Real Deal Exit the Sandman and Mom Rock and Roll Trash Talk
Errr, some of you may have seen some illegitimate Trash Talk on a so called “Stub”. Illegitimate stuff. Please disregard the same. It was perpetrated by a “perp” that thinks Tom Brady Porn is teh awesomenest. Not sure that last word is really a word, but I’m gonna roll with it. Man, I tell ya, this job is hard work, hard work I tell ya. Also, to get the stain out of your brain, I am immediately referencing some classic real music. And for good reason: Sandmans and moms. This will be explained in due course, but please take a listen to the music.
More than that, let there be real football talk. Okay, Madam Wheel may have had some good shit actually:
And I’m going to admit ahead of time that BillBel is playing games with injury reports heading into Atlanta.
Also, Da Bears-Kitties game will come down to whether Stafford can find someone besides Megatron to throw to, with Nate Burleson out.
Also, I think Stillers will beat Matt Cassell (!)’s Vikings under Big Ben.
Okay, granted, I didn’t say it was a lot of good shit. Just a little. And as to the Stillers, man, I dunno, that is a fair fight. Given the respective O-Lines, Cassel may for a game be equal to Big Ben. And Cassel has one hell of a lot better running back. I might be tempted to give this turd of a game to the “home team”, but the thing is being played in London. Where, hopefully, they don’t give a shit about two once proud, but now joke, teams.
The Pats are at the Dirty Birds. Will Gronk play? Will Beavis and Butthead show up two weeks in a row to catch passes from Major Tom Brady wi9thout Gronk…or any other person you ever heard of other than Edelman? Yeah, inquiring minds want to know. But the Dirty Birds are tough in their dome home, think they may win this one. Who is more pathetic, the Skins or the Rayduhs? Yo, right, dead heat there. Jeebus, what tough times for proud brands.
Eagles in Mile High against Peyton’s massive arm, which is just starting to warm up? Fuhgettaboutit. I’d take the Fins if it was in South Beach, but in the Super Dome, take the Krew from Nawlins. Maybe the best game is Bears at Deeetroit. Lions I think they call them there in BK City. People yammer about how great and awesome Jay Cutler has been this year. but he has not been shit compared to Matt Stafford. Take a real look. I am rolling with Stafford, MegaTron and company at home against Da Bears.
Enough of this, let’s look at the students. Who are also athletes. But only marginally human for settlement purposes in craven class actions run by assholes. I have done a lot of things for a living as a lawyer, but never class actions. Not because I wouldn’t, just because I have not. That said, it seems often completely greasy. All deserve their day in court, and love the people that give it to them. But sometimes you have to wonder who the real winners are, and here it is certainly not the athletes.
So, on to the games, since the rest is depressing at best. Best game of the day is Georgia at LSU. I was surprised that the Dawgs whipped the Cocks on opening weekend. But the game is in Atherns, not the bayou. If you look at the paper, it seems no contest, Dawgs all the way. Don’t be fooled though, LSU is every bit the match, and if the game was in the Baton Rouge, I would be tempted to take LSU. But this game is in the Dawgpound. I will take the home boys, but it is that close.
The Sooners of our once and always friend, Freepatriot’s, love take on the Blighted Irish of Notre Dame. But the game is in Domerland, not on the Prairie. Frankly, I do not trust either of these teams. So, I will roll with the one at home. NOT! I will take the wagon circling Schooners in a road upset. If ‘Ole Miss were not in Tuscaloosa, I might be tempted to take them over the Tide. Nope. If the Badgers were in Cheeseland against the Sweatervests of THE Ohio State University instead of Columbus at the Horseshoe, I would be tempted to take them. But nope. There is not that much else out there that is exciting on the front end before they play the games.
No F1 this weekend, and the “America’s Cup” between two boats full of Aussies and Kiwis has ended (I have no idea where the fuck “America” was in the equation, other than it took place in a bay of San Francisco).
