The Metsian Podcast: Baseball is Back Spring Training Special

From the desk: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

@THE_SamMaxwell     @MetFanRich     BTB_MikeII

Then on the 99th day of MLB's lockout, the collective bargaining powers that be said, "let there be baseball."  The fans said this was good, and Spring Training is finally underway.  Alas, we can focus solely on the Metropolitan Baseball Club of Flushing.  Please join Sam, Rich, and me as The Metsian Podcast gets back to the business of blue and orange-tinted banter.

#LGM

THE METSIAN PODCAST: No Spring Training For You

From the desk: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

@THE_SamMaxwell    @MetFanRich    BTB_MikeII

Baseball has more problems than a math book and appears nowhere close to solving their respective issues.  Sam, Rich, and I try and make sense of it all.  Give a listen, and Let's Go Mets!

seventy-nine minutes

DAY 97 

Mets News and Links 

w/ JOHN FROM ALBANY

Our Thanksgiving Metsian Podcast with Queens Native and Voice Actor Matthew Streppone

From the desk: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

GUEST
Queen Native ~ Mets Fan

VOICE ACTOR

MATTHEW STREPPONE

Steve Cohen ~ Money ~ Farm ~ Billy Eppler

Noah Syndergaard ~ Steven Matz ~ Aaron Loup ~ Jon Matlack

CBA ~ Japanese Baseball ~ Gil Hodges HOF

and so much more!

#LFGM

The Metsian Podcast's Winter Meeting With Amazin' But True Podcast Host Jake Brown and QBC's Keith Blacknick

From the desk: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

Break Time is Over ... The Metsian Podcast is Back on the Air

GUESTS

New York Post Sports Exec Producer 

Host of Amazin' But True Podcast

JAKE BROWN

&

Queens Baseball Convention's

TheMediaGoon, aka Keith Blacknick

ninety-two minutes

TOPICS

Steve Cohen ~ Sandy Alderson ~ Front Office

Free Agents ~ MLB vs. UNION ~ Pitching

Prospects ~ Robinson Cano ~ Field Manager

Upcoming QBC  ~ and so much more!

#LGM

The Metsian Podcast: The Dog Days Of June(?) with the Kranepool Society, Stephen Keane

From the desk: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

38-31 (.551), First Place

It's officially summertime!  Independence Day is ten days away, and the Mets, against all odds, still hold a four-game division lead over the Washington Nationals.  While it can be said the Mets are still feeding off their seven-game and five-game winning streaks back in May, they've nonetheless scratched and clawed to stay above par in June.  But how much longer can this last?  Joining The Metsian Podcast to help answer that question (and talk some 1979 Mets) is the one and only governor of the Kranepool Society ...

Stephen Keane

seventy-four minutes

 

100 YEARS AGO AT THE POLO GROUNDS 5/9/1921: Benny Kauff's Jury Selection; Miller Huggins Contemplates Shifting Hefty Ruth to First

From the desk: WHEN THE POLO GROUNDS WAS THE WORLD

100 Years Ago Today at the Polo Grounds: 

New York Giants & New York Yankees 

1921 Seasons Revisited

In their last season at Hilltop Park, the now formerly known New York Highlanders lost 102 games.  Rebranded as the Yankees, in 1913, they moved just a few blocks away into the Polo Grounds as tenants of the Senior Circuit's New York Giants.  To the chagrin of Giants manager John McGraw, the Americans proceeded to lose another 94 games.  

Known to hold a grudge, McGraw, two full decades later, still harbored much animosity not only towards Ban Johnson and his rebel circuit (unkept promises included) but more so towards the Yankees themselves who were founded at the expense of his rendered defunct Baltimore Orioles.  

