1999 Stories - Pounding The Rock
To Hate Like This: Armando Benitez
Whether it's true or not, Mets fans like to think they have the lion's share of Closer Trauma. In the 25 years or so since major league teams decided the ninth inning is a sacred frame, all the men who've handled that inning for the Mets have driven their fans completely bonkers. I imagine many...
The Case for Bobby V
The Red Sox' offseason has been a turbulent one, as befits a team that committed one of the worst regular season collapses in baseball history. (Nearly as bad as...well, never mind.) Their curiously torturous managerial search is the latest example. You'd think there'd be no shortage of candidates...
Dominance Ranking, 1999-2010
We've got twelve years' data now for the Dominance Ranking. In that span, the most dominant team is... Boise State. The Broncos' top finish (fifth year in a row in the top five-- the best such streak currently in progress) in 2010, coupled with Texas's low 2010 rank (75th) moved the blue-turfed...
Angels Fan Confidence in the Scream of the Butterfly
Before I sink into the big sleep I want to hear, I want to hear The scream of the butterfly The tsunami, they say, may be caused by last month's flap of a butterfly's wing on the other side of the globe. As we stand at the low tide of the Scioscia era, it may be useful to look back (hey this is a...
Let's Go to the Archives: Izzy's Last Win
Yesterday's 9-8 win over the Pirates contained two significant milestones for the Mets. The most obvious is that they overcame a 7-0 deficit, their second largest comeback in franchise history, and their biggest since the raucous, cathartic win of June 30, 2000, when they scored 10 runs in the...
Let's Go to the Audiotape: The Matt Franco Game
Earlier today, I visited the Daily News website and viewed their slideshow on the history of the Subway Series. (It's part of their sports pages' increasingly tiny section of non-WAG-related content.) Imagine my horror when I saw not a single image from what was possibly the greatest regular...
The Brief, Wondrous Baseball Life of Benny Agbayani
Yesterday marked the 39th birthday of Benny Agbayani, the former Met outfielder who rose to fame in the playoff years of 1999-2000 and came back to earth shortly thereafter. Benny is one of my all-time favorite Mets, and I know many fans of my relative generation (and beyond) feel the same way. I...
Terry Collins, Destroyer of Worlds?
When I heard that Terry Collins was a front runner for the Mets' managerial vacancy, I had to admit I was firmly in the "Terry who?" camp. His previous stints heading a team coincided with my collegiate years, during which the attention I paid to baseball was minimal at best. Were it not for the...
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