Typing on the Fringes

[batmagadanleadoff]

A 2013 opening day grand slam, along with a double earlier in the game, provided about 90% of his Mets value.

A pointless double L in both his first and last names gave him a reputation as a notorious L-hoarder, and that is believed to have contributed to the thinking behind his mid-season trade

I'm declaring you the winner of the Cowgill fringe contest. I mean, what else is there on Cowgill? I probably conflated Cowgill and Teagarden because they both hit grand slams in their first games as a Met.





Catch the theme? Grand Slam Sunday? Grand Slam Debuts? At Citi Field? This guy?

[batmagadanleadoff]

Sam Haggerty was a Cleveland Indian prospect who finally broke through as a major leaguer in 2019 with the Mets But after four at-bats, he was a goner, his place on the fringes of Mets history firmly engraved. He's remained in the majors every season since, never accumulating more than a few dozen at bats in any season, fortifying his fringiness. Picture on Typewriter's beloved 2019 total Mets set, code named Holy Curt Gowdy!, whachyouse got on Haggerty?

[Edgy MD]

Haggerty was widely considered to be the best baserunner in the system — not merely fast, but skilled all around as a bezrunner.

A 2019 Mets team going into September was still on the fringes of the race, but had a really bad run of baserunning mistakes, and pressed the Haggerty button — a particularly rare Esix Snead of a move where a dude is called up specifically to run the bases. The Sons of Rod Kanehl.

But here's the thing — Syracuse manager Tony DeFrancesco had his own way of going about shit. Rather than call a player into his office and play a teasing game with him before letting know he's been promoted to The Show, Tony liked to let the player know in front of the whole team while addressing his squad before and after the game. This way not only did the player get the support of his teammates, but the teammates also get the vicarious thrill of "Hey, I've played alongside this dude all year, and seen how hard he's worked, so maybe my work will be recognized as well, and I'll get my call. Besides, I've played with this guy since we were 18. I've met his folks, and I have a crushy-wushy on his sister, so good on him!!"

I had watched a few videos that year of DeFrancesco doing just that, and it had pretty much worked out as scripted. But not so much with Haggerty. Sam had only been with the organization for one season after coming over from Cleveland in the Kevin Plawecki trade. And he had only been called up from Binghamton to Syracuse for a week or two. If anybody in that clubhouse was invested in anybody's career besides his own, Haggerty's wasn't at the top of the list. DeFrancesco was acting all dramatically, and saying that he got a call from Mickey Callaway and Callaway wanted a guy who knew what he was doing on the bases. And then he said the word "Sam" and my God, he got the softest and most embarrassing round of applause.

It was early September, and I guess the players all realized that if wasn't their name being called then, it wasn't going to happen this year at all, and "Fuck! I'm a minor league free agent at the end of the season, so this looks like the end of the line. And who the fuck is this Sam guy anyhow? It's that guy that's been using Matt Kemp's old locker?! Fuck him! Any asshole can run the bases!"

It was like that scene in The Kominsky Method when Sandy announced that one of his students got a gig as a regular on a TV show and all the other students provide the most miserable congratulations ever. That's what Haggerty got as a sendoff to the big leagues.

Haggs, for his part was uses almost exactly according to his mandate, making about 80% of his appearances as a pinch-runner — particularly used to replace ... I wanna say Todd Frazier? I imagine he ran for Wilson Ramos on occasion as well.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Holy Moley, Edgy! I think we've discovered your niche. Fringe Mets. This stuff is great. I think you know more about Haggerty than Haggerty himself. I remember the base running stuff (look at Sam's card; he's taking a lead off a base) but nothing about Syracuse.

Whachyouse got on P.J. Conlon, fringy Mets reliever pictured on a 2018 Typewriter Total Mets Set - Code Name: Puppet, Pauper, Pirate, Poet, Pawn and King

[Edgy MD]

P.J. Conlon — the first Irish born Major Leaguer in like sixty years. Born, in fact, on Falls Road in Belfast — ground zero of The Troubles.