For as long as the Yankees paid their rent, the tenant/landlord relationship with the Giants remained amicably strained.  Mainly because the middling Americans, except for one season in 1916, never elevated themselves above the ranks of Junior Circuit also-rans.  But that changed in 1919 when they briefly vied for the pennant but tuckered out down the stretch to finish third.  A franchise-record 619,164 fans showed up to root for the American League contenders.  However, the Yankees' burgeoning success was not yet a pressing issue, per se, for the Giants, who were coming off a second-place finish and their best season in a decade at the turnstile.

Then, in 1920, baseball's tectonic plates along the New York/New England fault shift.  The Yankees' purchase of George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox sends seismic waves reverberating throughout the baseball world but none more intense than in Washington Heights.  Ruth's earth-shattering record of 54 home runs was something never experienced before in the history of baseball but an accomplishment for which John McGraw has little appreciation as one who believes players work too hard and earnestly only to have their skills disrespected by some miscreant's lone swing of the bat.

Gotham's citizenry never before descended from Coogan's Bluff in such quantity and spectacle than in 1920 as the Giants would set a franchise record with 929,609 reported attendance.  However, the New York Nationals faced an economic dilemma of Ruthian proportions.  McGraw's disdain for his tenants was further heightened when the Yankees outdrew the host Giants in their own home for the first time in each franchise's history.  Headlined by Babe Ruth, the Yankees seized the city's attention, evidenced by an all-time major league record of 1,289,422 in attendance.

In 1921, over two million fans would again pack the Polo Grounds.  Babe Ruth would continue accomplishing the unimaginable, and if that wasn't surreal enough, he proceeds to top it.  All the while, with each passing day, John McGraw grows more incensed.  Lest we forget, New York City is still Little Napoleon's empire.  

Sharing a ballpark for both teams is becoming an insufferable condition—the Giants attempt to evict the Yankees in 1921 to no avail.  But a solution lies not too far away ...  

Until then, two major league titans charge headlong into a season-ending October clash at the Polo Grounds.  It is New York City's first-ever World's Championship Subway Series.  All games are played at the Polo Grounds, making Coogan's Bluff the center of the baseball universe. 

This is my replay of that season.  I'll be exercising my creative license whenever and wherever ever possible.  More than anything, this is about having fun and celebrating New York City's baseball history.  

• Stats: BASEBALL REFERENCE

Enjoy the games ... PLAY BALL!

New York Herald, May 10, 1921

OFF DAY: Monday, May 9, 1921

Next Game

Tuesday

St. Louis Cardinals @ NEW YORK GIANTS

POLO GROUNDS

MAY

• 5/1/1921 - Fred Toney Turns Away Braves; Babe Ruth's Return to Boston Not So Grand

• 5/2/1921 - Giants Take Third Straight From Braves; Red Sox Defeat Carl Mays at Fenway Park

• 5/3/1921 - Giants Complete Sweep of Braves; Yankees Whitewash Red Sox at Fenway

• 5/4/1921 - Giants Defeat Brooklyn in Series Opener; Yankees Postponed at Washington

• 5/5/1921 - Benny Kauff's Day In Court; Babe Ruth and Miller Huggins Struggle to Get Along

• 5/6/1921 - Mother Nature Freezes Out Giants; Babe Ruth and Carl Mays Overwhelm Senators

• 5/7/1921 - Fred Toney Hurls Giants Over Robins; Babe Ruth Gets Better of Walter Johnson

• 5/8/1921 - Yankees Bow the Athletics in Extras; Giants Fall at Ebbets Field

New York Herald

APRIL

• 4/30/1921 - High Pockets Kelly Slam Sinks Braves; Yanks Postponed Again at Boston

• 4/29/1921 - More Rain Cancels Games at New York and Boston

• 4/28/1921 - Yankees Salvage Finale From Senators; Giants Swept at Ebbets Field

• 4/27/1921 - Washington Takes Fourth Straight From Yankees; Giants Drop Third Straight at Ebbets

• 4/26/1921 - Miller Huggins Decisions Under Scrutiny Following Loss To Senators; Southpaw Sherry Smith Confounds Giants at Ebbets

