A Thanksgiving Tribute to the Mets
Hey everyone, A Friend of Mr. Glass' here. If you're anything like me, you've been awake since 8:30 a.m. because you couldn't fall back asleep when there was tons of Mets coverage to be absorbed. So yeah, it's about 2:10 p.m. at the moment, and I've been up for nearly 6 hours. SALT.
But as we all know, today isn't the day to dwell on our gripes, but rather to be thankful. So in the spirit of the holiday, here are 10, no, 11 things I'm thankful for.
1. The Mets are legit again.
Think back to 2002-2004. Remember how bad that was? Amid all the grumbling about how the Mets are becoming more and more like the Yankees, there's something very important to remember. There are an awful lot of Yankee fans out there who don't know what it is to suffer, at least in any fair understanding of what suffering as a fan is.
So sure, the Bombers haven't won the World Series since 2000, and no, they haven't even made the World Series in 3 (!!) years. But they've still got some things going for them. The Yankees have won the AL East in each of the past 10 years.
What about the Mets? Well, in 2004, the Mets finished a dismal 71-91, 20 games under .500, which was actually a fairly substantial improvement over 2003's 66-95 mark. 2002 wasn't quite as bad, but the Mets still finished 9 games under .500. All told, the Mets averaged 71 wins a season between 2002 and 2004, while finishing roughly 29 games out of first place each time. That, Yankee fans, is what suffering is.
But the Mets finally turned the corner in 2005. Finishing four games over .500 wasn't the half of it. More importantly, the Mets played meanin... err, games with playoff consequences in September. Now granted, the team played like it wanted no part of October baseball, but the Mets were still worth getting excited about with as few as 15 games to go.
That's not going to sound too impressive to anyone wearing a Yankee hat right now, but as far as I'm concerned, it's a giant leap forward for the Mets, and it's a harbinger of better days to come. Which brings us to our second entry on this list.
2. Winning Now: The Mets should be serious playoff contenders in 2006 (but nobody say the 'F' word).
Yesterday, Sippy Momo gave us 10 things he hated about the Delgado deal. While I share some of his concerns, generally speaking I'm much bigger on this deal than he is. The truth is that the Mets are built to win now. Pedro Martinez was nasty in 2005. Even if he didn't quite dominate in the second half of the season the way he did in the first, with a stronger supporting cast he might have had 20 wins and a Cy Young award.
More importantly, with a stronger supporting cast, the Mets might have made the playoffs. As a matter of fact, add a big bat in the middle of the order and a closer and I'm pretty sure they'd have given the Braves a serious run for the money. With Delgado on board and, hopefully, a premier closer (Billy Wagner) to come, not to mention the continued development of David Wright and Jose Reyes (more on them later) and the much longed-for reemergence of Carlos Beltran, the Mets should seriously vie for a playoff spot in 2006.
That said, I'm not ready to start calling the Mets the favorites to win the NL East in 2006, even if on paper they probably will be. The Braves have won this division too many years in a row for anyone else to be called the favorite, it's as simple as that. Until we can all open up the newspaper on the day after the final games of the regular season and see anyone besides the team from Atlanta at the top of the NL East column, they're the favorite. So do like your mother told you and don't anyone go saying the "f" word just yet.
3. Winning Later: The Mets should be in position to contend for many, many years.
This is going to be a point of contention with some people I'm sure. To them, the Mets' playoff hopes rest on the shoulders of Pedro Martinez, and, to a lesser extent, Benedict Glavine. This line of thought isn't entirely off-base of course, but the Mets are in a position where they've got young, talented players whom they can build around for, potentially, the next 10-15 years. For more on that, refer to Nos. 5 through 8 on this list.
Yes, we had to forfeit our top pitching prospect in the Delgado deal, but for all his strikeout numbers in the minor leagues, something about Yusmeiro Petit never really did it for me. The guy averages something like 11 strikeouts per 9 innings but never throws harder than 86-87 mph.
Any fan who watched Greg Maddux and the pitcher we lovingly refer to as Benedict Glavine dominate the Mets for more than a decade knows that heat isn't the only thing that matters, but somehow I doubt whether Petit's stuff will translate into dominance once he's in the Show.
Either way, we've got younger guys in our system who represent the next wave of Mets pitching prospects, and hopefully one of them will have at least No. 2 potential. The well is never going to run dry on 3-pitchers, nor is it ever going to run dry on the Mets' finances, so let's not go crazy over Petit until he becomes the next Dontrelle Willis down in Florida (or wherever it is that the franchise finds itself in five years).
