Without even clicking the links you've provided, I can say that I remember Finch having had a 185mph fastball.
That Plimpton book was always stocked in the sports section of my childhood newsstand, "Sonny's." Sonny's was a dusty old Jewish New York kind of place where WWII generation retirees would go in, buy a racing form, gab about how much better NYC was than Florida while young me would be at the "Hey Kids! Comics!" spindle rack in search of last month's X-Men comic since Sonny's was always slow in taking down the old books but yet they always had the newest books out there. Great memories.
Okay, enough reminscences of days past. Now back to "Winter Stove" baseball.
And yes, there's a ton of stuff that went on at the winter meetings and beyond that hasn't been talked about yet.
First my 2 cents on the Pete Rose decision..
It appeared Pete had a glimmer of hope for reinstatement with Rob Manfred taking over as the new Commissioner. As I see it, Pete still does not want it badly enough. He's not going to change. He has a gambling addiction. He does not want to change. Pete is an old lion at 74, and old lions tend to be set in their ways. He continues to gamble. He gambles on baseball and other things and follows repeated denials with half hearted admissions. Ultimately, Manfred would have none of it. This latest decision may have been the last chance Rose will get while he is still alive to get into the Hall of Fame. If he ever gets in at all.
Pete Rose was a great baseball player. I have always said that I believe he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame on his playing ability alone. But in order to get there he has to have the blessing of the Commissioner and an official reinstatement to baseball. Without that, Pete will have to be content deep in his own conscience that his actions over the decades since he was banned by the late Commissioner Bart Giamatti have put him in the situation he is now. Pete will still continue appear at card shows pen in hand and be paid handsomely for it. But at this point he'll probably go to his grave permanently banned from the game and without getting the plaque at Cooperstown.
And Rose IMO has only himself to blame for why he'll never get a plaque. If he'd shown a speck of humility and contrition from the outset and acknowledged he had a problem and that he let the game he loved down, he would have been welcomed back long ago. But his playing the con game and exploiting it and fostering the lies endlessly makes him someone impossible to have much sympathy for on a personal level IMO. Doing that ridiculous shoe commercial with his latest trophy wife only further fostered the image of what a pathetic figure he has become and how if he wants to be honored for his career he needs to start acting like a man for a change.
I think we can close the book on that issue for now Eric.
And now we can move along to some hot stove baseball such as it is after the winter meetings have already come and gone.
Okay, you might want to put on a pot of strong black coffee because this will be another long one. Here I go.
As for my club, the New York Mets, I can say that the moves that were made at the meetings in Nashville were positive. Not earth shaking by any means, but the Mets were looking to revamp the middle infield defense and I believe they've done that by adding Neil Walker in trade with Pittsburgh and former Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera as a free agent.
That said, I'm sorry to see NLCS MVP Daniel Murphy and pitcher Jon Niese go. Both Murphy and Niese were among the last home grown Mets (along with David Wright) who dated back to the final Shea Stadium days. All three have been through the difficult years of the rebuilding process that has gone on since 2008. Niese was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates during the meetings for their second baseman Neil Walker. Walker is a very good player. The Mets were not able to sign Ben Zobrist (who is off to the Cubs for a reunion with his former Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon) but they quickly moved on and IMO got the next best player available to man second base. With Walker now onboard, the writing was on the wall and Murphy will now move on to another club. Possibly the Washington Nationals who have showed some interest. Walker has only one year remaining on his deal that he signed with Pittsburgh, while Niese is now controllable for Pittsburgh beyond that on the remainder of his long term deal he previously signed with the Mets.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out down the road. Niese, 30, a crafty veteran lefty with some good offensive support and a solid defense behind him in Pittsburgh could be a big winner in the rotation for them over there. With all the solid pitching the Mets already have in the rotation, Niese became an expendable luxury to help fill another need. The Mets just re-signed the steady veteran 42 year old free agent Bartolo Colon for one more year as a possible starter and bullpen swingman until Wheeler returns late next season from Tommy John surgery. The Mets are more than set in the rotation for 2016. Lefty specialist Jerry Blevins was inked to a new one year deal for the pen, a good move, but the Mets still need to retool the set up men in front of the closer Familia.
