For those of you that have been following me in this forum for a while, I have had daily diaries from my travels at Spring Training. Wednesday was Day 1 of my 2012 Spring Training trip.
I do post small updates during the day on my Facebook page, so please follow me over there. I'm also posting photo albums over there too.
Day 1 - March 22, 2012 - Mets-Astros @ Port St. Lucie
Early morning workouts on the back fields. Biggest thing I noticed was the orange plastic protective coverings over the tops of every fence in the back fields. Those coverings used to be yellow, but they are now orange matching the team's new blue and orange color scheme. Even some of the signage on-field (such as distance markers) look like they fit into that new scheme. I like it.
Inside, I seem to have beginner's luck getting lots of autographs on my first day and then nothing else after it. Today was the first day, and inside the stadium, I got Terry Collins, Danny Herrera, Bobby Parnell, Justin Turner, and MLB Network's Al Leiter. MLB Network was in town filming for 30 Clubs in 30 Days, and T.C. and Leiter were doing live remotes from next to the Mets dugout for the show.
Then I went over to get my first in person look at the new RF party deck and berm. For those who haven't been down to Digital Domain Park before, the berm opened with a 2004 renovation, but was only accessible from an entrance separate from the rest of the ballpark (along with the RF bleachers along the RF line). After the offseason renovations, a new RF party deck was constructed (replacing the bleachers) and part of the berm was re-done, along with connecting the berm/party deck with the rest of the stadium, making all of it accessible from the rest of the stadium for the first time. Since I never had sat in the berm before (I never wanted to give up full stadium admission to access the berm), I had never been out there until today. I'll post more pictures from out there later in my trip.
I actually spent the entire game down by the Mets dugout. Two big highlights. R.A. Dickey took a no-hitter into the 6th, and Sandy Koufax was sitting behind Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz for part of the game behind home plate. Mets won big.
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Friday, March 23, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Spring
I wrote this essay in my senior year in High School, sometime in the winter or early spring of 1996. Happy Baseball Season!
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Last week, the weather got warm for the first time since November. Even though it was still only January, it felt like it was the beginning of March. Rain, not snow or ice for once, was falling from the sky, melting the snow away for good. I didn’t need a hat or a pair of gloves for the first time since Thanksgiving. It was the first of only three "just really nice" days this month.
The coldness of winter melting away outside made me think of a re-warmth inside. The peaceful sounds of baseballs flying in March’s warm, Florida air is the best vision of spring that I can think of. I have been a die-hard baseball fan for most of my life and Spring Training in March is the one time I look forward to all year. The new hope for the new season will be looking upon me as I breathe the fresh, New Jersey air for the first time since the October playoffs. It’s been nearly six months since most of the teams’ hope from last season died out, including that of my favorite team, the New York Mets.
I could just hear the warm, but rusty sounds of the announcers’ voices coming over the radio. "Welcome to another season of New York Mets Baseball," one of them would say. There would be a calmness in their voices as they were getting ready for another year of work. You could feel the light wind blowing from the ocean through the trees and keeping the air at a comfortable 75 degrees.
In the first game I’ll watch on TV, I’ll see the green Florida grass with bright palm trees, and it will bring to mind the peaceful setting of what’s ahead for the coming months: green grass, green leaves on the trees, and kids playing baseball on the sandlot every afternoon after school. Though Florida is warm all year round, there’s no better time in Florida than Spring Training every March when the warmness is felt around the country, thanks to the voices that call the games to cold places like Boston, Minnesota, and Seattle.
Baseball isn’t just about playing in the peaceful settings in March. March is the time when Baseball is at its best. When the teams aren’t really competing against each other for standings in a league, but against themselves to become the best they can be, that’s the best type of baseball there is. This is when everybody really works hard but seems relaxed. You can see Major League superstars working with twenty year old rookie outfielders who are playing their best trying to field their way on the team. That’s what Baseball, as well as all sports, is all about.
These are the best days of the year because everyone in training camp is working: the players, the announcers, and the front office people. The players are trying to show off to their coaches. The announcers are bringing the warm, Florida air to much colder places like New York through their voices as all the snow there starts to melt and the air starts to get warmer. The front office people are trying to make the right trades to make this team of players and this season for the fans the best in team history.
When the regular season begins in early April, there is not much for them to do. Everyone who made the team is on the team and everyone who didn’t is playing in the minors. The announcers are calling games mostly in Northern cities where it is not as warm as Florida, so there is nothing good for them to show in the way they talk. The front office has to wait and see what the changes they made will look like.
