Mets

[Amazin69]

Nothing like performative angsting, I guess. You're not Woody Allen, Devon Gordon. Shut up.

(Woody turned 89 in November. I had no idea he had legally changed his name to "Heywood Allen" when he was a teenager.)

What if the Mets have suddenly emerged as something they’ve never been before — a competent, well-run organization, stocked with enough resources to compete with any team in baseball?

Riiiiiight. I guess the 1980s didn't happen then, is that it? Odd that there's that video of my overstuffed 22-year-old ass at Yankee Stadium in 1985 linked on page 150, then. Just because we have peaks and valleys is no reason to pretend that we've spent 40 years in the desert. Westheim's only been following this team for something over a dozen seasons, and in that time, we've made 4 playoff appearances and one trip to the World Series, which is above-average, even with the ridiculous amount of playoff bloat that we've experienced, lately.

Speaking of which, somebody might wish to tell Devin that he's jizzing his boxers over the team having had to play beyond season's end in order to finish 6th in a 15-team league. It's nice that he's excited over our being able to sign the biggest free agent on the market, but two words:

Bobby. Bonilla.

(And that was when the Yankees sucked, btw.)

[Amazin69]

Where are you watching the game, Westie? I don't see a broadcast listed anywhere.

(I mean, via MLB.TV, obviously, but what's the original source? Is this PIX and nothing else? Durn.)

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

Where are you watching the game, Westie? I don't see a broadcast listed anywhere.

(I mean, via MLB.TV, obviously, but what's the original source? Is this PIX and nothing else? Durn.)

Yup, it's a WPIX11 broadcast.

[Westheim]

It's the second inning, and I already find myself wondering whether anybody would object if someone crammed those two weapons-grade Yankees brats incessantly braying behind home plate down some industrial wood chipper. Like, y'know, their long-suffering parents.

Can't wait for Opening Day and a full major league ballpark where individual screamers don't stand out like that, a luxury afforded to as many as 28 of 30 MLB teams this year.

[Amazin69]

Well, 27. Some of those White Sux "crowds" weren't so crowdy late in the season.

Hopefully, the South Side has mustered up enough optimism over the winter to at least make an effort for their boys.

[Westheim]

Depressing.

[Déjà Bru]

If a tie is like kissing your sister, what's a tie with the Yankees like?

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

If a tie is like kissing your sister, what's a tie with the Yankees like?

Ignore me will you?!? () [You guys cannot compete with my wife in this regard.]

Then I will treat you to this!

Mets introduce 5 NYC-themed mascots for new between-innings race

There will be as follows:

Brooklyn - The Pizza Slice
Manhattan - The Skyscraper
Staten Island - The Ferry
Bronx - The Giraffe
Queens - The Subway

Enjoy!

[Westheim]

(opens mouth)

(closes mouth)

[Amazin69]

LOL.

(Not a figure of speech.)

***************
I'm slightly twitchy about the mascot race, since I think it's fine local color for Washington (which was essentially an expansion team when they thought it up) and Milwaukee, where sausage is a religion. (As I wrote last season, you never need to wonder if you're watching a Brewers telecast.) But my instinctive reaction was "we're big time! We're NEW YORK!! We don't need that bush-league stuff!"

However, one of the signal features of NY is its quintuplicity: the fact that it consists of a pentad of boroughs, now unified into a political whole. It may not have been laid out in a deliberate quincunx, one borough to the north/south/east/west of the central city, but it is indeed a five-fold structure and the race is a clever way to honor that.

(And yes, I needed Google Gemini to give me "quintuplicity","pentad", and "quincunx". I did have "five-fold" on my own, however.)

I'd feel a bit miffed on behalf of Queens, only getting a subway car instead of the World's Fair, the Tennis Centre, or JFK and LaGuardia Airports…but the majority of Mets fans from outside the borough experience it via the justly-famous 7-line, so…

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

However, one of the signal features of NY is its quintuplicity: the fact that it consists of a pentad of boroughs, now unified into a political whole. It may not have been laid out in a deliberate quincunx, one borough to the north/south/east/west of the central city, but it is indeed a five-fold structure and the race is a clever way to honor that.

It took me a while, but upon this thread revisit, I figured out what The Giraffe for the Bronx is representing: The Bronx Zoo. (I think.)

[Amazin69]

So I started to reply to a post in the general MLB thread, about managers who yank pitchers after 6 no-hit innings, just because they've thrown 100 pitches…

(…or 68, as Buck Showalter did when Max Scherzer was throwing a perfect game through 6 IP, in Milwaukee in 2022…)

…but the reply ended up being very detailed and Mets-centric, so I thought I'd move it here.