And yes, we had to give up on Mike Jacobs. As optimistic as Sippy Momo may be about Jacobs, the truth is we don't know if he's the real deal or simply the next Benny Agbayani. He's got a sweet stroke and he certainly looked legit in 100 at-bats in 2005, but sometimes you've gotta buy low and sell high. I suspect that's what the Mets have done here.
The point is that there is a young core in place, one that figures to benefit from the emergence (either next year or in 2007) of Lastings Milledge (see No. 7 below). Between the core players we have and the resources we've got to expend (maybe next year on Barry Zito?), we should be in position to contend so long as management plays its cards right.
4. Pedro.
I really can't say the Mets have had another pitcher quite like Pedro Martinez in all the years that I've been a fully aware Mets fan. I have zero recollection of Dwight Gooden when he first came up. Mostly, my memories of Doc consist of knowing that he was once incredible, but that somehow things had gone awry.
But with Pedro this past year we finally saw a little bit of that again, or for the first time as the case may be. When Pedro was on it was just so much fun to watch. The way he would fool with the hitters by mixing up his pitches and his location, it's just such a treat to behold.
Remember the season opener against the Reds? Most of our memories are bound up with the traumatizing end scripted by Braden Looper and about 800 feet of baseball flight, but go back a few innings and you had one of the most dominating pitching performances of the entire season.
Pedro allowed a first-inning 3-run homer to Adam Dunn, and all of a sudden all the bad thoughts inevitably crept into my mind (refer to No. 1, specifically paragraph 3 for why this was the case)...
Oh my god. He really has lost it.
This was in the midst of my beer bottle cap throwing phase. I was living in a pretty sweet off-campus rez with a fairly nice television set, but had developed the habit of throwing available bottle caps at the screen any time something bad happened.
But this was the next level. You look forward to the season opener for six months and then it goes rotten in the space of 5 minutes (all with 2 outs I might add). So I considered calmly rising from my seat, walking down a flight of stairs to the outside porch, retrieving a rock, returning to my seat, and throwing it at the screen.
But I didn't. And I'm glad I didn't.
Over the next several innings, Pedro delivered one of the most awesome pitching performances I'd ever seen by someone wearing a Mets uniform. He struck out 12 batters over the next five innings so technically he wasn't striking everybody out, but it sure seemed like he was.
He was throwing 95 mph, and was clearly pissed. He wasn't about to let the Reds ruin his Mets debut, so he upped his game and his passion rubbed off on all his teammates, with the notable exceptions of Looper and Manny Aybar.
And this was something we saw from Pedro all year. The passion. Almost equally important to his mastery of pitching is the joy and passion he brings to the game. Whether it was him playing with the fans on Opening Day when his image was emblazoned on the center field ad stand or running through the sprinklers or doing ridiculous commercials for Major League Baseball kids charities, Pedro just brought a smile to the faces of Mets fans.
And there's a lot to be said for that. Remember Roberto Alomar? Talk about someone who just brought a frown to your face. Pedro plays the game with the zest and passion that we fans believe all players should have, and he made watching the team extra enjoyable every fifth day.
Besides, he was also responsible for probably the best quote of the Mets' season. When asked if he would watch the regular season opening game between the Yankees and Red Sox on television that night, Pedro responded: "It's either the Yankees-Red Sox [game] or the Discovery Channel. I love that channel. I love cheetahs."
Me too, Pedro. Me too.
5. David Wright (or, I wish I had David Wright's life).
What more can you say about David Wright? In 2005, DW had a .306 average, 102 RBIs and 27 home runs. The kid can flat out play. Those commercials for MSG in which he talks about "bleeding orange and blue" almost make me cry. A hot blonde waitress at the bar formerly known as Trilogy (beloved by prep school gangsters and high school chicks looking to date I-Bankers in the late '90s, early '00s) was desperate to go out on a date with him (which she was supposed to do, courtesy of a bartender who knew Cliff Floyd, although I don't know one way or another if it ever happened). After losing best friend Joe McEwing during spring training, D-Wright seriously upped his cool factor by buddying up with Floyd and Mike Cameron, as well as Doug Mientkiewicz (RIP).
The best part is that he's 8 days older than I am (which is also really depressing on a personal level). He figures to only improve, and could very conceivably become a high-30s/low 40s home run guy who drives in 120 runs a season. Think about it. He batted 7th for 40-some games and still drove in 102 runs, good enough to finish 10th in the league in RBIs. He finished 8th in hitting. The sky's the limit with this kid. Even if something about his eyelashes makes it looks like he wears eyeliner.
6. My friend, Mr. Glass.
He may not have put up the eye-popping numbers that Wright did. He may not have had an on base percentage higher than .300. He may not have walked more than 27 times despite having 696 at-bats. But those numbers pale in comparison to the one in the games played column for Jose Reyes: 161.