But these days of March are care-free because there is no pressure on the players. These games don’t count; they are just warm ups. Most of the players, coaches, and front office people are only in Florida for that one month each year and they try to savor every minute of it. I say, "Enjoy the best time of year while you can." I know what it’s like.
March is not just about who’s out there. You have a $2 million bench warmer, and a rookie catcher who’s only making $500 thousand a year, but they aren’t important. They won’t be with the team forever. You put your heart into a whole team, whether if it’s full of washed up "has-been’s" and talentless "never-will-be’s," or if it’s a team made up of the best baseball players of all time. It could be the World Champion Atlanta Braves playing the 1995 Replacement New York Mets. The enjoyment is in what they do there. They play baseball and supposedly have fun doing it.
Last year was the first time I had a vacation in March, and I went to go see what the peaceful settings I had so commonly witnessed on TV and heard about on radio looked like. I had to see for myself that Florida in March is just as soothing as the announcers’ voices imply that it is. When I was there, the Baseball players were on strike and it was the only time that you could ever see replacement players playing for the fans. I saw the two games I planned to see anyway because the game is not about who’s there on the field, but what they do. It’s March, the best time of year, it’s Baseball, during the best time of year, and players playing their hardest, which is the best mix.
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Sunday, March 4, 2012
Mets Baseball is on the air
NOTE: This is my now-annual Spring Training sound byte post.
Back when I was a bit younger (we'll call it the late '80s and early-mid '90s, a time when I wasn't quite a teenager), I remember running home from school on the day that Spring Training games finally began, or at least the day of the first broadcast on WFAN (for some reason, I had no, or chose not to use, a walkman). I would look forward to hearing the voices that I knew meant baseball for the first time after the long offseason.
On the eve of the fist Spring Training game, I bring you three treats.
First up is a 1 minute audio clip from the Mets first broadcast on WFAN from Spring Training 1998. I won't say any more, other than the voice is forver the voice of the Mets...
Second is about 6 1/2 minutes in length, coming from another 1998 Spring Training game. This one is most of half of an inning from a road game against St. Louis in Jupiter's inagural season. The play-by-play voice again belongs to Bob Murphy with Gary Cohen along side.
and finally is Bob Murphy leading into a commercial
I invite any readers to submit or link to their own Spring Training audio and video from the 1980s and 1990s.
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Back when I was a bit younger (we'll call it the late '80s and early-mid '90s, a time when I wasn't quite a teenager), I remember running home from school on the day that Spring Training games finally began, or at least the day of the first broadcast on WFAN (for some reason, I had no, or chose not to use, a walkman). I would look forward to hearing the voices that I knew meant baseball for the first time after the long offseason.
On the eve of the fist Spring Training game, I bring you three treats.
First up is a 1 minute audio clip from the Mets first broadcast on WFAN from Spring Training 1998. I won't say any more, other than the voice is forver the voice of the Mets...
Second is about 6 1/2 minutes in length, coming from another 1998 Spring Training game. This one is most of half of an inning from a road game against St. Louis in Jupiter's inagural season. The play-by-play voice again belongs to Bob Murphy with Gary Cohen along side.
and finally is Bob Murphy leading into a commercial
I invite any readers to submit or link to their own Spring Training audio and video from the 1980s and 1990s.
Leave a comment or drop me a line at DyHrdMET [at] gmail [dot] com. Your comments will fall into a moderation queue.
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Monday, February 20, 2012
Honouring Gary Carter
I haven't said much about the passing of Gary Carter. I knew that he had a baseball life before coming to New York in December 1984 (and I didn't start following until October 1986). But I don't think I had ever appreciated what he meant to the Montreal Expos and the city of Montreal.
Apparently, he meant a lot to that city, evident by a lot of stories and remembrances from the Montreal media. And no more so than what the Montreal Canadiens did on Sunday night before their game. I also didn't appreciate how much the city of Montreal holds onto the Expos (if MLB teams are looking at moving, I think that city would welcome a new Expos team, especially in a new stadium).
The baseball team itself left town after the 2004 season (so this will be the 8th season without baseball in Montreal), and a player who came up almost 40 years ago and was traded away over 27 years ago has been held in such high regard by that city that the entire city mourned his loss.