So, a word about the music and the Sandman. They are interrelated. The greatest reliever of all time, Mariano Rivera, is retiring. Indeed, had his farewell ceremony at Yankee’s Stadium Thursday night. By a sad coincidence, our good friend Spencer Ackerman’s mother, who was a consummate Yankee’s fan, passed away just before Mariano Rivera’s walk off the storied mound in the Bronx. I only wish that I had had the pleasure of meeting Spencer’s mom. Maybe even more, I wish my mom had had the opportunity. They were unique women in a time before that was necessarily quite so acceptable to see or admit. Heroes. And I will leave it at that. Mine is long gone, but Spencer’s loss is real; he is in my thoughts, and I hope yours.
With that, on somewhat melancholy note, we wrap up the Trash for this week. From very long ago- I think – I recall that Spencer’s mom had a thing for Jackson Browne’s music. So, we led off with that. We close with, as the Yankees did for Mariano Rivera, Enter (or Exit) the Sandman by Metallica. Number 42 for the Yankees is, and was, in a league of his own. It is fitting that he is the last player to wear the number 42 after it was retired for Jackie Robinson. No two men have ever worn a number better. Let 42 now rest and live in perpetuity as the mark of greatness.
LSU is at Georgia. Homefield is a reason I like the Dawgs. Mark Richt is a nicer guy than Les Miles—doesn’t relate to on field performance but a reason to root for Georgia.
I was just thinking about Jackson Browne the other day. Sadly, he made a hell of a lot more good music than the four or five songs we get to hear on the radio.
I spake a lot on the other, realer trash thread, so I won’t reiterate what I said there. I will add, though, that in some future year, when there’s more perspective people will look back on the Yankee teams of Jeter, Rivera, O’Neill, Martinez, Pettite and Posada as some of the greatest in baseball history.
That last picture in the Browne video with Bonnie Raitt – has she made her TT debut yet?
Falcons beware… who is the league source… Billy Boy?
The Globe is reporting that
“The Patriots will likely get a boost on offense Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons with the return of All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski and wide receiver Danny Amendola, according to a league source.
Gronkowski, who has been rehabilitating after undergoing back and forearm surgeries, is expected to play, as is Danny Amendola, who was been hampered with a groin injury.
The source said that, as of today, the two are playing against the Falcons, but there is “a lot of time between now and Sunday night.”
While the Patriots are taking it day by day, the plan is for the two to have a limited role in Atlanta.”
@scribe:
I would agree with your first four, but Posada and Pettite — “greatest”
is a stretch
Out on a limb…
I’d like to see Cleveland (Francona) play the Sox.
Masterson is their new closer?
I’m worried about Tampa Bay… if they play Boston, it will be a doozy.
Texas has Senator Cruz so fuck them.
TheMomCat and I sat next to Mrs. Ackerman when Spencer was hosting Jeremy Scahill @ The New School. She was a nice lady.
Condolences.
@Brindle: Eeep, you are right; fixed that. Thanks!
@ek hornbeck: I wish I had had the opportunity to meet her, she sounded awesome. For some reason or another, Spencer’s Twitter stories about her, and how she would casually let slip amazing things she had done in her younger days, really got to me and reminded me of my mother.
@Bay State Librul: See, I think Gronk will play, badly, and Amendola won’t. But I think the er, um, conflicting signals are about sustaining hope the Pats win this. I’m not optimistic myself.
That three way race for two wildcard slots in the AL has been very exciting all week. The Rays finally blinked last night and lost. They and Cleveland had each won seven straight games with the Rays a game ahead of the Indians. Cleveland and Texas both won last night, so now we have the Rays and Indians tied at one game ahead of the Rangers. Everyone has only two games left to play.