The same Jose Reyes who earned the nickname Mr. Glass after suffering somewhere between 5 and 7 leg injuries in something like a 16-month span. The same Jose Reyes who Mets fans were beginning to doubt would ever remain healthy through an entire season. That same Jose Reyes was healthy enough to play in all but one of the team's regular season games.
And he was no slouch either, in spite of the saber-nazis' grumblings. Over the course of those 161 games, Willie Randolph's "young colt" dazzled fans with his speed and lit up the stadium with that toothy grin every time he dove head first into third with a triple. Wright may be a better player than Reyes is, but the truth is I'd rather watch Reyes play.
When you see Wright play, you just appreciate his talent so much. You sit back and you're amazed at your good fortune that a player of his ability, with so much potential still ahead, somehow found his way to the Mets.
Reyes is different. No doubt, he's got a world of talent in him, and you really get the sense that he could be one of the greatest shortstops of his era if he can stay healthy. But with Reyes you just love to see him play the game.
There's something about the way he turns singles into doubles and doubles into triples. Something about the way Shea Stadium or the bar or living room you're watching the game from gets this buzz every time he gets on base. Everyone in the place gets terribly excited because you just know he's about to take off and crash into that bag 90 feet ahead of him in a cloud of dust. There's something about the anticipation as you await the umpire's call
Safe!!
that makes watching him play the game fun on an instinctive level. You don't have to be a baseball fan to enjoy watching Reyes play the game.
On top of all that, for all the grief he gets from callers on WFAN, Reyes improved in several offensive categories as the season progressed. After not walking once through his first 110 at-bats or so, he ended with 27. After stealing 11 bases through the first two months of the season, he ended with 60, tops in the National League. I also read that his post-All Star Break OBP was somewhere in the .330 range, although I can't verify that at the moment.
These are signs that he was still getting used to major league ball at the beginning of the season (not surprising given that he'd been injured the previous 2 years), and also that he was improving throughout the year. That development will continue next year, but in the meantime it's just fun to think of the player he is, and the player he could become.
So Mr. Glass? Here's to you, pal.
7. Lastings Milledge (or, How Omar got rich and the Mets' farm system did not die tryin').
First things first, there's a long way between Lastings Milledge and stardom, not to mention that there's a long way between Lastings Milledge and Shea Stadium. So let's not get ahead of ourselves here. But in Milledge we have a guy who pretty much every scout projects will be a star (and some call him a superstar in the making) who figures to take over RF if the Xavier Nady/Victor Diaz tandem fails to impress in 2006, or in left in 2007 once Cliff's contract has expired.
The truth is that I don't know anything about Milledge that you don't. I've never seen him play, but I know that he's been a beast at every level of play that he's seen so far. He's a guy whose debut we can anticipate almost as anxiously as Wright's or Reyes' (though, thankfully, without the same desperation -- see No. 1 if that is unclear at all).
Is Milledge, the Mets' top prospect and thus Omar's best bargaining chip, certain to remain with the Mets? Of course not. But the fact is that the Lastings Milledge era took a giant step torward realization yesterday with the Carlos Delgado acquisition. Getting Delgado on board drastically reduces the need for Manny Ramirez, and also makes the economics of such a deal almost unfathomable.
Milledge should be safe unless a No. 1 starter is made available at the trade deadline next year, or if Rick Peterson, Pitching Guru, doesn't issue one of his 10-minute edicts regarding a 2006 version of Victor Zambrano, which hopefully he will not do.
8. Aaron Heilman (all is forgiven).
I'll admit it. In April 2005, I hated Aaron Heilman. Let me take you back to Opening Day. I was still negotiating a parking spot in the veritable third world country that exists in the hinterlands of Shea Stadium (for those interested, the going rate is 3 Beast Lights and 324 Dominican pesos, or 10 USD, whichever is more readily accessible) but if I'd been in the stadium in time to see the player introductions, I would have booed lustily like everyone else in the stadium did when Heilman's name was called.
See, Heilman wasn't just a No. 1 draft pick turned bust. He had, for me, become a constant reminder of Scott Kazmir. The day that Kazmir made his major league debut for the Devil Rays, Heilman made his 2004 season debut for the Mets. Kazmir shut out the Mariners through five innings in his big league debut. Heilman? He lasted 3.2 innings, allowing 4 earned runs on 8 hits.
It was like a cruel joke played by the Mets front office.
But then something happened. Somebody got the crazy idea that maybe, just maybe, it made sense to have Heilman throw at the arm angle that made him a successful pitcher at Notre Dame, that made him a No. 1 draft pick, rather than the over-the-top motion that the Mets had impressed upon him.
