The Crane Pool Forum

“Come on, man, if they want to put a stop to their guys getting hit, somebody’s gotta charge the mound,” Strawberry said by phone. “I know the game is different now but at some point you have to let teams know that if they throw at you, they’re going to pay a price.

“That’s how we were. Teams didn’t like us because we were in New York and we were good and we took curtain calls, so they tried to test us by throwing at us and we put a stop to that real quick. We let them know we were going to fight them, all of us, and they were going to respect us.

“This team has beaten up on some teams early and I think they’re being tested. If you don’t make a statement, other teams are going to keep doing what they’re doing and think you’re a bunch of softies. You can’t have guys getting hit in the head and not do anything about it. So make your statement early: ‘You keep hitting us and we’re going to charge the mound and snap your neck.’“

As he indicated, Strawberry knows almost nobody charges the mound the way they did decades ago, in part because suspensions are so much lengthier -- and costly -- than they were at that time.

Still, he was emphatic in saying the need for action should supersede any concern about punishment.

“Who cares about a suspension?” Strawberry said. “You throw all that out the window when teams are throwing at you. And it doesn’t matter if it’s not intentional. Pitchers obviously are trying to throw up and in on them. You have to let them know, ‘we’re not going to allow you to keep hitting us.’

“You go out there and pop them in the face and it does a couple of things. It did for us, anyway: it forces pitchers to back off from what they’re doing, and it becomes a bonding thing for a team. Once we established that we had each other’s backs and nobody was going to mess with us, we felt like we were never going to lose. It was part of who we were.

“I’m not saying this team has to be the animals that we were. I’d just like to see the Mets win again. It’s been a long time. The fans in New York deserve another championship. I’m glad to see this team is off to a good start. I played for Buck (Showalter) in ’95 (with the Yankees), so I know they’ve got a good manager.

“But it’s up to the players to form that bond, and this is the kind of thing that can help do that. It’s up to the players to say ‘the hell with this, we’re getting hit too many times.’“

“1977 was really strange,” Stearns said. “They had old owners and they just thought if someone made $20,000 a year, that was way too much. They were old school. That’s what they were used to paying people. And the Seaver trade, I can’t imagine why anyone would do that. It was these old-school owners who didn’t want to stay up with the new money line in baseball and Seaver wanted to get paid. He needed to be the highest paid guy in baseball and they traded him. Seaver and I had hit it off and it was amazing catching him. It was awesome and he brought me a long way.

“We got all these players [for him] and it just didn’t work. I don’t think we had enough talent to be a contender after the Seaver deal. If you look at the players we got, how many turned out to be solid Major Leaguers? Doug Flynn was a good second baseman but he wasn’t a good hitter, Zachry wasn’t that good, Henderson had one good year and then wasn’t that good. It didn’t turn out to be a good deal.”

Edgy MD wrote: ↑Fri May 06, 2022 10:08 pm Well, that thread made me stupider.

Mets fans the Bad Dude needs your prayers and good thoughts. For years John Stearns gave his heart and soul to this organization and now he needs our support. John is currently in as assisted living facility in Denver and he is battling a tough disease.

This week his old high school ,Thomas Jefferson, retired his uniform Number 12 and John was able to attended the ceremonies.

His son told me that John loves hearing from his old fans so we have set something up on his Facebook Page where people can write.

John Stearns Facebook Page → https://bit.ly/3LYt0nM

The more notes, the happier Dude will be . So if you feel inclined please drop John a line or two. Know it will be deeply appreciated. Thinking of you my old friend.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: ↑Sun May 08, 2022 8:23 am so can confirm he like hearing from fans.

It was hard for Jefferies to retire and it was hard for him to join a veteran-laden, talented Mets team in the late 1980s. “I made a lot of mistakes. I had a terrible temper,” said Jefferies. “And I came in replacing one of the team favorites, Wally Backman.

“I wore my heart on my sleeves. I lived and died every good-and-bad game. And you can’t play baseball like that,” Jefferies said.

In a recent New York Post story by Joel Sherman, some of the Mets from that era apologized for the way they treated Jefferies. “He was not allowed to thrive in the way he should have. In retrospect it is a black mark on the team,” said pitcher Ron Darling.

“It was nice for them to admit that,” said Jefferies, “but I’ve never put the blame on them ever. For them to come out and say, ‘We treated this kid wrong,’ was nice to hear.

“They easily could said Jefferies was a brat or he was a punk, but they didn’t.”

Well, the pitcher who was named baseball's toughest player in 2010 is even more intimidating now. After hanging up his cleats following the 2014 season, Farnsworth turned to semi-pro football. That wasn't enough, though: Now Farnsworth is a competitive bodybuilder.