I had a chance to catch up with Buddy Harrelson at Citibank park a week before Willie Randolph was fired. In addition to talking about the highlights of his time playing, coaching, and managing the Mets, Buddy discussed his thoughts on managing in New York.

To listen click here or download it at the NY Baseball Digest Archive

Former Met and Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan has agreed to a four year contract with the Rangers to serve as their President, according to ESPN. According to the article, Ryan will spend some time getting a feel of the players, coaches, and organization in general before changing things up. From Ryan:

“I don’t want to come in and make wholesale changes without knowing where we are in this organization and this operation”

Ryan started his career with the Mets, including the 1969 World Series team, but threw all seven of his no hitters elsewhere.

Good luck to Ryan. It must be extra exciting for GM Jon Daniels, who was a Met fan in his younger days.

Because its early into spring training, and there’s no real news, head over to CBS Sportsline and check out an article on a man who found the image of Ron Swoboda in a hot dog. A quote as a sneak preview:

At first, I thought it could have been Lee Mazzilli, but the hairline was all wrong.

Please note…the linked article is indeed, fiction. But hey, its a slow news day.

It’s just three short days until pitchers, catchers, and David Wright report to Port St. Lucie to start their work. What a glorious time to be alive! The expectations for the 2008 season might be higher than any I’ve experienced in my 24 spring trainings as a fan. This is a Mets team that is supposed to win the National League, and is supposed to have an excellent chance of taking the whole damn thing. Wow.Some might say that nothing short of a World Series win can be considered a success for this club. It’s true that a championship would be the ultimate accomplishment, and gratify us as fans for years to come. After all, none of the teams I root for, in any sport, has won a championship since 1986—and even if they had, I would trade any number of victories in the lesser sports for just one more New York Mets World Series championship. Having said all that, I disagree that nothing less than a championship will do. I tremendously enjoyed the 1999, 2000, and 2006 seasons. Sure they were bittersweet in the end, but they were great rides while they lasted.

How much better is it, then, to have not just a great ride, but a title to go with it? I mentioned in my last column that it’s hard to evaluate how good a trade is from a fan’s standpoint, because we don’t really have a metric for measuring fan gratification. Indeed, most of the analysis of the Johan Santana trade fell into two camps: “Yeah, we got Johan!” or “Boo, we spent way too much to get Johan.” In my view, neither camp has it quite right. The “Yeah!” camp overlooks the idea that it might be tougher for the Mets to compete in the future because of the Johan trade and signing. The “Boo!” camp overlooks the idea that Mets fans don’t care if we paid a little too much to get Johan, so long as we still have money to spend, and so long as Johan brings us a championship.

The fans mostly only care about what happens to the product on the field, not what it cost to put it there. To evaluate the Johan trade in terms of dollars doesn’t really make sense. It would make more sense to evaluate the trade in terms of what it brings to us, as fans. In an attempt to come up with a measure to accomplish this feat, I propose the following totally arbitrary point system for fan gratification:

World Series championship: 1,000 points
LCS win: 50 points
Divisional series win: 50
Division title: 100 points
Wild card playoff appearance: 50 points
Regular season win: 1 point

The championship is the mother lode, but getting to the playoffs is still far better than not, and winning a playoff series enhances a fan’s enjoyment that much more. The 1999 season is far more memorable to me because of Todd Pratt’s walk-off homer in the divisional round, and the 2000 season would sit far differently in my mind without John Franco’s strikeout of Barry Bonds, or Mike Hampton’s complete-game shutout against the Cardinals. Also, even if you don’t win a playoff series, getting to the playoffs as a division winner is better than getting in as a wild card. (The clinching celebrations in 1986, 1988, and 2006 seemed far more warranted than those of 1999 and 2000.) To fans, getting to the playoffs matters, how you get there matters, winning playoff series once you’re there matters, and winning world championships matters a lot.

Based on this system that I just made up, here are fan gratification point totals for some Mets seasons.

