John From Albany – Mets Breakfast Links 4/7/2020

Good morning.  Happy Birthday to Ricky Bones, Baseball thinks about having all 30 teams play in Arizona, all this and more, the anniversary of Dwight Gooden's MLB debut.  Let’s hit the links.

Yesterday we linked to some “What If” articles like Tom Seaver staying with the Braves and the Mets not trading Scott Kazmir?  Now MLB.com has: What if Ken Griffey Jr. had accepted that trade to the Mets? The number 1 impact they say? The Mets don’t get Mike Hampton and never reach the 2000 World Series.  They also then don’t lose Mike Hampton to free agency and get David Wright as a compensation pick.

NY Post: Mets’ Steven Matz built foundation for tragedies like this.

SNY.TV: Ron Darling thanks healthcare workers, gives advice to New Yorkers.

SNY.TV: Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen thanks healthcare workers.

Chris Flanders Mets 360.com: Lenny Randle, an unlikely choice for one of my all-time favorite Mets.

Faith and Fear in Flushing: The Season Thus Far. Greg Prince looked at how the Mets might have deployed Jacob deGrom, Michael Wacha, Rick Porcello, and Steven Matz if the season had gone on as planned. 

Mets.com: Fans can watch Johan Santana's historic no-hitter tonight at at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday night, when it will stream for free on Facebook (MLB/Las Mayores), Twitter (MLB/Las Mayores) and YouTube (MLB).

Centerfield Maz: Looking Back at Gary Carter's 1986 Fine World Series Performance.  Well done piece complete with videos and lots of great pictures.

Mike's Mets talked about the Mets trading prospects in "Here We Go Again."

Lohud.com: The stages of NY Mets ace Jacob deGrom's career, through the eyes of a good friend.

Mets Police: Best Mets By Number: 7 Ed Kranepool.

Elite Sports NY: New York Mets greatest forgotten players: LF Bernard Gilkey.

Metsmerized Online: Mets One Year Wonders: Marlon Byrd Relaunches His Career

Tim Boyle Rising Apple: Three trades with the Astros that led to a World Series appearance. Mike Hampton, Ray Knight, Jerry Grote.

Amazing Avenue Podcast: Jake Mangum Is Not Ichiro.

Joel Sherman NY Post: MLB batted around Home Run Derby idea in wake of coronavirus. “For now, though, it is all a little too much to pull off for MLB. But officials are brainstorming on not just a variety of ways to play a shortened season, but on events that might have benefits as well.”

AP News: MLB, union discuss playing all games in Arizona.  Putting all 30 teams in the Phoenix area this season and playing in empty ballparks was among the ideas discussed Monday by Major League Baseball and the players’ association.  Arizona’s advantage is 10 spring training ballparks plus the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Chase Field all within about 50 miles. Florida’s spring training ballparks are spread by as much as 220 miles. Chase Field, with artificial turf and a retractable roof, could be the site of daily tripleheaders, Agent Scott Boras said.

ESPN.com: “Players, coaching staffs and other essential personnel would be sequestered at local hotels, where they would live in relative isolation and travel only to and from the stadium, sources said. Federal officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the National Institute of Health have been supportive of a plan that would adhere to strict isolation, promote social distancing and allow MLB to become the first professional sport to return.”

Bill Madden of the NY Daily News had a good take on the Empty Stadium idea the other day. “The players want to play because they want to get paid, so much so they’re willing to play in empty stadiums. But this so-called “Wasserman Plan” being floated by the agent, Casey Wasserman, and the union, in which they would play the season in four Arizona spring training complexes with no fans in attendance is never going to fly with the owners. Unless, of course, the players are willing to play for the minimum wage, which they are not. They want full salaries even though the owners would have no attendance revenue from which to pay them.”

Yahoo Sports: One reason why a quarantined baseball season could be a big win for MLB. There’s another potential win here, and it could be huge for baseball: For a sport that’s been slowly losing its grip on a once-loyal audience, a captive and hungry group of sports fans could be what baseball needs to become America’s Pastime again.

Reflections on Baseball: MLB: An avid fan says cancel the season and move (Safely) on.

SNY.TV: Study reveals why the baseballs behaved differently in 2019 MLB postseason. "Contrary to previous statements (from the league), testing showed that balls provided for 2019 postseason games were a mixture from the 2019 and 2018 regular seasons," Wills wrote. "Why would this be the case? A new theory has emerged - one that comes down not to "de-juicing," but to simple supply and demand." The NY Daily News had more on this story back on March 31.

