Dipping Into The Archives Vol. 30

2001

The 2001 Mets season is one of the more difficult ones to recap. On the field, it was a major step backward from the previous pennant winning season. The Mets limped to a 3rd place finish in the NL East, and there was never a point in the season where you felt that the team was in the race. And yet, anything that happened during the season feels insignificant in retrospect knowing what was to come. The Mets were indelibly connected to the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks. (Side note, I’m trying to avoid being a broken record when it comes to the black uniforms, but look at that cover. Ugh.)

It’s difficult to say how much of the struggles that season were due to standard postseason hangover and how much to reversion to the mean. For example, Timo Perez was outstanding down the stretch in 2000 as well as in the early rounds of the playoffs. He turned back into a pumpkin in the World Series, and that continued into the 2001 season. It was clear that he was a guy who got hot at just the right time, and as opposing teams saw more of him he was exposed for what he was; a spare outfielder. Similarly, there were signs in 2000 that age was starting to catch up to Robin Ventura, and his slow decline continued into 2001. And although he rebounded in 2002, Edgardo Alfonzo had a mystifyingly poor season in 2001.

The starting rotation suffered 2 significant losses in the offseason, as the 2 pitchers who had magnificent outings in the previous postseason run - Bobby Jones and Mike Hampton - both departed via free agency. Jones was a guy who quietly put together a solid Mets career. He didn’t have the hype that the 3 members of ill-fated Generation K did, but he was as reliable as they come.

As for Hampton, he never really seemed to fit in with the Mets, but in retrospect the bile that fans sent in his direction was way over the top. He had the right to sign with a team that offered him the most money, which he did & which any one of us would do were we in the same situation. Why take it so personally? It’s so bizarre that we as fans don’t let athletes make life changing decisions without the blowback. That’s why he had to offer the much mocked rationale that he chose to sign with the Rockies because of Denver’s school system. I’m sure that was a factor, but not as big of a factor as the dollar signs. But he couldn’t say that, because players get punished for showing honesty. Anyway, it all turned out well in the end. The compensatory draft pick the Mets earned for losing Hampton is the one that they used to draft David Wright.

To replace the departed pitchers the Mets signed Kevin Appier and Steve Trachsel as free agents. This would be Appier’s sole season as a Met, but Trachsel had a long tenure at Shea in which he worked at a frustratingly slow pace. Man, the pitch clock would have done a number on him. 2001 was also a significant year in Major League Baseball for another reason. By this time the success of Hideo Nomo and others had shown that Japanese pitchers could succeed in American baseball, but there was not yet any evidence that Japanese hitters could make the same smooth transition. Two prominent Japanese outfielders came to the states. One was Ichiro Suzuki, who made an immediate impact in Seattle and went on to have a brilliant career stateside. The less successful of the two of course played for the Mets. Tsuyoshi Shinjo was a flashy player with a lot of flair, but unfortunately wasn’t much more than a 4th outfielder type. Fun to watch, but nothing special.

It’s always fun to thumb through these old yearbooks and find things that I had completely forgotten. I have no memory of Charlie Hough’s stint as pitching coach. I’m also unsure why the publisher decided to include a 30 page spread devoted to LeRoy Nieman. Was he still a thing in 2001?

As mentioned, the team just did not take off in 2001, so they made a big sell-off over the course of the season. The team kept the major core intact, but shed many of the key supporting players. Among those either sent away at the trade deadline or outright released were Dennis Cook, Turk Wendell, Rick Reed, Todd Pratt, and Darryl Hamilton. This was all in preparation of a major reboot in 2002. (Spoiler alert, it didn’t work out as hoped.)

Finally, no discussion of the 2001 Mets would be complete without mentioning the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks. It’s difficult to think about the recovery without prominently including the Mets, as the Shea Stadium parking lot was used as a staging area to gather supplies for the first responders. During that initial week when no games were played, Bobby Valentine and the players tirelessly helped load trucks and visited Ground Zero to help uplift the spirits of those working at the site. When the sport came back it turned out to be one of those rare instances when both the Mets & Yankees were on the road. As a result, it wasn’t until 10 days after the attacks that the Mets returned home for the first major sporting event held in New York following the tragedy. It was an emotional evening, with the Mets facing bitter divisional rival Atlanta. For one night, all of that was set aside; players & coaches from both teams warmly embraced each other following the Star Spangled Banner. And of course, Mike Piazza hit one of the most memorable home runs in franchise history. That at least provided a temporary moment of catharsis. Overall, 2001 was a bummer of a season for the Mets, but that evening will live in forever.

