Miscellaneous, All Having To Do With Baseball

-Kudos to Dave, Mets Guy In Michigan, for being prompt is sending the pictured DVD set of the "essential" games in Shea stadium history. As I was away housesitting the week of the delivery (and even after) I wasn't able to get to them as quickly. They were, however, worth the wait.

For the uninitiated, those are:

Tom Seaver's Ten-inning victory over the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles gave the Miracle Mets a 3-1 advantage they wouldn't let slip as the brought New York it's first non-Yankee Series since the Bums finally won it all in '55.

Game 3 of the '86 NLCS, where Dykstra's walk-off gave a Mets a come from behind victory. Considering the collection of circumstances that postseason, with Mike Scott sandpaper split-finger awaiting for Game 7, the Mets may well have a dodged a bullet by winning the series in game six, a 16 inning marathon that, unfortunately, was in the Astrodome and not available for this set.

Game 6. I don't think any further commentary is needed. I forced my sis-in-law to watch the last half-inning as a means of demonstrating what we mean when we say it isn't over until it's over.

Game 5 of the NLCS vs. Atlanta. Though famous for the "grand slam single" that ended the game, it shouldn't be forgotten that this was a hell of a pitchers' duel, going fifteen innings and using as many arms in the process. This game was an important point in my history as a baseball fan as it was around this time I stopped blaming Mookie Wilson (and all things Met) for ruining my childhood. Really, the Braves and the Yankees in the Series? The only thing to root for was injuries. Lots of them.

September 21st, 2001. First game in New York after the 9/11 attacks.

May 19th, 2006: Push and pull interleague game against the other team from New York. David Wright's walk-off single against Rivera gives the game to the team from Queens, unknotting the 6-6 tie.

Some Mets, and baseball, fans may rightfully complain about the lack of games from the '73 "You Gotta Believe!" Mets or from Doc Goodin's truly amazing '85 season. But, that's what second volumes are all about. This collection does offer some terrific games from Flushing's finest. If that's what you want, you'll get it. Guaranteed.

-Let's give the devil his due.

Curt Schilling's career may be kaput, and while I'm not too worried about the Sox rotation with Lester coming along nicely and Materson showing himself to be a more than capable spot starter, it is for sad and fitting that his last game was in a World Series. Let's look at his postseason numbers:

133.1 IP 120 K 25 BB 2.23 ERA 0.978 WHIP 11 W 2 L

The phrase is money, and that's what he was during the postseason.

He called into Gambo & Ashe, the Valley's afternoon sports guys, on Monday and, when asked if he was a Hall of Famer, replied "No." Insisting that he played with Hall of Famers, like Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, and Jeff Bagwell in Houston, and that he wasn't one of them.

All due respect to Schilling, Jayson Stark, the aforementioned devil, whose book I was none too pleased with (see previous post) offered a wonderfully succient assesment of Schilling's career, hitting both the cons (only 216 wins) and pros.

Here's a link: http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/chatESPN?event_id=21220

Were his whole book like this, I'd endorse it almost as much as I do the Shea DVDs.

-Entertainment Weekly released a list of the 100 "Classic" movies from the last twenty-five years or so. The entire list isn't worth picking over, but there were two omissions I was shocked by. The first is Richard Linklater's Slacker, which pretty much jumpstarted the DIY indie film movement of the early/mid 90s. The second is truly shocking: Bull Durham. The best baseball, maybe even sports, movie ever isn't on the list? I can understand not including Major League or maybe Field Of Dreams, but no Bull Durham? That's like listing 100 classic albums and leaving off Raising Hell or Back In Black because some people don't like rap or heavy metal.