In an article in the NY Daily News, Bill Price writes about the new Phillies rally cry, "Ya Gotta Believe". Yes that is right, they are using the Mets solgan of the 1973 Miracle Mets, said by the great Tug McGraw, while a Met not a Phillie.
He may have played for the Phillies in the 80's, but "Ya Gotta Believe" has always been a Mets thing. McGraw never said it while on the Phils, just the Mets.
The Daily News has given these three possible explinations.
"1. Those fans are so clever, they knew doing this would tick off already-disgusted Mets fans even more.
2. The fans are in awe of the Met franchise, and figure a little Met magic will help them finally win something.
3. These fans aren't the tastiest cakes on the shelf, and therefore thinking up something on their own is virtually impossible."
I like the Phillies, their an easy team to root for and I hope they win the World Series. But this has gone to far. I guess I must agree with all of the explinations.
Tisk. Tisk.
]]>The Sporting News quoted Randolph as follows;
"They've reached out to say, "we're interested." This is just the early stages."
Randolph would most likely rather be a manager than a bench coach. Acta was once Randolph's third base coach with the Mets. Teams interested in the former Mets skipper are the Nationals, Brewers and possibly the Mariners.
I think that Randolph should manage again, just not for the Mets. I can see him as the Yankees manager possibly in a few years. My one pet peeve with Randolph was that he tried to make the Mets the Yankees of the National League. Coming over from a bench coach position under Joe Torre, he brought over many philosophies that the Yankees used. Like no facial hair and no music in the clubhouse. The Mets are not the Yankees and they never will be.
When Jerry took over, he lifted some of Willie's rules immediately but still held the clubhouse together. He loosed up the previously tight and strict Randolph clubhouse.
Other than that I really liked Willie, he brought a winning atmosphere to Flushing, and I credit him with that.
]]>In a post for Big League Stew, 'Duk has posted a picture of Ambiorix Burgos being taken into custody by Dominican police officers. He was wearing a Chicago White Sox Cap with a shirt reading "I GOT QUACK QUACK QUACK". Not to mention a smile on his face and an expensive watch on his wrist.
I have a couple of problems with this picture of Burgos. First off why is he wearing a Chicago White Sox hat? You would think that a man being taken into custody would wear something more professional rather than a high class "gangster". I've seen most professionals taken into custody wear something more professional not to hurt their image. And I wonder why a man that killed two women a week ago would be smiling when being taken to a miserable place where he wil likely be spending a lot of time.
I feel bad for Ambiorix's carrer now being ruined and I'm glad he did the right thing and turned himself in. Burgos was traded for now Royals pitcher Brian Bannister. Bannister hasn't had a great carrer so far in Kansas City but he has been healthier than Burgos who missed all of this year due to elbow surgery.
]]>"I've seen Orlando Hudson mentioned everywhere as a possible second basemen for next year. What are the chances?
The chances would be better without the presence of Castillo. When Jeff Wilpon mentioned creating "addition by subtraction" last week, I suspect many minds connected those words to Castillo. From what I'm told, Hudson, a free agent, yearns to play for the Mets. I can't be sure of that. I don't know him. But what I know of him would suit the Mets' purposes quite well. Whether or not Hudson wants to play at Citi Field, money will be a factor, and the $18 million owed Castillo can make it an issue."I would love for the Mets to bring in the O-Dog. He is a scrappy player and I feel he would make a great fit in a Mets uniform.
"One GM said he believes the Mets will make a big play for Manny Ramirez. It certainly seems like GM Omar Minaya is ready to finally try to land one of his favorite players -- though L.A. may be a better spot for Ramirez, who was raised in upper Manhattan but never liked the fishbowl existence in Boston that he would surely find in New York."I found this very interesting. I think that "one gm" may be referring to Omar Minaya. Ever since Omar has been a general manager with the Expos, he has wanted to land Manny Ramirez. I would like the move.
"The Mets have a group of players they feel will play much better outside of New York. Those players may include Luis Castillo, Aaron Heilman and Ryan Church."I am just shocked that Ryan Church doesn't seem to like New York. He is a fan favorite and if it wasn't for the concussion he would have been going strong all year. Heilman and Castillo I agree with.
"I like it there, but we'll have to see what the direction the teams are going and would my family be unconfortable being on a whole other coast? We'll see."That quote helps and hurts the Mets. If helps becasue he says in the quote that he wants to see the direction of the teams. If he looks at the Mets, he sees a rotation like any other. Look at it this way.
"I couldn't tell you how much is salvageable and how much is not. I do know that I've been without a couple pair of shoes. Our job is to get people back in their roles that we think that we signed them up for, and then evaluate from that point of view. But to put them in roles that they're not accustomed to is sometimes an unfair evaluation."]]>
"You don't see a lot of guys that have statistical numbers play well in these championship series. What you see is usually the little second baseman or somebody like that carries off the MVP trophy that nobody expected him to do. That's because he's comfortable in playing that form of baseball, so therefore when the stage comes, it's not a struggle for him."
"We have to put a value on say, moving a runner over. We have to put a value on getting a bases on balls. We have to put a value on infield back, (getting a) ground ball that's sufficient to score a run. Those types of things have to be accented in order for us, in my opinion, to kind of get to the next level."
"That's not really how it works, and that's what we have to get away from. And that's going to have to be a different mind-set of the team in going forward. We must win and we must know how to win rather than win because we have statistical people. We have to win because we have baseball players that know and can understand the game."
"You get so many statistical people together, they put so many stats on paper, and they say, well, if you do this and you score this many runs, you do that many times, you'll be in the playoffs."
"We have to grow from every time that we get as close as we get and don't make it, and we have to review and kind of marinate on why we don't make it."
"I am thrilled and appreciative for the opportunity that Ownership and Omar have given me to manage the Mets."SNY will cover the press conference, as they did with Omar's conference call.