Amazin All-Star Monday

It was only a matter of time before six men in the bullpen proved far too radical a challenge for Jerry Manuel’s management skills, and so, two weeks after returning to Class AAA Buffalo, lefthander Raul Valdes was recalled Monday. Interestingly, room for Valdes on the roster was created when the Mets disabled Fernando Tatis with a shoulder injury, raising the question of who Jerry will turn to when the opposition counters pinch hitter Chris Carter with a lefthanded pitcher: It’s quite possible his head will explode and it will be left to Dave Jauss to decide.

My apologies for the lengthy layoff: I had little to report as far as numbers went and I tried to stay out of the way of the Mets when they were playing well. That obviously came to an halt last week in Puerto Rico, where the Mets began exhibiting many of the same traits that made them look like one of the league’s worst teams earlier this year: Pitchers falling apart with two outs and none on, sloppy bullpen work, and questionable managerial tactics seemingly contributing to a team suddenly losing its nerve to win. Let’s hope it’s just a stumble in an imperfect but hardly disappointing first half.

The photo above is a snap of coach Bill Monbouquette’s 1982 jersey as being sold on eBay by MBTN reader and jersey collector Nick, who wrote in recently. Check out his stuff here.

One of the few working writers to cover both Monboquette and Manuel, Marty Noble, will be the featured guest at a special Amazin All-Star Monday coming to Two Boots pizzeria in Grand Central Station next Monday, July 12, at 7 pm. Don’t miss this! Marty is a terrific writer, a great interview and a 35-year chronicler of Metsdom. Also on the program will be Howard Megdal, author of The Baseball Talmud and candidate for the next Mets’ General ManagerFaith & Fear in Flushing’s resplendent penman, Greg Prince, will co-host with yours truly. Two Boots, located in the lower dining concourse at Grand Central Station, will offer a special All-Star inspired pizza and a free drink for all fans in exchange for a Mets baseball card. The Home Run Derby will provide televised entertainment.

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One comment

  1. Jon Springer says:

    Submitted by gored82 on Tue, 07/06/2010 – 9:32am.
    I checked out Nick on eBay, and he has some cool stuff. The funny thing is, he lists a Joe Carter Indians jacket with a description of Rob Wilfong’s Twins pants, LOL…

    Joe Carter jacket on ebay

    Submitted by Nick (not verified) on Tue, 07/06/2010 – 1:35pm.
    Another ebayer pointed out that item to me. This is ridiculous…and the 4th time this happened over the past weekend (I caught the other 3 occurrences!).

    I write my listings by copying a past one and editing from there. I suppose I used the Wilfong pants listing to do this. For whatever reason, after about a 1/2 hour long detailed description which included a historical account on Joe Carter’s career, I submitted the listing and everything was in tact… lo and behold, everything I wrote, all photos (except for the margin photo) was eliminated and reverted back to before I edited.

    I have since stopped the Carter jacket listing, and will re-do it from scratch. Expect it to be back later tonight or tomorrow.

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