The Rays are playing in Toronto. Fortunately, both Bautista and Encarnacion are on the DL. Last night, the Rays had to face RA Dickey, who has owned them all year and the Rays sent out Jeremy Hellickson, who has been struggling. With a couple of solo shots, the Rays were looking good with a 2-0 lead, especially when Hellickson set down the first nine straight. Then the unexpected error-bug hit, with gold-glove third baseman Evan Longoria committing two in successive innings. With three errors coupled with Hellickson’s lack of confidence, things got out of hand in a hurry and they fell to a 6-2 deficit late in the game.
In the eighth, the Rays ran back up against a nemesis like I’ve never seen any other team face. Even though they’ve played well lately, they recently had been on a streak of going 0 for 18 at the plate when they have the bases loaded. They finally broke through last week, when Myers had a hit go for a two run double with the bases loaded against the Orioles, but it was a little bleeder that the second baseman had in his glove until colliding with the right fielder. They followed that by getting a sac fly the next time with the bases loaded. It came back to bite them again at least twice in the Yankees series. But last night they really could have broken through. They were down 6-2 in the eighth and loaded the bases with one out. James Loney, who has been the hottest hitter for the Rays came up with Dickey already gone… and hit the first pitch into a double play. I actually root for the Rays to score without loading the bases now. It’s just safer that way.
BSL: The real weak spot for the Indians looks like the closer spot. Perez had a game earlier this week where he gave up a couple of homers in the ninth to go down by a run, but got bailed out by zombie Jason Giambi (who knew he was still playing?) with a pinch-hit, two out, two strike two run homer to pull the game out. And then Thursday night, they brought him in for what should have been mop-up time in the ninth in Minnesota. With a five run lead, he quickly gave up four runs before being replaced, but the Indians managed to get a final strikeout with runners on first and second.
That Sandman game Thursday night was truly special. The Rays were the opponent. That game really marked the end of an era in more ways than just Rivera’s retirement. The Yankees were officially eliminated from the postseason with Wednesday’s games. That made Thursday’s game the first Yankees home game since 1993 that took place with the Yankees eliminated from postseason eligibility. And that means, in his entire career, Rivera appeared in precisely one game at Yankee stadium when it didn’t mean anything. And that was his last one. Fortunately for the Rays, the appearance itself was also meaningless for the outcome of the game. The Rays were up 4-0 in the 8th when he came in, so it wasn’t a save situation. The game also was significant because the Rays win meant that for the very first time in Rays franchise history, they swept a series from the Yankees in New York.
The Gators will be a very interesting case today. I’m sorry for his bad injury, but Jeff Driskel really was never living up to the confidence the coaching staff had in him. Tyler Murphy looked terrific last week. His decision-making was much faster than Driskel’s ever was and was correct a remarkable number of times for someone seeing his first live action. I have no idea how the coaching staff could have kept Murphy behind Driskel on the depth chart. Says a lot of bad things about their ability to evaluate talent.
The Gators also lost Dominique Easley for the season. He blew his knee out in practice. The defensive line had played really well against Tennessee last week, and do rotate a lot guys, but losing Easley is a huge blow.
Man, that is a LOT of Devil Rays information. So, that is the Rays, what about the A’s??
Where is our Roving A’s Reporter when we need her??
@bmaz: Now cut that out. I keep reminding you that YOU are the only devil-worshiper in these parts. Their official name is now Tampa Bay Rays. No devils there…
@Bay State Librul: You’re wrong on that. Pettite was as much a part of the center of those teams as were Jeter, Posada, O’Neill, Tino, and Mo. He’s also the last good starting pitcher the Yankees have developed in house (and kept). By good I want to make clear I mean someone who a manager (or fan) can feel comfortable giving the ball in a critical game in the season or, especially, post-season. You can’t rely on Phil Hughes for much more than gopher balls and they traded away Ian Kennedy for … who remembers? And Pettite was there from the beginning – he started in the snowy Opening Day 1996. And he has the best post-season record of anyone. Evah. A lot of fans were brutally angry when the Yankees let pettite go to Houston; the media were even rougher. I wish you could have heard Michael Kay – Yankee broadcaster since 91 or so and on the Yankee beat his entire professional life – on his radio show rape Yankee management when they let Pettite go. It was one for the ages.
