To understand all this you have to be able to understand this video. Listen to the love.
A Seaver Jacksonville Suns #41 jersey
Today is going to be a Seaver Day, and I had no such intention. As you know I surf the net and find random things, and the things I collected in the last 24 hours all seem to come back to The Franchismo.
First up, for the Seaverphiles…this is on ebay.
…I’m of the belief that Tom was #21. No?
Mookie Wilson on MSG+ Monday Night
“The Game 365: Mookie Wilson”
Monday at 11pm on MSG Plus
Former NY Mets center fielder and current first base coach Mookie Wilson is featured in a new episode of “The Game 365” premiering on MSG Plus this Monday night at 11:00 p.m. Host Fran Healy and Mookie explore the issue of the decrease in African-Americans playing baseball. Mookie takes Healy to a baseball field in East Harlem where he is involved with “Harlem RBI,” a tuition-free program designed to generate urban youth interest in the game.
Mookie tells Healy that he believes “African-Americans don’t play as much baseball as they once did…because economics of the game have changed through the years. There are not as many leagues available to kids that are not well off. The leagues just aren’t there, and the ones that are there, are just not affordable – some of the travel leagues can cost as much as $6,000 a year.”
“Harlem RBI” has proven successful to this point with more than 800 kids participating, as well as involvement from some big names like Carlos Beltran and Mark Teixeira. The program also aims to help kids graduate from high school. An astounding 97% of “Harlem RBI” kids have graduated high school and 93% have gone on to college – much greater than the average in East Harlem. Mookie says that if he grew up in the inner-city, “I think my life would have been different. I would have had to make different decisions because I would have been exposed to different opportunities. Where I grew up [in Georgia], there was nothing else to do but play baseball.”
Even more Lee Mazzilli
Speaking of Lee Mazzilli, here’s a photo from the Fabulous Disaster Tumblr.
Nope, that’s not me. Why would anyone have actually taken a picture of me and Lee or me and Tom Seaver.
It occurs to me that I may be the only person on Earth wearing a Lee Mazzilli jersey today.
Baseball Digest on Lee Mazzilli
The kids are hogging the Wii, Mrs. Mets Police is out so I can’t go do athletics…so I’m left to surf the internet. The Lee Mazzilli Google Alert is strong today.
This one from Baseball Digest..
Early on in Mazzilli’s playing years, he set a minor league record while playing in the California League by stealing seven bases in one game for the Mets’ minor league affiliate, Visalia. Well known throughout Brooklyn for not only his athleticism but also his good looks, Mazzilli had the privilege of entertaining fans across the country, as well as in front of his hometown crowd playing home games for the Mets at Shea Stadium and the Yankees later on at old Yankee Stadium. How many baseball players in Brooklyn would love to be associated with the Mets or the Yankees, let alone both.
via Baseball Digest Birthdays: Lee Mazzilli | Baseball Digest.
