Waking Up With Coco and More James Brown

Well, this is baseball. That's why this is the greatest game of all, ya know. Looked like we were gonna get it, we didn't do it, we didn't quite get the 27 outs, that's part of the game. You're gonna get tested all the time in this game, and it's a good test. We're down to, basically, like the wild card situation was now: 1 game. Pretty simple. We played our hearts out, tonight we just didn't close it out."

--Jim Leyland, Post-Game Conference

Early morning, I tried real hard to make it through to the last out of the last ball game. After Raul didn't take a hanging slider in the 9th and a high fastball in the 12th, the remote landed on the A's Tigers game for the rest of the evening. I actually did an admiral job staying up until the 9th. I must have made it an out or 2 into the top frame, and then naturally dosed off the way a normal human on the eastern seaboard would do around 12:30 in the morning. At what appeared to be the stroke of 1, I woke up to see every member of the A's running out of their dugout towards Coco Crisp on the infield. I didn't see his game-winning hit live, just on every replay after. The frenzy must have woken me up. There was really no reason to doubt that the A's would have that game won by the time I woke up, but for some odd reason I really thought the Tigers would lock the series down during my slumber. 

What a day of baseball ahead of us. Got two Game 5's with Bay Series Implications, and a couple Game 4's involving two Beltway teams with their backs against the wall. Should be quite an awesome-but-would-be-awesomer-with-Orange-and-Blue day.

Here's More James Brown.

LET'S. GO. METS.

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @convertedmetfan. And for Rising Apple twitter updates, click here.

A Clinch Unto Itself and the Random Song of the Day

Last night, the Mets not only Dramatically Endured Without Yielding, but also clinched 4th place. Though the Marlins won as well, the Mets are now 6 ahead with 5 to play. Why should any of us celebrate? Well, it is always nice to see the Marlins be less than us, especially in their newly-formed incarnate.  But back last November, at a job I used to have, a Yankee Fan co-worker who I talked baseball and movies with was egging me on that the Marlins were gonna get Reyes and that the Mets were gonna sit in last place. 

"I still think something can be worked out. But even if the Marlins got Reyes, they'd still be worse than the Mets."

"Dude, THERE'S NO WAY!!! With all the moves they're making?!"

"I'm telling you man, you'd be surprised how good the Mets will be."

"I will bet you right now that the Marlins will be better than the Mets."

"Alright, sure. How much?"

"5,000 dollars."

"What?! That's outlandish."

"Alright. $100."

"Hundy. Sure."

And we shook.

Then, one day, Jose Reyes Grew Fins.

And one day, the Mets finished better than the Marlins.

And I was right. You'd be surprised how well the Mets can play.

And you would be surprised by how awful they can look as well, going deeper and deeper, game after game, than you ever thought they could go after seeing how deep they had already gone since 1962.

But alas, my prophecy has come true.

The money sure doesn't matter (well, yeah it does, but still). What matters is that the Mets were better in record than the Marlins. And it would have been a shame had they dropped that as well, because THEY WERE better than the Marlins in every facet of the game.

And I look forward to that being the case in the future.

Here's the Random Song of the Day.

LET'S. GO. METS.

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @convertedmetfan. And for Rising Apple twitter updates, click here.

Facial Hair of Mets' Past and Present: Pat Zachry

Throughout human history, mankind has been fascinated by the hair growing on, around and above our chinny chin chin. For many of us, the fascination has carried over into our love of baseball. There has been a plethora of fantastic beards, 'staches, goatees and mutton chops since Rounders and Cricket evolved into America's grand ol' game. The Mets are no exception, having presented many styles over their 50 years. Born out of my own fascination is the first of an Exploration into the Facial Hair History of the New York Mets.

We will explore all eras of the Orange and Blue. The 70's and 80's will most-assuredly be well-represented.

There are 4 categories in which the awesomeness of the facial hair will be graded: Fullness, styling, length, and creepiness factor. Scores will be given between 1 and 10; "1" being "not awesome at all," "10" being "totally awesome." Creepiness factor will be graded between 0 and 10, with "0" being "not creepy at all" and "10" being "looks like a sex offender." The creepiness grade will be subtracted from the sum of fullness, length and styling. Grading "length" will not be based solely on how long the hair is, rather how the length works in making the beard awesome. "Styling" regards how well the facial hair is kept up. "Fullness" is pretty self-explanatory: the patchier the facial hair, the less points for fullness. The categories will all be graded by how well they compliment each other.  The highest grade facial hair can receive is 30 points.

We begin with arguably the best beard this franchise has had on the Flushing Field: Pat Zachry.

Pat was modest when it came to his facial hair in Cincy. It wasn't till he got to New York that his beard potential was fully realized.  

He began his Mets career as clean shaven as ever...

Then, it was onto the 'stache...

By 1978, his facial hair had grown to epic status. 

Zachry was one of the best pitchers for the Mets during a time when they averaged over 90 losses. Traded from the Reds as part of the Tom Seaver deal, Zachry compiled a 3.63 ERA, appearing in 135 games from 1977-1982, starting 113 and completing 20, 6 of which were shutouts. He won 41 and lost 46, averaging only 123 2/3 innings every year. Had he been healthier, The Metropolitans probably would have won a few more ball games.

"Well, I hope to learn how to control my temper, otherwise it will be a short career." 

--Pat Zachry, Mets Yearbook 1978

He injured his foot in his All-Star season after kicking a helmet on the dugout stairs. The Manager had just taken him out of a game and Pat was upset.


But we're not here to talk about his career. We're here to talk about his awesome beard.

Fullness: Pat Zachry's face has growing strands of hair not more than 1/100th of a millimeter between each other (it's a fact.) The beard clearly wraps around his face from ear to ear, extending all the way from his cheek to his neckline.  He certainly gets a 10 in this category.

Length: At the time of the photo on the right, Zachry must have been growing and maintaining the beard for quite some time. With how full the beard can get, the length only adds to the awesomeness. I raise a 10 card.

Styling: Hard to completely see how groomed the beard is.  If he, like me, can grow it on the upper cheekbone and on parts of his neck (it certainly appears that could be a possibility), then the beard is very well-trimmed. From what we can see, there doesn't appear to be uncut hairs sticking up over the general plane of the beard. He maintains the length very crisply. I'm going an all-out 10 on this one.

Creepiness factor: Too awesome to creep me out. Somebody certainly might disagree, but I subtract no points for creepiness.

Pat Zachry's beard very much deserves the honor of leading off the Mets' Facial Hair History Exploration. He is awarded 30 "awesomeness" points. I'll even go as far to say his beard is awesomeness incarnate.

Pat Zachry...

You and your beard were extremely worthy of wearing the Orange and Blue.

LET'S. GO. METS.

Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @convertedmetfan. And for Rising Apple twitter updates, click here.