There are a lot of Mets fans and former players grieving along with the city of Montreal. Carter was the final piece in the puzzle of the mid-1980s New York Mets. By all accounts, he was a standup guy. Mets fans have written their own tributes (some in video form) to the player known as "The Kid". There was even a gathering the day after he died at the site of Shea Stadium where Mets fans came to mourn together and sign some tributes, with a teardrop number 8 logo collecting condolences from Mets fans (the logo is also part of a t-shirt being sold to help benefit the Gary Carter foundation).
But in Montreal, a city where the legacy of the baseball team seems to be owned by the hockey team (the only other top-level sports franchise in a league associated with the United States in that city), and where the baseball team's mascot was orphaned and adopted by the hockey team, the memories of the players that gave that baseball team a personality and something to cheer for live on. In 2005, after the hockey lockout had ended and the baseball team had been in another city for an entire season, the Montreal Canadiens honored the legacy of the Expos by raising a banner holding their lifetime (1969-2004) and their retired numbers to the rafters to sit along side what is now over 100 years of hockey history from that city. Gary Carter and Andre Dawson were on hand for the ceremony, along with new Canadiens mascot Youppi, all wearing Canadiens hockey jerseys with their baseball names and numbers (something Youppi! still wears). The legacy of the Expos are important in Montreal.
That brings me to Sunday night. The Canadiens players all came out for warmups (the hockey equivalent to Batting Practice) wearing recreations of the same #8/Carter Canadiens hockey jersey that The Kid had worn on that night in 2005. The Canadiens will announce this week how those 20-something jerseys will be sold to benefit the Gary Carter Foundation. MetsBlog.com has pictures of the warmups.
The Canadiens had a tribute to Carter which featured 2 large-sized Gary Carter Montreal Expos baseball cards projected onto the ice from side boards to side boards. They can be seen in this video from NHL.com (and also seen on MLB.com), which features the rest of the tribute. At the end, Youppi! in his old Montreal Expos jersey featuring a new #8 patch in Carter's honor, came out to lead the fans in a moment of silence where he was greeted by a moment of loud cheers. My suggestion - Youppi! should wear that #8 patch on his hockey jersey for the rest of the season (just as the Expos would have done and the Mets most likely will do).
I posted this on twitter late last night after seeing the video tribute from Montreal.
I am sure the Mets will do something to honor The Kid. Uniform patches yet to be designed (they probably won't wear them until Opening Day, so there's some time to get it right). A moment of silence before the first Spring Training home game, before the first NY Mets regular season home game in April, and before the first St. Lucie Mets regular season home game also in April will most likely be held. The Mets had a video tribute for Carter playing at most games after Carter was first diagnosed, so I'm sure something similar will be seen at Citi Field on Opening Day. I'm pretty certain the Mets will get this right. Montreal certainly has. So have the Mets fans.
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Apparently, he meant a lot to that city, evident by a lot of stories and remembrances from the Montreal media. And no more so than what the Montreal Canadiens did on Sunday night before their game. I also didn't appreciate how much the city of Montreal holds onto the Expos (if MLB teams are looking at moving, I think that city would welcome a new Expos team, especially in a new stadium).
The baseball team itself left town after the 2004 season (so this will be the 8th season without baseball in Montreal), and a player who came up almost 40 years ago and was traded away over 27 years ago has been held in such high regard by that city that the entire city mourned his loss.
There are a lot of Mets fans and former players grieving along with the city of Montreal. Carter was the final piece in the puzzle of the mid-1980s New York Mets. By all accounts, he was a standup guy. Mets fans have written their own tributes (some in video form) to the player known as "The Kid". There was even a gathering the day after he died at the site of Shea Stadium where Mets fans came to mourn together and sign some tributes, with a teardrop number 8 logo collecting condolences from Mets fans (the logo is also part of a t-shirt being sold to help benefit the Gary Carter foundation).
But in Montreal, a city where the legacy of the baseball team seems to be owned by the hockey team (the only other top-level sports franchise in a league associated with the United States in that city), and where the baseball team's mascot was orphaned and adopted by the hockey team, the memories of the players that gave that baseball team a personality and something to cheer for live on. In 2005, after the hockey lockout had ended and the baseball team had been in another city for an entire season, the Montreal Canadiens honored the legacy of the Expos by raising a banner holding their lifetime (1969-2004) and their retired numbers to the rafters to sit along side what is now over 100 years of hockey history from that city. Gary Carter and Andre Dawson were on hand for the ceremony, along with new Canadiens mascot Youppi, all wearing Canadiens hockey jerseys with their baseball names and numbers (something Youppi! still wears). The legacy of the Expos are important in Montreal.
