Archive for January, 2011

Mets signed Willie Harris, the outfielder, not the french horn player.

Harris single handedly took two games from the Mets last season, he has a great  glove, but does not hit very well. The bench is going to be interesting.

I am looking forward to the season started, I still can’t believe the Mets hired Terry Collins, I guess Jeff Torborg was out of town.

A few sites have been listing their fifty favorite Mets of all time. Not sure if I have the patience or drive to list fifty, but here are a few of my favorites.

Tom Seaver.  He should be on every Mets fans list. The only Met hat in the Hall of Fame.

Ed Kranepool.   He has held almost every offensive record, mostly because of longevity. however, even though his bat was dull compared to most major league first baseman and outfielders, it was one of the brightest in the Mets line up. Growing up, I thought Mickey Mantle was wearing Ed Kranepool’s number.

Rusty Staub   Wish he was never traded for Mickey Lolich. With the Seaver trade a given, I think this trade is the worst in Mets history, to me it tops Fregosi for Ryan.

Cleon Jones  Wow, a Met actually wound up on a Topps NL Leaders card, that sure made me a happy eleven year old.

Mike Piazza  He helped turn the tide on the losing ways of the 90′s.

Keith Hernandez  Like Piazza, he helped the Mets turn from the dreaded Stems, to World Champions. I still remember the day that I heard the news that he was traded to the Mets.

Gary Carter  He was worth two Hubie Brooks’.

Jerry Koosman Had he been on any other staff he would have been their ace. Together with Seaver, they were the Koufax/Drysdale of their day.

John Franco He scared the shit out of you, but he did manage to get the job down for many years. I don’t think he ever threw a pitch directly over the plate.

Darryl Strawberry. Some of the saddest words I have ever heard were uttered on Headline News… “Darryl dons the Dodger Blue” Some people can’t go home again.

Doc Gooden. Not only did I love to watch him pitch, I was thrilled every time I came out of the Lincoln Tunnel and saw the giant Doc billboard.

Felix Millan. He gave some stability to an almost always shaky Mets infield.

David Wright. Sure took me too long to get his name on this list.

Jose Reyes. See above. I was in Anaheim when he hit his first home run.

George Theodore. Simply because he seemed to be a walking cartoon character.

Roy McMillan. There was something about that picture that they flashed on the little square tv on top of the old Shea scoreboard. Not sure how old he was when he played for the Mets, his picture looked like he was at least sixty.

Bud Harrleson  He was the first major leaguer to wave at me. When he was waving in my direction, I pointed to myself, and he shook his head yes.

Not enough time to put anymore down, will try to get to it later.

Pitchers and catchers February 15th

The Mets are gambling on two pitchers who between them have three surgeries.

Some people are very good at gambling, some are not. I have only won one jackpot and it was a five cent machine, so I took my eighty dollars and ran out the door.

There is one hard and fast rule, well actually two hard and fast rules: The house always wins; and your body does not lie, (it may trick you for a bit, but is not a liar.) Hopefully there will be some innings clocked by these two gentlemen, lets hope they can win a few games along the way. Not really sure how two brittle pitchers can be counted on for innings, but what do I know.

Finally, we are now past the half way point between baseball seasons. Some type of trade or free agent action should start soon. One big need is left handed relief. Other teams over payed former Mets left handers, and now the Mets do not have much left over. Supply and demand brought the price of these specialists up over the unreasonable.

Hopefully, I will be sitting in Citi Field for the Mets home opener this April.