Spring Training Countdown Epilogue & Table Of Contents

As Matt conveyed in both his Bobby Murcer piece yesterday and Oddibe McDowell post this morning, our Spring Training Countdown has reached it's conclusion and it's time for baseball, however informal it may be when camp begins. If you we were reading this blog a year ago, you might remember our first crack at the Countdown. Matt wasn't yet on board but we had other contributors like Joe (who came up with the idea for it), Boston Bren (who is responsible for the layout of the blog), and Cliff (who helps out with behind the scenes stuff here) all chipping in. The idea was to infuse the doldrums of the offseason with some history.

This year we left a few behind (Roger Clemens, Jorge Posada) but brought forward a lot of those posts and made significant additions and edits. With Matt now in the fold, he was able to draw on his vast reservoir of Yankee knowledge and add depth to many of the pieces, even those that have my byline on them.

I originally thought that resurrecting the Countdown would be a time saver. We could pull the posts forward, make some minor changes and have some easy content. But it turns out that every time I got to editing one of them, it would seem woefully incomplete or clumsily arranged. It ended up being a lot more work than I had anticipated, but the end result is 34 pretty interesting pieces, most of which we can build upon when next year rolls around.

Hopefully you the reader got something out of them too. Maybe some knowledge about Joe DiMaggio's time with the San Francisco Seals or some background on a player you didn't know much about like Gil McDougald or Spud Chandler. Perhaps some sympathy for Dave Righetti being thrust into the closer's role or a newfound respect for Roy White's career. Something interesting about the outlook for Mark Teixeira or Robinson Cano's upcoming season. Or were just reminded of some fond memories of Phil Rizzuto, Bobby Murcer or Thurman Munson.

25- Mark Teixiera

24- Robinson Cano

23- Don Mattingly

22- Allie Reynolds

21- Spud Chandler

21- Paul O'Neill

20- Kevin Youkilis

19- Dave Righetti

18- Johnny Damon

17- Gene Michael

17- Oscar Gamble

16- Dwight Gooden

16- Whitey Ford

15- Tom Tresh

15- Thurman Munson

14- Lou Pinella

13- Mike Pagliarulo

13- Alex Rodriguez

12- Gil McDougald

11- Buck Showalter

11- Lefty Gomez

10- Chris Chambliss

10- Phil Rizzuto

9- Graig Nettles

9- Roger Maris

8- Billy Dickey

8- Yogi Berra

7- Mickey Mantle

6- Roy White

5- Joe DiMaggio

4 & 3- Lou Gehrig & Babe Ruth

2- Derek Jeter

1- Billy Martin

1- Bobby Murcer

I know I learned a lot by putting together the ones I did, and even more by reading Matt's work. Hopefully when next year rolls around, though, we'll look at this series with fresh eyes, dust off these pieces and make them more complete. Perhaps we'll decide that we need to pay homage to Moose Skowron, Jimmy Key, Bobby Richardson and Vic Raschi. Maybe we'll start with #32, Elston Howard.

Weekend Slideshow Recap

This weekend was another barn burner, friends, which begins to explain the lack of posting.

If I didn't put in 7 hours of work today, or anyone besides Boston Bren, Kev-O, Burkey and our new lady friends from Jacksonville gave a shit, I could have written 1500 words on this weekend and still leave out some hilarious moments. (Like when Michael Kay walked in front of our section at the Big East Tournament on Friday night, and I drunkenly shouted/sang his radio show theme song and he gave me an acknowledging point).

There are at least two people we encountered over the last few days who are deserving of their own post. One is a Floridian friend (Claire, you forgot the rest of your bottle of Jim Beam at my apartment, baby). And let's just say that you Mets fans are going to be extremely ashamed of one of your compatriots. I get the feeling that one might be relatively popular around these here internets.

We again successfully infiltrated a team's pregame party at Stout (Lousiville), which is where the blurry cheerleader shot was taken. It was an extremely difficult feat. Without wearing any team colors, I was like "Woohooo! Go Cards!", gave the guy at the door with the porno mustache a high-five and walked right in. I can't take credit for the idea however, as Kev used the same brilliant technique to gain entrance into Pitt's party last year.

After we left the shindig, there was a fellow in a Syracuse sweatshirt and a ridiculously bright orange wig standing outside of the room. I walked up to him and said "Dude, you should try to sneak in to the Louisville party. Just tell them you lost a bet...".

The pictures at the end of the show were taken on the ferry to Weehawken. I could tell you what I was doing there, but then I would have to kill you.

If you watch closely, there may even be one picture of this guy.

/directs thumbs towards self.



Now look at those tags. If there wasn't a character limit, there would have been about 20 more.