8/2/12

I May Be Wrong, But… More Spin Crap, Bad Teams, Steven Matz, Shake A Stick At, Too Much Time On My Hands



1.    A good example of what continues with Jordany Valdespin happened after the Mets Wednesday night win. “Team” mates decided to rip up one of Spins t-shirts, which didn’t make him very happy. In fact, it made him very mad, but some of his Latin buddies pulled him aside and told him this is the kind of things “team” mates do after a win. A couple probably added ‘crecer’ to their comments. Valdespin eventually came off his mountain and actually wore the tattered t-shirt home. Showed up Thursday with plain t-shirt on. What a head-case. 

2.    Look, let’s face it. The Mets minor league teams sort of suck the big one right now. Buffalo is a long shot for a playoff spot, the B-Mets are out, St. Lucie is not the team it was the first half of the season, Savannah continues to try and hold on, and Kingsport is from hunger. There are great players, but no great teams. The announced attendance for Wednesday’s Savannah doubleheader was 1,426. The night before was 563. Buffalo averages less than 4000. The hot summer hasn’t helped either. It’s just a bad year for Mets minor league baseball. 

   3.    Kingsport one ray of sunshine, LHSP Steven Matz (photo by Allan Greene) , was removed from his start Wednesday night and will sit it out for “awhile”. For now, they are calling it “soreness in the shoulder” and, hopefully, that’s all it is. He’s been close to lights out this season for a team that, simply put, doesn’t support their pitchers. Even so, you can’t shake a stick at 23-Ks in his last 18-IP. 

4.    Origin of “shaking a stick at” - Its recorded history began — at least, so far as the Oxford English Dictionary knows — in the issue of the Lancaster Journal of Pennsylvania dated 5 August 1818: “We have in Lancaster as many Taverns as you can shake a stick at”. Another early example is from Davy Crockett’s Tour to the North and Down East of 1835: “This was a temperance house, and there was nothing to treat a friend that was worth shaking a stick at”. A little later, in A Book of Vagaries by James K Paulding of 1868, this appears: “The roistering barbecue fellow swore he was equal to any man you could shake a stick at”… Jeez, I have too much time on my hands…



5.    Origin – “Too Much Time On My Hands” – “Time Idioms” - To have too much time on your hands means that you have too much free time and not enough things to do

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