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MATTS-MATICS: NY Jets vs NY Rangers |
BRAVE Fan Talks REDSKINS
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SABRES, PENS, SHOTGUNS & METS |
BILL BUCKNER WAS INNOCENT |
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Spring Break Training PART I |
Spring Break Training PART II |
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Rex O'Rourke
Posts:194
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| 05-04-2008 - SelecA - |
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NIAGARA FALLS, NY - Have war, the price of gas, inflation, global warming, genocide and just the general feeling that the world used to be a better place gotten you down? Well folks, there’s a place you can turn; a place where the grass is green, the sky is blue, and diamonds are forever. That place is baseball! No, this isn’t the baseball of high salaries, steroids, agents, and nine dollar beers. This is the baseball that can’t be taken away from us. This is the pure joy of the nuances of the game. This is the beacon that will save us on turbulent seas and during hard times. I don’t want to get all James Earl Jones on ya… well I guess I do. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what I love about our national pastime. I love a runner who leads off first, gets chased back, then takes a bigger lead. I love the seventh inning stretch. I love a good argument (Earl Weaver turning his hat backwards to get closer to the ump, Billy Martin kicking dirt, Lou Piniella throwing bases) and I actually think it can fire a team up. I love the first baseman getting the warm up ball tossed to him when he arrives in the dugout. I love unusual double plays like the 1-2-3, the 3-6-1, or the 9-3-6-4-5-1. I love any play where hustle is rewarded like the triple, the infield single, or the bloop double. I love the bleachers at Wrigley and I think all true fans should make the pilgrimage once in their lives. I love how grounds crews cut the grass into patterns; I have an idea how they do it, but I’d rather it remain a mystery. I love taking the subway to the game. I love trying to explain the infield fly rule to my wife. I love kids who bring their gloves to the game. I love third base coaches who belly flop to show the runner they need to slide. I love outfielders who run into walls. I love eye black but only the real stuff, not the patches. I love a well executed slide. I love a little chin music. I love bad seats; true fans sit in bad seats. I love road grays. I love when the first batter of the game completely destroys the lines of the freshly chalked batter’s box. I love summer. I love guys who take one for the team. I love when the ball boy/girl makes a good play. I love hot dogs with mustard (ketchup is intended for burgers not dogs) and Cracker Jack. I absolutely LOVE cold beer, cheap beer, imports, microbrews, you name it; I especially love beer YOU buy! I love Bob Murphy, Phil Rizzuto, and Harry Carey and wish they were still with us. I love when one runner tags up and one goes half way. I love the hit and run. I love the Latino bars with the salsa/meringue jukeboxes just off the beaten path outside Yankee Stadium. I love catchers who block the plate. I love baseball clichés, especially “Speed Never Goes into a Slump”. I love outfielders calling off infielders. I love that, with the exception of an occasional blown call, umpires generally get it right. I love when the pitcher backs up home. I love when the pitching coach walks to the mound with his hand in his back pocket. I love a bare handed grab. I love when a player gets no help from the opposing bench on a foul pop. I love all the crap in the on deck circle. I love a one run playoff nail biter. I love good relief pitching. I love Yogi Berra and can’t understand how someone couldn’t. I love the stalling tactics to get the bullpen ready. I love when the catcher waits to toss his mask on a foul pop until he’s sure where the ball is going; he gets style points if the mask hits the ump! I love that a lefty reliever with one good pitch can play until he’s 614 years old. I love a good outfield arm. I love colorful, non-profane, clever, well informed heckling. I love that on any given day you can go to the yard and see a perfect game, no-hitter, cycle, 4 homer game, or triple play; it’s a slim chance but a chance nonetheless.
Now here’s the rub. If your local nine doesn’t love the things on this list, chances are they’re losing more than winning and probably aren’t contenders. So please ask yourself, based on the Rex O’Rourke Love of Baseball Guidelines, “Is my squad a contender or a pretender?”
Baseball is a drug, I’m addicted and I admit it! Do You?
