Happy New Year. Hope everybody is enjoying 2009. Since the baseball hot stove is not exactly simmering right now, I thought now would be a good time to ask readers about their favorite and least favorite baseball moments of 2008.
Wondering what Squawker Jon will pick for his favorite Met moments. I know what mine is - them blowing the last game of the year, for the second year in a row, and missing the playoffs, for the second game in a row. And then having their farewell to Shea ceremonies after that game. Nice!
And how about this - the Mets' Mike Pelfrey, who played Santa Claus for the team this year, showed he was woefully unqualified for the position. In an interview with MLB.com, Pelfrey could only name three of Santa's reindeer. Three! It's not like there was a song or anything about them - oh, wait.
Forget about Anna Benson as Mrs. Claus - Pelfrey's stunning lack of knowledge of the holiday classic "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," when he was set to play Kris Kringle for the kids, is the real Santa sacrilege.
I don't really have any on-the field fave Yankee picks from last year - that's what happens when the Yanks have a third-place finish - but my favorite Yankee moments of 2008 are Derek Jeter's speech at the final Stadium game, and the Yanks snatching Mark Teixeira from the Red Sox. (Update: I'm smacking myself upside the head for not writing about Mike Mussina getting 20 wins. Not exactly a good start to the year!)
My two least favorite Yankee moments for last year are the Yanks missing the playoffs, of course, and them re-signing Brian Cashman However, I do have to give him tons of credit for the Mark Teixeira deal, and for wooing CC Cabathia. And if Cash can re-sign Andy Pettitte, I will be even more pleased.
As for the Red Sox, my least favorite 2008 moment was Dustin Pedroia winning the AL MVP. My favorite moment would be any part of the delicious Manny Ramirez drama.
And on a football-related but Squawker-centric note, I did have to say that I am really enjoying seeing Brett Favre finally get his comeuppance a little this week. Guess he's not "Broadway Brett" any more. Jon, I told you this summer he was bad news for your Jets, and I was right. Favre shows up when he wants, thinks he's bigger than the team, and he makes his retirement decision into a drawn-out drama. He's your very own Roger Clemens!
Tell us your 2008 favorite and least favorite MLB moments! Leave us a comment.
14 comments:
"I do have to give him tons of credit for the Mark Teixeira deal, and for wooing CC Cabathia."
ha, very funny. wooing. that's a good one lisa!
One of my favorite Yankee moments was seeing Moose getting his 20th win ...
Jeter's speech was right at the top with the Yankees trotting around the Stadium and best of all ..I was fortunate enough to be there ...
As far as the Mets and Red Sox ..who cares ....lol
Go Yankees 2009 !!!
Yeah, Moose getting his 20th win is probably my favorite moment, too.
The last game with Jeter's speech was terrific, but very poignant; bittersweet.
My favorite - last night at Yankee Stadium with all the pagentry, Jeter speech and Yankee win. I will only list the Mets demise because of their terrible treatment of a solid, honorable, baseball man, Willie Randolph; maybe people will now realize it was the players, not the manager.....
My least favorite moment - the failure of Joe Girardi to take control of the clubhouse and drive the Yankees to win it all. I guess I was expecting a Ralph Houk taking over for a fired Stengel and winning it all ('61) performance. But Houk had a major (no, not The Major) advantage - he was already a coach on Stengel's staff and knew the players - whereas Girardi didn't. I think Joe G is on a short leash this year especially with the players he's been handed.
Favorite baseball moments of 2008:
5. Manny Being Messy. Though it's hard to say whether the Red Sox would've gone further if they'd kept him. Right, Nomar?
4. The Phillies ending "the Curse of Billy Penn." Which means it can now be broken down into "the Curse of Norm Van Brocklin" (Eagles), "the Curse of Harold Katz" (76ers), "the Curse of Leon Stickle" (Flyers) and "the Curse of Daddy Mass" (the Big 5 basketball teams, named for Villanova coach Rollie Massimino, who not only almost killed the city's great college basketball tradition but bailed on 'Nova in almost Sabanesque fashion).
3. Seeing the Dodgers get beat in the Playoffs, thus being proven right: There really is a Curse of Donnie Baseball, and no team with Mattingly in uniform, Yankees or otherwise, will ever, ever, EVER win a Pennant.
2. Yankee Stadium "dying with dignity." If it had to go, this was the best way to do it, without leaving us hanging as to whether there'd be postseason games there to extend the farewell.
1. Shea Stadium, and the Mets, NOT "dying with dignity." As noted Yankee Fan George Costanza would say, the Mets, their fans, and their stadium can't die with dignity. They've lived their whole lives in shame, so why should "death" be any different?
Pitchers and catchers report in 43 days. That's just six weeks!
My least favorite moment was when Girardi benched Cano in September. He should have done it in May.
My least favorite Met Moment is obviously missing the post season by 1 game for the 2nd year in a row,
My favorie, Johan hits the same ball, with the same bat, twice, in one at bat...
Favorite Moments were Moose getting his 20th. The Ceremony of closing of Yankee Stadium and Game 7 of the ALCS and seeing the Dead Sox go down.
Least favorite was most of the Yankee season and seeing Philly beat the Tampa Bay Rays
least favorite, obviously another disappointing end to the mets season.
as a met fan, there were some very good moments, such as johan's performance in september, cementing his status as the best pitcher in all of baseball, the firing of willie randolph was a highlight, and who could forget the most expensive failure in the history of american sports! we may have choked, but we didn't spend $200 million plus to lose out to an expansion team!
km
the asshole speaks again! you can't post one single thing without reminding everyone what a loser you are by demonstrating your obvious jealousy of the yankees. why don't you just get a tatoo on your back advertising it? it can say - "my name is km and i'm a mets fan, and for my whole life i've been a jealous loser because the yankees were so dominant for so many years and my poor mets would always be second rate that nobody cared about except for losers like me, so all i have left is to focus on all the money they spend because i'm a jealous loser with a big vocabulary". yea, that works! i'm sure all those words can fit on your back because mos mets fans are fat greasy slobs with bad hygiene and eating disorders to compensate for their misery of watching the yankees dominate them over and over.
bravo cuddles, once again displaying your intellectual superiority with a well thought out, well written post. sad thing is, the only thing you have going for you has been the yankees success. really the only bright spot in your sad, pathetic life, isn't it? oh well, should've studied harder and finished school.
km
I need to revisit Jeter's speech because it didn't have an effect on me at all. Maybe its because I got all emotional and came to terms with the end of Yankee Stadium at the All-Star game.
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