Posted on by Shannon Shark @metspolice

Mets water down their Hall of Fame – add Al Leiter (also good adds in Hojo, Howie and Gary)

Hey Steve….tap the brakes.  I appreciate you trying to make up for the sins of the Wilpons, but like many things if you live long enough you will see everything – I can’t believe I am saying this but TOO MUCH WITH THE HISTORY.

I don’t know who is on the Mets Hall of Fame committee these days but they blew it with Leiter.  I get that some of the black jersey wearing Generation Piazza crowd likes Al, believe me I have been hearing from them on twitter.  (As an aside, suddenly the Millennials like Pitcher Wins as a stat)

I can’t easily remember any great Al Leiter moments.  I guess he was on some teams that won Wild Cards, and was around long enough that he is somewhat high-ish on the Mets pitching charts – but given that very few players have ever played for the Mets for more than  seasons, that’s not that impressive.

What’s next here, Steve?  Are we going to put Tom Glavine in?  Pedro Martinez – and I will remind everyone the Pedro on the Mets was “Four Inning Pedro” and not the Pedro of your dreams.

Anyway – Leiter is a Yankee or a Marlin or something but he’s not a “True Met.” For those asking what a True Met is – it’s an eyeball test thing.  Glavine isn’t one, but you know who is…

HOJO.  I am happy to see him get in.  If you watched him play you know he was good.  Not much else to say.

On to the other selections – let’s start with Gary Cohen.  Gary has accomplished the equivalent of a player accumulating 20 years of stats without ever being elite.  Let’s be honest here – Gary Cohen is “Michael Kay good.”   He isn’t elite.  He announces in an era where there are lots of terrible announcers.  Gary isn’t terrible, so he looks great by comparison, when in really he’s good, maybe pretty good.  He’s like a 2-starter that might make the All Star Team in an off-year.  Anyway, Gary did his 35 years so he gets a plaque, OK fine.

As for Howie Rose?  This is fantastic.  Howie, in this post-Scully era, is the best play by play man in baseball.  No qualifications for “radio” or anything.  He is the best at it.  The way he uses intonations and speed-changes to call a play, while keeping the listener company AND never drinking the Kool-Aid…Howie is the best.  Even more impressive is there was a time when Howie wasn’t even allowed on WFAN immediately following Mets games (a long story kids, google “Todd Kalas” and “Mets Extra” and see what comes up.) – and somewhere along the way Howie became The Voice Of The Mets and the person who handles all the big moments.  Congrats.

So the committee got 3 out of 4 correct….but why are we in such a rush now?  Four people feels like a lot.  Tap the brakes Steve.

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The Mets did not send me any information on this.  The bloggers I speak to seem to agree there are two mailing lists, and depending on who does the email blast, they use list A or B.   This one probably was sent out by a senior executive, as it seems to be that kind of announcement that doesn’t make it down here to basements.  When they want us to know about a ticket sale because the team is 20 games out, those press releases we get.

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I also find that I don’t care about this.  The Leiter thing has me minority fired up but I am about to go on with my day and not think about it other than bantering with folks on twitter when my laptop is crunching reports.  The topic did get me thinking about baseball season and baseball in general and – I don’t care.

I am not looking forward to the season, it just merely is a thing that will happen like the NBA playoffs.  If you told me baseball season was canceled, I wouldn’t mind.  The sport itself has changed, the players less likable (maybe because we know more about them now because of modern media and social media) and I just don’t care about any of it.  That said, I remain committed to my mission of trying to guide the Mets to the side of righteousness with the goal of winning the World Series while dressed in proper Mets uniforms.

 

Al Leiter???