The Mets Police

I’m Chatty Cathy today..
THIS DATE IN METS HISTORY: Dwight Gooden becomes the thirdyoungest pitcher to ever record 100 career victories on June 19,1989 in a 5-3 triumph over Montreal

That boggles my mind.  He finished with 194 wins and only 157 as a Met.  What a waste and shame.

Dan Murphy: Hitting .356 (37-104) with 10 runs, four doubles, two triples, one home runand 10 RBI over his last 28 games, with at least one hit in 23 of thosegames…The hot streak dates to May 20, during which time Murphy is tiedfor the ninth-best average in MLB.• Has made 13 starts in the four spot and the Mets are 10-3 when hehe hits clean-up.• Hitting .315 (33-104) at Citi Field.

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See where I wrote “boggles” – I had a typo and wrote “boggler”  I think I am going to call myself that instead of blogger.

It’s good to be back here on “Better Than David Wright’s” Deck with the laptop out and doing some blogging.

I missed a week of games but let me take a look…ah yes the Mets are under .500, almost 10 back in the east and in 6th in the Wild Card (I’ve walked you through the math of all that many times.)

The must read of the day comes from Joel Sherman:

“They only have one choice and that is it,” an AL executive said. “They shouldn’t lie to their fan base. They have too many long-term problems, and they have a bottom-five farm system that must be upgraded.

via For Mets’ Alderson, pros & cons of buying, selling or letting it ride – NYPOST.com.

Joel’s article breaks down the psyche of the Mets fan.  We like this scrappy team.  It’s fun rooting for Murphy and Turner and that shortstop dude…but the reality is that their behind the Pirates in the Wild Card.  The 2011 Mets remind me of my 1992 Civic which I still drive.  It has a taped on bumper, the wipers don’t really work right, and the radio long ago stopped working.  But I can run errands in it.  Would it be the car I drive to Florida?  Heck no, but it will get me to the grocery store and back and it’s cute and I like it and it’s mine and we have lots of memories together.  But it’s no Ferrari.

The article correctly points out that the Mets need to win 10 in a row or lose 10 in a row so that Sandy doesn’t have to dismantle this thing while some of you think the Mets are in some sort of playoff chase.

I see both sides of the Reyes argument…these days I’m leaning toward the “franchise” aspect in that the story our tribe will be stronger if this guy plays 15 in blue and orange (and some other colors that don’t match.)

..oh speaking of which I picked up some cool orange Converse sneaks which will be part of my Citi Field attire for now on….

I have enjoyed this season, and although I can’t afford to give my one day weekend to the Mets today I look forward to getting back into the swing of things.

Thanks to Media Goon for keeping an eye on things, thanks to the videos that didn’t correctly load even thought I checked them before I left…and it’s nice to be back.

Since I started the blog I’ve always waxed poetic about my dad on Father’s Day.

Over the winter I really started psycho-analyzing just how much this blog is really about my childhood. Why am I dragging around my son to Mets games, writing articles about Lee Mazzilli, and why did I spend $100 on a retro Mitchell & Ness jacket. Is this really about yearning to get back to say 1980 when the old man was still around, we’d go to games, and I’d wear that blue Mets jacket that I’ve posted on here a few times (the one my mom wears now.)

So…since the blog is always picking up new readers…here’s the tale of the time Tom Seaver struck me out, last posted in 2010.

Two years ago I got to meet Tom Seaver as an adult. I hate being “that guy” so I wasn’t going to walk up to him and say “I really liked you on the Mets” which I’m sure he has heard before.

I ask Tom, “Crazy question. I remember that when I was like 4 you gave me a ’46 Cardinals baseball out of your locker at Shea. Does that make any sense? A groundskeeper named Richie hooked it up…”

That last part genuinely perked Tom’s ears. Cool, Tom Seaver was actually interested in my story!

Tom asked me to back up and tell him it again.

“Oh, Richie, sure!” He remembered Richie, my father’s cousin.

So here’s the story as 4 or 5 year old me remembers it.

We head out to Shea Stadium in the afternoon. I’m young enough to think it’s cool but not old enough to totally appreciate the awesomeness that is about to unfold.

We meet Tom Seaver on the field. Someone grabs a wiffle bat and some sort of ball and suddenly Tom Seaver is “pitching” to me and – no kidding, why would I make this up – Jerry Grote is catching.

So so awesome.

My young brain can’t remember much about the day and of course NOBODY TOOK ANY PICTURES but I always have had this autographed ’46 Cardinals baseball.

So I ask Tom, who believes the pitching happened, why the heck he would have a ’46 Cardinals ball in his locker to give to me.

(More mysteries for my late father – how about you know a Tom Seaver ball? or a PICTURE?)

Tom told me it was entirely possible because when he started out he would collect autographs from his heroes and how he was always in awe to be on the field with those guys.

The Franchise starts telling me about the first time he went to “Sandy’s house” (I didn’t ask Sandy’s last name but I’ll take one guess) and how amazing it was to him. (2011 note – that’s how I wrote this last year, funny how times change. He meant Sandy Koufax.)

And right there I realize that Tom is relating my story to being in the presence of greatness with his own story of being in the presence of greatness.

For three minutes Tom and I connected. Very very cool.

I guess it’s stuff like this that explains why I write about the Mets five times a day.

Dad and Richie are long gone…thanks for hooking this one up fellas…and I’m glad I got to tell Tom about it.

Happy Father’s Day folks.