>>>>>>>>>>MANAGERS YELLING!!!

Sweet Lou knows how to yell.

And kick!

When I think about managers yelling I picture scenes like the ones above when they, ya know, yell at umps. I always got a kick out of the manager cards where they are making like they are yelling.

You never see a manager cupping his hand in an argument. But picture it. A manager in an umps face cupping his hands and yelling. It would be hilarious.

So who started this? The oldest baseball card I could find was the ol' Perfessor himself, Casey Stengel. I could see Casey yelling things, yes. And any manager yelling from a dugout should get a pass.

These guys could have a legit reason to be yelling by the batting cage. 

"HEY JONES! GET YOUR ASS IN HERE AND HIT!"

If it wasn't for Wes this thread would not exist so thank you for that, Mr. Westrum.

For all I know this guys out in a field somewhere>.

Did these people just want to emulate the great Casey? Did they just like to yell? Did they think this was the number one thing that a manager should be doing? Looking busy. Yelling at, I guess his players, because he's not in a game. You never see a manager yell at his players anymore. Cripes, today if you ask a player to pick up the batting practice balls you could lose your job.

Billy Martin was a good yeller, yet he never posed yelling in any on his cards. Well, this one, but it don't count. That's Martin in action, yelling at an ump in a game. He's not posing. He looks like he's pleading.

I've rarely seen a manager yell at a player.

Well, again, Billy Martin. But he would yell at a water cooler if it didn't fill his paper cup.

Billy also could kick with the best of them. I have to admit I was a big Billy Martin fan. He knew how to put on a show.

The king of yell is Chuck Dressen. He yelled everywhere he went.

                                 
^He yelled in the same cloths for a year.^

When he could no longer manage in the majors he yelled in French, with two hands!

 He also waved and pointed . He was a busy manager.

                           

From Wikipedia:

Dressen was the manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers during the early fifties. One of his more famous moves on the negative side of things was when, in the ninth inning of the decisive third game of a three game playoff for the pennant at the Polo Grounds, Dressen decided to go to the bullpen,removing Dodger starting pitcher Don Newcombe with a 4–2 lead and two men on base. Dressen summoned Ralph Branca, whose second pitch to Bobby Thomson was hit into the lower left-field stands for a three-run homer, a 5–4 Giants' win, and a National League pennant — Baseball's "Shot Heard ‘Round the World".

--------------

Dressen Dodgers dominated the NL for the next two seasons, winning the pennant by margins of 4½ and 13 games. But each season, they came up short against the Yankees in the World Series. Fresh from winning the 1953 pennant with 105 victories, Dressen decided to publicly demand a three-year contract from Walter O’Malley instead of the customary one-year deal the Dodgers then offered their managers. But O'Malley didn't yield. He replaced Dressen with Triple-A Montreal Royals manager Walter Alston — a veteran minor leaguer who was unknown to baseball fans. Alston would go on to sign 23 one-year contracts with O'Malley, while winning seven NL pennants, four World Series, and a berth in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Alston was a pointer.

I was hoping to get a similar shot of the Mets new manager yelling, but he's a pretty calm guy so I'm not going to hold my breath. Here's the 2018 mfc Season Set card #1, Mickey Callaway! Not yelling!

Smiling!

I don't recall ever experiencing such a flawless start for a rookie manager, no less a new Mets manager, in all my days. Callaway had just been spot on with all his decisions so far.

I hope he can continue this excellence.
_________________________________

This post was drafted in August of 2015 but never published. I'm going through old drafts that for some reason or other did not see the light of your monitors. I thought I'd dust this one off and get it up before I go into the Mets 2018 season, which has started out better than I thought it would. Waaaaay better. :)

2017-'65 mfc Wes Westrum

Wes Westrum joined the Mets as a coach in 1964, and became pitching coach in July 1965 after the release of Warren Spahn. 

Wes was named the Mets' manager when Casey Stengel was injured on August 30, 1965, and stepped down as skipper of the perennial last-place club. It's been said that Stengel picked Westrum to be manager over coach Yogi Berra because he planned on returning to manage the Mets, and he didn't want to have to ask Berra to step down. "The ol' perfesser" never did return though, and Westrum was the Mets manager on opening day in 1966.

The Mets fared no better under Westrum in 1965, losing 48 of the 67 games under his leadership, but his 1966 club escaped the basement for the first time in the Mets' five-year history. The '66 Mets finished ninth in the ten-team National League, posting a record of 66 wins and 95 losses, a 16-game improvement over the previous season. The Mets were slowly developing an array of young pitchers in the minor leagues; however, apart from Tom Seaver, none arrived in time to help Westrum in 1967, when New York again finished tenth and last. Westrum resigned with 11 games to go in the season and coach Salty Parker managed the team for the remaining eleven games of the 1967 season, and Gil Hodges was named manager for 1968.

