Was Seaver's Remark Really Offensive?

I don't know, and neither do you.

Let's go to the video tape...



Host, Kevin Burkhardt, asked Darryl Strawberry who would win a game between the 1986 Mets or the 1969 Mets.

Stawberry states the '86 team would have won.

This eventually leads to Tom Terrific making the following comment:

"You don't have handcuffs on your wrists, do you?"

As you can imagine, that went over well.

For those unaware, Strawberry has had his run-ins with the law in the past.

I have to admit that I winced a little after the comment was made.

For those willing to give Seaver the benefit of the doubt, handcuffed is a baseball term as well, defined as:

A pitch thrown high and inside may handcuff a batter because he can't get his hands far enough away from his body to swing the bat.

Maybe Seaver used the word handcuffs in that context??? If he's smart, that's the excuse he'll use.

In all likelihood, we'll never know Tom Seaver's true intentions when he made his remark to Darryl Strawberry.

I highly doubt Seaver would ever come out and say, "Yeah, I was making reference to his law-breaking days."

I've never found Seaver to be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I don't see him being dumb enough to admit making such a remark.

Strawberry was on WFAN this morning and denied that he was offended by Seaver's comment and said that he didn't think Seaver meant anything by it.

"No, he was not. No," he told WFAN’s Boomer & Carton. “Tom is great, I’ve got a great relationship with him. He wasn’t making (a joke), he was talking about, ‘Nothing stopping us. You know, there’s an opportunity, let’s go.' 

"We don’t fight, what are we fighting about?" said Strawberry. "He’s talking about, 'What’s holding you back right now? What, you got handcuffs tying you down, you can’t pick up a bat?'"

At the end of the day, if Strawberry isn't even offended by the comments, then the fans and media need to let it go.  

Gavin Cecchini and Kevin Plawecki Meet the Media

Baseball is now underway for everyone in the Mets organization; from New York to Kingsport.

Two of the Mets top draft picks of 2012 were at Citi Field last week and talked to the Media about how it feels to be on the same field as David Wright, why they picked their jersey number and their expectations as they begin their professional career.

Q & A With Cleon Jones

Cleon Jones enjoying a slice of pizza named after him.
The Cleon(patra) Jones.

Cleon Jones was on hand Friday night for a Mets alumni event and to be honored by Two Boots, a Cajun-Italian inspired restaurant, who named one of their famous pizzas after the former Met. Jones was nice enough to take a few minutes to talk about the 1969 team and share some good stories.


On the 1969 team and Gil Hodges:
We were just having fun. From Seaver, Koosman, Agee, and Harrison...we were the worst team in baseball the year before, and we thought we were getting better. We never thought that we were good enough to win a world series, or even get there in the playoffs. But Gil Hodges kept telling us that we were good enough, and that's why I maintain the fact that sometimes the manager makes a difference. This particular year, he made all the difference in the world, because if not for Gil Hodges, it could have been Davey Johnson, it could have been Casey Stengel, it could have been any manager, if not for Gil  Hodges we would not be talking about the '69 Mets. That's how good he made us.

Finding out the team got Donn Clendenon:
We knew about a month before he came over. We thought he was probably going to be with the ball club, and we knew at that time that we were weak against left-handed pitching. We were pretty good against right-handed pitching ,and we thought by getting Donn, he would make us stronger against left-handed pitching. Never in my life did I think that he would make that much of a difference. He made a difference on the field and in the clubhouse. He became one of my leaders. He called himself a lawyer, and he was a clubhouse lawyer. He got on everybody....it made for a close-knit type atmosphere because we were always competing against one another...and even pulling our families together. We did a lot of family things with our entire family. We were family long before the Pittsburgh Pirates became a family, and that's because of Gil Hodges and Clendenon.

Comparing to the 2012 Mets:  
I just came out of the clubhouse, and these guys are having fun in the clubhouse. Therefore, they like one another, and when you like one another, you're going to do a better job as a team. I would put this group in the same level as the '69 Mets. As a matter of fact, they're probably more talented than we were. I won't say anything about the manager because I've never dealt with the manager. I don't know who he is, I know his name, but I don't know what his philosophy is, or how he's in control of the team. [Jerry] Koosman saw Gil Hodges smile in a photo and said, 'He never smiled like that around us!'

