The Mets Police

I’m going to guess since this middle-aged Mets fan didn’t recall this, this may be news to many of you.

When I mentioned the Phillies fans use of “Ya Gotta Believe” yesterday, reader Jon mentioned that in 1980 Tug took the phrase with him and told NY to “stick it.”

I’ve always known Tug to be a a beloved Met alumnus, and of course we remember 1973.

However, if you read here – here is the story in print.

Not sure how I feel about Tug now.

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I can't be the only Mets fan who had visions of Lackey in Flushing in
2010 can I? I don't follow the Angels, don't know too much about him
but sure seems like the kind of fellow you'd love to have in the
rotation.

Is there a single square inch of Angels Stadium that they haven't sold
to advertisers? If you think Flushing is bad take a look at the
outfield in Anaheim of Los Angeles.

Can we get the Mets to change their name to the New York Mets of
Flushing just to be annoying?

Remember when McCarver first started doing channel 9 and his insights
seemed fresh and amazing? I miss Darling but nor Chip. Joe Buck
having a nice series. Dad taught him well.

Kids always speak the truth: Junior asked why all the fans were
rooting for the Angels. He noticed all the red. As I brought up last
weekend we lack uniform unanimity (click the article over there on the
right side of the blog) and we don't know what to wear. Now we're
going to add in some cream to our color palatte.

The Yankees sure seem to sell lots of merchandise by wearing the same
thing for 70 plus years (some minor tweaks over the years).

Omar, did you call Mazzili yet? That first base coaching problem that
brought down 2009 needs to be fixed!

Sent from my iPhone

I didn’t see this comment last night until after the Dodgers were eliminated, so I saved it for tonight….too bad we won’t get this one!

DyHrdMET has left a new comment on your post “Late Starts And Yankees Announcers (Two Topics)“:

I was saving this comment for Neil Best, but I’ll give to you instead (or in addition) – In a way, a Yankees-Dodgers World Series would be great for sports broadcast schools and the sports media critics. You would have the world’s worst baseball announcer in one radio booth (John Sterling from the Yankees) and the world’s best in another (Vin Scully from the Dodgers) calling the same game and be able to study the two side-by-side to see the miles of difference. 

Well good news, the Yankees are at Los Angeles (Dodgers, not the Angels of Anaheim which is not Los Angeles at all) on June 25-27, 2010.   We will get our chance!

While we’re talking announcers – would it kill Fox to have the local broadcasters do an inning.  I liked how it was in the late 70’s, but I say that about most things.

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From nj.com:

After drawing large crowds for two preseason games in Newark — including nearly 16,000 Wednesday for a game against the New York Knicks — the Nets are warming to the idea of spending a few years at the Prudential Center as long as they can get out of their lease at Meadowlands without having to pay an $8 million penalty.

The Nets are never going to make it to Brooklyn in my opinion, and the Xanadu mess has made the entire Giants Stadium area unappealing so they might as well make the jump.

I think the mass transit in Newark is overrated.  If you need to take a train to the west it’s not across the street at all, and I would definitely stress about missing a train by one minute and having to stand there for 59 minutes.  I have the same concern about a Giants/Jets game.  Sure I’d get to Secaucus easily but then what?

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Sharing the Pain (John O’Hara)

Last night, the Phillies defeated the Dodgers to lock up a second straight World Series appearance, and tonight the New York Yankees are one game away from their first World Series since 2003.  Not since Kenny Rodgers threw a 3-1 pitch well out of the strike zone in the 1999 NLCS have the Mets fans have to choose to root for the lesser of two extreme evils.  The fact that it could be a former Mets farmhand sending the Yankees to the World Series makes it more difficult.

Mets fans are well aware of the recent pain inflicted upon them by the Philadelphia Phillies.  The Phillies were the team that twice overcame late season leads by the Mets to win the NL East.  The Phillies have created the type of team that the Mets fans wanted.  Their prospects of Rollins, Utley, Howard, and Hamels have delivered three straight NL East Championships as well as the possibility of winning back-to-back World Series.  Mets fans thought that it was going to be Wright, Reyes, and to a certain extent Pelfrey bringing them to the postseason and winning World Series.

As for the Yankees, since Dave Mlicki struck out Derek Jeter looking to end the first Subway Series game, the Yankees have dominated this series.  The most humiliating part was in 2000 when the Mets couldn’t hold on in Game 1 and watching their hero, Mike Piazza, fly out to Bernie Williams in Game 5 to end the series.  To add insult to injury, Derek Jeter was the MVP.  In 2009, Jeter and Rollins are on the way to matching up in the World Series, and the Mets consistently misdiagnosing Jose Reyes, furthering injuring him, and having fans question if he was going to return to the dynamic leadoff hitter he was before the injuries.

As much as this hurts Mets fans, lets fast forward to next week for the Game 1 matchup of the World Series at Yankee Stadium.  The projected starters will be C.C. Sabathia and Cliff Lee.  In 2008, they were among the two best starting pitchers in baseball with Cliff Lee winning the AL Cy Young and C.C. Sabathia becoming a modern day Cy Young and pitching the Brewers to an unlikely postseason appearance (over the Mets on the last game of the season – thanks again for bringing Schoeneweis into that game Manuel).  They were also on the Opening Day roster for the 2008 Cleveland Indians . . . only to be elsewhere and facing each other in the World Series.  Like the Mets, the Indians were an emerging team with a genius GM in Mark Shapiro and a successful manager in Eric Wedge.  After the injuries to Grady Sizemore and a disappointing performance from the rest of the team, the Indians no longer have a genius GM and fans are uncertain as to the direction of their franchise.  I’m sure this sounds familiar to Mets fans.

So Mets fans should take heart.  Pedro will pitch for the Phillies in the World Series, but he’s at the end of his career, and no one could have helped this 2009 team.  We are watching A.J. Burnett pitch Game 2, but we have the memories of Al Leiter pitching the Mets into the postseason with a one hitter in the one game playoff against the Reds, and his tremendous, yet failed, Game 5 pitching performance against the Yankees  The Indians are watching their two best pitchers against each other, and they have no cherished memories to show for it.  At the very least, we will have Johan Santana pitching on Opening Day at Citi Field, and with Johan, Reyes, Wright, Beltran, and K-Rod, the Mets have a chance in 2010.  The same can’t be said for the Indians.

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