The only thing holding Daniel Murphy back from already being offered a stream of contracts by other clubs is his shaky defense at second base which eventually reared it's head in the WS. His natural position from his younger days is at third base, and with Wright being signed long term he would not have gotten much playing time over there to begin with. Murphy worked with Mets hitting coach Kevin Long on altering his hitting mechanics in 2015 and it most notably resulted in his generating more home run power in the playoffs this season. But Murphy was always a good line drive hitter for years. When the season ended, he turned down the Mets one year qualifying offer of over 15 million dollars. If he took it, he'd would have still been a Met at very good money for at least another year. I think his preference was to stay a Met. He obviously was hoping the Mets would circle back during the winter meetings and extend him a longer deal. The phone never rang.
Now Murphy, who was a postseason hero for the Mets helping them to win the pennant is a free agent out there on his own for the first time hoping to get a multi-year offer from somebody. I think a good landing spot for him would be with an American League team where he could DH a part of the time but so far nothing concrete is on the horizon on that front. Neil Walker, 30, is a solid defensive player up the middle with some pop in his bat. I've always admired his attitude and ability when he was a Pirate. While Cabrera has lost some range at short, he also has some pop in the bat and can be versatile on the infield and be moved over to third to cover for Wright who cannot be expected to play a ton of games due to the ongoing chronic back issues. I'd like to see the veteran Juan Uribe brought back as infield insurance at third and as a good bat in a pinch off the bench.
With former college baseball phenom rookie Michael Conforto already set to play left, and the veteran Granderson (who wound up having a great 2015 season) in right, the Mets next move will be to find a (preferably) lefty hitting platoon partner for the sore armed Gold Glover Juan Lagares in center. Retaining free agent slugger Yoenis Cespedes is definately a long shot at this point. The Mets do not want to committ to the years and the money it will take. And Cespedes is a fixture that will have to be in the lineup somewhere in the outfield full time. Nothing new here from the time the Mets got him via trade with Detroit for the stretch run. Cespedes is still out there as a free agent looking for a job and a long term contract upwards in the 100 million plus range. Jason Heyward type money that was just doled out for him by the Cubs. The San Francisco Giants coming off a down year are in the market for a run producing big bopper in the outfield. It would not surprise me in the least if San Francisco is the spot where Cespedes lands for the big money he seeks.
I haven't got too much to say about the Yankees moves, because I think its clear they are going for a soft reboot aimed at youth for now as they bide their time and wait for all their now deadweight contracts to expire which won't be for another one-two years collectively. They've parted with maybe too much of their bullpen at this point which is liable to weaken them further as far as trying to get a run to the postseason is 2016 is concerned, since the bullpen is what helped them make it as a wildcard (and as their pathetic exit demonstrated, it sure wasn't their offense!).
So I really don't enter this coming year with a lot of expectations. I have to admit the hunger for a championship isn't there for me at this point since 2009 still has a recentness to me in a way that 1996-2003 no longer does. I don't have that sense in my mind that the gap has been maddeningly long (admittedly winning your last WS appearance helps a lot).
It's interesting to note that when the Yankees this winter traded pitcher Justin Wilson to the Detroit Tigers they got back two young pitching arms in return. One of those pitchers the Yanks recieved, Luis Cessa, was sent by the Mets to Detroit at the trade deadline for Cespedes. The other pitcher the Mets gave up in that deal was Michael Fulmer who was the more highly regarded of the two prospects but you should keep an eye on Cessa down the road. If he turns out to be a good one over there in the Bronx remember what organization he came from.