From that point on, things just clicked for Heilman. He worked his way out of Willie's doghouse and posted the second best ERA among relievers in the National League after the All-Star Break. Today he is a central part of the Mets' plans for our bullpen next season.
To some extent, Heilman is emblamatic of the franchise he pitches for. He lost his way for a good while there, and just when everyone else had started to give up on him, he found a way to right the ship and matter again. Let's just hope he (and the Mets) can keep it up.
9. Willie-time.
You know, a lot of Mets fans really seem to hate Willie Randolph. Some of that is because he was a Yankee for so long, but most of the people worth listening to take his decisions to task.
These arguments are not entirely worth ignoring. Willie's not perfect. He started Kaz Ishii for way too long. He batted Wright seventh for way too long. He somehow batted Miguel Cairo second for a good portion of the season. He decided to play Gerald Williams and Jose Offerman ('nuff said). And he found a place in his doghouse for my boy and yours, Doug Mientkiewicz (RIP).
But you know what? I still like Willie.
An admission first, I'm kind of biased on this one. Let me take you back to 1992. I was 9 years old that season and pretty damn cute. After the games the Mets (somehow) won I would go with my Dad down to the area above their dugout, identify the player who had the game ball, look cute, and hope he flipped me the ball. This trick works really well. I probably got about 10 game balls that way.
Anyway, one time I did this and Willie Randolph had the game ball. He pointed to me, flipped it my way, and I was all set to go home happy when some big drunken lug next to me reached over and grabbed the ball mid-flight. I was crushed. The drunken lug was elated. He high-fived his friend and got out of there.
Another ballplayer might not have cared, but not Willie. He put one finger in the air...
Hold on, kid!
... went into the dugout, grabbed a ball and a pen, signed the ball, flipped it my way...
Thank you!
... and we both went on our merry way. I wish I could say I was looking at that ball right now. The truth is I have no idea what happened to it. But it was a class move up and down.
And that's kind of what Willie Randolph has done to the manager's office at Shea. He's not the firebrand that Bobby V (RIP) was, nor is he the empty vessel that was Art Howe. But he's a classy guy. His players respect him. They play hard for him. Besides, he gets his subs fresh toasted and snubs Joe Torre when he does it, what's not to like?
10. Gary Cohen and SportsNet New York (or, the passion of the Fran Healy).
For my money, nobody's better at calling a ball game than Gary Cohen. He and Howie Rose were an absolute pleasure to listen to in car rides this past year (my first as a driver), and it is with great excitement on my part that he's been named the play-by-play announcer for the Mets next year when their new sports network, SportsNet New York (SNY, aka The Metwork), debuts.
Can't you just hear him now though?
There's a long fly ball hit to deep center field. Jones is back... at the warning track... looking up, at the wall... and it's outta here!
Gary Cohen's homerun call is simply the best in the business. I get goosebumps and a smile just thinking about it. Something about the way he says that final phrase
And it's outta here!
like the air and the vibrations are coming from the lower depths of his stomach. It's a guttural cry that captures the excitement of the moment. It'll be fun having it on the tube next year.
As for Fran Healy, well, we've had some good times and some bad, old friend. You've been calling Mets games my entire life. No question about it, I'll miss your trademark calls
Groundball to Reyes... got 'em!
But this was the right time to let you go. If you love something, set it free. I'll pour some out for Fran tomorrow night, and I encourage all of you to as well. But in the meantime, be thankful that Gary Cohen is finally getting his due on the air.
11. The Mets blogosphere.
2005 was a big year for me and the Mets blogosphere. Beyond finally getting involved with a blog of my own, I discovered several sites that have enhanced my knowledge of the Mets and the game of baseball in general. I'm especially grateful to the hosts of the following sites:
http://www.metsgeek.com (no hard feelings for taking down my post referring people to this page, and congrats on the quote in the New York Times)
http://mets.nyfansites.com
http://www.metsblog.com
http://eastcoastagony.weblogs.us (why don't you guys update anymore?)
Also noteworthy are mets.com and msgnetwork.com. These sites are the only thing that get me through the winter months without being able to watch the boys every night. Finally, I have to pay my respects to the Godfather of all Mets blogs, metsonline.net.
Metsonline.net was the original Mets blog, the (hard e, say it like "thee") source for all things Mets-related. It got shut down for having Mets logos or apparel or some such thing on the site.
Anyway, thanks again to all the people who run those sites, and all the people who make up the Mets online community (even you, "Fire Willie").
