Just great to see former Met Edgardo Alfonzo rescued from the indignities of independent league ball and given another shot by the Mets at AAA Norfolk, isn’t it? While a minor league contract for the (alleged) 32-year-old infielder, released by two other organizations already this year, may not amount to much, we can’t help but get ahead of ourselves and recall the warm fuzzies of Lee Mazzilli’sheartwarming return to the organization he gave the best years of his life to, and just in time for the postseason he might have deserved but never smelled. While Fonzie knows from playoffs, his departure from New York after the 2002 season never sat well with good fans like us, even if we’ll admit under torture that it might have come at the right moment considering the direction his career — and the Met fortunes — would go since then. But as a right-handed bat on the bench? We’ll sign up for that, if and when the need arises.
And let’s suppose it does. Would Billy Wagner surrender No. 13? Or is he the jerk his former teammates say he is? Ironically, the Mets faced a similar quandary when Mazzilli returned 20 years ago: His familiar No. 16 at that point of course belonged to Dwight Gooden, so he foretold the future glories of Edgardo Alfonzo and suited up in 13. Wagner of course is no Doc.
Saturday’s disaster in Chicago resulted in a quick demotion for hard-throwing reliever Henry Owens 36. Taking his place in the bullpen is Heath Bell 19, recalled from Norfolk for the third time this season.
Many thanks to Bob F for the scorecard scan (pictured at right) confirming Dan Frisella wearing No. 29 during his brief stay with the 1969 Mets. A few minor errors have in the meantime been corrected on the roster page: Sherman “Roadblock” Jones’ one appearance inNo. 28; Kevin Michell’s few weeks as No. 35, to name a few — thanks as always, Jason.
The sad Met saga of Kaz Matsui has come to an end. The Mets traded the dislocated second baseman, along with a sack of cash, yesterday to the Colorado Rockies for veteran utilityman Eli Marerro, thus ending one of the more regrettable and confounding stories in recent Met history. Acquired with great fanfare in the 2003-04 offseason, Kaz was presented with the No. 25 jersey and proclaimed “I love New York,” but the city — and his team — didn’t much love him back. An incredibly poor decision in ’04 to use him at shortstop did no favors for him, the Mets or displaced teammate Jose Reyes, and managed to turn the fans, particularly the mook contingent at Shea, against him. Since then he seemed to have frustrated his manager with frequent injuries and subpar hitting, and thoughout appeared unable to overcome a massive cultural and communication gap, yet remained respectful and sportsmanlike until the end and that — along with his opening-day homers — is something we’ll always admire about him. And while we take no pleasure in seeing him go, his most recent struggles, and Jose Valentin’s emphatic claiming of the second base duties, left him a man without a second country and called out for the kind of versatile backupityness that Marerro can provide. Though the Rockies have relagated Kaz to their AAA team in Colorado Springs, we hope he kicks all kinds of butt down there and salvages what he can of a stay in the states more difficult than anyone might have imagined.
