Tuesday, May 17, 2022

"There but for the Grace of God..."

 

So, after last night's big Yankees win—and yes, EVERY Yankees win is a big win—I switched over to the Mets' channel, to see if they might still be on.

As it happened, of course, the Metsies had been rained thunder-storm-threatened out, and so they had a "Mets Classic" on instead.

Which baffled me at first. 

What was playing was a Mets-Pirates game from what the screen told me was "9/27/12."

I could not recall either franchise playing a significant game that season—certainly not so late on the calendar—and so I turned to the good people at baseball reference.

My memory has (not yet) given way completely. The 2012 Mets went 74-88, good for 4th place in the NL East, 24 games out of first. The Bucs were 79-83, good for fourth in the NL Central.

So why was this a "classic"?

Turned out, it was the day R.A. Dickey nailed down his 20th win on the season.

No disrespect here directed toward Dickey, a pitcher who overcame a seemingly insurmountable, physical handicap to become a major-league pitcher.

Dickey not only went 20-6 that year, but also led the NL in shutouts, complete games, and strikeouts, to win a well-deserved Cy Young.

The Mets traded him after the season, in a deal that brought them Noah Syndergaard from the Blue Jays. Dickey got a big new deal...and was a perfectly mediocre pitcher in the AL East. So it was win-win all around for us Yankees fans.

But what it also led me to realize, with a little shiver down my spine, is that this is the sort of thing that qualifies as a "Mets Classic."

SNY seems to own the rights to pathetically few big Mets games as it is...but there have also been pathetically few big Mets games over the many years. 

Much as we scream and holler about the inadequacies of HAL, Cooperstown Cashman, and the rest of our boys—and we have to, how else will they get better?—if just a few things in the Jujuverse had been a little different...any and all of us might have ended up rooting for the wrong team in town. We might be left with reliving the halcyon day of 9/27/12, when our feel-good story of a pitcher had his one shining moment...before we trucked him off to Canada.

Kinda makes you wonder, doesn't it?







23 comments:

BTR999 said...

No need to wonder, the. Mess have always, are now, and always will be a second rate franchise

ranger_lp said...

Off Topic and very concerning...

Yankee Stadium to host Joel & Victoria Osteen on Saturday, August 6 at 7:00 p.m., marking their first large-scale public gathering of hope and inspiration outside of Houston since 2019

https://www.mlb.com/press-release/press-release-yankee-stadium-to-host-joel-and-victoria-osteen-on-august-6

Don't think Claude Osteen is related...

Doug K. said...

Don't worry Ranger. I once saw Sun Myung Moon at YS and they still made the series.

Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside said...

FYI I am drunk. I hope this game is fun.

Let’s start with some word association.

Old Yankee Stadium is to Popes John Paul II and Pope Paul VI as New Yankee Stadium Mall and Galleria is to ________

Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside said...

Fuck, how did Ranger_IP answer before I asked the question? I really am drunk.

AboveAverage said...

Watching tonight's broadcast I've gotta ask - Is that Ed Koch's love child Kasha sitting behind the Guaranteed Rate Sign?

Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside said...

Nah, despite scientific progress, two dudes still can’t have a baby.

AboveAverage said...

I never said it was a biological being born of two dudes . . . BUT Eddy Koch's voice use to blast out of the NYC trash trucks during his days as Mayor - so at least he was a "champion for a clean NYC"

Doug K. said...

That Judge guy is pretty good.

TheWinWarblist said...

I will wonder no such thing, you fucking monster!

AboveAverage said...

Judge - either 35 years at 9 million per or 10 years at 31.5 million per. It's coming. Get use to it. Introduce yourself to that reality. Might even get done before the All Star Break. Or we'll trade him for Matt Harvey. On Friday.

Doug K. said...

chapman just can't have a clean inning

Doug K. said...

Part of me wants him to blow the save so that they stop using him

JM said...

Fucking Chapman. Jesus, just release him and move on.

Doug K. said...

fuck chapman anyway

ranger_lp said...

Yankees Win!!!

AboveAverage said...

"A sweaty save but a save just the same". Something deep inside made me think that ANALytics team hoped that ChapSweat would blow the save so that they could move him outta the closer's spot. Guess not.

BTR999 said...

Another Happy Landing! No thanks to the domestic abuser, Chapman. Oh, you forgot about that? I didn’t

I see Gallo is back in stride with back to back 0-5 games…

Tomorrow: Win. Rinse. Repeat.

AboveAverage said...

Hey Clark Kent (aka: bomtorun999) - some of us do remember the two car garage-discharge. I'm just saying.

AboveAverage said...

New Stadium Chant:

Repeat After ME

Gallo! Chapo!
They Must Go!

Chapo! Gallo!
They Must Go!

Can't Stand the Strain!
They're a Pain!

They Must GO!
MAKE IT SO!!!!!!!

HoraceClarke66 said...

Another bad night for Chapo. BUT, I gotta say, a couple clanking gloves behind him.

Joey Gallo, who is now back to .182, went 0-10 with 5 strikeouts and no RBI in the past two games...and made a poor play in left field that almost cost us the game tonight.

I think this must be close to some kind of record for worst ever play by a regular in back-to-back game.

And the Yankees still won. I think the juju gods are setting us up for something truly terrible.

The Archangel said...

HC66
I hear hurricanes a-blowing
I know the end is coming soon
Don't go out tonight
It's bound to take your life,

Bad moon's arising

TheWinWarblist said...

Must I say it again? Must I?