And lastly, thanks to all of you who read this blog. We're not as big as those other guys yet, but, hey, we got big dreams. Maybe some day.
Gobble gobble,
A.F.O.M.G.
But as we all know, today isn't the day to dwell on our gripes, but rather to be thankful. So in the spirit of the holiday, here are 10, no, 11 things I'm thankful for.
1. The Mets are legit again.
Think back to 2002-2004. Remember how bad that was? Amid all the grumbling about how the Mets are becoming more and more like the Yankees, there's something very important to remember. There are an awful lot of Yankee fans out there who don't know what it is to suffer, at least in any fair understanding of what suffering as a fan is.
So sure, the Bombers haven't won the World Series since 2000, and no, they haven't even made the World Series in 3 (!!) years. But they've still got some things going for them. The Yankees have won the AL East in each of the past 10 years.
What about the Mets? Well, in 2004, the Mets finished a dismal 71-91, 20 games under .500, which was actually a fairly substantial improvement over 2003's 66-95 mark. 2002 wasn't quite as bad, but the Mets still finished 9 games under .500. All told, the Mets averaged 71 wins a season between 2002 and 2004, while finishing roughly 29 games out of first place each time. That, Yankee fans, is what suffering is.
But the Mets finally turned the corner in 2005. Finishing four games over .500 wasn't the half of it. More importantly, the Mets played meanin... err, games with playoff consequences in September. Now granted, the team played like it wanted no part of October baseball, but the Mets were still worth getting excited about with as few as 15 games to go.
That's not going to sound too impressive to anyone wearing a Yankee hat right now, but as far as I'm concerned, it's a giant leap forward for the Mets, and it's a harbinger of better days to come. Which brings us to our second entry on this list.
2. Winning Now: The Mets should be serious playoff contenders in 2006 (but nobody say the 'F' word).
Yesterday, Sippy Momo gave us 10 things he hated about the Delgado deal. While I share some of his concerns, generally speaking I'm much bigger on this deal than he is. The truth is that the Mets are built to win now. Pedro Martinez was nasty in 2005. Even if he didn't quite dominate in the second half of the season the way he did in the first, with a stronger supporting cast he might have had 20 wins and a Cy Young award.
More importantly, with a stronger supporting cast, the Mets might have made the playoffs. As a matter of fact, add a big bat in the middle of the order and a closer and I'm pretty sure they'd have given the Braves a serious run for the money. With Delgado on board and, hopefully, a premier closer (Billy Wagner) to come, not to mention the continued development of David Wright and Jose Reyes (more on them later) and the much longed-for reemergence of Carlos Beltran, the Mets should seriously vie for a playoff spot in 2006.
That said, I'm not ready to start calling the Mets the favorites to win the NL East in 2006, even if on paper they probably will be. The Braves have won this division too many years in a row for anyone else to be called the favorite, it's as simple as that. Until we can all open up the newspaper on the day after the final games of the regular season and see anyone besides the team from Atlanta at the top of the NL East column, they're the favorite. So do like your mother told you and don't anyone go saying the "f" word just yet.
3. Winning Later: The Mets should be in position to contend for many, many years.
This is going to be a point of contention with some people I'm sure. To them, the Mets' playoff hopes rest on the shoulders of Pedro Martinez, and, to a lesser extent, Benedict Glavine. This line of thought isn't entirely off-base of course, but the Mets are in a position where they've got young, talented players whom they can build around for, potentially, the next 10-15 years. For more on that, refer to Nos. 5 through 8 on this list.
Yes, we had to forfeit our top pitching prospect in the Delgado deal, but for all his strikeout numbers in the minor leagues, something about Yusmeiro Petit never really did it for me. The guy averages something like 11 strikeouts per 9 innings but never throws harder than 86-87 mph.
Any fan who watched Greg Maddux and the pitcher we lovingly refer to as Benedict Glavine dominate the Mets for more than a decade knows that heat isn't the only thing that matters, but somehow I doubt whether Petit's stuff will translate into dominance once he's in the Show.
Either way, we've got younger guys in our system who represent the next wave of Mets pitching prospects, and hopefully one of them will have at least No. 2 potential. The well is never going to run dry on 3-pitchers, nor is it ever going to run dry on the Mets' finances, so let's not go crazy over Petit until he becomes the next Dontrelle Willis down in Florida (or wherever it is that the franchise finds itself in five years).
And yes, we had to give up on Mike Jacobs. As optimistic as Sippy Momo may be about Jacobs, the truth is we don't know if he's the real deal or simply the next Benny Agbayani. He's got a sweet stroke and he certainly looked legit in 100 at-bats in 2005, but sometimes you've gotta buy low and sell high. I suspect that's what the Mets have done here.
