Category: mets

Donk donk donk. Donk donk donk.

I'm sure Cow Bell Man is a great guy and obviously a huge Mets fan.
Donk donk donk but I don't enjoy his work.

Never mind the announcerless inning on tv. Last night on the radio it
was annoying. I almost wanted the Noise Pollution Patrol to crank up
some music to drown him out.

I know on paper that I should appreciate a home grown thing like thus
but it's annoying and isn't it just a poor man's Freddy Sez?

Sent from my iPhone

Does anyone know if John Sterling still attends Yankees games?

It seems impossible that he could provide generic home run calls that
all sound the same.

My theory is that John has recorded a lot of common things like "It is
high…" or "thuuu pitch" and of course several takes of "thuuu
Yankees win!!!!!"

Furthermore I think he has recorded saying great things about Jeter
and a catch phrase for every player.

I believe Suzyn is actually running the controls and isn't very good
at it. That would explain why Jawn ignores her and cuts her off.

So for example, last night's final play was:

Geico Ad
Generic Swisher Intro #2
Generic thuuu pitch #15
generic home run call b
Swishalicios line
Thuu Yankees win (excited version)
Generic how about that suzyn?

If anyone actually saw Sterling last night let me know.

Sent from my iPhone

One of the best blogs out there is Centerfield Maz.   If you like this site you’ll like that one.

The guy who runs it is kind enough to let me use entire articles from his site …and the other day he featured John Stearns.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2009

Former Met of the Day: John Stearns- Player: (1975-1983) Coach: (1998-2001)

John Hardin Stearns was born August 21, 1951 in Denver Colorado. Originally Drafted by Oakland, he chose to attend the University of Colorado instead. In 1972 “Bad Dude” was drafted by the NFL’s Buffalo Bills as a defensive back, then by the Phillies. In December 1974 he was dealt to the Mets with Del Unser & for Tug McGraw, Don Hahn and Dave Schneck.

In 1975, Stearns began his Mets career as the backup to Jerry Grote only hitting .189 in 59 games. Stearns said he looked at the lineup card one day & saw he was on it with Tom Seaver pitching. In the 1st inning Pete Rose stepped in & he realized, he was in the big leagues! In 1976 he was sent down to Tidewater and was in the top 10 in batting. By 1977 he was the Mets starting catcher, he hit his only career grand slam in June and had two four RBI games. He was chosen for his first All Star game, and was hitting well over .300 by the break. He struggled in the 2nd half finishing up batting .251, with 12 HRs & 55 RBIs, leading the team with 12 doubles, & 77 walks. He would also lead his team in hit by pitches the nest two seasons.

In 1978 he had a slow April but he kick started himself by starting a bench clearing brawl, fighting with Gary Carter. In June Dave Parker crashed into him in a play at the plate. Stearns stood his ground, tagged out Parker to end the game and fractured big Dave’s cheekbone, sidelining him for two weeks. That season Stearns set a NL record for stolen bases by a catcher with 25, he also had career highs in HRs (15) & RBIs (73) & led the team in doubles with 25. He also caught a career high 141 games behind the plate.

In 1979, Stearns began to play a bit of outfield, first & third base. He still caught 121 games and set career highs in overall games played. He was selected to the All star team again finishing the season with a career best 131 hits, & 29 doubles, batting .243, with 9 HRs, 66 RBIs. He still stole 15 bases but was thrown out just as many times.

In 1980 he was batting well over .300 into July and made another All Star team. It was the first time he got to bat in any of All Star games he made and grounded out in the 5th inning off Tommy John. In a June 12th game two drunken fans stormed the field and while security was trying to catch them, Stearns grew irritable. He left his position behind the plate ran into left field and tackled one of them down. On July 4th, Expo rookie Bill Gullickson threw at the Mets Mike Jorgenson. Stearns jumped from the dugout ran to the mound and leveled Gullickson to the ground. I think my favorite Stearns story was when in Atlanta, the Braves mascot Chief No-a-homa was annoying Stearns. He screamed at the mascot and chased him off the field. After the All Star game he had a multiple hit, three RBI game but then broke his finger on a foul tip, which pretty much ended his season. He ended up hitting a solid .285 with 25 doubles but didn’t hit any HRs.

He missed the first two weeks of 1981, then slowly came back& was back behind the plate in May, hitting well until the baseball strike halted play. He finished up hitting .271 in 80 games, but his power production was down hittingonly 1 HR with 12 doubles. Through all his injuries he still stole 12 bases. In 1982 he came back strong, hitting well over .300 in the first half making another All Star team. That May he stopped the Giants Greg Minton’s record streak of 254 innings without allowing a HR. After the break he had elbow problems and was sidelined for the rest of the year finishing up with a career best .293 average, hitting 25 doubles & stealing 17 bases. By 1983 the elbow injury cut his career short, and at age 32 he retired. In his career he played in 810 games, hitting .260 with 152 doubles, 46 HRs & 312 RBIs. In 699 games behind the plate he had a .985 fielding percentage.

Retirement: After baseball Stearns coached (1990’s/ 2005) & managed in the minors (Binghamton 2003-Tides 2004). During 1998-2001 he was the Mets bench coach under Bobby Valentine. In 2006 he moved over to managing the Nationals AAA level. He was at Shea for the closing ceremonies on its final day.

Posted by contact @ [email protected] at Thursday, August 20, 2009 

Go check out Centerfield Maz.

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Howie Rose mentioned the Mets will be doing fan friendly gestures all
month. He said Jerry was greeting fans at the gate, free hot dogs on
Wednesday and "seat upgrades."

While I applaud fan friendly efforts I find my reaction tonight is
that it is making mad.

It seems phony. They should do this stuff all the time, not just when
they sense a half empty stadium in 2010.

Howie who can sometimes imagine fannies in empty seats said this was
the smallest crowd at Citi yet.

Wait until Thursdays "Saturday" game up against the NFL. I can't even
give my tix sway.

Sent from my iPhone

 Hey Shannon,

Thanks


It’s just a quirk to get us to tune into a meaningless game in September.  Ditto going Cohen-less tomorrow.  Maybe we’ll tune in to see how uncensored Hernandez is with just Darling to reign him in.  


 Interesting…I just purchased a pair of tickets from Stubhub. They are for the first row out in left field (left field reserve I think they’re called).

So it seems that the Mets are, in fact, dumping their tickets on Stubhub in an attempt to recoup something for them.


I don’t know that to be a fact – very interesting if true.   Has anyone else had this experience?


Finally – I’ve been running my mouth about the survey that David Howard mentioned…someone has finally written to say they were part of it:


I received a survey a couple of months back about the Citi Field experience. Pretty much the same survey. Spoke about food, seats, experience etc..

So there ya have it!  Only took a month.

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