2007: 88 points
2006: 246
2005: 83
2003: 66
2000: 244
1986: 1,258
1969: 1,250

The two championships are each more than five times better than any other season in our history—as it should be. 2007’s dismal ending made it only about a third as gratifying as 2006, but still 33% more gratifying than 2003, when we won a mere 66 games. If we ever do win a World Series in the current playoff system, it will likely be more gratifying than the championships of 1986 and 1988 because of the extra playoff series involved. This seems right to me. It’s a lot tougher to win three playoff series than two. Also, even though we got to the World Series in 2000, that season scores about the same as 2006. The playoff run in 2000 was great, but so was the regular season/division title of 2006. The scores reflect this fact.

The system isn’t perfect; for example, Robin Ventura’s grand single is nowhere accounted for, and that ain’t right. But while it’s not perfect, and while I completely pulled these numbers out of…the sky, I like this system that I’ve invented. If someone could tell me accurately what our chances of winning a title, a division championship, a playoff series, or a playoff berth were before and after the Johan trade, and then do that for every season of Johan’s contract, I would feel comfortable applying my own system to form an opinion about the trade. Without that information, however, I think I might’ve just wasted some time playing around with numbers before the season starts. Oh well. I guess the point I was really driving at is this—let’s win the World Series this year, shall we?

Hall of Famer and former Met ace Nolan Ryan is back with the baseball community. The AP reports that he has been hired as President of the Texas Rangers.

Ryan has been involved with the Astros organization, working more with the minor league teams. He played with the Rangers at the end of his career, during which time he put the smack down on other former Met Robin Ventura (a White Sock at the time).

Ryan has 324 wins, 5714 strikeouts, and seven no hitters. He made his MLB debut as a Met and was a member of the 69 World Series team. He had 14 games as a Met with double digit strikeouts and a 3.58 ERA with the team.

I’d assume Ryan will have to sell his stake in the two minor league teams, since both are part of the Astros family. Either way, best of luck to Ryan. He’ll have his work cut out for him, helping to get a Rangers team that hasn’t done much so far this decade to a more competitive level.

CBS Sportsline reports that for mer Met Don Cardwell has passed away of causes currently unknown. Cardwell went 8-10 with a 3.01 ERA on the World Series team in 1969, starting in 21 games and appearing in 9 others.

Cardwell pitched just one inning in the Series, but appeared in 101 games as a Met over four seasons, with a 3.31 ERA.

A memorial service will be held on January 17th.

Brain cancer survivor Jen McDevitt completed the New York City marathon yesterday as a member of Team McGraw, a group sponsored by the Tug McGraw Foundation, MSNBC reports.

Tug McGraw, who coined the phrase “Ya Gotta Believe” is a iconic figure for the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies, and father of country music star Tim McGraw. McGraw died in 2004 of brain cancer.

McDevitt was discovered to have brain cancer when she was pregnant and was given three to five years to live. She underwent treatment and beat the disease, and while doing so took up running. Her doctor encouraged her to run and felt it benefitted her recovery.

“There is no question that exercise plays a huge role in improving the psychological and physical and maybe even the curative status of these patients,” Friedman told NBC. “We think it enhances her chances of doing well and we absolutely, unequivocally support her.”

The catchphrase McGraw coined for the Mets, “You gotta believe,” has become her mantra.

“It’s amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it,” she told Morales. “I put my mind to ‘I’ll be cured.’ I’m going to live a long and healthy life.”

Great, great story, and a inspiration to anyone who is struggling with fighting cancer. It just goes to show, You Gotta Believe.

Hat tip to Chris D. (Hot Foot Jr.) for linking me to the story.

The AP reports that Ed Kranepool is suing Long Island Jewish Medical Center for illegally using his name and image in mailings that were soliciting donations. According to the AP:

Hospital officials say Kranepool enthusiastically agreed to be featured in the newsletter, but acknowledged they didn’t have his permission for the direct mailing.

Kranepool had received shoulder surgery at the hospital earlier in the year. For the younger readers out there, Ed Kranepool spent 18 years with the Mets, was a member of the 69 World Series team, and is the all time leader for hits (1418), games (1853), and doubles (225).

Illegally using Eddie Kranepool…is nothing sacred anymore?