That brings me to Sunday night. The Canadiens players all came out for warmups (the hockey equivalent to Batting Practice) wearing recreations of the same #8/Carter Canadiens hockey jersey that The Kid had worn on that night in 2005. The Canadiens will announce this week how those 20-something jerseys will be sold to benefit the Gary Carter Foundation. MetsBlog.com has pictures of the warmups.
The Canadiens had a tribute to Carter which featured 2 large-sized Gary Carter Montreal Expos baseball cards projected onto the ice from side boards to side boards. They can be seen in this video from NHL.com (and also seen on MLB.com), which features the rest of the tribute. At the end, Youppi! in his old Montreal Expos jersey featuring a new #8 patch in Carter's honor, came out to lead the fans in a moment of silence where he was greeted by a moment of loud cheers. My suggestion - Youppi! should wear that #8 patch on his hockey jersey for the rest of the season (just as the Expos would have done and the Mets most likely will do).
I posted this on twitter late last night after seeing the video tribute from Montreal.
star of the day goes to @CanadiensMTL for holding the legacy of the @Montreal_Expos and honoring Gary Carter (and Youppi's Expos jersey)
— Jason Bornstein (@DyHrdMET) February 20, 2012
I am sure the Mets will do something to honor The Kid. Uniform patches yet to be designed (they probably won't wear them until Opening Day, so there's some time to get it right). A moment of silence before the first Spring Training home game, before the first NY Mets regular season home game in April, and before the first St. Lucie Mets regular season home game also in April will most likely be held. The Mets had a video tribute for Carter playing at most games after Carter was first diagnosed, so I'm sure something similar will be seen at Citi Field on Opening Day. I'm pretty certain the Mets will get this right. Montreal certainly has. So have the Mets fans.
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Thursday, February 16, 2012
SNY and the Emmys
Read it here!
Included in the list are programs related to the Mets (remember the field trip to the Pepsi Porch and all 4 TV announcers nominated for the best in their craft) and SNY (which got nominated for things related to another baseball team in New York).
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Included in the list are programs related to the Mets (remember the field trip to the Pepsi Porch and all 4 TV announcers nominated for the best in their craft) and SNY (which got nominated for things related to another baseball team in New York).
| Category | Program | Network |
|---|---|---|
| SPORTS COVERAGE: SPORTSCAST/SERIES | SportsNite: Jeter Hits 3000. July 9, 2011 | SNY |
| SportsNite: Subway Series. May 20, 2011 | SNY | |
| SPORTS PROGRAMMING: REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAM | Summer of ’86 – Part 3. March 3, 2011 (Roman Gackowski, Producer/Director) | MSG |
| SPORTS PROGRAMMING: PROGRAM SERIES | Summer of ’86 – Series Composite. March 1, 2011 (Roman Gackowski, Producer/Director) | MSG |
| SPORTS PROGRAMMING: PROGRAM FEATURE/SEGMENT | R.A. Dickey. December 22, 2010 | SNY |
| SPORTS PROGRAMMING: PROGRAM SERIES | Jets Nation: Extra Point. September 9, 2010 | SNY |
| SPORTS PROGRAMMING: SPECIAL | Brooklyn Cyclones: Baseball on the Boardwalk. August 24, 2011 | SNY |
| Jets Nation: Draft Day 2011. April 28, 2011 | SNY | |
| LIVE SPORTS EVENT: PROGRAM/SPECIAL | Mets “Pepsi Porch” Broadcast. July 20, 2011 | SNY |
| INTERVIEW/DISCUSSION | The Wheelhouse. December 10, 2010 | SNY |
| PROMOTION: NEWS PROMO – SINGLE SPOT/CAMPAIGN | Summer of ’86 Launch Spot. February 16, 2011 (Doug Field, VP/Creative Director) | MSG |
| PROMOTION: NEWS PROMO – SPECIAL/IMAGE | Summer of ’86 Launch Spot. February 16, 2011 | MSG |
| PROMOTION: PROGRAM PROMO - SPORTS | Mets Subway Series Pop Up. May 15, 2011 (John Zeigler, VP/Creative Director) | WPIX |
| Subway Series Speech. May 21, 2011 (John Zeigler, VP/Creative Director) | WPIX | |
| COMMERCIAL: SINGLE SPOT/CAMPAIGN | More Sports, More Testosterone. May 9, 2011 (Marie DeParis, Vice President of Marketing) | SNY |
| ON-CAMERA TALENT: REPORTER -SPORTS | Kevin Burkhardt | SNY/WPIX |
| ON-CAMERA TALENT: PERFORMER/NARRATOR | Robert A. Frahm. August 24, 2011 | SNY |
