9/22/11

Cutnpaste: Johan Santana, Citifield, Bob Murphy, Dwight Gooden, Paul DePodesa

Johan Santana, who threw a three-inning simulated game on Sunday, is scripted for two games in the instructional league, also in his hometown of Fort Myers, Fla. Santana’s instructional league games are planned for Oct. 1 and Oct. 7.  After that, his itinerary will be reevaluated. - http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/35118/santana-has-2-upcoming-games

So instead of bringing the prices down to bring more people in the park, they'll bring the fences in. Forget the players ... looks like the psychology is being used on us instead. Bring the fences in, bring the people to the ballpark that think the enjoyment of a baseball game is proportionate to the amount of runs scored. Seems we have plenty of those ... well not plenty, but a high percentage. Hey, want to sell offense? Stop signing players who can't hit. Problem solved. Although you could move the fences back to the Holiday Inn and it wouldn't help Mike Pelfrey and the group of criminals who impersonate a bullpen night in and night out. - http://www.metstradamusblog.com/2011-articles/september/mr-alderson-tear-down-that-fence.html

Robert Allen Murphy was born September 19, 1924 in Oklahoma. Bob spent fifty years doing play-by-play of MLB games on television and radio. 41 years of those years were spent with his beloved New York Mets, from their inception in 1962 until his retirement in 2003. Murphy’s first broadcast job was in the minor leagues, with the level D Muskogee, Oklahoma Reds. His first major league job was with the Boston Red Sox in 1954, working with the legendary Curt Gowdy. Murphy stayed in Boston broadcasting the Red Sox for six years, seeing them finish a highest of third place twice. He then moved to the Baltimore Orioles for two seasons 1960-1961. His call of Roger Maris' record-tying 60th HR in 1961 was what he used as an audition tape that landed him a job with the expansion New York Mets in 1962. - http://www.centerfieldmaz.com/2011/09/mets-broadcaster-bob-murphy-1962-2003.html

Dr. K and His Royal Curve -  A movie about the life of Dwight Gooden just feels like something Hollywood would pursue. The film would likely have to take creative liberties with the timeline of Gooden’s career by mashing everything together, but the idea of a phenom rising to the stars only to descend due to very real and very human flaws is a common premise and one that works. There are traces of a comeback story within Gooden’s tale too, and frankly, his return to the major leagues serves as a happier ending than his post-retirement life. —R.J. Anderson - http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=15089

That was (Paul) DePodesta when he took over the Dodgers in February 2004, a 31-year-old prodigy occupying a seat once held by Branch Rickey and Al Campanis. That light made him blink, and he wasn’t the only one. He clearly wasn’t ready for the job, which lasted only two years before he was fired for essentially tearing the place apart. But I clearly wasn’t ready for him, and never really gave him time to implement the baseball sabermetrics that I have since come to accept and understand. “The Dodgers have a new face, and it is dabbed in Clearasil,” I wrote when he was hired. “The Dodgers have a new voice, and it speaks in megabytes.” Yeah, I never really gave him much of a chance, I saw him as some robot enemy brought here to destroy our blue heaven. Watching him in the movie reminded me that he was, instead, nothing more sinister than a numbers cruncher who just couldn’t equate with people. - http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/newsstand/discussion/plaschke_paul_depodesta_is_captured_to_a_t_in_film_moneyball

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