SNL Recap

In a lot of ways Adam Driver is an absolutely perfect SNL host. He goes full throttle into his sketches with the same amount of intensity as he does with his serious dramatic movie roles. His stints are always memorable; this was his 4th time hosting and entrance into the Five Timers Club is just a matter of time. This was the second terrific episode in a row. It remains to be seen if that’s because the show is hitting its stride following a shaky start to the season, or if the current incarnation of the show is overly dependent on old pros to set things in order.

I wonder if writers intentionally hold off on pitching certain off kilter bits until someone like Driver hosts or if his presence inspires writers to come up with odd concepts. I say that because I can’t picture anyone else other than Adam Driver successfully pulling off my choice for best sketch of the week. He portrayed a baby on his first airplane ride. He did the bit with the perfect level of creepiness with going over the line into nightmare fuel. That’s reminiscent of the More Cowbell sketch. It would not have worked so well had anyone other than Christopher Walken portrayed THE Bruce Dickinson. Same thing here.

That’s also the case with virtually every sketch that worked this week. Driver’s particular flair made everything better. The filmed PSA with senior citizens complaining about being the victims of TikTok pranks was solid in & of itself; Driver’s character looked like he could snap at any moment. That added solid points to the concept. Same with the vacation sketch in which he & Bowen were a couple telling their friends they were planning on having a baby. Much to their friends’ horror it was clear that their ignorance of biology led them to believe that they could conceive a child together.

Not much to say about Update this week; Marcello produced a correspondent piece describing what it was like growing up in a house full of women. And this week’s surprise cameo came in Update, with Chloe performing the closing dance from Save the Last Dance joined by Julia Stiles herself.

As a sign of how brutal it can be to fight for airtime, a week after Punkie had a strong episode, she was barely seen this time, only appearing in the aforementioned PSA. This week’s standout is a tough call, being that Adam Driver’s presence was so dominant. I’ll give the rookie a shoutout and go with New Chloe. She did an admirable job as the horrified flight attendant on the airplane sketch and had the featured role in the cold open as Elise Stefanik.

Olivia Rodrigo was the musical guest this week and she also had the privilege of making a cameo appearance in the closing sketch. It seems likely that a hosting slot is in her future. Next week is the last show before the year end holiday break. They are pulling out the stops for this one. Kate McKinnon will make her return to 30 Rock with Billie Eilish as the musical guest. With the McKinnon/Christmas combo there’s a very good chance that the show ends the year on a 3 episode winning streak.

The Countdown Continues

Newcomer #7 - Jose Bautista. Bautista bounced around across several organizations until he finally “got it” and went on a half dozen year reign as one of the league’s premier power hitters. Plus, although Rougned Odor may not have appreciated it, he also produced one of the most epic bat flips in the sport’s history.

That was quite a run. He led the American League in home runs twice, in slugging percentage and OPS once each, and had two consecutive top 3 finishes in the MVP vote. He helped lead Toronto to two consecutive ALCS appearances, one of which featured the aforementioned bat flip. No exaggeration, that moment helped lead to a major cultural change in the sport. His home run in the 2015 ALDS capped a major comeback and was the franchise’s biggest hit since Joe Carter touched ‘em all more than 20 years earlier. He more than earned the right to celebrate such an important moment, and it didn’t take long for the sport to embrace a “let the kids play mentality.”

He wasn’t great enough long enough to merit serious HOF consideration. He was essentially a power-only guy, there’s a good reason his nickname was Joey Bats and not Joey Gloves. As productive as he was, I was surprised to see that he fell short of 1000 career RBI’s. I believe that fact speaks a lot about his career arc. His production was quite impressive for a solid stretch of time, but not long enough to reach a significant milestone.