**************

You probably know how I hate it when Gary Cohen pushes that fairy story about how throwing 134 pitches in The No-Hitter (only one in Mets history) against St. Louis in 2012 ruined Johan Santana's arm and (then-manager) Terry Collins regretted it and vowed never to sacrifice long-term success for short-term glory, bla-blah-blahhhhh…

…when the fact of the matter is that Johan was fine for a month after that, and this time I've brought the stats to back it up!

Short version, because all those categories won't fit here:

June 1: Johan makes history. The returning Carlos Beltran may have gotten robbed of a hit on a fair/foul call, and Whitestone NY native Mike Baxter makes a great catch slamming into the wall…and screwing up his shoulder. (Baxter is the one who suffered career-altering effects from his heroics here, not Johan.) Full Game | Highlights

June 8: After taking a few extra days' rest, Johan goes to the Bronx and gets severely beat up, as sometimes happens. A 2-run homer by HGH Cano in the 2nd, another in the 3rd (A-Roid scoring ahead of HGH, both times) and then Nick Swisher and Andruw Jones going back-to-back-to-back made it 6-0 against, but Johan got the next 7 men in order to finish the 5-inning stint. A bad night, but that's all it was. Full Game (Yankees cast, since MLB didn't offer a choice of broadcasts until 2015 or so. Apologies for Michael Kay) | "Highlights" (home recording of ESPn)

June 14: Johan's still not at his best, taking 96 pitches to struggle through 5 IP at Tampa Bay and giving up 4 runs…but the Mets completely blow Jeremy Hellickson out of the park. (8 runs in 3.2 IP, giving up 2 HR to Kirk Nieuwenhuis and another to Jason Bay) and Johan is mostly pitching with a lead and gets the Win. Full Game (Rays-cast) | SNY recap (with GKR HR calls)

June 19: back home against the Orioles, Johan is back on form. It's not great that it takes 101 pitches to complete 6 shutout innings, but still. 4 hits, 2 walks, no runs, exits with a 1-0 lead, and the Mets expand it with a 2-run shot by Lucas Duda off of Future Met Tommy Hunter in the bottom of the 6th, and a 2-RBI single by Jordany Valdespin off Dana Eveland in the 7th, while Bobby Parnell, Miguel Batista, and Jon Rauch all have uneventful innings, and the Mets win 5-0. Full Game (SNY) | WB Mason Postgame

June 25: at Wrigley Field, this time it takes Johan 102 pitches to finish the 6th, and he allows 2 runs (2-run shot by Joe "Who" Mather, who is apparently the Cubs' CF this year) and gets the L, since the Mets don't hit and the defense falls apart in the 7th (David Wright botches a pop-fly down the LF line, Duda [in RF] drops one behind 1B, and 2B Ronny Cedeno muffs a grounder), leading to Rauch being charged with 4 UER on ZERO hits, and the Mets embarass themselves, 6-1.

But still…6 IP, 5 H, 3 W, 2 R. Terry Collins wasn't blaming Johan for that one, I'm sure. Full Game (Kasper and Brenly, not bad as Cubs-casts go) | Highlights

June 30: in LA, Johan utterly stifles the Dodgers, allowing 3 H and 0 R in 8 innings (107 IP). Mets cruise to a 5-0 win, with Ike Davis getting a homer and a double off of Nathan Eovaldi. Full Game (FOX. Joe Buck says the Mets are "one of the best stories in baseball". Take it easy, Joe…it's still June.)

So, for the final three starts in June, Johan has pitched 20 innings, allowing 2 runs on 12 hits and 7 walks. ERA and WHIP both under 1.00. Clearly he's not suffering from over-exertion or whatever fairy tale Gary likes to tell himself.

But then…then comes July 6. Cubs in town.

Reed Johnson homers off of Santana to start the game.
Lucas Duda homers off of Travis Wood to tie it in the bottom of the 2nd.
Reed Johnson leads off the 3rd with a double, but Johan strands him.
Ruben Tejada (speaking of ruined careers…) walks in the 3rd, and Ronny Cedeno drops a double into the LF corner, scoring Tejada. Mets lead, 2-1
Joe Baker doubles to start the Cubs 4th, and eventually scores on a SF by Mather. 2-2

To start the 5th, Reed Johnson (again) beats out a dribbler in the 1B hole. Johan covers on the play. Johnson spikes him. If Johan comes out, his career continues and he might even make the Hall of Fame one day.

But…Johan stays in, gives up a single to Darwin Barney and then a 3-run blast to Anthony Rizzo. Johan strikes out Alfonso Soriano, but then Baker homers, and then Johan gives up consecutive singles to Geovany Soto, Mather, and Luis Valbuena, chasing him, and effectively ending his career. Cubs lead, 7-2.

