Search
Links
Archive
- November, 2008 (2)
- October, 2008 (3)
- September, 2008 (8)
- August, 2008 (12)
- July, 2008 (14)
- June, 2008 (12)
- May, 2008 (16)
- April, 2008 (12)
- March, 2008 (15)
- February, 2008 (17)
Navigation
User login
Poll
Syndicate
Mets by the Numbers
Since 1999, the Mets website that counts
March, 2007
Renumeration
Sat, 03/31/2007 - 11:40am — mbtn01
Thanks to reader Glenn who below pointed out Ben Shpigel’s entertaining blog post detailing the news that Bazooka Joe Smith will dress in uni No. 35 and Aaron Sele is also changing — to No. 30 36. ) 30
(I was right all along). The comments illustrate some of the politics
of number selections: Rookie Smith is resigned to wear what is offered
him; Sele can not only choose his jersey, but (jokingly) request
re-numeration for that which he leaves behind.
A poor spring sparked not by iffy pitching but by a continuation of the paltry offense the Mets showed last September and October frankly has me more worried than usual about the new year but opening night isn’t a time to fret. Let’s Go Mets!
Your 2007 Mets
Fri, 03/30/2007 - 11:45am — mbtn01On opening night:
- 47 Tom Glavine
- 26 Orlando Hernandez
- 33 John Maine
- 46 Oliver Perez
- 13 Billy Wagner
- 48 Aaron Heilman
- 60 Scott Schoeneweis
- 40 Ambiorix Burgos
- 25 Pedro Feliciano
- 35* Aaron Sele
- 70* Joe Smith
- 16 Paul LoDuca
- 11 Ramon Castro
- 21 Carlos Delgado
- 22 Jose Valentin
- 7 Jose Reyes
- 5 David Wright
- 23 Julio Franco
- 3 Damian Easley
- 17 David Newhan
- 18 Moises Alou
- 15 Carlos Beltran
- 20 Shawn Green
- 44 Lastings Milledge
- 10 Endy Chavez
Staff
- 12 Willie Randolph
- 2 Sandy Alomar
- 51 Rick Peterson
- 52 Howard Johnson
- 53 Jerry Manuel
- 54 Rick Down
- 55 Tom Nieto
- 56 Guy Conti
If things hold, Moises Alou would be the 800th Met and join Schoeneweis, Burgos, Sele, Smith, Easley, and Newhan for the first time on the All-Time Numeric Roster. Howard Johnson joins the ranks of Met coaches for the first time. Jose Valentin will appear for the first time wearing No. 22, while coach Manuel is in a new number, 53.
Sele as of Friday had not given 35 to Smith, who was out there again in No. 70.
Voice of Unreason
Thu, 03/29/2007 - 2:00pm — mbtn01You may have seen the Village Voice this week featuring Jose Reyes on its cover and a provocative “Stealing Mickey’s Mantle” headline. Inside, Allen Barra’s article draws parallels between Reyes and Mantle, noting they shared a city, switch-hitting and stealing ability, a reputation as their era’s most exciting players, and of course, a uniform number (7).
If we going down that path though (and clearly Barra is) I’d sooner associate a pair of 5s in David Wright and Joe DiMaggio. And though he raises some interesting points, Barra ultimately bungles the story by getting the Met psyche all wrong:
If José Reyes is being overrated, it may be in large part because Mets fans want to will him into being the first truly great everyday player in team history.
Roster Shaping Up
Thu, 03/29/2007 - 11:50am — mbtn01The Mets following a rare spring training victory today said Aaron Sele and ‘Bazooka’ Joe Smith would be added to the big-league roster, a development that threw the Metly future of Chan Ho Park 61 into question. As things shake out it’s come down to Park, Ambiorix Burgos 40 and optionless/hapless acquiree Jon Adkins 39 for the seventh and final bullpen slot; The Mets will go with four starters the first few times around before recalling Mike Pelfrey 34 to become the 5th starter. That may prove to reward precocious prospect Lastings Milledge 44 for a strong showing this spring seeing as outfielder Ben Johnson 4 was cut today (along with lesser hopefuls Mike Carp 64, Lino Urdaneta 68, Anderson Hernandez 1, Ruben Gotay 6, Mike DiFelice 30 and Sandy Alomar Jr. 90).
