Dipping Into The Archives Vol. 29

2000

It’s pretty stark when you think about it, but in their 62 seasons of existence the Mets have won a grand total of 5 National League pennants. 2000 was one of those rare seasons, and it was also a year that clearly demonstrated Bobby Valentine’s ability to squeeze the most out of his roster. The outfield playing time in the postseason was spread among the grouping of Benny Agbayani, Darryl Hamilton, Jay Payton, and Timo Perez. Somehow THAT team made it to a World Series? I can’t help but believe, however, that they would have been able to take that final step and win the whole thing had the yearbook publishers not hexed the team by including so many photos of the black uniforms (ugh) in the cover montage.

This year came with a greater amount of roster churn than usual both in the offseason and during the season itself. Orel Hershiser and John Olerud were among the free agency departures, and the team also cut ties with Bobby Bonilla, which involved a contract renegotiation that some of you may have heard about. That allowed the team to clear budget space (not that a New York team needed to be so concerned about a budget) that they could trade for Mike Hampton and slot him at the head of the rotation. Derek Bell also came aboard as a throw in, and he confirmed his reputation as one of the streakiest hitters the game has ever seen. He tore the cover off the ball in the beginning of the season, and his living arrangements became a fun story. He lived in a houseboat and he would commute to home games via the boat and dock at the marina near Shea Stadium. He slumped terribly later on and was injured, unavailable, and largely forgotten come playoff time.

One feature I got a kick out of in this season’s yearbook is that the more significant players earned two page spreads, which often included high school yearbook photos. Needless to say, many of these included some unfortunate hair. I’ll avoid too much overkill and only share 2 of them. Well done, Mike Hampton and Robin Ventura.

Actually, this one is worth sharing as well. Even as a high school student Derek Bell looked like he was about 45 years old. He could have easily replicated the Steve Buscemi “how do you do fellow kids?” meme.

One significant person involved in the inseason roster churn was Rickey Henderson. His tenure with the team ended inauspiciously. In one game in early May he hit a long drive to left field and stood in the batter’s box admiring the shot. Unfortunately he overestimated his power and it didn’t leave the park, so by the time he realized that it would not clear the fence he wound up having to settle for a single. That happens on occasion, but when it does the player usually expresses the requisite embarrassment. Not so with Henderson, he pledged that he would do that again next time. The Mets soon released him, and he continued his Hall of Fame career elsewhere. Henderson and the Mets eventually made up, as he would return as a coach years later.

A good sign of how much the team had improved was the fact that the quality of celebrities visiting Shea had increased. But what the hell was Rudy Giuliani doing at Shea? At least he was the most heinous famous person on this page. Hold that thought, is that Woody Allen? Look away, nothing to see here.

More changes came as the trade deadline approached and the Mets went all in on the playoff push. Before all was said and done, elite pinch hitter Lenny Harris returned. And when Rey Ordonez suffered a season ending injury, the Mets traded for Mike Bordick. That meant that along with Olerud’s departure and his replacement at first base with Todd Zeile, half of the infield quartet that made the cover of Dports Illustrated a year earlier was gone. Finally, as can be seen by the “additional players” photos, Paul Wilson had become an afterthought. He was eventually sent to Tampa Bay along with Jason Tyner for Bubba Trammell and Rick White, who were both important supporting players in the postseason run. (If you’re wondering why Joe McEwing only merited such a small photo himself, he was acquired near the end of spring training. There was only enough time to sneak him in on this page.)

And what a postseason run it was. The march to the World Series featured two of the greatest pitching performances in franchise history, both in series clinching games - a one hitter for Bobby Jones in the NLDS against San Francisco, and Mike Hampton’s three hit shutout in the NLCS against St. Louis. Strangely enough, Hampton would be the only Met to win an NLCS MVP award until Daniel Murphy’s magical run in 2015. LCS MVP awards didn’t exist yet in 1969 or 1973, and the 1986 award went to Mike Scott in one of the rare instances in which a member of the losing team won the trophy.