I still don't get the trading of Justin Wilson though, who is just 27 and was a really good pitcher for the Yankees last season. It's not as easy to find quality bullpen pieces the way it used to be in the recent past. So you want to hang on to what you have that's decent in the various situational roles to get key outs. The times I saw Wilson pitch he was really good.
I think the Starlin Castro trade with Chicago was a good move for the Yankees. Here you have a still very young talented player who is already well established in the big leagues and in the midst of a very reasonable long term contract. And the Yankees did not have to give up very much in return to get him which was a surprise. The move from short to second under Maddon's watch seemed to revitalize Castro's career. It could not have happened at a better time for the Yankees because they had a revolving door of players at second and were in need of solidifying the position. It could not have happened at a worse time for the Mets because by trading Castro to the Yankees, the Cubs freed up second base and immediately signed Ben Zobrist thus keeping him away from the Mets who without the Cubs being involved probably would have signed Zobrist at the winter meetings. The Mets quickly changed course and then traded for Neil Walker. Interesting how the dominos fall in this game.
Well, Christmas came early for former Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy. I knew Washington had him in their sights as they were looking at other options and tonight the news of his signing came down. Murphy and the Washington Nationals have agreed to terms on a 37.5 million dollar 3 year deal. A lot of money to be sure, but as far as the baseball contracts of today go it's a very reasonable one for a smart veteran hitter of his quality. Because Murphy refused the Mets qualifying offer and the Nationals have signed him the Nats according to the rules will now have to surrender a draft pick to the Mets.
He was looking for security moving forward and now he's found it. Murphy, 31, has been a solid professional hitter for a long time now and after the season he had last year and into the playoffs with the Mets winning the National League Championship Series MVP Award this was his time to set his family up into the future years of his career. Even though he now joins the Nationals who are the Mets main rivals in the division I wish him luck. I mean that. Except when he plays against us.
I'm sure that when he comes back to Citi Field for the first time as an opponent the fans will give him a deserved round of applause. Not only for helping the team win the pennant in 2015, but for all the years he did whatever the ball club asked of him without complaint as he was shifted around between the infield and the outfield. He was never going to be a great fielder but he always tried hard and was a good team player.
Bill Ripken does a good job here of breaking down what made Daniel Murphy's stroke in the 2015 Playoffs so effective against some of the best pitchers in the game.
I was thinking about my post on the Mets/Braves rivalry a few threads up and I came across this video which sums up how that rivalry thawed quite a bit only a few years later. Baseball had returned to New York in the days after 9/11, and that first game back at Shea between the two teams after the horrific events became the start of some healing for New Yorkers. Shea Stadium is gone now, and most of the players that were there on the field that night are now retired, but the memories still linger.
An old post of mine above from Dec 15, 2013. But I thought it fitting here.
Congratulations to Mike Piazza and Ken Griffey Jr. who were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The two members of the Class of 2016.
Ken Griffey Jr. surpassed Tom Seaver's record percentage of the vote that Seaver had held since the 90's. If anyone was going to surpass it after all these years it was going to be Griffey. A great all around ballplayer. Griffey had one of the sweetest swings in the history of baseball, he was a "natural" and a great ambassador of the game during his career. Various injuries over the years curtailed what would have been higher career numbers at the end, but even as they stand they speak for themselves. Greatness.
As for Mike Piazza, he retired from baseball as the greatest hitting catcher in the history of the game. But he was not a bad defensive catcher either. He handled his pitchers well, blocked balls in the dirt as well as anybody. Nobody would ever confuse his throwing arm with that of the rifle armed Hall of Fame legend Johnny Bench, but he was steady behind the plate defensively. His true gift was his bat, and the unique sound that came off of it when he put his head down with his eyes focused squarely on the baseball. A pure power hitter with a good eye and a classic swing who was feared and respected by pitchers each and every time he strode to the plate.