Competing for a batting title:
I was having fun, and we were better than we were the year before. That meant we were winning somewhere. Gil Hodges was callous man. I was hitting around .360, leading everybody by about 20 points, and I came in for a fly ball, and cracked a rib, but I didn't know it was cracked. I contained the play and it got worse and worse. Finally I had to come sit down for about two weeks. When I came back I wasn't the same the entire year. '69 was a miracle year for the Mets. It was a miracle year for me. No doubt in my mind I would have lead the league in hitting that year had I been free of injury, because I was in a zone like I've never been before of since then. It didn't matter who was pitching. I knew I was going to get my hit because we were playing that kind of ball, and we were winning. It's easy to contribute to your stats when you're winning. That's what was taking place at that particular time.

Hodges taking him out of the outfield:
It wasn't what everybody thought it was. Gil Hodges was a just individual, he would never embarrass anyone. We had just had a talk in Montreal, I had sprained my ankle, and we had a talk in his office. I said, 'I don't want to come out of the lineup unless I'm hurting the team. If I get to the point where I'm hurting the team, then take me out of the lineup.' We were playing Houston here, and it rained all day, all night. The field was soaked. They were taking the tar to us. They were hitting everything we threw up there. They were just beating us pretty good. We come into the dugout and we acted like we were liking it, I guess. Everybody was still doing their same, normal things, and we weren't concentrating one what we should do, or how we are going to get out of this. He got tired of that.

When he came out of the dugout, I was totally surprised. I thought he was coming to take the pitcher out. Then he passed the pitchers mound, so I'm like 'What the hell did Buddy do?' Buddy was our shortstop. He passed Buddy. When he passed Buddy, I'm looking around. He came up to me and said, 'I don't like the way you ran at that last ball.' I said, 'What?' He said, 'I don't like the way you ran at the last ball.' I said, 'A left-handed batter hit a ball down the line. That's a double, Gil.' I said, 'Look down.' He looked down and my feet was on the wall and his feet was on the wall. I said, 'You can't ever get out here.' He said, 'You have a bad ankle, so you probably need to come out of the game anyway.' I said okay. Everybody got all excited about he was reprimanding me, I wasn't hustling, but that never happened. He wasn't that kind of a person.                       

ICYMI: The Week In Review

After getting swept by the Yankees last weekend in the Bronx, the Mets moved on to St. Petersburg where they swept the Rays in a three-game series.

Chris Young recorded his first win with the Mets since his return. His last win as a Met? April 5, 2011.

Terry Collins and pitching coach Dan Warthen mixed things up in the bullpen earlier in the week. With the exception of Frank Francisco as closer and Tim Byrdak as the lefty specialist, all other bullpen roles have been done away with. Essentially, if you want to be the eighth inning setup man, you're going to have to earn it.  

R.A. Dickey threw a one-hitter on Wednesday night. The Mets appealed to have that one-hitter changed to a no-hitter, arguing that David Wright should have been charged with an error after attempting to field a hit by B.J. Upton. They lost the appeal.

National League All-Star manager Tony LaRussa selected Terry Collins to join his staff for this year's All-Star game.

Ike Davis is starting to heat up at the plate. He has a seven game hitting streak and his average is now up to .192.

The Mets have signed 15 of this year's draft picks. For the complete list, visit ESPN.

On the injury front...

Jayson Bay was placed on the 7-Day disabled list with a concussion after crashing into the left field wall Friday night.

Justin Turner was activated from the disabled list following Bay's injury.

Ronny Cedeno, who has been on the disabled list since May 27 with a calf strain, is expected to return some time this week. In Triple-A Buffalo Saturday, Cedeno played all nine innings at shortstop and went 0-3.

The Mets are hopeful that Ruben Tejada will begin a rehab assignment on Monday. According to Terry Collins, Tejada ran in a straight line on Friday.