| ON-CAMERA TALENT: SPORTS PLAY-BY-PLAY | Gary Cohen | SNY/WPIX |
| Howie Rose | MSG+ (Islanders) | |
| ON-CAMERA TALENT: SPORTS ANALYST | Keith Hernandez | SNY/WPIX |
| Ron Darling | SNY/WPIX | |
| Ray Lucas | SNY (Jets) | |
| DIRECTOR: POST-PRODUCTION | Roman Gackowski. March 1, 2011 | MSG |
| WRITER: SPORTS | Ricky Recchia. April 28, 2011 | SNY |
| PHOTOGRAPHER: SPORTS | Andrew Johnston. July 11, 2011 | SNY |
| EDITOR: PROGRAM | Lee Umphred. March 1, 2011 (“Summer Of ’86”) | MSG |
| EDITOR: SHORT FORM | Brett Hauze. December 30, 2010 | SNY |
| GRAPHICS: NEWS/PROGRAM | Mark Rusciano. January 16, 2011 ("SNY's Sportsnite: Jets 2011 Playoff Special”) | SNY |
| GRAPHICS: SPORTS | John Zeigler. April 10, 2011 (“Mets Pop Up”) | WPIX |
| Mark Rusciano. May 20, 2011 (“Mets on SNY: 2011 Subway Showdown”) | SNY |
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Sunday, January 1, 2012
Mets 2012 predictions
The new year 2012 is upon us, and I have a few predictions for the Mets for this year.
Happy 2012 Mets fans! Mets 2012, rejuvenated at 50!
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- I will not win the Banner Day competition, but I will have lots of fun creating a banner and participating. And that's what it's all about.
- The Sterling Equities partners will no longer control the New York Mets (by year's end). They will not get enough investors to loan them money in exchange for usage of Mr. Met and a Citi Field parking space (which I heard is actually only good when Citi Field's lot is used as a park-and-ride lot). They will have to pay more money than they can afford in Bernie Madoff-related lawsuits. And other owners in MLB will force Bud Selig's hand over the liquidity issues and loans from MLB that they'll basically kick Fred Wilpon out of the club. Sterling Equities real estate will also crumble over the weight of what Fred Wilpon will owe (remember, separate from the Mets, they made money from Madoff that will have to be given back).
- The 2013 MLB All Star Game will not be awarded to Citi Field. Same with the 2014 game or the 2015 game. It won't be awarded until new ownership is firmly in place, though I expect to see it as something thrown into the pot for a new owner (sort of like how the Astros deal had a condition on them moving to the AL West).
- The Mets will have a bad product on the field in 2012. It won't be fun to watch. And attendance will dip, again. That will cause the Mets to lose $100 million in 2012. It's kind of the opposite of "it takes money to make money".
- The most attended event at Citi Field will be a concert and not a sporting event.
- The NHL Winter Classic will not be at Citi Field in 2012 (or probably, ever). Reason - it's not Yankee Stadium. We just have to live with it.
- David Wright will be traded before the trade deadline.
- Johan Santana will be healthy enough to have trade talks centered around him during the season until a season ending injury (though it'll be something freak and mis-handled, and not related to any of the other injuries he's had with the Mets).
- R.A. Dickey will be the Mets representative at the All Star Game
- Howie Rose will be paired with Jim Duquette on WFAN. It should be fun to listen to.
Happy 2012 Mets fans! Mets 2012, rejuvenated at 50!
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Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Can I audition for the vacant Mets radio gig?
Let me start by saying that Wayne Hagin is a nice guy. I met him during Spring Training 2008, at the very beginning of his Mets broadcasting career. He did nothing wrong during his 4 seasons in Flushing. He was himself. He was a solid #2 guy in the Mets radio booth.
I use past tense because the reports strongly indicate that WFAN is not going to renew his contract in 2012. I've seen a wide list of actual candidates and fan suggestions. Let me throw out some opinions about these guys and the job in general.
Howie Rose is your #1 radio announcer. There is no replacing that. In the 50 year history of the New York Mets, they have always had a rotation of at least 2 play-by-play announcers (a list that includes ex-player and HOFer Ralph Kiner as a play-by-play man). Two of the announcers auditioning are basically analysts. That would be an interesting shift, though some fans would welcome having Howie Rose call all 9 innings.