• 4/25/1921 - Walter Johnson Defeats Yankees at Polo Grounds; Giants Bow To Robins In Brooklyn

• 4/24/1921 - Phil Douglas Hurls Gem In Front of Packed House; Yankees Bow at Washington

• 4/23/1921 - Rain Cancels Games Along East Coast

• 4/22/1921 - Giants Win First Game at Home; Yankees Knocked Out of the Box at Shibe

• 4/21/1921 - Giants Drop Polo Grounds Opener to Phillies; Yankees Open Road Trip With Win Over A's

• 4/20/1921 - Babe Ruth, Bob Meusel Power Yanks Past Red Sox; Brave Receive Similar Treatment From Visiting Giants

• 4/19/1921 - Giants Squeeze In a Victory at Boston; Yankees Endure Second Straight Rainout

• 4/17/1921 - Yankees Blank Visiting Red Sox

• 4/16/1921 - Babe Ruth Hits First Home Run; Giants Fall at Philadelphia

• 4/14/1921 - Yankees Tripped Up By Athletics; Giants Win Second Straight at Philadelphia

• 4/13/1921 - Yankees Trounce Athletics in Home Opener; Giants Outlast Phils in Extras

New York Herald

Major League Baseball claims baseballs are being manufactured no differently

than in years past.  Rather they point to out-of-shape pitchers throughout the leagues.

OFF DAY: Monday, May 9, 1921

NEXT GAME

Tuesday

New York Yankees @ DETROIT TIGERS

Navin Field

The ongoing saga between Babe Ruth and Miller Huggins continues.  The Yankees skipper now says Ruth's weight compromises his play in left field and is contemplating shifting the slugger to first base.  Huggins claims the unruly slugger is not only retrieving the ball in a gingerly manner but that Ruth's growing waistline is also hindering his ability to bend and field balls off the ground.

The Times, Shreveport, Louisiana

Bedford & Sullivan Podcast Special: Negro Leagues Historian and Founder of The Donaldson Network, Peter Gorton

From the desk: A SAM MAXWELL PRODUCTION

Bedford & Sullivan Podcast meets Brooklyn Trolley Blogger

GUEST

Founder

The Donaldson Network

Negro Leagues Historian

Peter Gorton

seventy-five minutes

Bedford and Sullivan Podcast is pleased to welcome Negro Leagues historian and founder of The Donaldson Network, Peter Gorton.  Based in Minnesota, Peter leads a group of historians dedicated to discovering the lost legacy of John Wesley Donaldson.  Hosted by yours truly, Saturday's episode will discuss the man, baseball career, and life of one of the more incredible and inspiring athletes to ever play the game, and how his amazing legacy became lost to a nation, most particularly to baseball's Hall of Fame.  Please join me and featured guest Peter Gorton for this and more.

Bedford & Sullivan Podcast: On Jackie Robinson, Negro Leagues Baseball, and Black History Month

From the desk: DEM BARNSTORMERS

BEDFORD & SULLIVAN 

PODCAST

a Sam Maxwell Production

On Jackie Robinson, Negro Leagues Baseball, & Black History Month

⚾

GUEST PANEL

Author and Journalist David Krell

Negro League Historian, Speaker, Author Phil S. Dixon

Forbes Contributor, Baseball Historian, Interviewer Nick Diunte

Video Director and Producer hailing from Crown Heights, Phil Maillard

TheBrooklynTrolleyBlogger and host Sam Maxwell

120 minutes

This was simply one of the best broadcast that I have participated on in sometime. Lots of wisdom was given. https://t.co/vnzkZbjTE9

— Phil S. Dixon (@NegroLeagueMan) February 26, 2021

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 

AND THE GREAT AMERICAN NARRATIVE

A Metsian Podcast Featuring Baseball Author Erik Sherman

From the desk: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

With SAM, RICH & MIKE

GUEST

BASEBALL AUTHOR

ERIK SHERMAN

eighty-six minutes

#LGM

Bedford & Sullivan Podcast: For The Record with Negro Leagues Historian Phil Dixon

From the desk: A SAM MAXWELL PRODUCTION

Brooklyn Trolley Blogger Meets Negro League Man

Sam Maxwell handed me the keys to the podcast.  I again had the privilege of speaking with 

Negro Leagues historian, author, public speaker, and Kansas City native

Phil S. Dixon 

DISCUSSION: The office of MLB officially recognizes Negro Leagues as Major League, and will incorporate player stats spanning 1920 through 1948 into the baseball record.  But what does that really mean?  We end with a brief history of the Cuban X Giants.