There was no happy ending, the Mets lost in the World Series 4 games to 1. To add insult to injury, they lost to the Yankees. The Series was an illustration of how close the line between victory and defeat can be. The Mets looked to be on their way to a Game 1 victory before Armando Benitez (of course) blew the save and the Yankees won a 12 inning marathon on a walkoff hit by former Met Jose Vizcaino. Game 2 included the bizarre incident in which Roger Clemens threw the shard of a broken bat at Mike Piazza - and wasn’t ejected! We’ll never know what would have happened had he been tossed and the Yankees been forced to go to the bullpen early. (I’ll never forget his explanation that he thought it was the ball. You would think he had been playing the game long enough that he could tell the difference between a ball and a bat. They’re different sizes and everything.)

It looked like momentum had shifted when Benny Agbayani drove in the game winning run in the 8th inning of Game 3, but Derek Jeter put an end to that with a leadoff homer in Game 4, a game in which the Yankees never trailed. Game 5 was another classic; Al Leiter gave it his all before giving up a series clinching hit, a single up the middle from Luis Sojo of all people that took approximately 100 bounces. Ouch. Over the course of that Series there were so many plays that could have changed the course of things had they gone the other way. There clearly is something to the fact that the Yankees were battle tested over so many postseasons. They executed when needed; the Mets did not. Two plays in Game 1 still stand out. The first was when Timo Perez was thrown out at the plate after he slowed down while rounding third. And Todd Zeile didn’t run out a tapper that he assumed would stay foul, so he was tagged out standing in the batter’s box.

I’ll end this look back at 2000 on a happier note. As part of Family Day, Pat Mahomes’s young son was photographed taking a few swings. Wonder whatever happened to this kid?

SNL Recap

And we now have our newest member of the coveted Five Timers Club. Emma Stone clearly has the time of her life when she hosts. She fully commits to her bits, and her exceptional talent elevates whatever she appears in. This week gave us the best episode of the season so far.

But first, the show held a final farewell for George Santos. Like Trump, he is not an easy character to write jokes for. How can a comedy writer top what he himself says on a daily basis? So whatever humor lies in Santos material falls entirely on Bowen’s portrayal. The premise of the cold open focused on Santos’ final press conference, culminating with his altered version of Candle In the Wind.

Then, of course, the monologue focused on Stone’s Five Timers ceremony. After joking that on a previous hosting stint she met her husband (true) the camera panned to who she claimed was her husband, Lorne Michaels (not true.) The suspense on a Five Timers sketch lies in which alumni will welcome her to the club. In this case it was Tina Fey & Candice Bergen, neither of whom stuck around for the closing goodbyes.

There were 2 strong candidates for the honor of the week’s best sketch. As the Mama Cass recording session began, with New Chloe as Mama Cass & Stone as an odd record producer, I was having more cowbell flashbacks, but this one steered in an interesting direction. Stone’s character correctly predicted that in the future Make Your Own Kind Of Music would serve as background music for film montages, which she proceeded to act out. It was a well thought out concept.

My ultimate choice is Question Quest. The show tends to go to the game show parody well too often, but I liked this concept. It turned out that the game show in question was a ruse for host Michael Longfellow to give away as the prize a tortoise that he had been given as a childhood pet, not realizing that it’s an animal with a lifespan of over a hundred years. I have to yet to buy in on Longfellow’s overly laidback vibe, but it worked well here. He was almost sadistic with glee over finally pawning off the tortoise to Stone’s unsuspecting contestant.

Longfellow also returned for the sole correspondent piece in this week’s Update, as a cigarette lamenting the vaping craze. At one point he attempted to goad Jost into saying the British slang term for cigarettes, but I think other cast members are much better than he is at busting Jost’s chops.

A sign that Emma Stone has hosted the show frequently is that she has her own recurring character. They brought back the concept of a teenager’s bedroom posters coming to life to give him advice. This time they are teaching him the ways that physics can be applied to real life situations. Stone’s pinup girl washing her car offered little help beyond titillation, which granted is a big thing for a teenage boy. This is a concept that has run its course, but I liked the fact that the other posters mocked Mikey’s David Beckham for not looking or sounding much like the real thing.

My choice for this week’s star among the regular cast would be Punkie. In addition to a good role as one of the other game show contestants, she was featured in this episode’s Please Don’t Destroy video. The plot of this one was that a technical problem caused the deletion of some of Stone’s scenes so they needed to use AI to complete the film. Punkie was used as Stone’s body double. It’s taken a few seasons but it appears that the show has finally found a good niche for Punkie.