Let me throw this out there. SNY is not going to allow the team of Gary (Cohen), Keith (Hernandez), Ron (Darling), and Kevin (Burkhardt) get broken up. So we're not going to see the reunion of Howie and Gary. And as much as I would like this pairing, I don't think we're going to see Howie Rose with Kevin Burkhardt together.
One rumor is that Chris Carlin of SNY is in the mix. Personally, I don't like him on TV, and I won't like him on the radio (though it would get him off of Mets pre/post game shows). But, he does have radio play-by-play experience calling Rutgers Football and Men's Basketball (I've never actually listened to him, so I have no idea if he's any good). I do think we're better off leaving him at SNY.
Billy Sample is in the mix. He had a short playing career, and has had a long resume as a broadcaster/writer (according to Wikipedia). I vaguely remember him on Atlanta Braves broadcasts on TBS and I know he's been with MLB.com. As good as he may be, I'm not sure how well he would fit in on Mets broadcasts.
WFAN's Ed Coleman is another candidate. I can live with him as a fill-in on the radio broadcasts, but he's much better suited to be WFAN's Mets beat reporter.
Jim Duquette is another candidate. This is an interesting choice, and the one I think is most likely to happen (based on no real information). He's an ex-GM. He's an ex-Met GM. He traded Scott Kazmir. After that, I stopped reading his bio. But to be fair, I think he was a lame-duck GM after Steve Phillips was fired and before Omar Minaya came in. He currently co-hosts a show on an MLB satellite radio channel (to which, I don't subscribe). He has no known playing career, but I've never thought an analyst serves much purpose on the radio because you don't have replay (ok, they can "spot trends"). There's a reason why a lot of baseball teams have gone with 2 play-by-play men on the radio. I think bringing him in would be an interesting change in direction for Mets radio. Imagine the stories of the Mets front office that he could tell.
I wonder if one of the SNY kid-casters is now old enough to take the job. No matter what, Mets radio broadcasts will be different in year 51.
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I use past tense because the reports strongly indicate that WFAN is not going to renew his contract in 2012. I've seen a wide list of actual candidates and fan suggestions. Let me throw out some opinions about these guys and the job in general.
Howie Rose is your #1 radio announcer. There is no replacing that. In the 50 year history of the New York Mets, they have always had a rotation of at least 2 play-by-play announcers (a list that includes ex-player and HOFer Ralph Kiner as a play-by-play man). Two of the announcers auditioning are basically analysts. That would be an interesting shift, though some fans would welcome having Howie Rose call all 9 innings.
Let me throw this out there. SNY is not going to allow the team of Gary (Cohen), Keith (Hernandez), Ron (Darling), and Kevin (Burkhardt) get broken up. So we're not going to see the reunion of Howie and Gary. And as much as I would like this pairing, I don't think we're going to see Howie Rose with Kevin Burkhardt together.
One rumor is that Chris Carlin of SNY is in the mix. Personally, I don't like him on TV, and I won't like him on the radio (though it would get him off of Mets pre/post game shows). But, he does have radio play-by-play experience calling Rutgers Football and Men's Basketball (I've never actually listened to him, so I have no idea if he's any good). I do think we're better off leaving him at SNY.
Billy Sample is in the mix. He had a short playing career, and has had a long resume as a broadcaster/writer (according to Wikipedia). I vaguely remember him on Atlanta Braves broadcasts on TBS and I know he's been with MLB.com. As good as he may be, I'm not sure how well he would fit in on Mets broadcasts.
WFAN's Ed Coleman is another candidate. I can live with him as a fill-in on the radio broadcasts, but he's much better suited to be WFAN's Mets beat reporter.
Jim Duquette is another candidate. This is an interesting choice, and the one I think is most likely to happen (based on no real information). He's an ex-GM. He's an ex-Met GM. He traded Scott Kazmir. After that, I stopped reading his bio. But to be fair, I think he was a lame-duck GM after Steve Phillips was fired and before Omar Minaya came in. He currently co-hosts a show on an MLB satellite radio channel (to which, I don't subscribe). He has no known playing career, but I've never thought an analyst serves much purpose on the radio because you don't have replay (ok, they can "spot trends"). There's a reason why a lot of baseball teams have gone with 2 play-by-play men on the radio. I think bringing him in would be an interesting change in direction for Mets radio. Imagine the stories of the Mets front office that he could tell.
I wonder if one of the SNY kid-casters is now old enough to take the job. No matter what, Mets radio broadcasts will be different in year 51.
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