Posada? Only the catcher for the entire pitching staff for a dozen years or so. A real fan would have seen just how central Posada was. He could call a game and handle pitchers as well as anyone. Arguably, he can stand side by side with Berra and Dickey among the greats at catcher. He may not get to Cooperstown, but he’s no less great. And, he was another home-grown product.
Jeter, Posada, Pettite and Mo are pretty unique in this regard. In an age where free agency and player movement define the game, and rent-a-player is a given for contenders, these four were scouted, drafted (Pettite and Jeter – the MLB draft did not extend to Puerto Rico or Panama), signed, developed and played their entire careers (save Pettite’s 3 years in Houston) for the same team. Indeed, the Yankees’ 1990 scouting-drafting-signing cycle may have been one of the best in baseball history. In that year, they scouted, drafted and signed Posada, Pettite and Rivera. Jeter came along in 1992.
What a dick. College football. “America” was the name of the original boat in the 1st America’s Cup race a century and a half ago. A long history of something more valuable than running a minor league program for free for the NFL, and screwing the athletes in the process.
Great, great, great music choices. I’ve never met you, bmaz, but you and I clearly were at the same concerts in different places together. Two of my three best “music and law” experiences center around Jackson Browne and Metallica during these timeframes, and none of them involve me doing hard time, so life is good. But I’m still holding out hope that the Commissioner is going to just friggin’ waive the Yankees into the playoffs, exercising his “best interests of baseball” power to get Jeter and Mariano one more October on national TV. If Trout can’t drag the Angels there by himself, at least there should be respect for Jeter and Mariano.
Nomination for best sentence in the entire thread goes to
@Jim White:
PS the answer to the age old question of, “what does Santa do in his free time?”
http://i.chzbgr.com/completestore/2012/1/30/599303bc-7d47-4409-98c4-13391937d374.gif
“Oh, this feels good”
http://i.imgur.com/e89Pb8j.gif
This game could be surprisingly close, or an upset
South Carolina v UCF – I don’t even know what the University of Central Florida’s nickname is, but they have a QB, Blake Bortles, that’s prolly gonna get a close look by pro scouts. He has NFL size and pretty good efficiency, 7 tds to 1 int
@JohnT: UCF has a good coach, George O’Leary. Solid program.
@bmaz: Yeah. He’s so good he killed a kid.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6684761
@bmaz: Forgot. Yea, he was the Vikes DC for a couple seasons after that mix up with Notre Dame
@Jim Kendall: More on the history of the AC:
Aaargh. Rays look like they are going to need an America’s Cup finish. Rangers already won. I would have put big money on those Texass people being the ones to fold down the stretch, but no. Rays are down 7-1 in the bottom of the 6th to a Blue Jays lineup that is mostly AAA players. Not good at all. Cleveland and the Twins were in a long rain delay but have finally started.
@Jim White: No devils?
Maybe you should look in the owner’s box for Stuart Sternberg, a retired partner at the Vampire Squid. He’s the managing general partner of the ownership group, and runs it about like you’d expect a Vampire Squid would run it.
His regular threats to move the team unless Other People (MLB, tv networks, various cities) throw money at him is right out of the VS playbook.
Ut oh. Pats left New England with neither a Gronk nor an Amendola on the plane.
@Jim White: Really, what coach associated with Notre Dame hasn’t killed a few kids?
@emptywheel: Told ya. I’ll bet if this keeps on going like this, Cheatin’ Bill’s gonna try somehow to get Hernandez bailed out so he can play.
Freep’s got to be happy, as West Virigina takes down OK State and his Sooners are up 14-zip after the first 1:10 of the game.