⚾

ICYMI: My Brooklyn Trolley Blogger's 100th-anniversary celebration of the original Negro National League founded by Rube Foster; naturally, I focused on the New York City scene, but with particular attention paid to Negro Leagues games played at Ebbets Field.

• Baseball's Last Games at Ebbets Field: Roy Campanella's Brooklyn Stars
• Negro Leagues Baseball at Ebbets Field: The Brooklyn Brown Dodgers
• A Team Grows in Harlem: The New York Lincoln Giants
• The Bacharach Giants, Ebbets Field, and the Great Clash of 1920
• On Monti Irvin: A New Jersey Titan and New York Giant
• Straight Talk With William "Judy" Johnson
• Pulling "Double Duty" at Ebbets Field: Ted Radcliffe
• Brooklyn To Newark, Part I: Negro National League Eagles Take Flight
• Brooklyn To Newark, Part II: Where Eagles Dare
• Dem Barnstormers: The Brooklyn Royal Giants

N.Y. Yankees Throw Affiliates a Screwball

From the desk of: EVIL EMPIRE STRIKES AGAIN

BRONX BOMBERS ABANDON BABY BOMBERS

Over the last year, we've watched Rob "Simon Bar Sinister" Manfred and MLB owners radically alter the landscape of minor and independent league baseball.  Major League clubs are pairing down their farm operations to four affiliates each.  Over forty teams are presently either ostracised or face elimination, with even more teams and leagues slated for reclassification.  The (rookie) Appalachian League has already been reorganized into a wood-bat summer league for college freshman and sophomore players while the New York-Penn League and other short-A season leagues face a similar fate.  Major League Baseball also has struck partnerships with the formerly independent Atlantic League, Frontier League, and American Association.

MiLB said in a statement that MLB owners are solely interested in protecting their own profitability.  I must agree.  If I were an MLB owner - I get it - there's a clear advantage to maintaining all your affiliates within close proximity of the parent club.  However, the owners intentionally made no effort to renegotiate in good faith a new bargaining agreement with minor league baseball and have since steamrolled their agenda regardless of the impact on individual proprietors, local communities and economies, and above all, players.  

The New York Yankees are perceived to have employed a rather cold and distant tact in severing ties with Trenton, (Charleston), and a local affiliate here in Staten Island.  Trenton and Staten Island claim they first learned of the news through (social) media and not until after the New York Yankees official announcement.  In separate statements, the Trenton Thunder owner calls the Yankees action a "betrayal" while the Staten Island Yankees owner deems the decision to be "unacceptable."

So incensed is the Trenton Thunder owner he calls the New York Yankees despicable for leaving culturally diverse Trenton for a wealthier, higher socioeconomic area in Somerset.

Trenton is supplanted by the formerly independent Somerset Patriots as the Yankees' new double-A affiliate.  The Yankees also bid adieu to Charleston who will be replaced by the Hudson Valley Renegades.  

For now, Staten Island is without a team.

The Passed Ball Show Host John Pielli Joins A Metsian Podcast

From the desk of: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

with SAM, RICH and MIKE

GUEST

John Pielli

THE PASSED BALL SHOW

sixty minutes

Subway Series Recap with The Coop on Another Metsian Podcast

From the desk of: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

with SAM, RICH & MIKE

GUEST

THE COOP IS BACK! 