His family fled to The U.S. to raise him in a safer environment. When he made his debut, a big contingent of extended family came out to support him, despite being largely baseball-illiterate and an auntie or somebody held up a picture of beloved Capuchin Saint Padre Pio to bless him whenever he was on the mound.

[Edgy MD]

Checking, and I see he was actually the first Irish-born Met since 1945, so 73 years.

Here's the auntie, who I screen-capped at the time.

[Edgy MD]

And you know, shut my mouth. I found the video on Haggerty, and his teammates are more or less supportive. Maybe I remember the other players getting bigger hands earlier in the season, but it sure sounds loud enough now. Maybe the organization has amplified the applause in the interim, but more likely I've misremembered.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Let's rock 'n roll again. Today's fringy Met is also a recidivist Met. One lone at-bat in 2002 when the Mets called Shea Stadium their home and then a few dozen more in 2010 right across the parking lot at Citi Field. Whachyouse got on Gary Matthews, Jr. pictured on a Typewriter 2010 Rock and Roll trading card?

[Edgy MD]

Gary is one of several Members of The Burnitz League — Met outfielders we had both before and after they were good, although he was never that good for very long, only shining in perhaps two or three seasons. His outfielding and switch-hitting distinguished him from his father, but his father was much more consistent year-to-year with the bat. His one All-Star/near Gold Glove season got him a big old contract from the Angels, and then he immediately declined both offensively and defensively, because by some cosmic law, things break that way for the Angels. In fairness though, his decline was probably pretty predictable, at least offensively. The Mets got him in a contract dump, the Angels sending a wheelbarrow of cash along with him in exchange for swingman/not-a-Broadway-star Brian Stokes, who quickly pitched his way into oblivion.

He was one of two recidivists — along with Mike Jacobs — in the 2010 Opening Day lineup, when the original plans didn't work out. The 2010 Mets were starting to taste the austerity of 2011, so in truth, the original plans didn't go very deep, but it was Angel Pagan he was subbing for to start the season.

He did quite well, at least on Opening Day, garnering a single, a double, and a walk, because Mets simply tend to do well on Opening Day, by some other, more lovely, cosmic law.

But he immediately (like, literally from Game 2 on) slumped into the fading player he seemed to be when he was dumped, and though he might have had some reserve utility when Pagan returned, you didn't get the idea his heart was in it, and his mid-season release was a surprise to none, except insomuch as Mike Jacobs lasted a month longer and they received cash for his contract.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Good reporting. I could swear I already told you that in this thread before. Eight games and 22 at-bats is all Justin Ruggiano would get out of his brief and fringy stint in the orange and blue. Whachyouse got on Justin, pictured below in a Typewriter Total 2016 Mets set, code named Sludge? And do check out the perspective foreshortening on Justin's baseball bat. His head appears to be longer than his baseball bat. Is that even a baseball bat or is Justin holding a long can of beer?

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Wore No. 1, looked great for one or two games--just enough to make you believe maybe, he was really something--then had one of the most violent and painful-looking collisions with an outfield wall I can remember seeing, and if I'm not mistaken that was the end of him as a Met, and probably, a big-leaguer

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

As usual I remembered the sequence of events wrong... But I was right about the collision...



His big hit was after he returned from this injury--a monster grand slam off Bumgarner back when he was the best pitcher in the world.

[Edgy MD]

I think you're sort of right though. He hit the Injured List twice in succession. I think he hit the granny in between, and then got reinjured in a non-contact injury (shoulder?) that was a lingering effect of the collision.

Good job. I was coming up empty.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Good Ruggianoing. I remember the granny. And here it is:



Lotsa fringy Mets with big homers for their legacies. Guillermo Heredia did it a few years ago during the short covid season. And this might end up being Nick Plummer's legacy.

We're gonna expand our definition of "Fringe Met" for the purposes of this thread because if I keep on posting players who were three week/10 at bat Mets, everybody's gonna mostly get stumped most of the time. So we're now gonna define a fringe Met to include any Met for which no MLB licensed baseball card (non-regional) exists.