OU had a pick-six on the Domer’s third play from scrimmage, followed by another interception on the Domer’s first play after the ensuing kickoff, followed by a fast three play TD drive for their offense.
Yep, Freep’s happy right now.
@Peterr: @Jim Kendall:
My point was that “America’s Team” is anything but. The boat was built south of the Equator, and the captain and all the crew, save for one token American, were from Kiwiland and Oz too. That’s bullshit. The only thing “American”in the gig was some tech money to fund it. Fuck that shit. Build it and drive it, or get out.
I mean, seriously, can’t this country do anything on its own anymore other than make war on people?
@bmaz: We can crash their economies?
@Peterr: Heh, if China and Germany don’t crash ours first. Mostly, because we can bomb the fuck out of anybody.
@bmaz: Flag of convenience. Outsourcing never dies, it just relocates. BTW, I didn’t know Karla was such a sports afficianado.
@bmaz: How about stealing everyone’s email?
The NSA does what the Stasi could only dream of.
@emptywheel: They are taking the shuttle
Thank you so much for this, Bmaz.
@Spencer Ackerman:
((Spencer))
((Spencer’s Mom))
@Spencer Ackerman: Love you and your mom, best wishes to both.
Dawgs 44, Tiggers 41
Schooners 35, Domers 21
The Tide and the Sweatervests have to be happy about the trend here.
high everybody
as previously reported, freep be happy
I’m enjoying one of those rare weeks where all my favorite teams win, and Notre Dame loses too
the Oakland A’s win their division, Oklahoma wins in South Bend, and Peyton Manning is playing like Payton Manning. I wouldn’t wanna be an iggle tomorrow.
seeing as the only effective medical help I have been getting is from the Ellison Ambulatory Center, I’m aven happy for the Team Oracal victory in the America’s Cup Races, even if it don’t look like a sailboat race
With all this good happening at once, I’m almost afraid to see what happens next week
BOOMER SOONER
an Go DONKOS
Charlie Pierce throws down . . .
And at halftime, it’s Bama 9, Ole Miss 0.
Mr. Pierce might just be onto something here.
@Spencer Ackerman: Blessed Be. I sat next to your mom at the New School. I think she clapped the loudest. We talked just for a bit afterwards. She was so very proud of you.
My deepest condolences.
May the Goddess guide her on her journey to the Summerlands. My you and your family and all the world find Peace.
@scribe:
Yeah, but it depends on how you rate “great”. I think of Varitek when
you mention Posada. Varitek couldn’t hit worth shit. Posada has a .275
lifetime BA which is okay. In terms of catching, both Mussina and Randy Johnson wanted John Flaherty behind the plate to catch them. Whattsup with that?
Pettite’s AL ERA was 3.95, again fine, but nothing to rate stardom. To me, he’s an up and down lefty, no Whitey Ford. I’ll give him points for his post-season work, but somehow I don’t see him as Mr. October.
Jeter and Mo will be first ballot Hall of Famers, along with Pedro Martinez.
@Jim White:
Down to the wire today
You think Tampa will pull in out of their arse?
Cleveland loses, Texas and Tampa win for a three-way tie to elate Bug
Selig.
How about Joe Torre for Commish?
Would a new stadium help attendance for the Rays?
Tampa Bay’s chances via the Globe’s Ryan:
World Series championships — none.
Major strength 1 — Arms, arms, arms. And more arms.
Major strength 2 — Joe Maddon is the most innovative, forward-thinking man in all of baseball.
Major weakness — Not exactly a fearsome lineup.
Sad reality — Great franchise wasted on unappreciative baseball market
in the words of George Takei: “Oh my”
“Trojans dismiss coach Lane Kiffin”
http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/college-football/story/_/id/9742627/usc-trojans-fire-coach-lane-kiffin-3-2-start-blowout-loss
for our resident curmudgeon: “Nationality rules likely in America’s Cup future”
http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Nationality-rules-likely-in-America-s-Cup-future-4853320.php
@rosalind: LA Times article USC fires Lane Kiffin after 62 – 41 loss.
