Dipping Into The Archives Vol. 36

2007

A 7 game lead with 17 to go; a number that haunts Mets fans to this day. That is not an insurmountable lead, which I suppose was proven in 2007, but it is the kind of comfortable cushion that generally allows teams to begin formulating October plans. Give players a bit of a rest, line up the starting rotation, etc. Instead, the last 2 1/2 weeks of the season were more of a slow motion car wreck. We witnessed it happen, could not imagine they were actually going to blow the lead, and then woke up one morning with the realization that they had not only lost the division but did not even qualify for the wild card. The Mets have had many gut-punching seasons; 2007 was one of the very worst.

There wasn’t initially much of an obvious 2006 hangover, but in retrospect the signs were there. In spring training Jimmy Rollins famously declared that the Phillies were the team to beat and found himself on the receiving end of a lot of mockery when the Phils got off to a slow start. In the long run that IDGAF mentality paid off; it was something that the Mets lacked. They also lacked enough pitching. Pedro Martinez was injured and missed most of the year, and Steve Trachsel left via free agency. John Maine and Oliver Perez were both solid in their first full seasons as Mets starters, but they were mid-rotation starters. There was a clear void at the top. The ramifications of Duaner Sanchez’s taxicab accident continued. His replacement in the bullpen, Roberto Hernandez, retired in the offseason, so the pen was still at least one arm short.

That lack of depth demonstrated the organization’s oddly passive approach in the offseason. Cliff Floyd departed and was replaced in the outfield by Moises Alou. Alou was still a very good hitter, but he was also 40 & injury prone. He was productive when available, but that wasn’t always the case. And the older players in the lineup were starting to decline. The star trio of Beltran/Wright/Reyes all had exceptional seasons, but Carlos Delgado and Paul LoDuca both had noticeable drops in production. There was one piece of good news for an aging star. Tom Glavine picked up his 300th career victory. It was so cool to see a player wearing a Mets uniform reach such a significant milestone; not enough to make up for the fact that Tom Seaver hit 300 with the White Sox, but at least it was something. Unfortunately that was not the 2007 start for which Glavine will be most remembered.

There did not seem to be much sense of urgency at the trade deadline either. The big acquisition was Luis Castillo, who was a decent enough ballplayer, but not a game changer. The Mets also picked up Jeff Conine, who was one of many “I had forgotten he was a Met” players who donned the blue and orange in 2007. Aaron Sele! Sandy Alomar! Chan Ho Park! Ricky Ledee! The failure to address pitching needs came back to bite the club. Down the stretch too many key innings were given to the likes of Brian Lawrence, a classic league average pitcher, or Philip Humber, a promising prospect who was not ready for such a bright spotlight at the time.

2007 was also the height of the Pedro Feliciano era. One of the all-time LOOGY’s, Gary Cohen gave him the nickname Perpetual Pedro due to the fact that he pitched seemingly every day, only to face one or two hitters per outing.

One of the off the field highlights of the year came with the celebration of Ralph Kiner Day. By this time due to his age and his health he only broadcast a limited amount of games, coming in to share a few anecdotes. In these visits it was always clear how much Gary/Keith/Ron revered him. I liked the photo that was shared in the yearbook of an old Kiner’s Korner episode. Those of us of a certain age have strong nostalgic feelings for that classic postgame show. In the early days of SNY Gary Cohen frequently lamented the fact that no one thought to preserve the tapes of those old episodes. They would have made for ideal programming on the network.

Two more notes: the new stadium was one step closer to reality as naming rights were sold to Citigroup. The park, one year away from grand opening, will be named CitiField. And there was a new addition to the broadcast crew. 2007 was Kevin Burkhardt’s debut season as sideline reporter, and he stuck around until he joined Fox fulltime following the 2014 season. You may notice that his 2007-2014 tenure coincided with a prolonged postseason absence. Was the Curse Of Burkhardt a real thing? You be the judge.

OK, I can’t put off the nightmarish final weekend any longer. The Mets went into the weekend a game out of first and ended the regular season with a series against the Marlins at Shea. The Marlins of that era were not a very good team, but they took special pleasure in taking it to the Mets. Florida won the Friday game, but the Mets moved back into a first place tie after Maine pitched brilliantly on Saturday, hurling 7.2 innings of one-hit shutout ball. That left it all up to Glavine on the final day of the season - and he went on to pitch what was likely the worst game of his career. He didn’t even make it out of the first inning, giving up 7 runs. This was the final year of his contract, and he returned to Atlanta to finish out his career, ending his Mets tenure on a most sour note. To put a capper on the day, the Phillies won, so there was no need for a tiebreak game. The season was done.