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Mke Dernan
Posts:93
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| 05-04-2008 - SelecA - |
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| Rex, you erased any doubts about your passion for baseball - astronauts aside. The problem is that most teams take games/weeks off these days. Most of them get pieces of the above only and only when they feel like it. Thats why Lou and Bobby Cox are important. They are throwbacks. |
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Vinny From Brooklyn
Posts:132
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| 05-04-2008 - SelecA - |
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| Got to agree with Mke Dernan (is that a typo?) about managers. They are all vanilla now. Faceless and nameless. Name the managers of the Blue Jays, Indians, Reds, Padres, Rays, Marlins, Mariners, A's... They are all the same guy. |
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TheMatts
Posts:1598
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| 05-04-2008 - SelecA - |
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| Rex! You had us at "hello!" You had us at "hello!!!" Okay, you didn't say "hello" but tu comprends, oui?! After reading your eloquent ode, we have a crush on baseball all over again... We can just see Rube Walker strolling to the mound, hands in pockets, tummy out. We can hear him asking Seaver how he feels, nodding, patting Tom's fanny and strolling back to the dugout, hands again in pockets, tummy always out. GADS! We're addicted, too! That said, has anyone seen Patti Lupone and Pete Rose in the same place, lately??? We haven't and think we have a new investigative story brewing... |
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Sam's-a-fan
Posts:930
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| 05-04-2008 - SelecA - |
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| I'd love to buy Rex a beer or two! |
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david
Posts:434
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| 05-04-2008 - SelecA - |
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| wow, what didn't rex cover? this was a welcome post that makes me feel better after watching the mets battle the best pitcher in baseball yesterday only to watch the bullpen take us out of it in the 8th. |
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ActiveForums 3.6
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How Philly Won |
One Of Our First
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ROY HOBBS ON STEROIDS??? |
MEAGHAN & JAKE: COOLEST FANS |
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Nobody Remembers The Loser |
Giant/Super Tuesday |
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MATTS-MATICS: Hockey Nuts Go At It |
See us on: "Law & Order" |
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MATT FACTS:
Chad Pennington is NOT a Brett Favre fan... Hillary Clinton and Don Nelson have never been seen in the same place... Jerry Manuel is not related to Charlie ManuelJerry Manuel is not related to Charlie Manuel... Somebody namd Michel coaches the Pittsburgh Penguins... Tiki Barber quit the Giants. The Giants then won the Super Bowl... The New England Patriots only lost ONE game out of 19!!! Aaron Heilman was actually funny in re to Eli and Plaxico Burress helping the Mets as a pitcher and outfielder, respectively. Repeat, Heilman was funny... Jessica Simpson would rather date Tom Brady - trust us... Eli Manning is better than Archie - now... Alyssa Milano is a Met fan. RRRRR... Rickey Henderson speaks in the 3rd Person... Shawn Green has big ears... Howard Johnson likes to stay at the Holiday Inn, ironically... Sandy Alomar, Sr. is the youngest of 9 kids. That's why he was quick around the dish. Jiminy Cricket was the Philly Phanatic in a previous life…Fred Wilpon is pals with Sandy Koufax... Mike Ditka is a really tough guy.. Buffalo has a Triple A baseball team. They are NOT called The Snowballs... Chan Ho Park has people thinking of naming a ballfield after him - it would be called Chan Ho Park Park... John Maine has never been, oddly enough, to Maine... Curt Gowdy, Jr. has never been to Yellow Knife, Canada... Kevin Mitchell played 6 positions for the Mets in '86 and, according to Doc Gooden's book, didn't like cats... John Olerud & Wayne Gretzky have never been seen in the same place... Kevin McReynolds now makes his living doing laugh tracks for sit-coms... Tony Gwynn is nearing 300 lbs... Carlos Beltran has Mercedes Benz dealerships named for him in Barcelona, Spain... Willie Montanez was called Guillermo by Lenny Randle... Rusty Staub beat Jeff Kent in a race – TODAY... Jay Horwitz is a dynamite Cricket players – somebody said... Jeff Wilpon was a decent minor league catcher... Ziggy Palfy lives in Slovakia and is a big Met fan... Superman Returns, yet still can’t hit Billy Wagner... David Wright will win the Triple Crown – on a horse... Omar Minaya is Tobey McGuire’s stunt-double in Spider Man 3... Hilary Clinton has Mr. Met pajamas – we think... Albert Einstein was a HUGE Met fan... The Metropolitan Opera House was named for the Mets after their 2nd season in ’63... Wally Backman, ’86 sparkplug, considered changing his name to Wally Back-Matt... Neil Allen and Mike Stanton, former Mets, have Allen & Stanton Streets on Lower East Side named for them.
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