The point is that there is a young core in place, one that figures to benefit from the emergence (either next year or in 2007) of Lastings Milledge (see No. 7 below). Between the core players we have and the resources we've got to expend (maybe next year on Barry Zito?), we should be in position to contend so long as management plays its cards right.
4. Pedro.
I really can't say the Mets have had another pitcher quite like Pedro Martinez in all the years that I've been a fully aware Mets fan. I have zero recollection of Dwight Gooden when he first came up. Mostly, my memories of Doc consist of knowing that he was once incredible, but that somehow things had gone awry.
But with Pedro this past year we finally saw a little bit of that again, or for the first time as the case may be. When Pedro was on it was just so much fun to watch. The way he would fool with the hitters by mixing up his pitches and his location, it's just such a treat to behold.
Remember the season opener against the Reds? Most of our memories are bound up with the traumatizing end scripted by Braden Looper and about 800 feet of baseball flight, but go back a few innings and you had one of the most dominating pitching performances of the entire season.
Pedro allowed a first-inning 3-run homer to Adam Dunn, and all of a sudden all the bad thoughts inevitably crept into my mind (refer to No. 1, specifically paragraph 3 for why this was the case)...
Oh my god. He really has lost it.
This was in the midst of my beer bottle cap throwing phase. I was living in a pretty sweet off-campus rez with a fairly nice television set, but had developed the habit of throwing available bottle caps at the screen any time something bad happened.
But this was the next level. You look forward to the season opener for six months and then it goes rotten in the space of 5 minutes (all with 2 outs I might add). So I considered calmly rising from my seat, walking down a flight of stairs to the outside porch, retrieving a rock, returning to my seat, and throwing it at the screen.
But I didn't. And I'm glad I didn't.
Over the next several innings, Pedro delivered one of the most awesome pitching performances I'd ever seen by someone wearing a Mets uniform. He struck out 12 batters over the next five innings so technically he wasn't striking everybody out, but it sure seemed like he was.
He was throwing 95 mph, and was clearly pissed. He wasn't about to let the Reds ruin his Mets debut, so he upped his game and his passion rubbed off on all his teammates, with the notable exceptions of Looper and Manny Aybar.
And this was something we saw from Pedro all year. The passion. Almost equally important to his mastery of pitching is the joy and passion he brings to the game. Whether it was him playing with the fans on Opening Day when his image was emblazoned on the center field ad stand or running through the sprinklers or doing ridiculous commercials for Major League Baseball kids charities, Pedro just brought a smile to the faces of Mets fans.
And there's a lot to be said for that. Remember Roberto Alomar? Talk about someone who just brought a frown to your face. Pedro plays the game with the zest and passion that we fans believe all players should have, and he made watching the team extra enjoyable every fifth day.
Besides, he was also responsible for probably the best quote of the Mets' season. When asked if he would watch the regular season opening game between the Yankees and Red Sox on television that night, Pedro responded: "It's either the Yankees-Red Sox [game] or the Discovery Channel. I love that channel. I love cheetahs."
Me too, Pedro. Me too.
5. David Wright (or, I wish I had David Wright's life).
What more can you say about David Wright? In 2005, DW had a .306 average, 102 RBIs and 27 home runs. The kid can flat out play. Those commercials for MSG in which he talks about "bleeding orange and blue" almost make me cry. A hot blonde waitress at the bar formerly known as Trilogy (beloved by prep school gangsters and high school chicks looking to date I-Bankers in the late '90s, early '00s) was desperate to go out on a date with him (which she was supposed to do, courtesy of a bartender who knew Cliff Floyd, although I don't know one way or another if it ever happened). After losing best friend Joe McEwing during spring training, D-Wright seriously upped his cool factor by buddying up with Floyd and Mike Cameron, as well as Doug Mientkiewicz (RIP).
The best part is that he's 8 days older than I am (which is also really depressing on a personal level). He figures to only improve, and could very conceivably become a high-30s/low 40s home run guy who drives in 120 runs a season. Think about it. He batted 7th for 40-some games and still drove in 102 runs, good enough to finish 10th in the league in RBIs. He finished 8th in hitting. The sky's the limit with this kid. Even if something about his eyelashes makes it looks like he wears eyeliner.
6. My friend, Mr. Glass.
He may not have put up the eye-popping numbers that Wright did. He may not have had an on base percentage higher than .300. He may not have walked more than 27 times despite having 696 at-bats. But those numbers pale in comparison to the one in the games played column for Jose Reyes: 161.