2007 may have ended in the worst possible manner, but there was no reason to believe they could not turn things around the following year. The Mets traded for the best pitcher in the game. 2008 would be the final season at Shea Stadium. Why not send the old home off on a high note? There could not be a devastating end of season collapse two seasons in a row, right? Right?

SNL Recap

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that even the worst episodes of SNL contain at least a couple of sketches that are keepers. Well, this week really tested that theory; it was an absolute dud of an episode. Dakota Johnson hosted for the first time in 9 years, and she proved why the wait was that long. Sure, she is a talented actress, but live sketch comedy is not her strong suit.

The tone was set by the cold open. A decent concept, a couple of solid jokes, a failure to tie it all together into a satisfying whole. In this one, the CBS NFL broadcast team were faced with the realization that with the season nearing its end, there will be little for them to do. I liked Andrew’s Tony Romo reacting in horror when he learned that this will be the final season for Blue Bloods.

The monologue borrowed from two different templates - the let the host look back at their younger years format as well as the bring a special guest on stage to hoots & hollers format. Johnson showed a clip of her rolling her eyes as she appeared on a red carpet with her father Don when she was a small child. She also showed a photo of her appearance at the SNL 40th anniversary special, drawing humor when pointing out some of the famous faces seated near her.

But then it was time for the special guest, and oh boy. Musical guest Justin Timberlake came on stage offering to help with the show, telling her that he can appear in sketches if need be. Now, there is a reason why his image has taken a beating recently. He’s finally been called to the carpet for the crappy way he treated both Britney Spears & Janet Jackson years ago. Did anyone stop to think that it would not be a good idea for him to interrupt the monologue of a female host and vOli test to play hero? And then of course Jimmy Fallon joined in while wearing the Barry Gibb costume. There was still a lingering bad taste in my mouth when the Barry Gibb Talk Show sketch took place. All I could think about was this. Robin Gibb has been dead for more than a decade, should they still be doing that sketch?

The episode was so poor that I have little to say about it. The best sketch was probably the Please Don’t Destroy film, with Johnson & the trio throwing increasingly vicious insults at each other. It was a nice touch when she momentarily bonded with her fellow nepo babies John & Martin, leaving Ben out.

It was tough to award Employee Of the Week this time. Heidi did solid work on Update as a tarot card reader. It could also go to the Please Don’t Destroy guys. But I’ll give it to Andrew. He had the best line in the cold open, and he was effective as the son in the filmed piece in which he watched some horrifyingly revealing home movies with his parents.

There were additional cameos in the episode from Barbara Corcoran and Mark Cuban. Plus, Dave Chappelle inexplicably appeared on stage for the closing goodbyes. The episode is best left forgotten, with hopes for better results next week. Ayo Edebiri will make her debut as host. Fingers crossed that her talent and likability will produce a strong show.

The Top 1%

Time to take one last look at Cooperstown before Hall Watchers like me turn our attention to Cleveland and Springfield. A welcome change in the past few Baseball Hall cycles is that in the aftermath we hear a lot more “how could they have left ____ out?” and a lot less “how could they have put ____ in?” It’s a good thing to maintain high standards, but there’s a difference between establishing a high bar as opposed to a bar that’s so high that it’s barely possible to clear.

Part of this is due to a positive philosophical change among the voters. There are still plenty of old school grouches who fill out ballots, but there is a much larger percentage of voters who recognize that the whole purpose of the Hall is to celebrate what we all love about the game. An induction ceremony that is large enough to honor a wide swath of players representing multiple fan bases yet small enough that it remains an exclusive honor accomplishes that perfectly.

The Hall frequently repeats the stat that only 1% of all major league players are voted in, but that’s slightly misleading. That population even includes players who only had 1 major league at bat, so it’s difficult to say exactly how accurate that is. I prefer to look at something like the chart below. There are several of this type that make historical comparisons between different eras.

The data is slightly skewed by the fact that the Frankie Frisch led era of the veterans committee added a bunch of undeserving players from the 1920’s & 30’s, but even after taking that into account it’s clear that more recent eras are terribly underrepresented in the plaque room. One would have to make the argument that beginning in the 1960’s or so players somehow began to get worse as a whole, which is a clearly ridiculous point to make.