@rosalind: bmaz’ fault, too. Apparently he was at the game.
@rosalind: Sometimes life can be so unfair. This, however, isn’t one of those times. What can a UCLA/ND family say except HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! That and “hey, maybe USC can re-hire the kid in the locker room who was fired for overinflating footballs now”.
@bmaz:
You just put this bit in to lure me out of hiding didn’t you?
Not all were from Kiwiland or OZ. Seem to think there was a quite important Brit, name of Ainslie, on board too.
@Peterr: Good and honest sportswriters seem to make the best overall journalists. They know that while the team owners expect them to carry water for various things, the readerships won’t trust them if they veer too much off into Bullshit Land.
@Spencer Ackerman: (((hug)))
I am aiding the Vikings in Blighty by refusing to watch the game. It’s on the TV right now, but I’m in another room avoiding looking at it except when I make an unavoidable trip to the kitchen; then I allow myself a quick peek:
Hmmm, so the Purple Perps are 10-0 on the guy one of my online acquaintances calls “Rapistburger”. This won’t last.
And lastly:
http://www.hennemusic.com/2013/09/video-metallica-performs-on-mariano.html
Our condolences, Spencer. ((Spencer)) ((Spencer’s mom)).
@bmaz: Even the boat building was outsourced?!
Here is replica of original yacht America:
http://www.nextlevelsailing.com/americas-cup/san-francisco-americas-cup/attachment/dscn1243
Yeah!
Also per wikipedia:
I mean if we don’t even build the boat, who won? Not us? Isn’t this, like, false flags and treason? I think that’s what my crawling skin is trying to tell me.
@BMAz – I wanted to extend my most sincere congratulations to you and your ASU Sun Devils for their exemplary performance in getting Lane Kiffin shitcanned before the plane home even landed.
Well done!
Crap, I wasn’t sure if my old repaired ticker would stand up to all that tension. Rays started off to a 7-0 lead over the Blue Jays and wound up just barely holding on, 7-6. Indians won, so best Rays can hope for is an outright win of second wild card slot. That will take a Rangers loss, but they are now up 4-2 in the top of the eighth. Come on, Angels…
If Rangers win, Rays go to Arlington for a game tomorrow evening. Winner goes to Cleveland Wednesday evening for the real wild card game. That winner goes to Boston Friday.
@Bay State Librul: I wrote a long replay earlier, but it got swallowed in the toobz somewhere so I’ll have to recreate it.
For a catcher to hit .275 career is damn good. Most teams are happy to get .225 to .250 out of a catcher provided he handles the staff well and is good defensively. That Posada hit that well elevates him. By comparison, Yogi Berra hit .285 lifetime, Bill Dickey hit .313 (in an era of higher BA overall), and Johnny Bench hit .267 lifetime. I think Posada’s stats stand up and my argument does, too.
I don’t think of Varitek when I think of Posada – they’re two different kinds of catchers. When I think of Tek, I see him as being more of a Munson, commanding his teammates and the field but not a great handler of pitchers. Look at the horse starters of the Sawx teams: Schilling and Pedro. The kind of pitchers who tell their catchers what they’ll throw. Tek is the kind of guy who, if he had a broken nose you might as easily suspect it was as likely from a fight as from a foul tip. Posada was a better handler of pitchers.
You mention Flaherty. He was an even better handler of pitchers than Posada and made a nice career out of being a backup catcher – not the easiest thing to do and something it takes a special kind of person to pull off. Last I heard, he was taking up the McCarver role – wise retired catcher on TV – for YES. By the time Johnson got to the Yankees he was on the downside of his career but his ego hadn’t caught up with that reality. Mussina was just daft. Having Flaherty catch them – or have them think they’d gotten their demand for a personal catcher – was as much an indication of Torre’s genius at dealing with egos as anything else.
