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#TheseMets have corny October shirts….but congratulations on being the 3rd Wild Card!

Get your snazzy postseason cap!

 

 

I often tell friends, family and coworkers to enjoy the good times, as they don’t always come – a sentiment any Mets fan can understand and appreciate.   So it’s nice to see the boys enjoy themselves, and good job by Buck fostering a team atmosphere.

I often say that many things can be true – and while it’s great to make the postseason, “October’ merchandise is lame, and clinching the third wild card isn’t quite like clinching the NL East in 1969.

So let’s look at the shirts, and this corny-as-hell #TheseMets hashtag….All I see is “DeezNuts” and all I think of is how one of These Mets, Lindor, booed the fans.

Here’s a nice moment ruined by Alonsic Vulgarity – which is why we must fight against such vulgarity, lest it spread into the culture.

If Matt Harvey was drinking after a game instead of getting a good night’s sleep to focus on winning the division, you guys would be mad at him.

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Remembering John Stearns of the Mets (and one game with the Phillies)

So I did want to write about John Stearns. As I mentioned the other day, if you’re of a certain age, and that age is 50 something and your wife has interrupted you three times already as you have tried to type this sentence and now you’ve had to go outside to even complete a thought.  Oh wait, that’s not the sentiment I was going for…

..if you’re of a certain age, Stearns was one of your key Mets.  Guys like Mazzilli and Swan (the ERA leader!  Swan was as good as 78 Guidry, here’s the card to prove it!)

Stearns was one of those Mets that was actually good – except he was often hurt.  I remember circa 82-83 the joke was always about how he was about to come off then DL.  Incredibly, in 1984 a the 1977 Mets began to turn into the 1986 Mets, Stearns did somehow come back, appearing in 8 games.

Because we can never have anything nice in Queens, Stearns was not a life long Met.  There’s that annoying ONE GAME for the 1974 Phillies (Stearns came back in the McGraw deal)….but even @mediagoon doesn’t have a John Stearns Phillies jersey.

Stearns seems to come up on the “Could this guy manage the Mets” lists during the 2010’s, although I am not sure why.

His death is stunning.  None of us are 7 any more.  More and more of the things I liked about the Mets are now gone, replaced by awful things like Francisco Lindor who boos fans and black uniforms.

One of the nice things about having blogged since 2007 is I have a lot of old pieces I can dive into.  Here’s one from the SI Vault

This kid lived in every neighborhood. He was short and chubby, and when it came time to play ball, there was only one position for him. “You catch, Butter-ball,” the others would tell him. “Knock down the pitches, and if somebody tries to score, block the plate with your blubber.” Even if he made it to the big leagues, the kid carried with him a nickname such as Yogi, more suggestive of his low center of gravity than his skills.

….And in the National League, John Stearns of the Mets was basking in the afterglow of his 24th stolen base, the most ever by a National League catcher.

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JoeFreshgoods Mets cap

This exists for some reason.  I have a similar colored hat, except my NY is blue which pops better on this base….and mine doesn’t have squiggles on the side.

I need to write about Stearns, and I have some thoughts about Citi Field, but been swamped with a mission for MI-6.  Maybe tomorrow…

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Mets catcher John Stearns has died

 

Wow saw the news this morning, and its so sad.

If you’re a Mets fan of a certain age – and that age is 50 something – John Stearns meant a lot to you (and me) as he was one of the bright spots in some dark years and a heck of a player.

I’ll collect some thoughts about John and post for real about this at some point, but I have been going a million miles an hour all day and realized I never posted anything, and didn’t want to not mention John.