I am shocked to see that he led the league in starts so recently as 2005. (So I haven't been paying attention, I admit it.) I wonder whether people will someday call 2003-2006-? "hanging on".

Is this serious? In those years he had an ERA+ of 107 with an average IP/season of 216.5. He made 138 starts in those four seasons. If he hadn't been a candidate for best pitcher ever*, you'd be calling that great production. Hanging on, indeed.


* He isn't, but in that discussion, he comes up.

Is this serious? In those years he had an ERA+ of 107 with an average IP/season of 216.5. He made 138 starts in those four seasons. If he hadn't been a candidate for best pitcher ever*, you'd be calling that great production. Hanging on, indeed.

What's funny is a few years ago someone called Suppan a poor man's Greg Maddux*- Suppan's peak looks eerily like Maddux's "hanging on" period.

* Before Suppan, Dave Mlicki had that title

Well, the Gooden story was entertaining, alright. As long as you don't mind getting challenges that you wouldn't receive elsewhere, it's all good!

I know, we're getting further off topic, but while we're on Ray Knight....

He gets the 86 Series MVP award (drove in 5 runs, not great, but he banged a crucial game 7 HR, and they had to give it to somebody), but really he was in a position to be a Merkle-type goat (or at least on par with little Giambi and Tejeda and Lonnie Smith) for a baserunning laziness play.

We all have seen the famous game 6-ending Buckner error, where Knight scores the winning run. If you ever get to see a camera shot that shows Knight from the beginning, he was clearly JOGGING to third on the slow roller, and only picked up steam when Billy missed it. What if Buckner had tipped the ball a little, Knight had tried to score, and was tossed out at home? There was no reason not to be running full steam on that play. Sloppy and lazy, but he was a hero instead of a villain.

oh, and Knight earlier had booted a ball, leading to an unearned run that caused the game to go into extra innings

He gets the 86 Series MVP award (drove in 5 runs, not great, but he banged a crucial game 7 HR, and they had to give it to somebody),

Calllll-vin . . . Calllll-vin . . . Calllll-vin . . . .

(OK, that would've been cruel, but hey -- nobody was more critical to the Mets winning the Series.)

Yeah, I was at that Game 7, Sam. The Cal-vin chant was so loud I'd swear they had put a roof on the stadium! I felt like it was almost impossible even for a fan to concentrate with that racket - how was the poor guy supposed to pitch?
Meanwhile, with Seaver having pitched for the Red Sox in '86, we've about come full circle, lol.

Tim Tuefel was spared some goathood by Buckner/Stanley as well.

The Devil and Mr. Nancy Lopez,
they played blunderball