(The Mets tried to rally in the 9th, down 8-4. Valdespin hit a 1-out HR, and then Carlos Marmol walked Tejada, Daniel Murphy [pinch-hitting] and David Wright to load the bases for PH Ike Davis. Ike hit a two-run single to bring the Mets to 8-7 and then Lucas Duda lined one…right back to Marmol, who doubled Ike off of 1B to end the game.)

Full Game (GKR) | Career-ending ankle-stomping AB starts here.

And that was basically that. Johan took 10 days off (helped by the All-Star break), but it wasn't enough. The spiking wrecked his stride, which wrecked his delivery, which eventually wrecked his arm. Johan made four more starts, got wrecked every single time, and never made it back to the bigs, again.

So it's darkly hilarious that Gary faults Terry Collins for letting Johan throw those 134 pitches when he was literally unhittable, when the real issue was Terry leaving an injured Johan in when he was already struggling against the Cubs and then rushing him back 10 days later.

But of course, we were in a pennant race! At 45-39 through that Cubs game, the Mets were in 2nd place, a mere 4.5 GB behind the Gnats. And look at those Wild-Card standings!

SF 46-38
CIN 45-38
NY 45-39
ATL 44-39
STL 44-30

Clearly, this was no time to be over-cautious Nervous Nellies! We needed Johan! RA Dickey and his missing tendon can't do it alone! Fight!!

But what actually happened was that the Mets went 29-49 from here on, crashing out to a 74-88 final mark and being grateful for the Fish going 69-93 to keep us from the cellar. And so yes, short-term thinking cost us long-term Johan…but that mistake was in July, not in June.

13 years overdue, but the whole thing is still a trigger for me, even though I didn't see it live. (No DirecTV that season.)

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

So I started to reply to a post in the general MLB thread, about managers who yank pitchers after 6 no-hit innings, just because they've thrown 100 pitches…

You're talking about this post and it dovetails. And yes, you wonder just how much of this babying of pitchers comes from actual data and how much comes from guys like Gary Cohen who "pushes that fairy story about how throwing 134 pitches in The No-Hitter (only one in Mets history) against St. Louis in 2012 ruined Johan Santana's arm and (then-manager) Terry Collins regretted it and vowed never to sacrifice long-term success for short-term glory, bla-blah-blahhhhh…" A herd mentality develops.

[Westheim]

Some thoughts on the above post by Amazin, but I'm too tired and lazy to make eight separate quote boxes, for which I ask forgiveness.

Mike Baxter isn't getting thanked enough for keeping the no-hitter together and should get an honor from the Mets. He had a .915 OPS (in part-time duty) at the time he made a red stain on the W of the W.B. Mason sign, missed two months, tanked his stats in August and September, and then had three awful partial seasons before washing out of the league. Mets Hall of Fame would of course be a bit much, but how about a white *splat!* outline he made on the leftfield wall?

I could have done without shoutouts to Nick Swisher (for whom I had an unreasonable amount of hatred at the time, and I don't even remember why), Jordany Valdespin (who went to where it hurts and beyond in much lesser fashion than Baxter), and Miguel Batista.

Always liked Ruben Tejada. I hope Chase Ugly burns in hell forever.

Road broadcasts were available on MLB TV in 2012 (the first year I bought in), but they cost a twenny a year extra, which I was somehow too cheap for, and because of that I still bitch about F.P. Santangelo to this day.

Although it was a night game, I actually watched the no-hitter... most of it. I remember falling asleep earlier and then waking up at like 1:30 in the morning (my time of course) and remembering that the Mets were on, and joined in like the third inning.

Len Kasper was very enjoyable - I've always watched a lot of Cubs games due to them playing their Friday home games at a very neat hour for me, and virtually always they're the only show in town, so you can pretty much book 13 Cubs home games for me per season. Didn't fancy him leaving for White Sox radio (and I doubt he would do it again), but I've now gotten warm with Boog Sciambi.

Also remember that Carlos Beltran hit that ball on the foul line that visibly threw up chalk, but was called foul, which also saved the no-hitter. Beltran crossed the Metsies' path more than once after getting traded to the Giants for Zack Wheeler in 2011. Wheeler also isn't shy to turn up and throw a gem against the Mets these days, because why would you pay him "for two half-seasons"...

Can't wait for Opening Day in ... 24 hours!

[Amazin69]

Let's recall that while Jordany had his "it's called 'protective equipment' for a reason, kids" moment in orange and blue, the Mets did also employ Josias Manzanillo, who ended up a bit less of a Manzanillo when he was pitching for the Mariners and didn't bring his "armor" to pitch to Manny Ramirez, who lined one right where Josias would rather have not. Allegedly, the reconstructive surgery went well enough, but I'm not hunting up pics to check out the results.

And of course he's actually Nick "draft Grienke? Fielder? Scott Kazmir? You must be mad! Moneyball RULEZ!" Swisher, but the post was long enough.