Holdover #7 - Bobby Abreu. To borrow a phrase, Bobby Abreu has become so underrated that he’s now overrated. Many people have raised the flag of appreciation for Abreu, because it is true that he seldom received the acclaim he deserved in his playing days. He had good home run power and exceptional line drive power, and was an outstanding base runner. He was exactly the type of player who contributes in so many different ways to a winning team, but because he never had one of those eye-popping monster seasons he didn’t receive as much acclaim as he should have.

It’s much easier to notice a player who does one or two things extraordinarily well rather than one with a wider array of skills, and that’s Abreu. Until he hit the standard end of career decline, he was on track to achieving the rare .300/.400/.500 triple slash. His career was also filled with almosts - he consistently hit between 20-30 home runs, but never came close to leading the league. Same thing with his RBI totals. The only black ink on his Baseball Reference page comes in categories that don’t necessarily move the needle; he led the league in doubles once, triples once, and games played twice.

That last one serves as a good counter argument to a frequent point of criticism he heard during his career, the fact that he shied away from running into outfield walls. It’s true that doing so may have cost his team a stray run here & there or even an occasional game, however this fact to me is more important. In his first season as a regular he played in 151 games in 1998. That is the FEWEST number of games he played in a season until 2011, when he appeared in “only” 142 games in his age 37. The fact that he remained healthy enough to be in the lineup virtually every day with the type of production he provided means a lot more than if had crashed into a wall every once in a while knocking himself out of action. Having said all that, it just doesn’t add up to Hall of Fame for me. He was one helluva player, but a tad shy of the elite level.

Well, That Was A Day

Friday will go down as one of the wackiest days in the history of The Internets. Jake Mintz summed up much of what happened but even he couldn’t fully cover all of the twists and turns that took place. Flight tracking apps have rarely seen so much activity. Internet detectives doggedly searched for the birthday of Yusei Kikuchi’s wife. It was all so absurd and all so wonderful to sit back and watch in real time.

And of course one day later we all learned that the Shohei Ohtani To Toronto news was completely wrong. Dodgers fans will now have the pleasure of getting to watch Ohtani and Mookie Betts every day for the foreseeable future. No, I’m not jealous. Not at all.

Now that the two biggest names are off the board the hope is that this will ignite activity. These two moves were both fairly predictable. The general consensus when the off-season began was that Los Angeles was Ohtani’s most likely landing spot & that if the Padres were to pull the trigger on trading Juan Soto that the Yankees would be the most logical match. Done and done. This figures to be a crucial week. I’m sure that free agents would prefer to go into the holiday knowing where they will play next year. So, will dominoes tumble or will clubs continue to hold off on making significant moves until Yoshinobu Yamamoto signs somewhere?

IST Banners Fly Forever

For the NBA, the initial edition of the In Season Tournament could not have gone much better than it did. The players largely bought into it, the games for the most part had playoff levels of intensity, and let’s be honest the fact that the Lakers made it to the championship game helped attract more eyeballs. I personally was skeptical going into the event, yet I did find myself drawn into the action as it reached the knockout rounds. I even got used to the special courts, or at least the ones whose paint schemes weren’t too garish.

The championship game proved to be a bit of an anticlimax; the Lakers led easily throughout & even when the Pacers cut into the lead they never seemed to be a real threat. I’m fascinated to see if the results of the tournament are a precursor to what we will see come playoff time. The Pacers looked impressive, but there is a huge difference between making a run in this type of atmosphere and having to survive a gauntlet of best of 7 series. This can’t help but give that young core valuable experience, however, and the tourney has served as a national coming out party for Tyrese Haliburton. Players that put up big numbers on bad teams have a lot to prove; Haliburton’s production has continued to be as impressive as the Pacers as a whole have improved. And he has clearly demonstrated in this tournament that he deserves to be ranked in the upper echelon of guards in the league. Twice he tallied double digits in assists without a single turnover. That seems impossible. It’s to his benefit that this took place before All-Star ballots have come out. I’ll guess that now that he has a larger national profile he’ll receive a lot more votes than he would have previously.

I maintain that the NBA needs to tweak the tiebreak formula so that point differential is not as big of a factor, but overall it made for a promising first impression. If nothing else, it drew attention to the league that it rarely receives in November and December. Mission accomplished.

Closing Laughs

I hope all of my fellow New Yorkers survived SantaCon well. (Is that also a thing in other cities?) Let’s all have a great week & talk again on Wednesday.