The Mets Police

Y’all may have noticed I’m making an effort to bring light to the nice things that happen in Metsdom….I’m still digging out the inbox from two weeks ago, and had missed this story which was in the Queens Courier and brought to my attention by Mets Today.

I know this stuff doesn’t get much of a reaction but I’d rather write about this than what dumb celebrity is sitting in another celebrity’s skybox.

Nice job on the pinstripes by John Jr.

Leukemia survivor Courtney Stewart, 14, recently got to stand by the pitcher’s mound at Citi Field as her little brother threw out the first pitch in her honor.

Courtney first became sick when she was six and went through two and a half years of chemotherapy, but she said she is doing well now. Her father, John Stewart Sr., added that she’s doing “great” and is a “typical teenager at this point.”

More..

Those Faith and Fear guys (with their fancy awesome book deal and their ability to write more than a paragraph without linking to an alternate cap or mentioning uniforms) have written another gem about The Awesomeness of Ralph Kiner.

Why choose a sweltering (yesterday) in late June to celebrate Ralph Kiner? Why not? Is there a bad time? The Mets gave Ralph his own night three Julys ago. They can give him another one anytime and it would be perfectly appropriate.

Ralph rose to his rightful place in my consciousness once again on Sunday afternoon when he contributed six innings of analysis on SNY. He joined Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez in the Ralph Kiner Television Booth, which makes sense since Ralph pretty much owned the whole six innings right from the start.

Do yourself a favor and read it.  In fact, the weather is Hall of Fame good today, go take a “smoke break” and read it on your phone outside.   The boss can wait.

More.

Kids, as you know about once a week I go on and on about the young Dwight Gooden.

Time.

I’m calling time out on my own post.

1.  Why do I always say “kids…”?   It’s an homage to How I Met Your Mother.  I would like SNY to produce rain delay filler called “How I Met the Mets.”   There should be two kids sitting on a couch, and we hear Howie Rose’s voice tell us about stuff like Rusty Staub or Lee Mazzilli…and then we see re-packaged highlights.  I don’t know how much exists from the 1970’s but I bet the decade of the 00’s exists and that’s sure as hell better than a fat guy asking trivia questions.

Howie:  Kids, let me tell you about Endy Chavez….

2.  I realize I go on and on about Gooden once a week.  Here’s the pattern:  Gooden, black uniforms, complain about something, black uniforms again, some crappy alternate cap picture, actual new news, complain about something, wax poetic about Seaver, attend a game and post 100 photos from the stores, make fun of some jersey, Lee Mazzilli story, black uniforms…repeat.   This formula has worked for three seasons.   People seem to like it.  If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!

Now back to the “Even the Yankee fans” article, already in progress:

I noticed that the blog 11th and Washington wrote:

I’d like to experience just one of Strasburg’s starts this year first-hand, whether in D.C. or elsewhere, because I was a bit too young to have seen Dwight Gooden in the mid-80s. First mentioned by Mets Police and echoed this week by Marty Noble, Gooden on a Friday night at Shea was an event (and “Gooden on a Friday night” should be the name of an essay or a play or something). I remember the buzz when Pedro Martinezwould pitch a few years ago, and I have no doubt that the anticipation for Gooden’s starts was much more elevated.

Which made me want to see what Marty Noble wrote:

Gooden on a Friday night at Shea — regardless of opponent — was unlike any other regular-season combat except Yankees-Red Sox, occasional Giants-Dodgers series and some Cubs-Cardinals confrontations. If it were Shea and Friday, Gooden vs. Any Team was Lakers-Celtics, Ali-Frazier, Duke-UNC, Tiger-Lefty and anything the domain of Roger Goodell can fathom.

Marty’s piece is really enjoyable, and it will remind you kids that Gooden was bigger than Seaver for a while, and even the Yankee fans respected.  Even the Yankee fans.

Oh, the Yankees came up with their own Gooden.   Jose Rijo.  We’ll talk about that some other day.

Even the Yankee fans respected.  Even the Yankee fans.

To get Mets Police in a free daily email click here.

To subscribe via RSS feeds/Google Reader etc click here.

Why would you do that?  It helps you to not miss stuff.  It helps me to know how many people follow.

Thanks!