The same Jose Reyes who earned the nickname Mr. Glass after suffering somewhere between 5 and 7 leg injuries in something like a 16-month span. The same Jose Reyes who Mets fans were beginning to doubt would ever remain healthy through an entire season. That same Jose Reyes was healthy enough to play in all but one of the team's regular season games.
And he was no slouch either, in spite of the saber-nazis' grumblings. Over the course of those 161 games, Willie Randolph's "young colt" dazzled fans with his speed and lit up the stadium with that toothy grin every time he dove head first into third with a triple. Wright may be a better player than Reyes is, but the truth is I'd rather watch Reyes play.
When you see Wright play, you just appreciate his talent so much. You sit back and you're amazed at your good fortune that a player of his ability, with so much potential still ahead, somehow found his way to the Mets.
Reyes is different. No doubt, he's got a world of talent in him, and you really get the sense that he could be one of the greatest shortstops of his era if he can stay healthy. But with Reyes you just love to see him play the game.
There's something about the way he turns singles into doubles and doubles into triples. Something about the way Shea Stadium or the bar or living room you're watching the game from gets this buzz every time he gets on base. Everyone in the place gets terribly excited because you just know he's about to take off and crash into that bag 90 feet ahead of him in a cloud of dust. There's something about the anticipation as you await the umpire's call
Safe!!
that makes watching him play the game fun on an instinctive level. You don't have to be a baseball fan to enjoy watching Reyes play the game.
On top of all that, for all the grief he gets from callers on WFAN, Reyes improved in several offensive categories as the season progressed. After not walking once through his first 110 at-bats or so, he ended with 27. After stealing 11 bases through the first two months of the season, he ended with 60, tops in the National League. I also read that his post-All Star Break OBP was somewhere in the .330 range, although I can't verify that at the moment.
These are signs that he was still getting used to major league ball at the beginning of the season (not surprising given that he'd been injured the previous 2 years), and also that he was improving throughout the year. That development will continue next year, but in the meantime it's just fun to think of the player he is, and the player he could become.
So Mr. Glass? Here's to you, pal.
7. Lastings Milledge (or, How Omar got rich and the Mets' farm system did not die tryin').
First things first, there's a long way between Lastings Milledge and stardom, not to mention that there's a long way between Lastings Milledge and Shea Stadium. So let's not get ahead of ourselves here. But in Milledge we have a guy who pretty much every scout projects will be a star (and some call him a superstar in the making) who figures to take over RF if the Xavier Nady/Victor Diaz tandem fails to impress in 2006, or in left in 2007 once Cliff's contract has expired.
The truth is that I don't know anything about Milledge that you don't. I've never seen him play, but I know that he's been a beast at every level of play that he's seen so far. He's a guy whose debut we can anticipate almost as anxiously as Wright's or Reyes' (though, thankfully, without the same desperation -- see No. 1 if that is unclear at all).
Is Milledge, the Mets' top prospect and thus Omar's best bargaining chip, certain to remain with the Mets? Of course not. But the fact is that the Lastings Milledge era took a giant step torward realization yesterday with the Carlos Delgado acquisition. Getting Delgado on board drastically reduces the need for Manny Ramirez, and also makes the economics of such a deal almost unfathomable.
Milledge should be safe unless a No. 1 starter is made available at the trade deadline next year, or if Rick Peterson, Pitching Guru, doesn't issue one of his 10-minute edicts regarding a 2006 version of Victor Zambrano, which hopefully he will not do.
8. Aaron Heilman (all is forgiven).
I'll admit it. In April 2005, I hated Aaron Heilman. Let me take you back to Opening Day. I was still negotiating a parking spot in the veritable third world country that exists in the hinterlands of Shea Stadium (for those interested, the going rate is 3 Beast Lights and 324 Dominican pesos, or 10 USD, whichever is more readily accessible) but if I'd been in the stadium in time to see the player introductions, I would have booed lustily like everyone else in the stadium did when Heilman's name was called.
See, Heilman wasn't just a No. 1 draft pick turned bust. He had, for me, become a constant reminder of Scott Kazmir. The day that Kazmir made his major league debut for the Devil Rays, Heilman made his 2004 season debut for the Mets. Kazmir shut out the Mariners through five innings in his big league debut. Heilman? He lasted 3.2 innings, allowing 4 earned runs on 8 hits.
It was like a cruel joke played by the Mets front office.
But then something happened. Somebody got the crazy idea that maybe, just maybe, it made sense to have Heilman throw at the arm angle that made him a successful pitcher at Notre Dame, that made him a No. 1 draft pick, rather than the over-the-top motion that the Mets had impressed upon him.