"My Summer Family" - Taryn Cooper

New York, New York, it's a hell of a baseball town where local Mets and Yankees fans ride in a hole in the ground (hopefully wearing masks while practicing social distancing).  The subway system has run parallel with New York City's baseball history for well over a century.  In fact, five score and sixteen years ago local fans via the city's new subway system begin commuting to the Polo Grounds and Washington Park in Brooklyn.  Before long fans are third-railing their way to Ebbets Field and Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium decades later.  Today's commute to the new modern parks is no different.  However, Major League Baseball is doing its damndest to impose change upon the game and its fans.  This begs the question: is it worth swiping a MetroCard be it to River Avenue or Rosevelt Avenue in order to see a seven inning ballgame?

A recap of the five game Subway Series that was between Bronx and Queens

#LGM

Game Called: COVID-19 Whitewashes Yankees vs. Mets at Citi Field

From the desks of: 

HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET  &   BLAME CARLOS MAY

GAME CALLED
COVID-19
SNY NEWS YouTube Channel

One player and one organizational member of the New York Mets tested positive for COVID-19.

I bid them and their families, and the Mets organization health, calm and peace of mind.

*

Just a reminder: I am on record as being opposed to the playing of the 2020 regular season.  But if players chose to play, earn a potion of their salaries, and in tun allow owners to recoup lost revenue through an expanded playoff, more power to them.  I wish them well.  However, as we see there are ramifications and repercussions to their decisions and actions.

Thursday's Mets/Marlins game in addition to Friday's Yankees/Mets game at Citi Field were postponed.  The Mets are now the tenth team to experience COVID related postponements.  That's ten out of thirty teams - you do the math.  The Yankees previously had a series against the Phillies postponed.  Both instances were related to trace contact with the Miami Marlins who earlier in this process experienced an outbreak of 18 players and team personnel.  Miami has so far been limited to just 18 games and to some extent their roster is unrecognizable.  BUGS BUNNY had the right idea when he hand-sawed Florida away from the continental United States.  On a personal note, my sister and some cousins live in Florida which keeps forever pensive.  Their state clown governor is a governor clown.  The Marlins are due in New York next week.  I say let them land at LaGuardia Airport, give them time for refueling, turn them right around and send that plane right back to South Beach.  The local Tri-State are did a superb job flattening the curve particularly here in New York City.  Last thing we need is a school of infected Fish swimming about in Flushing Bay.  Of course I speak somewhat in jest, but on a more serious note is appears Yoenis Cespedes and Marcus Stroman are owed apologies by all of those whom chastised them for opting out under the perceived pretense of self-centeredness and selfishness.  In fact Stroman himself expressed his anxiety over the upcoming road trip into Miami.

There's a lesson to be learned: temper yourselves.

ICYMI:

• N.Y. Yankees: Jury Still Out on Aaron Judge
• N.Y. Mets: Monster Matz is a National League Smash

The New York Mets presently own a 12-14 (.461) record, with 123 runs for and 130 runs against.  Between the starting rotation being in shambles and the ongoing issue of hitting w/risp, the Mets have more problems than a math book.  Things may look great for the Yankees.  The second place Bronx Bombers own a 16-9 (.640) record, one-half game behind the Rays, with 135 runs for and 107 against.  But they've already sustained injuries to Giancarlo Stanton, Zack Britton, Gleyber Torres, James Paxton, Luis Avilan, Aaron Judge, and now DJ LeMmahieu.

A Metsian Podcast: First Quarter Review

From the desk of: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

with SAM, RICH, and MIKE

We are one-quarter of the way through the New York Mets 2020 regular season.  There is good news making some fans think they're taking a turn for the better, but there's also bad news making other fans think they're taking a turn for the worse.  So, which is it?  Join Sam, Rich, and I, as we attempt to get a fix on the Mets direction.  Pitching; fielding; timely hitting; and this sudden love affair with Andres Gimenez; A Metsian Podcast will cover it all; including a look back at the Amazin' 1962 Mets.

