Freelance Sports Journalist
Just as the ink dried on Bob Raissmann’s New York Daily News weekend column, the one that suggested Terry Collins is a one-of-a-kind, honest manager among the few, the proud, the New York Mets manager opened his mouth and out poured the same doublespeak every major league manager is prone too.
I love Ralph Kiner. I respect him for his for his contribution to the game of baseball – both as a player and, later, a broadcaster. If you’ve been a New York Mets fan for any length of time you certainly understand Kiner’s importance in team history.
New York Mets manager Terry Collins could have leaned on any number of reasons to remove Frank Francisco as the closer, the most obvious being the two blown saves last weekend against the Miami Marlins. Instead, Collins did what any manager who is trying to build confidence in his players would do: he gave his closer a vote of confidence.
If there is such a thing as a productive loss, the New York Mets may have had one Friday in Miami.
Howard Johnson can empathize with Ike Davis. The former Met player remembers what April and May were like. A notorious slow starter, over his 14-year career, Johnson hit .219 in the month of April with a .317 on-base percentage. He was a career .237 hitter in May.
Slow down. That’s what then Mets manager Davey Johnson told the young Mets third baseman Howard Johnson.
It would be easy — too easy, in fact — to inflate Daniel Murphy’s value to the New York Mets after his 4-for-4 performance against the Arizona Diamondbacks Saturday. But if we step back and look at Murphy’s 2012 season as a whole, and the impact he’s had on the Mets success, the stock of the third baseman-turned left fielder-turned first baseman-turned second baseman is on the rise.
Dave Winfield got his first taste of the New York Mets over lunch. For the Mets front office team of Nelson Doubleday and Frank Cashen this was all new and, in hindsight, the 1980 Major League Baseball Reentry Draft, marked the organizations first major foray into free agency. For Winfield the visit to the Big Apple was business as usual.
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