From that point on, things just clicked for Heilman. He worked his way out of Willie's doghouse and posted the second best ERA among relievers in the National League after the All-Star Break. Today he is a central part of the Mets' plans for our bullpen next season.
To some extent, Heilman is emblamatic of the franchise he pitches for. He lost his way for a good while there, and just when everyone else had started to give up on him, he found a way to right the ship and matter again. Let's just hope he (and the Mets) can keep it up.
9. Willie-time.
You know, a lot of Mets fans really seem to hate Willie Randolph. Some of that is because he was a Yankee for so long, but most of the people worth listening to take his decisions to task.
These arguments are not entirely worth ignoring. Willie's not perfect. He started Kaz Ishii for way too long. He batted Wright seventh for way too long. He somehow batted Miguel Cairo second for a good portion of the season. He decided to play Gerald Williams and Jose Offerman ('nuff said). And he found a place in his doghouse for my boy and yours, Doug Mientkiewicz (RIP).
But you know what? I still like Willie.
An admission first, I'm kind of biased on this one. Let me take you back to 1992. I was 9 years old that season and pretty damn cute. After the games the Mets (somehow) won I would go with my Dad down to the area above their dugout, identify the player who had the game ball, look cute, and hope he flipped me the ball. This trick works really well. I probably got about 10 game balls that way.
Anyway, one time I did this and Willie Randolph had the game ball. He pointed to me, flipped it my way, and I was all set to go home happy when some big drunken lug next to me reached over and grabbed the ball mid-flight. I was crushed. The drunken lug was elated. He high-fived his friend and got out of there.
Another ballplayer might not have cared, but not Willie. He put one finger in the air...
Hold on, kid!
... went into the dugout, grabbed a ball and a pen, signed the ball, flipped it my way...
Thank you!
... and we both went on our merry way. I wish I could say I was looking at that ball right now. The truth is I have no idea what happened to it. But it was a class move up and down.
And that's kind of what Willie Randolph has done to the manager's office at Shea. He's not the firebrand that Bobby V (RIP) was, nor is he the empty vessel that was Art Howe. But he's a classy guy. His players respect him. They play hard for him. Besides, he gets his subs fresh toasted and snubs Joe Torre when he does it, what's not to like?
10. Gary Cohen and SportsNet New York (or, the passion of the Fran Healy).
For my money, nobody's better at calling a ball game than Gary Cohen. He and Howie Rose were an absolute pleasure to listen to in car rides this past year (my first as a driver), and it is with great excitement on my part that he's been named the play-by-play announcer for the Mets next year when their new sports network, SportsNet New York (SNY, aka The Metwork), debuts.
Can't you just hear him now though?
There's a long fly ball hit to deep center field. Jones is back... at the warning track... looking up, at the wall... and it's outta here!
Gary Cohen's homerun call is simply the best in the business. I get goosebumps and a smile just thinking about it. Something about the way he says that final phrase
And it's outta here!
like the air and the vibrations are coming from the lower depths of his stomach. It's a guttural cry that captures the excitement of the moment. It'll be fun having it on the tube next year.
As for Fran Healy, well, we've had some good times and some bad, old friend. You've been calling Mets games my entire life. No question about it, I'll miss your trademark calls
Groundball to Reyes... got 'em!
But this was the right time to let you go. If you love something, set it free. I'll pour some out for Fran tomorrow night, and I encourage all of you to as well. But in the meantime, be thankful that Gary Cohen is finally getting his due on the air.
11. The Mets blogosphere.
2005 was a big year for me and the Mets blogosphere. Beyond finally getting involved with a blog of my own, I discovered several sites that have enhanced my knowledge of the Mets and the game of baseball in general. I'm especially grateful to the hosts of the following sites:
http://www.metsgeek.com (no hard feelings for taking down my post referring people to this page, and congrats on the quote in the New York Times)
http://mets.nyfansites.com
http://www.metsblog.com
http://eastcoastagony.weblogs.us (why don't you guys update anymore?)
Also noteworthy are mets.com and msgnetwork.com. These sites are the only thing that get me through the winter months without being able to watch the boys every night. Finally, I have to pay my respects to the Godfather of all Mets blogs, metsonline.net.
Metsonline.net was the original Mets blog, the (hard e, say it like "thee") source for all things Mets-related. It got shut down for having Mets logos or apparel or some such thing on the site.
Anyway, thanks again to all the people who run those sites, and all the people who make up the Mets online community (even you, "Fire Willie").
And lastly, thanks to all of you who read this blog. We're not as big as those other guys yet, but, hey, we got big dreams. Maybe some day.
Gobble gobble,
A.F.O.M.G.
posted by Sippy Momo at 5:09 PM
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