This is in stark contrast to other sports Halls of Fame. (And to clarify once again, I like that baseball is more exclusive than the others are; I just feel that it swings a bit too much in the wrong direction.) Pro football acknowledges that with more teams, there is going to be a larger number of great players, and therefore the policy is that each year’s induction class consist of a minimum of 5 & a maximum of 8. And the reality is that in almost every year they do in fact elect that maximum number.

Because the basketball hall includes candidates from college & international ball in addition to the pros, each year’s class is very large, which makes it seem that it’s easy to get in. I wouldn’t go that far, but it is true that the electors for that hall default towards inclusion. On a side note, it’s notable that every NBA MVP who is eligible has been elected, and looking at active players, with the exception of Derrick Rose every MVP is a future certainty. That’s more of a reflection of the fact that the NBA doesn’t ever have any fluke winners. There’s no clamor for baseball to induct Jim Konstanty or Jeff Burroughs, among others. And while we’re on that topic, the pro football hall is much more likely to induct a player with a short career but a high peak than baseball is. That is of course a reflection of the fact that for a football player the risk of a sudden career ending injury is ever present. In baseball the likes of Sandy Koufax or Dizzy Dean are exceptions. Football has a lot more inductees with career arcs like that of Terrell Davis. Baseball voters prefer to select players with both high peak value and high career value.

Back to my original point. Baseball Hall voters are much more benevolent than they once were. When I first began to closely follow the voting it appeared as if prominent writers weren’t satisfied with simply holding high standards, they took a sadistic pleasure in being dickish about it. In the pre internet days, the writers with the most prominent voices were either writing for New York papers or those who had national columns in The Sporting News. Those tended to be the most likely to have the “you need to have been as good as Christy Mathewson to get my vote” attitude.

Nothing illustrates their collective savagery quite like Jim Bunning’s fate. (Although we should pause to mention the absolute insanity over the fact that 23 writers did not vote for Willie Mays.) Bunning’s credentials appear to be clear cut, but it took him forever to gain support. In his 12th year on the ballot, he was finally on the precipice, falling only 4 votes shy with 74.2% of the vote. In that year, several writers made the “look at me, I’m important” flex by submitting blank ballots while stating they did so as a protest against what they felt were lax standards. Had those blank ballots been thrown out, Bunning would have had the necessary 75%. Those ballots were all signed, however, so they were officially counted. Still, it shouldn’t have been an issue. Bunning was so close that he would surely make it in the next year.

Nope. The following year he dropped to 63.3%, which is just insane. Worse, he dropped even further to 57.9% in his 14th year. He rebounded a bit to 63.7% in his final year on the ballot, although he was finally elected by the veterans committee 4 years later. But there is no way he should have had to wait that long. In what sane world would so many writers choose to withhold their votes when he was so close? I can’t imagine that type of mass abandonment happening anymore.

Finally, for those who make the “it should only be reserved for the elite of the elite” argument, it sounds reasonable but there is little historical reason to suggest that this was the intent of the Hall in the first place. Yes, the initial class consisted of the most exclusive inner circle imaginable. Yes, subsequent years were similarly selective. But keep in mind that at that time there were dozens of deserving players in the pool of candidates. That made it so much harder to reach enough consensus for any candidate to surpass 75%.

Look at it this way. The first election took place in 1936, a full 60 years after the creation of the National League. Suppose that in 2007 the league decided that baseball in the segregation era was nothing more that glorified exhibition ball. The sport wasn’t a true major league until Jackie Robinson entered the league, so therefore the membership of the Hall would need to start from scratch and only consist of post-1947 players. Try to think how difficult it would be to narrow it down to an initial induction class of 5. Every election would result in around 8 guys or so receiving around 60% of the vote; it would be extraordinarily difficult to hit 75%.

Plus, take a look at some of the early classes. Between 1940-1944 there were only 2 inductees, and not all of that was due to a hesitancy to hold elections or stage inductions during the war. The Hall needed to clear up that pipeline, so there were 10 men chosen in 1945 & 11 in 1946. There were some shaky choices in those years; 1945 was the Tinker, Evers, & Chance election for example. But it does prove that as early as 10 years into the process the leaders of the Hall made their intentions clear that membership need not be limited to the likes of Walter Johnson.

In short, I won’t defend Harold Baines. His selection was a stretch. But Tony Oliva’s election does not diminish the integrity of the institution in any way.

Closing Laughs

May I take this opportunity to lobby for Shelley Long to be cast as E. Jean Carroll in the inevitable movie? Look at any photo of her and tell me you don’t see it. Thanks for reading, and let’s all do this again on Wednesday.