One good thing (and maybe the ONLY good thing) about the Mets playing at 8PM on ESPN is you get to enjoy the great outdoors while waiting for Willie Guys to hit the field. I played a very spirited game of Wiffle Ball this afternoon against my son, a game I won 8-7 and in the game I hit a ball out of our driveway (135 ft) for a home run. I then circled the bases a la Willie Montanez with little stutter steps at each base. My son then asked me “What was that� I explained the legend of Willie Mon-TAN-ez (as Lindsey Nelson would call him) and he seemed fascinated. I grabbed my bat and got back in the batters box to resume our game and the next pitch from my male heir was right at my head. My son just laughed and his soon to be AARP member old man nearly fell on his arse and said “If your Willie Mon-TAN-ez, then I’m Don Drysdale†I’m glad to see he pays attention to my baseball history lessons.
What a difference a week makes eh? Last week at this time the Willie Watch was in full swing and today we are marveling over the rejuvenated Fernando Tatis and the scaling down of Carlos Delgado‘ playing time. Delgado is being a good solider here but you know between the benching this week and twice taken out for a pinch runner late in a game has him seething as the newly fortified Willie Randolph makes a statement.
Gimp Castillo seeing that old guys will be kicked to the curb if they can’t contribute looks to be fighting through hip discomfort and wants to play tonight. Fernando Tatis has played 90 % of his career at third base so I wonder if that plays into Gimp’s thinking that Tatis could play at least an adequate 2nd base. Hopefully the quad injury won’t affect Gimp’s range ( HA! HA! HA!)
So far things look like they are turning around for our boys in blue and orange but a couple of areas have to tighten up before I’m ready to say “we’re backâ€. First, the infield defense has to get better. It’s bad enough that Gimp and Delgado have the range of an elderly shuffleboard player but D-Wright and Jose Reyes needed to make some plays as well, especially Jose-Jose-Jose. Yes his bat is back but it’s the glove that needs some fine tuning.
A couple of nice come from behind wins this week but the offense still leave way to many ducks on the pond as Willie like to say. Maybe with Medicare Moises coming back next week (can we skip the ridiculous trip to St. Lonesome to face pimple faced pitchers and just let the 75 year old get back in the line up as he can still rake no matter how long he’s been out) and the born again Tatis , clutch hitting should get better.
First time we have seen Big Pelf meet a challenge in the big leagues as he looks to have saved a job with the Mets with yesterdays performance. Pelf said he took a bit off his fastball and it help him with his command. I have kids who are eleven that I try to get the message across to as most over throw the ball just take a little off and your command increases. Sometimes players just over think things. Now the Mets have a decision to make between Claudio Vargas, Carlos Muniz (whose stock has risen in Randolph’s eyes), Big Pelf and Aaron Heilman as who gets the short straw when Petey is activated Tuesday in SF. Of the four Heilman is the least effective but he’s a Willie Guy. Muniz has pitched well enough to be a better choice in a tight spot over Heilman. Vargas has done what a fifth starter is supposed to do, keep his team in games and Pelf is a major Mets investment. So what do you do? As much as I’d love to send Heilman down, I’d move Muniz back to NOLA and put Vargas in the pen, for the simple reason that is I have expose Vargas to waivers he will be claimed. Now my pen is Vargas as long man, Schoenweies, Heilman for middle innings then Feliciano, Muniz as lefty/righty Joe Smith for the seventh Dirty Duaner to set up Billy Wags for the save. That’s a pretty-pretty-pretty good bullpen even with a struggling Heilman in my opinion.
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This post was written by kranepool on June 1, 2008
thanks for the memory job about Montanez, i forgot all about the shuffle. He hit the longest homer I’ve even seen live – skied the ball between the scoreboard and the RF stands and over the back of the Mets bullpen into the parking lot.
Mammoth shot!
Is there no rumor of Pelf to the pen? I think he would be GREAT there as a 7th 8th inning guy, maybe even closer at some point- One excellent pitch, mediocre off speed stuff-they only see him once-That solves two probs- PEDRO takes Pelfs spot in the rotation, Pelf adds depth to the pen
Willie Montanez. Great one. I remember working on copying his glove flip on pop-ups until one day I dropped one and the coach let me have it. He was actually a pretty good fielder. In fact, I remember arguing with my brother – a Cardinals fan – that Montanez was better than Hernandez in the days before Keith came to NY.
Didn’t he used to twirl his bat a lot at home plate too or am I misremembering? I remember that as a kid when I played stickball I’d bat the Mets line-up, where I’d try to imitate whichever Met was up. Of course I had to switch hit and I have this memory that Montanez took the most effort to duplicate.
Eagle, Yes Willie M did twirl the bat kind of like it was a baton. I used to do the same thing imitating batting stances, Tommie Agee used to lift the bat to his shoulder like it was two tons, Rusty Staub was very up right in his stance. Felix Milan would choke up half way up the bat and crouch John “The Hammer” Milner had a wide stance and would swing the bat back and forth at his knees.
All this I can remember but when I go to the supermarket I stand in the aisle like an idiot not remembering what I’m supposed to get.
Willie M used to always WALK to first when he got a walk. He would stop half way and adjust his helmet, too. Remember how he used to twirl his foot off the bag after catching the throw from and infielder? In the late 70′s, he was about the only entertainment on the field!
Kranepool,
Ever kid loved imitating Felix Milan, didn’t they? I can remember my friend nearly gutting himself with a stick ball bat handle when he choked up too far on ‘the bat’ while imitating Milan.
Rusty used to choke up a bit too. Was that only with two strikes? Bud Harrelson also choked up. Does any player choke up these days?
Rich,
Despite my hairstyle, I used to try to get my cap to fall off my head when pitching. I think that was Nino Espinoza. Maybe?
I also used to do a good impersonation of Steve Henderson on Kiners Korner.
I also used to practice spitting like the various Mets. Not something my mother was too keen on, obviously.
All this I can remember but when I go to the supermarket I stand in the aisle like an idiot not remembering what I’m supposed to get.
That’s because these things are important while remembering whether it was milk or bread you’re supposed to be getting is trivia.
Eagle, I think it was John Pacella whose hat alwas fell off. Your right about Le Grand Orange as he choked up about a quarter inch on the bat and Buddy had a bat with a stickball bat handle and he choked up as well.
John Pacella
Would not have remembered him, but yeah his cap flew off regularly. And his hair was more ‘copy-able’ for me than was Espinoza’s.
This is a lot more fun than dwelling on Oliver Perez.