darryl strawberry

The Mets: Opening Day High and Low Lights

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Excited about the 2012 baseball season? Me neither. With one exception, about which you will read below, I have never paid less attention to the start of the season as I have with this one. Regardless of how I/we feel, The Season That Somebody Else’s Favorite Team Wins The World Series is about to begin. … Read more

Adios Jose? Five Free Agents Who Left The Mets

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The Mets are heading towards their first potential major free agent defection since the end of the 2000 season. In fact, throughout the entire 35 years of free agency, only a handful of key players ever left the team for greener pastures. This does not include a plethora of bad trades, bungled roster moves or … Read more

Who was Best – Beltran or Strawberry?

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Loyal MetsToday visitor and commenter “Walnutz15” made me aware of an SNY poll that I had missed from a few nights ago — who was the “best” outfielder in Mets history? An interesting poll, so I figured let’s throw it out to you, the MetsToday visitor. By using some fancy code generously provided by Baseball-Reference.com, … Read more

18 DUPACR: Darryl Strawberry

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You were expecting Jeff McKnight, weren’t you?

I will admit, though, there was a nanosecond where I considered honoring Joel Youngblood for the 18th Day Until Pitchers And Catchers Report. But really, there was never a question, for so many reasons.

It goes back to being a Mets fan in the late 1970s to early 1980s — a dark, ugly time for the franchise (particularly after they traded The Franchise). The team was bad. The future looked bleak. The original owners sold the club to a book publisher and a real estate magnate, but it was hard to see how that was going to help. Despite the incessant commercials produced by the high-priced, well-intentioned ad agency, the “magic” most certainly was NOT back. The situation seemed hopeless — until June 1980, when

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Darryl Strawberry Says Mets Should Have Hired Backman

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As reported on The New York Times: Darryl Strawberry said the Mets should have hired Wally Backman as manager instead of Terry Collins. Mr. Strawberry played with Mr. Backman on the Mets’ 1986 championship team. “Wally will be the next manager of the Mets,” Mr. Strawberry said Tuesday. “I thought he would have been the … Read more

Darryl to Wally: No Comparison

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In an article written last week in The Record, Bob Klapisch suggests that the makeup of the current Mets team would not respond well to the “old school” style of Wally Backman.

Specifically:

Today’s major-leaguers are athletic specimens, not to mention brighter, better educated and more socially enlightened than their predecessors. But that’s not to say they’re tougher or more competitive. Bay and Francoeur are two of the nicest guys around, but they would’ve never survived in the Strawberry-Keith Hernandez-Lenny Dykstra clubhouse 25 years ago.

That’s a point worth remembering when the Mets go hunting for a new manager this winter. Among the many candidates they’ll consider is Wally Backman, who, like Strawberry, is as old school and un-nuanced as they come. While that’s made him a terrific manager at the minor league level, the decidedly un-PC mentality has cost him job after job.

Jeff Wilpon is taking a gamble by installing Backman at Class-A Brooklyn, but it’s worth a shot. Wilpon, in fact, told Backman over the winter that he’ll someday manage the Mets – if he can stay out of trouble.

Backman swears he’s conquered his demons, including alcohol, but it’s his temper that’ll really be the deciding factor. The real question is whether Backman can speak the language of today’s ballplayer: can he motivate the Bays and Francoeurs of the world without trampling on their egos?

There are few problems with this series of paragraphs, and the article in whole.

First of all, the

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Darryl Strawberry to Open Restaurant

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Never mind the hullabaloo stirred up by the Straw Man the other day in the Mets’ clubhouse — Darryl Strawberry has much more interesting news to convey: his own restaurant. According to Grub Street, Darryl Strawberry will be opening a restaurant in Douglaston, Queens called “Strawberry’s Sports Grill”. If you are interested in working for … Read more