A bunch of Met fans got together in an Astoria bar last Saturday afternoon. A bunch of Met fans has been getting together in some bar or other in the bleak mid-winter since 2014. The Queens Baseball Convention happened this past weekend, and this grass-roots gathering is starting to become an annual rite of winter. It’s our own run-up to spring training. This was the fourth scheduled shindig, the third that’s actually taken place. It wasn’t like this last year. Last year got snowed out. It was supposed to happen the day after the blizzard that brought us Yoenis Cespedes for 2016. This time, as one of the organizers said to me toward the end of the day, “We got so lucky with the weather.” A brief snow squall in the afternoon was all that winter could work up this time and though it was cloudy and cold, inside Katch Astoria, it may as well have been the Fourth of July.
After handing in a ticket and getting my two autograph vouchers – more on that in a minute – I got a festivity program and a nifty QBC lapel pin. It was then time to commence the schmoozing. It is always great to hobnob and talk Mets baseball with great friends of long standing. I hung out at length with Faith and Fear In Flushing’s Greg Prince. I got a gift of a discarded number 7 from a long-forgotten spring training jersey design from the author of Mets By The Numbers, Jon Springer. I had a couple of meaty Met conversations with Matthew Silverman, author of many Met tomes. I exchanged hugs with Mark Healy of Gotham Baseball and got to greet his dad, a Terry Collins doppelganger. I got warm greetings from Michael Baron, Maggie Wiggin and Matthew Cerrone from Metsblog, the granddaddy of ‘em all. I got to tell Shannon Shark of Mets Police — one of the organizers of the event — what a marvelous afternoon it had been. I know I sound a little star struck, but this is the beauty of the thing, to me – the chance to get the flesh-and-blood versions of the people we read online. As you might know, I call it the Mets Blogger Trade Show.
The panels were terrific. There are usually at least two former Mets in attendance. This year did not disappoint. This year we got two pennant-winners: Tim Teufel and Bobby Valentine took questions and told us stories of Mets past, present and future. We learned a lot. From Teufel – erstwhile third base coach, now assigned as a roving infield instructor – we heard that Amed Rosario is the genuine article. We heard that making Daniel Murphy into a second baseman was his proudest accomplishment as a coach and we heard that Roger McDowell spent an afternoon in the Wrigley Field bleachers while his teammates were out on the field and he nearly caught a homerun ball. Privately, during autograph time, I asked him about Gavin Cecchini and was told he’s behind Rosario on the depth chart at shortstop and that his future is probably at second base due to a weak arm.
There are very few speakers I’d rather listen to than Bobby Valentine. He is a natural raconteur and he jovially worked the barroom, shaking hands and flashing that megawatt smile we all got used to in 1999. He told the real story of the infamous “Moustache Disguise,” revealing for maybe the first time that Robin Ventura was agent provocateur behind the stunt. He spoke about the real context behind his remarks about Todd Hundley “not getting enough sleep.” He says today that he didn’t mean Hundley was out running around, but that he did have an actual problem sleeping. He loved that great infield and swore that John Olerud was underrated for his defense. When I got his autograph, I relayed to him one of my favorite memories. His first spring training, my dad and I went to the first intra-squad game. Valentine came out to the backstop and bellowed out the starting lineups to the couple of hundred of us in the stands, because he wasn’t sure if there was going to be a PA or not.
All in all, a pretty damn good way to spend a Saturday in January.
Follow me on Twitter @CharlieHangley.
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Wow. I was in NYC this past weekend and I wish I knew. How do we find out about this event?
Had Teufel not had such an obviously bad year last year, Met fans would be more warm to his tenure. He has worked hard and been a good organizational guy.
Valentine belongs on TV because he’s a great story teller. However with regard to managing, his penchant to stirring the pot (to create attention, something I think Collins has) was overdone in Boston and shows that he needs to be in a less controlling environment. I had read that he’s considering returning to Japan to manage again. I know he’s younger than Terry Collins and thinks he still can.
Thanks for sharing the day.