Author: Shannon Shark @metspolice

One day the Mets had Lee Mazzilli Poster Day.   I had one.  It has been lost to the ages.   This was on Craigslist one day and I inexplicably didn’t buy it.   I’ve never seen it again.

What’s great about blogging is that I have a forum.

First the meat: David Wright rules. Two hits, a 5 game hitting streak in All Star Games, and he is a good face for the franchise. Clean cut, charismatic, never in trouble and he showed captain like behavior on Sunday when he took Reyes out if the game. Nice. Not quite The Franchise but we’re well on track for a 5 on the fence some day.

I want to say I am proud of him but I don’t want Cerrone to think I’m goofing on him. Im actually goofing on certain other people when I use the word proud.

Now the potato: I’m kind of quiet today because it’s one of my mysterious travel days and the AT&T network is horrible. I just killed two hours at an airport NOT blogging. I bought an ipad with unlimited data so I could bore you guys with Mazzilli stuff from wherever I am. Hard to do with no bars or at best the “Edge” network. The service works ok in the northeast (but not Manhattan) but out here in Other Time Zone I wanna punch someone.

If you emailed me stuff and I haven’t posted it or replied that’s why.

Rant Over. We now resume obsessing over Doug Flynn and his teammates.

Some notes from the day I watched Mets Yearbook 1976.

Great shots of the Mets in the 1976 pillbox caps!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen video of these caps.   So weird!

Always great to hear Bob Murphy, in this case calling Seaver’s 200th strikeout of the season.

Weird to see Joe Torre as a Mets player (hitting .306!)  I’m surprised he got benched for Roy Staiger (who?).

This is the sentence where I observe the blue uniforms with pinstripes look better, especially with blue undersleeves.  Oh, and no  names on the back. You can’t read the names from the Promenade and on TV they’ll tell you who it is with chiron.  No need for names.  If you don’t know who #7 is just find another team to cheer for.

I like the Phillies blue road uniforms, but the Cubs blue looks poor.

Apparently Felix Millan is underrated, so says Lindsey Nelson.

I know I repeat myself, but every time I see Bud Harrelson I feel bad we booed him out of town.  We as fans need to encourage Buddy to come back into the fold.

Much like I said about Mets Yearbook 1975, Dave Kingman seems really nice.  He had a very poor reputation in the press.  He seems nice in these videos.

Very cool to see Shea’s original coloring (orange seats in the loge?)

Cool to see Ron Hodges, whose #42 has been retired by the Mets.

John Stearns asked to be assigned to AAA Tidewater so he could play every day, after spending 1975 in the big leagues.  I defy you to show someone like that now.

Check out the ushers in their red sportscoats and policeman type hats.   That’s a nice classy look.  I’m going to time travel to 1976, invent blogging, and complain that they are wearing Phillies red.  I guess I’ll have to mail you a carbon copy of what I type on a typewriter.

The Mets have some really ugly numbers on the back of their helmets.

Long time fans of the Mets Police know I got my jollies when Yearbook 76 got to the long Lee Mazzilli section.  So odd to see him wearing #12.  Everyone knows his true number is #16.  Yes I have a man-crush.  Deal with it.

There’s a great shot of Tom Seaver pitching for the Jacksonville Suns.  During that section, Mets Police Junior walked in.  I told him that #41 was the Best Met of all time.  “How many home runs did he hit?”  “I don’t know.  He was a pitcher.  He won 300 games!”  “Only 300?”  Sigh.  Don’t worry, I’m teaching him well.  Someone’s gonna need to bust the chops of Jeff Wilpon’s kids.

Kiner just rattled off the names of some young pitchers, many of whom I’ve never heard of.  He’s excited about Roy Staiger.

Ralph recaps the giveaways: fan appreciation day (looks like they gave stocking caps), jacket day, and some days called “Banner Day” and “Old Timer’s Day” which sound interesting.  Real Mr. Met was at this Banner Day.

As I said this morning, I’m really excited about 1977!  With all this pitching, Kong in right and all these great young players, I bet 1977 turns out to be an unforgettable franchise-changing season!  What could go wrong?

Today let’s thumb the pages of my 1978 Mets yearbook.

It only cost a dollar and I spilled chocolate ice cream on it.  I actually showed this to Jerry Seinfeld one day when I was dressed as Clark Kent.  He did a classic Seinfeldian low key “huh” (as in ‘how bout that’).

1978 was a special time, you could market your beer with a slogan that encouraged people to get Shea-faced.

The manager?  Some bum named Joe Torre.  This guy would hand in losing season after losing season.  He was never heard from again in this town.

This super blurry photo from the ’78 yearbook is actually not that clear in the yearbook…but I’m posting it to promote my Blue Cap Army idea.   This is how Citi Field should look.

Why so many Blue Caps?  It was helmet day.

Speaking of giveaways, these children are enjoying bag day.   I think I had both of these.  Poor kids have lousy seats.

That bag on the right kind of looks like the one they gave out in 2010!

Duke Snider, Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle all at Shea.  Amazin’   I’ve occassionally looked for more pictures of this day and haven’t found too many (send ’em if you got em)

What’s amazin’ is that in 1977 the Mets had just 15 years under their belt and could figure out a way to have an Old Timer’s Day.  In modern times we’re told it’s too hard – as if it’s somehow going to be harder to get Ed Kranepool to come by than it was to get three of the upper pantheon of players (sorry Duke) to show up.

What was the highlight of 2009?  Arguably it was Nolan Ryan showing up.  Nolan played in modern times, he has money – so it wasn’t that that stopped him from coming.  If Ryan will show up so will Joel Youngblood.   Moving on…

How about that Lee Mazzilli?

Once again I let you down and post a picture sideways, but here’s what happens when you trade Seaver and have to publish a yearbook.   You hype the new guys.  Don’t worry you’re not missing much.