AP News: Beloved Tigers star, Hall of Famer Al Kaline dies at 85.

MLB.com: 10 top moments from Al Kaline's career.

1968 Topps Baseball cards Blog: The 1968 Tigers. 

ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian looks back on April 6, 1973.  The day they retired Roberto Clemente’s number.

ESPN: Former Colorado Rockies All-Star Todd Helton sentenced to two days in jail following DUI arrest.

NJ.com: Bob Klapisch is back and he interviewed David Cone.

MLB Trade Rumors:

Assessing Brodie Van Wagenen’s Trades.  You can give Brodie a grade from A-F on how he has done.  So far the vote has him with a “C”. 

Revisiting Dave Dombrowski’s Red Sox Trades.  Dave has a “B” grade even after winning a World Series.

A’s Lefty A.J. Puk Making Progress In Recovery From Shoulder Injury.

Flashback: The Spring 2014 Contract Spat Between Max Scherzer & The Tigers.

That Time The Yankees Pursued Craig Kimbrel.

Asian Baseball:

USA Today: As South Korea's top baseball league readies to play, its message may resonate with MLB: 'Put on the mask'.

 

ESPN.com: Can the U.S. return to sports soon? South Korea might offer clues. Exhibition games between KBO teams are scheduled to begin April 21. Following six preseason games, the regular season could begin. Former Reds and Marlins Dan Straily, who signed a one-year contract with the Lotte Giants of the Korean Baseball Organization: "If anybody, anybody -- if the No. 1 starting pitcher to the person cleaning, security, R&D -- anybody gets sick in that time, we postpone two weeks," Straily told ESPN in an interview from Busan, South Korea, a city of 3.5 million where the Giants play. "We've got to make sure that no one else got sick."

Yonhap News: Self-isolation for foreign baseball players to end this week.

Yonhap News: Amid coronavirus pandemic, baseball's start date shouldn't be tied to school opening: expert. When the number of daily cases dropped from triple digits to double figures around mid-March, the KBO said it would try to start the preseason on April 7 and then launch the regular season sometime after April 20. The league settled on April 7, or next Tuesday, because it was the day after schools were scheduled to open, following a month worth of delay.

Yesterday at Mack’s Mets:

Reese Kaplan -- Mets History, Shortstop Edition.

Tom Brennan: Repost: Columbia Fireflies 2019 Recap.

Mack’s Blast From The Past comes from April 7, 2013. Jack Flynn - Intelligence, Hustle and Guts. Jack breaks down the 4-3 win against the Miami Marlins that April 7^th featuring good base running from Ruben Tejada and Kirk Nieuwenhuis, good coaching from Tim Teufel and a clutch hit from Marlon Byrd.

Today in Mets History Per Ultimatemets.com:

Born on this date:

• Joe Hicks (1933)
• Ricky Bones (1969)
• Vinny Rottino (1980)

Transactions:

New York Mets signed free agent Clint Hurdle on April 7, 1983.

New York Mets signed free agent Bob Gibson on April 7, 1987.

Cincinnati Reds claimed Pete Schourek of the New York Mets on waivers on April 7, 1994.

Philadelphia Phillies claimed Nelson Figueroa of the New York Mets on waivers on April 7, 2010.

National Pastime.com:

1970	After eight consecutive Opening Day defeats, the Mets finally win the first game of the season by beating the Pirates at Forbes Field in 11 innings, 5-3. New York becomes the first team to have won a World Series (1969) before prevailing in a season debut. Tom Seaver started, Ron Taylor got the win and Tug McGraw the save.
1984	Dwight Gooden gives up three hits and one run in five innings in his major league debut, earning the victory when the Mets beat Houston, 5-3. The 19 year-old rookie right-hander, anxious to get to the Astrodome before his start, arrives so early before his start that he had to jump a fence to gain entry into the closed ballpark.

1986	Tom Seaver, extending his major league record, makes his 16th Opening Day start when he gets the honor for the second time with the White Sox. The 41 year-old future Hall of Fame right-hander has also pitched the first game of the season for the Mets (11) and Reds (3).
2004	Adam LaRoche collects the first two hits of his career in one inning. En route to an 18-10 win over the Mets, the rookie first baseman singles and doubles during the Braves' thirty-three minute, 11-run fourth inning.

2006	In the 7,000th game played in franchise history, the Mets beat Washington at Shea Stadium,10-5. The Amazins' have compiled a 3,314-3,678 record (.474) along with eight ties during their 42 years of existence.

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