributed in more in a week than Bonila did in all the years he stole money from the Mets) and Lee Mazzilli the third best center fielder over Tommy Agee and Lenny Dykstra ? NO WAY IN HELL!  In fact Lance Johnson was better than Boardwalk Lee sections like this are what make this book a great conversation starter.

It’s not just the inside of this book that is mesmerizing the cover is a thing of beauty as well with the traditional blue cap on it.  

This pitch is so awful that if I were Booey I’d claim to have a disabilty and even with that it’s still em brassing.

a hat tip to Rowdy Yates for the clip

I’d love to kill the Mets for not having the balls to ship OP’s sorry ass out to Buffalo but their hands are tied with OP having to give his ok for the demotion and it looked like he was ready to do so but Scott Bora$ got in his ear and OP revered course. Too bad.

OP can’t work on his problems out of the pen. J-Man won’t use him in a big spot so his days will be sitting idle in the pen eating licorice and sunflower seeds. At least in Buffalo he stays in the rotation and works with pitching coach Rickey Bones to get his mechanics straighten out.  Again, what will it take for OP to do the right thing, blowing a relief assignment and getting humiliated by the $iti Field crowd? It shouldn’t come to that.

The Mets Police has done it again and exposed the Skill Sets as clueless. First he reports that he paid $25 bucks for ar $15.00 seat at the $iti Field box office (this is a Marx Brothers Night of the Races scenario as Chico sells his tuti fruty ice-a cream at the track ) and then shows the gall of the Mets to charge Ron Hunt the first All Star in Mets history $869 for two seats from Shea that he asked for.

The Clueless Skill Sets strike again.

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.

I’m still trying to figure how the Gary Sheffield signing is this catastrophic moment in Mets history? Sheffield is not coming in here and bogarting a spot in the line up he has to earn it and the one guy who is impacted by Sheffield being here is Ryan Church  not Dan Murphy (we covered this already I know)  No one shakes their head at the Mets moves more than me but I can’t even fathom Omar Minaya promising anything to Sheffield other than an opportunity to show he can still play. If he can’t then he’s gone, it’s that simple.

A major tip of the Mets Cap to The Mets Police, for this link to this story on Jerry Koosman and how the Mets started the five man pitching rotation under Rube Walker. The wildest thing about seeing this story about Koos was I was thinking of Koosman last night last night I was watching MLBN and there were previewing the SF Giants and how the Giants are one of the team in baseball that does not forget it’s former players or it’s franchises history. They put up a graphic that showed Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda and Felipe Alou as former Giants who still work for the organization and who are around the current Giants all through spring training and at times during the season. This has been one of my major gripes with Mets management. Even though it’s nice that Sandy Koufax comes to St. Lonesome every spring to talk to the pitchers it would be even better if Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman were there as spring instructors. Same thing with guys like Jerry Grote, Rusty Stub, and Felix Milan. Management is starting to embrace the old Mets some by of course having them in the TV booth (why isn’t there an analyst in the radio booth? Let Howie do the play by play and have John Franco do color commentary? I’m sorry Wayne Hagin does nothing for me. Besides he talks funny) My hope for opening day at $ti Field is that the pre game festivities would include as many former Mets the team could find and have them walk on to the field from the outfield gates and greet the current team.

As far as prediction for the season go let me do it this way:

The NL East will be a four team race to start with the Nats looking up at the pack but they will be pains in the ass’s all season. I’m as concerned with the Braves as I am with the Phillies in fact I hope the Phucking Phillis keep up this “look at us we’re beautiful” bullshit celebration of winning the World Series going. Better put the party hats away assholes.

The NL Central is the Cubs, Cards, Brewers and maybe the Reds. The Astros and Pirates are there to get fat on.

The consensus in the NL West is that the Dodger and D’Backs will fight it out but DO NOT OVERLOOK THE SF GIANTS. Every year I try to find a team I like to follow as I feel they’re taken for granted and the Giants are that team for me this year

What makes the AL East so much fun is the Highlanders could win 90 games and not make the post season and yes that’s what I’m rooting for. I still can’t understand why the Tampa Rays get no respect THEY’RE NOT GOING AWAY FOLKS!!!!!! Add in the Old Town Team and this is the best division in baseball. Sorry Jays and O’s fans

The AL Central is the most competitive division in baseball and any one of the teams here can win the division title, yes even the Royals and Tigers.

The weakest division in the game is the AL West only the Mariners are on the outside looking in as far as a division crown goes.

Mets Grrl is in Cincy for opening day and has pics and stories from the town that takes opening day seriously  

A must read is Matt Cerrone’s piece on his tour of $iti Field and it looks as if after all the bitching and moaning over the name and price of tickets and all the other minutia that myself and others have spewed all winter we can enjoy the fact that we have a first class ballpark to call our own that will be very different for our Shea experience.

I’m curious to know where you guys stand on the new studio team of Chris Carlin and Bobby Ojeda?. For me I’d say it’s a huge upgrade over Snoozeoff and Boardwalk Lee. I like Carlin. I always thought he was a good listen on WFAN and he did a good job covering the New York Football Giants as he has a jolly good personality. As for Bobby-O , he has star potential. I met Ojeda a few years ago when he was the pitching coach in Brooklyn and he knows baseball, is very opinionated and is funny as hell. The post game banter between Ojeda and Mex will be Must See TV mark my words.

Speaking of Keith Hernandez, he and Ron Darling will be handling the play by play for tonight’s Mets-Nats game on SNY. No Gary and no Burkhardt. I hope someone has their finger on the dump button.

And speaking of Gary Cohen, he has advanced to the Mets Greatest Announcers Championship Round at Amazin’ Avenue’ against Bob Murphy. Talk about your tough decisions. I had to put a lot of thought into whom I was voting for. So I went and did what I always do when I have a big decision to make, I went for a slice of pizza and a Manhattan Special. When I got back to my office, I went to my keyboard and made my choice. I am proud to announce that The Eddie Kranepool Society has backed Gary Cohen and will vote for him as the greatest announcer in Mets history. I think what swayed me was the fact I’m wearing my “It’s Outta Here” t-shirt today.