Piazza will go into the Hall of Fame wearing the interlocking "NY" New York Mets logo on his bronze plaque. He had perhaps his greatest years as a LA Dodger in his younger years but he has always stated that he felt more of a connection to New York, the Mets, and their fans. We were grateful to have him. And we were grateful that former Mets owner, the late Nelson Doubleday, made a commitment to the fans in trading for and keeping him long term. Piazza had a great second half career in New York. The stats certainly back that up. He brought hope back to a franchise that needed it in those times of the late 1990's. He was a superstar that wanted to be a Met and wanted to help make the team a winner. He was a big part of getting the Mets back to the World Series against the Yankees in 2000.
He also hit what has become one of the most memorable and emotional home runs in baseball history against the Atlanta Braves at Shea Stadium in New York shortly after the 9/11 attacks. It's a main focus of what New York fans have been talking about on all media platforms since his election days ago to the Hall of Fame. Perhaps more than anything else he did in his 8 years as a Met it will be this night, this particular home run of the many he hit in his career for which he will be most remembered. It was that important in it's time and place.
The Chicago Cubs won the 2016 World Series and they did it in most dramatic fashion. Certainly that is worthy of some discussion.
Here's the last out:
I guess that was enough to murder this classic thread. I should hope not. There's been a lot of history and fine conversation through the years here; I'd hate to see it go to seed.
Anyway, speaking of Chicago, the South Side had its own classic too, Disco Demolition Night on July 12, 1979.
It's more memorable than when the Sox won the 2005 World Series, that's for sure.
The second-class treatment the White Sox got always made me more subtly anti-Cubs. Chicago was never a Cubs town first until the late 60s when two things happened. First, the White Sox moved all their TV games from WGN to a UHF station and then the Cubs had their near-miss season in 1969 which literally turned the attention of the city around completely. Before that, the White Sox had been the team that had a bigger fanbase with their 1959 pennant and a number of competitive teams up through 1967.
The Chicago Cubs won the 2016 World Series and they did it in most dramatic fashion. Certainly that is worthy of some discussion.
Here's the last out:
I guess that was enough to murder this classic thread. I should hope not. There's been a lot of history and fine conversation through the years here; I'd hate to see it go to seed.
Anyway, speaking of Chicago, the South Side had its own classic too, Disco Demolition Night on July 12, 1979.
It's more memorable than when the Sox won the 2005 World Series, that's for sure.
I had nothing against the Cubs winning it all in 2016. Nobody else seemed to want to contribute here anymore and I felt as though it was just me going on and on in the long diatribes. It's crazy, but like the Red Sox who reversed the "Curse of The Bambino" and won it all in 2004, I feel a lot of the old time "mystique" went away from the Cubs with that WS win in 2016. But they were due, and once Maddon got there as manager I felt it was only a matter of time before they retired their own "Curse of The Billy Goat". The window was still there after the loss to the Mets in the playoffs the proceeding year and the Cubs finally burst through.
Since my last post about him, Daniel Murphy has turned into an offensive SUPERSTAR with the Washington Nationals. He's gone from just representing the Mets at the All Star Game to being elected the starting second baseman for the National League. Along with trading away Seaver and Ryan all those years ago, the Mets letting Murphy go after his performance in the 2015 post season and their appearance in the 2015 World Series will go down as one of the worst organizational moves in club history even though the Mets extended the qualifying offer and were turned down by Murphy. And since he joined Washington, whenever the two teams play each other, Murphy has continued to beat the Mets brains out at the plate. But he's been doing this against everybody he faces in force the last few seasons.
Well I'm happy to step back in Anz! Things are looking better long-term for the Yankees I feel since they finally have an emerging nucleus of long-term home-grown stars in the post-Rivera-Jeter era with Luis Severino, Gary Sanchez and of course the big one of them all, Aaron Judge. Even though he has slumped a bit since winning the Home Run Derby, I think he has demonstrated that he is no Kevin Maas and that he will endure. There are other potential prospects waiting in the wings too (the story of Greg Bird, the would-be heir at first base has been the saddest one this year) and they had enough talent on hand to get Sonny Gray. The one thing that may make them come up short this year is that the offense has been streaky. But regardless of what does happen this year, I do think the corner has been turned in Yankee history. When Rivera and Jeter retired it left the Yankees adrift with no new faces of their own to emerge and now that has at last changed to give them the look of a team for the future and not a team struggling to stay afloat as they did the last few years.