Our newest fringe Met was a two year Met, a reliever mainly, who never pitched more than a coupl'a dozen innings in any of his two Mets seasons. Elmers Dessens rocks the TCG Rock and Roll set, below. Whachyouse got?

[Edgy MD]

Mexican.

[whippoorwill]

Candy-???

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

The Glue Gun. I wanna say this chubby palooka was in his moment, the best reliever on the entire club. Wore no 64.

Also how come we've never seen the Rock m Roll set before

[batmagadanleadoff]

The Glue Gun. I wanna say this chubby palooka was in his moment, the best reliever on the entire club. Wore no 64.

Me too. I can't recall the specific minutia, but I remember liking Dessens.

Also how come we've never seen the Rock m Roll set before

You haven't seen the majority of the TCG stuff. This thread is an excuse to open the vaults a little bit.

[Edgy MD]

Joined the Mets at the butt end of a long career, and I'm pretty sure he either went to the Mexican League after, or played in the WBC for Mexico after. Maybe both.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Candy-???

[Edgy MD]

I like it in spirit, but the layout composition that places the model underneath his butthole is kinda kreepy, to say nothing of her childlike proportions to him.

[Fman99]

Candy-???

I love this album cover.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I like it in spirit, but the layout composition that places the model underneath his butthole is kinda kreepy, to say nothing of her childlike proportions to him.

I think the card pretty much works out but, yeah, there's definitely a subjective element to all of this. We could've put the model farther back in the photo, say closer to the infield dirt, and then it might've worked out more to your liking. She wouldn't be so close to Dessens, and objects appear smaller the farther back they are, which would allow us to keep these proportions.

But there were two design challenges to constructing this card. First, we wanted her as close to Dessens as possible in order to strengthen the connection between pitcher and model ... to make it appear as if each was not only aware of the other's presence, but as if they were both on the field together in unison. Yes, she appears to be looking up Dessens's "butthole", but that was kinda by design. (Design!, Get it?) We embraced the so-called creepiness of it. We're TCG and we don't necessarily strive for wholesomeness all of the time!

Also, we wanted the model to appear fully, that is, not cut off by the borders of the card. We wanted to see her entire body. We felt, for example, that it was crucial to see both of her shoes. To have the card borders crop off part of her lower leg would diminish her sexiness ... her visual appeal. And that explains the model's size. (It's not really model, but a Vargas Girl illustration, right?)

We think the proportions work out because there's no way of telling, at least from the card, how tall the model is supposed to be. On the Cars album cover, you can estimate the model's height because she's laying on an automobile, and so the the car is a reference point to determine the model's height. You know how big the car oughtta be and so you can take it from there. But on the card, there are no reference points like an automobile hood. And there's no requirement that the model need to be as tall as Dessens. I took a closer look after you posted, and I was trying to remember what I was thinking when I made this card a few years ago, and I remembered, again, that I wanted the model to appear on the card fully. She could be a tad larger, but then her legs would extend beyond the borders where a part of her leg would disappear. So that's the story.

[Edgy MD]

(It's not really model, but a Vargas Girl illustration, right?)

Well, Vargas used actual models as subjects for his illustrations. In this case, he used Candy Moore. Often confused and conflated with the Candy Moore who played Lucy's daughter in The Lucy Show, this Candy Moore was mostly known for her work as a Vargas model, as a photographic subject on several Rick James record covers, and for her turn as Diedre in the Oscar-spurned 1981 celluloid feature Lunch Wagon.



Skeezy guy makes fun of skeezy movie! Come for the (really) cheap exploitation! Stay for the Missing Persons cameos!

[batmagadanleadoff]

I like it in spirit, but the layout composition that places the model underneath his butthole is kinda kreepy, to say nothing of her childlike proportions to him.

Slightly, ever so slightly bigger model. Noticeable? Meaningful? Don't forget - Dessens is a very chunky guy, and he's about six feet tall, too.

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