Spring leaders of the Ring-Bell for Adkins-Johnson trade are the Padres, who’ve gotten a 0.90 ERA out of Heath Bell thus far.
Half a Joe
Wed, 03/28/2007 - 12:00pm — mbtn01Ditching the Black
Tue, 03/27/2007 - 3:00am — mbtn01A note in the latest UniWatch column by Paul Lukas suggests inside knowledge that the Mets will dial back the black this season and noted evidence of such exists already in some of the team’s marketing materials (pocket schedules and the mets.com homepage banner; not to mention Subway and bus-mounted advertisements I happened to notice something different about myself). This is certainly a welcome piece of news and portends, we suspect, to a return to more traditional jersey to coincide with the 2009 Citifield opening. For reasons we’re not entirely sure of, baseball authorities require especially early advance notice of plans to change the official uniform so if a change is in the offing we should be able to smell it now.
Speaking of new looks, a “soft” opening for this here new mbtn page was met with yawns from some of its intended audience. Ideally, the finished product would retain the distinct look and feel of the old site, just with additional functionality and ease of use. Work in progress.
MBTN is Dead. Long Live MBTN.
Sun, 03/25/2007 - 3:00am — mbtn01This is the “new” mbtn.net, only, it’s not at that address but at metsbythenumbers.com. This new addy will allow us to stay in touch and up to date while we rebuild the old numbers database and other parts of the site to be more user friendly and engaging. The new logo to the right is the work of Scott Turner and Superba Graphics. His firm did more cool stuff we will reveal in time.
The “old” mbtn.net still works; over the coming months, this platform (or a similar successor) will settle back in at that address, while all the stuff currently at that address will eventually move to this platform. Things will likely be in transition for a time, but there’s no need to change bookmarks is what I’m saying. Oh, but if you rip off photos and other graphics from mbtn, move them to your own host soon because they’re eventually going to be moved.
Bazooka Joe and the 800th Met
Sun, 03/25/2007 - 3:00am — mbtn01Other first-time Mets would appear to be Damion Easley (No. 2), David Newhan (17), Aaron Sele (32), Scott Schoeneweis (60), Chan Ho Park (61) and “Bazooka” Joe Smith, who is, for all we know, still going around in the No. 70 jersey they assign to longshot bullpen wannabees. I made up that “Bazooka” nickname by the way, sort of. Remember Joe Smith, the basketball player? When he was a student at Maryland the school paper held a nickname contest to give him more pizzazz where ‘Bazooka’ was among the choices. I don’t think it ever stuck with that Joe Smith. We can’t let it go this time.
So what number does Bazooka Joe Smith get?
I don’t even have to look it up to tell you this is the first season the Mets began a year with two guys wearing numbers in the 60s.
Doing 90
Sat, 03/03/2007 - 4:00am — mbtn01Thanks to reader effort we’re relatively sure catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. is wearing No. 90 which we also think may be the highest number in camp this spring. Nice job by the Mets to dress longshot catching invitee Jose Reyes in No. 77, which not only recalls his famous namesake but indicates he’s roughly twice his size. In a new number this spring is Steve Schmoll, submarining in the No. 38 jersey belonging most recently to Victor Zambrano. Schmoll last year attended camp wearing 46.
Zambrano, by the way, is non-rostering it with the Blue Jays wearing No. 31. Steve Trachsel of the Orioles is wearing No. 18. And in an arrangement we won’t believe till we see, Cliff Floyd wears No. 15 for the Cubs (And Ted Lilly gets 30. Really, now).
February 2007
Thu, 03/01/2007 - 4:00am — mbtn01Thanks to readers Gene and Matt for pointing it out.
Powered by Drupal