Mussina always was a bit of a puzzle. He won a lot of games – I forget how many consecutive 15 or more win seasons he had, but he never seemed to show up in the clutch – in the regular seaon or the playoffs. The near-perfect game he pitched at Fenway on ESPN Sunday Night (if you’re a fan, you’d remember Jon Miller just about messing his pants with excitement as he called the game) just before 9/11/01 encapuslated Mussina’s career. He got to 2 out, 2 strikes bottom 9th and then Carl “Clubhouse Cancer” Everett* golfed a clean hit to left. As a matter of fact, Mussina had a number of similar near-perfect games. He just couldn’t finish.
Comparing Pettite to Whitey Ford is really inapposite. You can subtract a run from his ERA for being in the modern American League. I’d take a pitcher with a career ERA just under 3 any time. More to the point, Casey Stengel and, to a much lesser degree, Ralph Houk used Ford in a manner which would be absolutely taboo today. Casey would regularly juggle the starting rotation to get Ford to pitch game one of a regular-season series Stengel thought was important. Moreover, the innovations in the bullpen by people like Gossage, Eckersley, LaRussa and Torre had not occurred when Ford was pitching. The bullpens of Ford’s day were populated by innnings-eaters mopping up their way out of the league or rookies riding the pine to meet the requirements of the Bonus Baby Rule (I’m looking at you, Koufax). Dominant relief pitchers hardly existed. In fact, the only reliever of that era I can think of is Elroy Face. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Face Like Mo, he made his living as a dominant pitcher with one pitch, in his case the forkball. The HoF Veterans Committee really ought to take a good hard look at Elroy Face and bring him to Cooperstown. I’d say that, given a bullpen like the one that backed Pettite, Ford would have easily won well over 300 games.
Still, I think that when all is said and done neither Posada nor Pettite will be going to Cooperstown but I’ll also bet that #20 and #46 will be up in Monument Park.
I agree that Jeter and Mo and Pedro will likely be 1st ballot HoF inductees. But of all the records and stats, the one I think the most highly of is Jeter’s: he has never been ejected from a game.
—
* Also a starting outfielder on the Mets’ All-Infamy Team http://metsmerizedonline.com/2013/09/this-day-in-mets-infamy-with-rusty-the-all-time-infamy-team.html
@scribe:
Good narrative, a list George Constanza would be proud of.
How come no Keith Hernandez on the Mets infamy team (smoking, spitting and poor fielding?
@Bay State Librul:
You’d have to ask the DFH Mets blogger (there’s a forlorn job if ever there was one) who wrote the list why he left off Hernandez, Strawberry Gooden and Kevin Mitchell and Rickey “Poker Star” Henderson. I’d have added Oliver Perez and Carlos Beltran as reserves. The only thing Oliver Perez did well was wear his hat. He looked really good in his Mets hat but couldn’t pitch to save his life. Beltran, you’ll recall, had a banner year with the Astros (was that ’05?) tearing it up on the way to the WS, which they then promptly lost to the White Sox. Then he got the huge free agent contract from the Mutts, drank some of the water at Shea, and stayed hurt the entire 7 years of that deal. Now he’s tearing it up for the Cards, $120 million or so richer.
Honorable mention is the guy who, sometime in 1987, stole the Mets World Championship pennant for 1986. The actual pennant. A groundskeeper went to raise it, went to get a cup of coffee and, when he came back, it was gone. It then resided in someone’s Queens basement man cave until shortly before the 2000 World Series with the Yankees, when someone tried to sell it on the internet. He got a visit from the NYPD. http://nypost.com/2000/06/16/stolen-met-flag-found-on-web/
Then again, if you ever get to look at the Mets’ World Series trophies, you’ll note that they show some serious damage – bent flags and all. “Rough handling in the clubhouse celebration” is the official story, but I’ll bet it was dragged behind a car.