Daulton was yet another player that died of brain cancer who played in the old multi-purpose astroturf stadiums that existed from the late 60's on through to the late 90's. We've discussed this before somewhere along the way in this long thread. Nothing has yet been proven, but many articles have been written about the relationship between these old (most since demolished) ballparks and brain cancer cases among the players who played in them.
Daulton was a good player in his era and he fought the cancer for a long time. This article appeared in USA Today which once again discusses the possible link between the stadiums and the deaths of many players who years later in their lives suffered from brain cancer.
The baseball world also lost Don Baylor to cancer at age 68. Baylor was the 1979 American League MVP while a member of the Angels. Baylor was also a well respected manager and coach after his playing days ended which also included a stint with the Mets. An imposing figure who was not afraid of getting hit by pitchers who were constantly trying to move him off the plate.
Well I'm happy to step back in Anz! Things are looking better long-term for the Yankees I feel since they finally have an emerging nucleus of long-term home-grown stars in the post-Rivera-Jeter era with Luis Severino, Gary Sanchez and of course the big one of them all, Aaron Judge. Even though he has slumped a bit since winning the Home Run Derby, I think he has demonstrated that he is no Kevin Maas and that he will endure. There are other potential prospects waiting in the wings too (the story of Greg Bird, the would-be heir at first base has been the saddest one this year) and they had enough talent on hand to get Sonny Gray. The one thing that may make them come up short this year is that the offense has been streaky. But regardless of what does happen this year, I do think the corner has been turned in Yankee history. When Rivera and Jeter retired it left the Yankees adrift with no new faces of their own to emerge and now that has at last changed to give them the look of a team for the future and not a team struggling to stay afloat as they did the last few years.
I would love to know which two prospects the Yankees offered to the Mets for Jay Bruce. Nobody seems to have that answer yet. I think Bruce was owed around 4 million by the Mets to finish out the season and the Yankees only wanted to pay half that while surrendering the prospects. In this day and age that type of money is pocket change for both NY teams. So, needless to say, Alderson decided to take Cleveland's offer for a not so successful low level minor league pitcher named Ryder Ryan that not many (including myself) have ever heard of and three blind mice to be named later. The Indians of course will also pay all the money remaining on Bruce's current contract.
Seriously, a few years ago a guy like Jay Bruce with the numbers he put up this season would have been worth at least one top prospect. Not in the year of the live ball 2017, a year when everyone and ANYONE right down to the smallest utility type players are able to hit 20 home runs. Bruce will surely hit well over thirty now as an Indian playing for a contending team. Remember the days when a 20 home run a year hitter was a valued commodity?
I attempted to post the sad news regarding the late Don Baylor, but the Rick Reuschel slowness of this board did not permit me to do so.
R.I.P. Don Baylor.
Eric, I just listened to your Youtube upload of the '77 Blackout as it happened during the Mets-Cubs game. Haven't listened to the WGN side of it yet, but I wanted to thank you for uploading those videos.
Belated your welcome to you regarding the uploads! Glad you enjoyed them.
I feel the greatest sense of relief tonight because I was *extremely* nervous about this matchup against the Twins. The wildcard format as it exists I think is not good in boiling your season down to one game and I would much prefer a scenario where the wildcard team gets just one home game in the LDS (a 2-1-2 matchup) or a suggestion that a #1 wildcard team record wise only needs to win one game but the lesser wildcard must win two in a row. I was REALLY feeling that way when Severino, after having such a great season then suddenly turned into Kevin Brown in the 2004 ALCS in the first inning. But while Severino still has to prove himself in a big game, the new breed of Yankee hitters, Gregorius, Sanchez, Bird and the great Aaron Judge, all stepped to the forefront and the Yankees prevailed 8-4. They face the Indians now in the ALDS, and they are underdogs for that, but I do feel that we are seeing a great nucleus coming together for the next generation of Yankee history.