#LGM

Week One Summer Camp Review with Arizona Mets Fan Anna Brice on Another Metsian Podcast

From the desk of: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

with SAM, RICH, and MIKE

GUEST

Transplanted Jersey Girl in Arizona, 

Mets Fan, and Friend of the Show

ANNA BRICE

seventy-six minutes

COVID Continues Hurling Curveballs and Change-Ups at MLB

Sometimes even the best laid plans go awry.  One week into Summer Camp baseball is finding this out the hard way as coronavirus still rules the day.  Confirmed cases in numerous states continue spiking; a number of players and essential personal have tested positive; while other players are opting out of this season all together.  Meanwhile back in Metsville, Yoenis Cespedes is all the rage, but Robinson Cano is no where to be found.  From the booth Keith Hernandez believes he sees shades of the 1986 Mets in this year's potential line-up.  Is he looking through orange and blue tinted glasses?  Will the team finally be sold?  A Metsian Podcast will cover all this and more in its 61st numbered episode.  Former Jersey girl, huge Mets fan, even bigger Lee Mazzilli fan, current Arizona resident, and friend of the show Anna Brice returns for another session of Metsian banter.

Spring Training Redux and the Precarious Season Ahead with Journalist David Krell on Another Metsian Podcast

From the desk of: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

WITH

SAM, RICH, and MIKE

GUEST

JOURNALIST, AUTHOR, EDITOR, PRODUCER

DAVID KRELL 

David Krell is the editor of the upcoming anthology The New York Mets in Popular Culture, expected to be published by McFarland and Company in September.  He is also the editor of The New York Yankees in Popular Culture and the author of Our Bums: The Brooklyn Dodgers in History, Memory and Popular Culture.  

David is the chair of the Society for American Baseball Research Northern New Jersey Chapter, also known as the Elysian Fields Chapter.  He has spoken for several years at SABR conferences and the Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture.

SEVENTY-ONE MINUTES

This game is your game, this game is my game, from California, to the New York Island, from our Canadian neighbors, to the Gulf Stream waters, this game is back for all to see.  Okay, please forgive our giddiness, it's just that A Metsian Podcast is thrilled about finally airing a show bereft of labour strife, contentious negotiations, and bargaining for dollars and nonsense.  This evening Sam, Rich, and me, with guest and baseball author David Krell, bring the focus squarely back on the New York Metropolitans baseball club and all matters orange and blue.  #LFGM

Pandemic Baseball Coming to a Town Near You on Another Metsian Podcast

From the desk of: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

WITH 

SAM, RICH, and MIKE

seventy-eight minutes

Sixty Game Season?

It is what it is ... Play Ball !

Bridging Generations: A Metsian Podcast Father's Day Special

From the desk of: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

with SAM, RICH, and MIKE

ninety minutes

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

SPANNING GENERATIONS

Talking baseball with a 

Baby Boomer, Generation X, and GEN-Z

Commissioners ~ Owners ~ Players ~ Union

Jenrry Mejia ~ Jeff Kent ~ John Franco

I jump on my soapbox, and so much more!

SHOUT OUT TO ALL THE FATHERS PRESENTLY 

SERVING OUR COUNTRY AND STILL IN HARM'S WAY

The Great Baseball Impasse of 2020 on Another Metsian Podcast

From the desk of: HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

with

SAM, RICH, and MIKE

fifty-five minutes

Precious time continues wasting away.  It's already mid-June and MLB and the MLBPA are far from striking a deal on a tentative 2020 season.  Negotiations between parties remain stalemated and rife with animosity.  The Union believes talks have reached the point of futility, with players essentially throwing their hands in the air asking MLB to impose a modified schedule and a report to work date.  Should that be the case baseball now gets to unilaterally impose a shortened season and pay players at a prorated basis.  Who wins?  Who loses?  And who still cares?  Sam, Rich, and Mike, return this evening attempting to tackle these very issues.  Also on tap, Mets money matters and a trip down Metsian lane.