 Westrum died at the age of 79 in Clearbrook, Minnesota on May 28, 2002.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>The Dark Knight Will Open!

Who wasn't worried? Who isn't relieved? Matt Harvey's medical problem has been resolved and he is still slated as opening day starter in Kansas City. 

The last time Matt faced the Royals he gave us his all. 

This rematch is a perfect way to show the Royals that  the 2015 World Series is a thing of the past. They beat that Mets team. 

The Mets of 2016 are a slightly different animal. And New York will show Kansas City just how different as Matt Harvey starts in a few days. Matt, give us everything you've got Sunday. Don't hold it in.

(he will be hearing that for the rest of his career. lol)

ARE YOU READY?

GOT YOUR GEAR ON??!

LET'S GO METS!!!!!!

Special 2016 mfc insert card

The Dark Knight Opens

________________________________________________

They took a cab, like the old days!:)

As soon as Matt got back from the doctors in New York I got the boys together to pose for a photo at the not yet famous Sadecki Spot. I didn't think they'd be able to get away from Port St. Lucie but after the day's workout they hopped a cab and zipped over to St. Petersburg where the Mets used to hold spring training.

mfc -Mets Rotation at the Sadecki Spot- six piece puzzle
Thanks guys! Okay, back to work!

This is an mfc Wes Westrum Sadecki Spot Commemorative Collection card. There are 69 cards in this set. Collect them all! All player photos were taken at the Sadecki Spot.
This is the 2nd S.S.C.C. card to surface here on the blog.

I know you're all waiting anxiously for the Story Of The Sadecki Spot and it's place in Mets History. MFC is preparing a tribute for a future post.

_____________________________________________

Also an in depth look at my personal white whale, 

the white wall of Shea in April, 1967. 

_____________________________________________

mfc Colorization: Wes Westrum

1967 Fantazy Met cards- Tommy Davis to Tom Seaver!

The 1967 Topps set is great in so many ways. If the '66 set was generic looking, like a knock off, the '67 set made up for it in simple coolness. So many great players. Team name nice and big and bright. The real estate afforded the excellent photography was never so large, and I loved this. The choice of hot pink for the Mets though, it looks cool and all but I wish they used a different color.

*^#@*~!>>>>>>>My wish is my command.

____1967 Fantazy Shaun Fitzmaurice X2____

Fitzmaurice gets a card because I found some nice pictures of him. Gets a second card because I needed a guinea pig for the orange METS. He played 9 games for the Mets, managed two hits. A card for each hit. I imagine the clubhouse laundry guy was very happy Shaun didn't spill any coffee on the uniform.

1967 Fantasy Wes Westrum

1967 Fantasy Tommy Davis

______Topps recycled Tommy Davis in 1961 and '69______

Tommie Davis was a great hitter who had an interesting career. In 1962 he batted .346 for the L.A.Dodgers and won the N.L. batting crown. He smacked 27 home runs & drove in 120. He finished third in the MVP balloting, behind teammate Maury Wills (who won) & Willie Mays.

In 1963 he won his second batting title in a row. To date, Davis' back-to-back batting titles are the only two in the Dodgers' Los Angeles history. On May 1, 1965, Davis broke and dislocated his ankle on a slide and was out for the rest of the season. For the 1966 season he batted .313 in limited plate appearances.

After the 1966 season, Davis(along with Derrell Griffith)was traded to the Mets for Ron Hunt and Jim Hickman. He did good, batting .302 with 16 HR and 73 RBIs.

Still, the Mets decided to trade him in 1967, and it ended up being a crucial trade in Met history.

He went to the Chicago White Sox in a six-player deal. Two of the players the Mets got were Tommie Agee and Al Weis. More seeds, more pieces to the puzzle that would make the 1969 miracle Mets. They join Cleon and Buddy :)

Topps called Ed & Rocky Mets Maulers. I never liked that for some reason. Not too fond of Mashers either. I was going to go with Meticulous Mets but I have no idea if these guys were finicky. And there's one of the Millers at Butterball Field, St. Petersburg Florida.

_____________Mets 1966 Team Leaders__________

________________________________________________________________

On an earlier post I said that the ultimate Met rookie card would be a Seaver/Ryan. That's true, but from a card collectors standpoint. From a real Met fans perspective a Koosman/Seaver rookie card would have been the ultimate. Our one two punch that took us to the series twice. If I actually did fantasize about these things I'd conjure up a Koosman/Seaver over a Seaver/Ryan anyday.

When I was making the mfc Koosman/Seaver rookie I first added the photo of Tom and it looked like this before I shrunk it down.

But looking at it like this, I thought, ya know, this is really how the card should look. No disrespect to Jerry, cause I loved him and in those days I was more a fan of his than I was of Seaver. When I came along to the Mets Seaver was their ace and I kinda took him for granted. But the truth is that's how big George Thomas Seaver was to the New York Mets in 1967.


          Updated 12-19-13Z
~Last Updated 12-17-14z