There was a time when Yankee fans were all over Didi Gregorius during the first year he took over for the retired Derek Jeter. All that is forgotten now. There was also a time when Yankee fans wanted GM Brian Cashman fired. Now they have wised up. Cashman quietly rebuilt the Yankee farm system, and he not only spectacularly did that, he also created a supergroup bullpen post Mariano Rivera that is now second to none in all of baseball. That showed last night when the ace Severino didn't have it. Girardi had all the tools in the pen at his disposal to shut down the Twins cold after their early offensive burst. The Twins had a great bounceback season, but the Yankee power lineup proved to be too much in a do or die game for both teams.
The only weakness as I see it with the Yankees moving forward in the playoffs is their starting pitching. Last night you got the bad Severino. But Severino had a breakout year this season after a rocky start to his career. But the Yankee offense up and down is so good that they can overcome much of that with one swing by Judge and Sanchez with men on base. You saw that last night. That whole lineup is solid with RBI producers. It was a fun game to watch. It's now on to Cleveland, a team that is head and shoulders above Minnesota in talent which I'm certain will be a great matchup to say the least.
I plead guilty to having wanted Cashman fired a couple years ago. It has to be said that this is the first period in Cashman's entire 19 year history as GM where the Yankees have finally developed a nucleus of home-grown talent because the entire Core Four was shaped by Gene Michael (belated RIP). Cashman's track record post-2003 includes a long broken trail of bad pitching acquisitions and one savvy period where he took advantage of expiring contracts to load up on the free agents who helped the Yankees win in 2009. So overall he is lucky that Hal has no desire to be like his father (Hal in fact has yet to fire ANYONE in seven years of ownership) and let him stay on to see what looks like the dawning of a new era in Yankee history. Even if they lose the first round, Yankee fans will be able to look at this as a turnaround year in the tradition of 1993 or how Met fans remember 1984 as a turnaround year that foreshadowed the future.
What a game 2 of the 2017 ALDS! New York Yankees vs. Cleveland Indians.
I was still in work when this thing got started shortly after 5 pm est and it finally ended at about 10:20 pm. A tremendous game full of tension resulting from key managerial decisions made on both sides.
I stuck with this one even as the Cubs vs. Nats matchup was starting.
The tremendous CC Sabathia starting effort for the Yanks to attempt to get them even will now get lost in a game where the Yankee bullpen ultimately could not nail down a game that early on looked for all the world like they would tie this best of 5 series against the Indians at 1-1. Once again as the night before in game 1, ex-Met Jay Bruce proved to be a huge difference maker with his power bat in this series for the Indians tying the game 8-8 in the late innings in game 2 to extend the Yankees agony to extra innings.
The lefty power hitting Bruce was involved in talks late in the 2017 regular season to be traded to the Yankees. Instead he was moved by out of contention cost cutting Mets to Cleveland (who were willing to pay off the remainder his contract in full when the Yankees were not) and so far the rest is history. Nobody wanted Bruce at the end of last season when the Mets were looking to move him for some decent prospects. I didn't want him brought to the Mets during their run to the World Series in 2015 and said so here at the time. I thought he was Lucas Duda times two from the left side of the plate based on his career with the Reds. I was wrong. Now he's on stage with a good ball club poised for a possible quick return to the World Series. Each time the 30 year old Jay Bruce gets a big hit in the playoffs the front offices around baseball will certainly be watching. A great ALDS game 2 to watch as a baseball fan, but Yankees fans have to be shaking their heads in frustration with this loss in extra innings. Been there as a Mets fan.