I wonder if I'll see the game tomorrow. I don't see DirecTV advertising a free week of Extra Innings to start the year, and I have in fact definitively cancelled the damn thing for good this time. And I don't see the upcoming games on any national schedule. Hmm.

[Westheim]

First back-to-back Opening Day losses since 1999-2000, and before that 1962-1969. But at least they weren't shut out for the first time since 1963. Got pretty close though. Clay Holmes was modestly woeful, and the Mets offense was woefully modest.

Amount of $$$ spent by Uncle Steve per terrible game-ending flails by Juan Soto after one game: $765,000,000

Star of the Day would go to Huascar Brazobán, who was not supposed to be on the roster, but thankfully Blackburn fell over just in time for Big Brazz to throw seven outs in garbage relief. Probably on the bus to Syracuse tomorrow!

[Amazin69]

Bra's Open did a lovely job of relief. (He wins the Huascar for Too Little, Too Late.) And at least Lindor spared us the first shutout since Ernie Broglio.

Our Acuña redeemed himself for that poor throw by battling for that walk which not only loaded the bases, but clearly tired Hader out…oh, wait.

How the hell do we not have an emergency catcher on the roster? What would have happened if Hayden Senger, The Catcher [Near] the Rye had tripped on the steps or something? If there was somebody who was ready to cover for Senger in those circumstances, why couldn't we hit for Senger (who hits like Margaret Sanger) and go on from there?

(Maybe we shouldn't have pinch-hit for Torrens to start the 8th in the first place? His being thrown out on a ****ty dirt-ball read aside, Luis did have the only XBH we got all day.)

****************************
Gary Cohen clearly needed more time in Spring Training, he was gaffing all over the place.

First of all, when Valdez was chugging along in the middle innings, Gary reassured us that last year, no Opening Day starter went more than 6 IP. Valdez went 7.

Then Gary tells us about Ernie Broglio shutting out the Mets to start 1963 and then claims Ernie (and Jack Spring! Don't forget Jack Spring!) went to the Cubs in the Lou Brock trade "later that year". No, Ernie was a Cardinal all through 1963, going 18-8 with a 2.99 ERA, which is why the Cubs were eager to trade a young CF who couldn't really play center and who hit big HRs (one of only 4 men to ever reach the CF stands at the Polo Grounds) but struck out waaaay too much in order to grab the 28-year-old Ernie, who surely had many more fine seasons in him. But that was at the deadline in 1964, not '63.

And then Gary capped the day by referring to the Astros' former home as "the late, unlamented Astrodome". Er, Gar, the Astrodome is hardly "late". It's right where it's always been. It's on the National Register of Historic Places. Harris County spent $105 million in 2018 to restore the Harris County Domed Stadium (its proper name). You can take a tour before you leave Houston. Yeesh.

********************************

The good news is that apparently we are getting the free week of Extra Innings from DirecTV, since I was able to see the game.

The bad news was that I was able to see the game.

Well…most of it. During the pregame, I decided that it was a good idea to take a nap. So I hit the Pause (knowing that it would resume in 90 minutes) and snuggled under my blanket, pleasantly surprised that my cat perched on my upper chest, right below my chin. (He usually either goes for the lap or between my legs or just leaves me alone.)

90 minutes later, I woke up to a wonderful furry muffler within kissing range, and the dulcet tones of Todd Zeile coming from the TV. My first thought was "STFU, Zeile" since the TV seemed too loud, and I reached for the remote, looking to turn down the volume.

Alas, with my brain still somewhat asleep, I pressed the "change-channel" button instead, and there went all my carefully saved buffer. (I don't know why I didn't bother to record the game; I had DVR space.). One "Noooo!" later and a flip back, and we were in the 3rd inning already. The best-laid plans of Mice (or cats) and Men aft gang aglee, to quote Robbie Burns…

[Amazin69]

Oh, and just for you, Westie! O, Canada!

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

Oh, and just for you, Westie! O, Canada!

If we had kept him, we wouldn't fudge our way through second base with Brett Bleeping Baty now.

It's okay, Andres. I will always love you.

On the bright paw, while Crapple TV games are now blocked *live* on MLB TV (even for international viewers!), the game is still available from the archives.

On an even brighter paw, the Mets won! Splitting a pair of 3-1 games with the 'stros to begin the season is surely not the worst you can do. Soto socked a long one (he's now cost $765M per meaningful homer), and somehow Boom-Boom Diaz was the least panic the Mets pen managed to pour out all over me. If Stanek and Minter are gonna pitch like *that* every game, it's gonna be a long year...

[Déjà Bru]

I see the number 7 that the Mets are wearing on their sleeves this season. It's a nice gesture.