This is where Kilmoll and Voro would usually try to gang up on me, but I know there are Phil fans out there so that should be enough to warrant discussion. 
Xyphir wrote:With the absence of Leo "The Rock" Mazzone, the Braves haven't been the same. It'll be interesting to see if Hampton can get back on track after Tommy John surgery, Chipper can remain healthy, Smoltz can continue being a workhorse, and if the Braves can get over losing Andruw and Edgar Rentaria. The biggest question for me as a closet Braves fan will be if Bobby Cox can find the magic that made this team great.
What's even sadder is he got 2nd in MVP voting with those numbers.Kilmoll the Sexy wrote:2005 128 RBI BA with RISP .207 (NL rank 75th) .207! Jesus
Looking at his stats, I'm beginning to see why Jayson Stark calls him the most overrated center fielder of all time. I ran some quick numbers and saw that he ranked 135 (out of 149) for average with RISP in 2007. I set the criteria as 50+ ABs with RISP, which is different then how MLB ranks it. They limit it by 500+ Plate Appearances. He did rank 81st for OBP with RISP. WooWoo.Vetiria wrote:What's even sadder is he got 2nd in MVP voting with those numbers.Kilmoll the Sexy wrote:2005 128 RBI BA with RISP .207 (NL rank 75th) .207! Jesus
As upsets go, it ranks alongside the most extraordinary results in sporting history.
When the New York Mets, one of America's most revered baseball teams, asked their fans to select a new eighth-inning sing-along song, they could never have predicted that the winner would be a has-been English pop star.
But five million people had apparently voted on the Mets' Web site for Rick Astley and his 1987 classic, "Never Gonna Give You Up."
Organizers were, to put it mildly, puzzled.
They had offered fans solid American choices, such as Jon Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer." Yet that had only garnered a fraction of the Astley votes.
It seemed that New Yorkers really wanted a song by a 42-year-old Englishman to enthuse crowds of up to 55,000 at the Mets' Shea Stadium during every home game next season.
It was only when Internet blogs began buzzing with reports of the Astley success that organizers realized that they had been "rickrolled."
The Mets, it emerged, had become the latest, and most high-profile, victim of a bizarre Web phenomenon aimed at ensuring that Astley's 1980s single, made by the bubblegum pop producers Stock, Aitken and Waterman, is played as often as possible.
Minutes after the team posted the poll on their Web site last week, online communities such as those at Fark.com and Digg.com urged their readers to vote for Astley's tune, which spent five weeks at the top of the U.K. charts in 1987.
On Monday, "Never Gonna Give You Up" emerged as the clear winner.
But to the chagrin of Internet chat-rooms, whose members claimed the will of the people was being ignored, the team refused to abide by the vote.
Astley would not be blared out at every game during the final season, embarrassed officials said.
Instead, there would be a "run-off" where the top six songs, including Astley's, would be played on consecutive days.
The one drawing the loudest crowd response — judged by the club's marketing department — would win.
A source inside the club, who did not want to be named, told The Times: "That damn song was an April Fool's joke. The fans didn't choose it. We were hijacked."
He added: "This is the way we're going to do it now. And let me tell you, the Astley tune is not going to win."
The phenomenon of "rickrolling" can be traced back to last year, when thousands of Internet users began putting up links to popular Web sites which actually took audiences straight to the YouTube video of Astley's pop anthem.
So far, more than 13 million people have been tricked into watching Astley, propelling the singer to heights of celebrity he surely thought had passed him by.
Riding the wave, his record company are now releasing a greatest-hits collection amid talk of a U.K. tour.
The Mets rickroll is only the latest in a number of high-profile Astley jokes.
Anti-Scientology protesters in London and New York adopted the song in February, playing it through boomboxes in what was described as "a live rickrolling of the Church of Scientology."
Later, when Scientologists created a Web site to counter allegations, rickrollers set up a site with a similar domain name that took users directly to Astley's video.
The joke has spawned countless parodies. Hillary Clinton stars in a rickroll video, as do the Muppets.
On April Fool's Day, countless Web sites rickrolled their viewers. YouTube, the most popular video site, hyperlinked all their front-page videos to the song.
Marketing companies are beginning to realize the potential. One is organizing a gathering of hundreds of Astley fans at the Liverpool Street subway station in London on Friday to sing a group version of "Never Gonna Give You Up."
Astley said last month that he thought the fame was "a bit spooky."
"It's just one of those odd things where something gets picked up and people run with it," he said. "But that's what's brilliant about the Internet."
On Tuesday, the Mets' opening day at Shea, the sounds of "Never Gonna Give You Up" played around the Mets' stadium, to the delight of the millions in on the joke.
Even if it won't be played again, they knew that one of the world's biggest clubs had just been rickrolled.
I am actually surprised Reyes ever came back. A couple of years ago the Mets had him alter the way he runs etc., after his early career injury.Canelek wrote:I don't see it happening at least with the Mets as 09 is his final contract year. They will most likely pursue Rodriguez (Angels). This year though....well, if they can hold off Philly, then they will continue to mix and match and keep Ayala as tenative closer. As to Wagner, it seems they managed to mistreat yet another player injury.
Yeah, yeah. I know it is not over yet, but I have the same feeling every time the starter hands the ball to the bullpen....WASHINGTON—Seeking to take his mind off thoughts of the Mets' abysmal September fade in 2007 and their current spiral into second place in the NL East, David Wright began to panic Wednesday as every channel he flipped to on his hotel TV reminded him of monumental collapses. "The first thing I saw was a report on the Dow Jones plummeting 500 points, with this big graphic of a flashing red arrow pointing down," said Wright, who also flipped past the film Titanic, part of Wheel Of Fortune just as the wheel came to a stop on "Bankrupt," a commercial for a collapsible sofa-bed, footage of 9/11, a weatherman saying that "things are about to cool down significantly as we head toward October," and a photo of Joan Rivers' face. Wright said he seriously began to suspect that he was going insane when teammate Carlos Delgado entered the room and asked Wright if he'd "seen [his] 'Mets squander a three-game lead with a week to play and end up losing the division to the Phillies on the last day of the season' around here anywhere."