The season has gotten off to a shaky start, but hopefully this week’s show is a sign that it has found its footing. Next week looks promising as well. Adam Driver moves a step closer to entering the club himself, as he will host for the 4th time. His episodes have always been strong ones.

The Countdown Continues

Newcomer #10 - Adrian Gonzalez. González was the overall #1 pick in the 2000 draft for the Marlins, but it was with the Rangers where he made his major league debut. It wasn’t until Texas traded him to San Diego that he established himself and he went on a solid run in which he was one of the more durable players in the game. In the period from 2006-2016, the FEWEST games he played in any season was 156. Couple that with consistent production and he was an extremely valuable player.

For the most part he straddled that fine line between being a star level player and an elite level player, a key distinction that will keep him out of legitimate HOF consideration. 5 All Star Games, 4 Gold Gloves, 2 Silver Sluggers, and down ballot MVP votes in 8 separate seasons is a pretty hefty resume. He’s definitely one of those players for whom when you take a good look at his Baseball Reference page you realize he was a much better player than memory serves. But he did fall short of a lot of the markers you would want someone to reach in order to make a strong case. He always finished with between 90-110 RBIs, but only led the league once. He led the league in hits once, and once in walks as well. And he finished with a career triple slash off .287/.358/.485 with just over 2000 career hits. A fine career, but not a Hall Of Fame one.

Returnee #10 - Torii Hunter. Several years back Bill James made the observation that for all of the “if X is in, then Y should be in as well” arguments about the Hall, there are nowhere near as many arguments that go “if X is not in, then we need not bother talk about Y.” That comes to mind when I think about Torii Hunter. As good as he was, there are other center fielders of fairly recent vintage who were better (Bernie Williams, Jim Edmonds, Kenny Lofton) yet fell well short of election.

The supreme irony of Hunter’s career is that he was a magnificent fielder (9 Gold Gloves) yet the first image that comes to mind when thinking of him is his flip over the wall in Fenway Park in a futile attempt to chase down David Ortiz’s series altering grand slam in the 2013 ALCS. I suppose that’s balanced by his homer-robbing catch off of Barry Bonds in the 2002 All-Star Game. He was more than just a fantastic glove man; he was a consistent run producer over his career. Absolutely an asset to have on one’s team, but not quite HOF level.

The Newest Member Of The Hall

Hall of Fame season officially kicked off with the results of the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee election. First, the good news. I’m such a sucker for the photos or videos that show the honorees being given the good news. How could you not feel good seeing that? You can feel the joy coming from Jim Leyland and his wife.

Leyland is a very worthy selection. In addition to managing the Marlins to a World Series title in 1997, he also led the Tigers to 2 American League pennants along with 3 consecutive NL East titles for the Pirates and 2 additional AL Central crowns with the Tigers. He totaled 1769 managerial victories, which ranks 18th all time. If I was sitting on the voting panel, he would have had my vote so I’m very pleased to see him receive that honor.

But here is the issue. This particular committee won’t meet again for another 3 years. By that time both Dusty Baker and Terry Francona will be eligible. So will Bruce Bochy if he retires before then. In other words, for the other men on the ballot, it’s either this year or a long wait. And not to sound morbid, but these are men in their 70’s & 80’s. They don’t have the luxury of waiting. Lou Piniella fell only one vote short, Bill White missed by two votes. That has got to be agonizing.

I believe the Hall makes the induction process unnecessarily cruel. Voters on these committee panels can only select a maximum of 3. I don’t think it’s asking too much to make it a binary yes or no choice for all 8 names on the ballot. If the Hall is worried that this would make the size of induction classes too large, then cap the number of inductees at 3 regardless of how many pass the 75% mark.

This week we will also learn the winners of the Ford Frick Award and the award for career achievement in sports writing. The Frick ballot is overflowing with outstanding candidates; I have no idea how those voters can possibly narrow it down to one choice. More to come.

Closing Laughs

That’s all for today. Thanks for tuning in, and let’s all make this a fantastic week. See you again on Wednesday.