futures baseball
The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in Flushing, Queens, in New York City, New York. The Mets are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League. From 1964 to the present, the Mets have played in Shea Stadium. In 2009, they will move into their new home, Citi Field.
The "Mets" name originates from the New York Metropolitans, an 1880s baseball club. They are nicknamed the "Amazin' Mets,"[1] or simply the "Amazin's."[1]
An expansion franchise, the club was founded in Manhattan in 1962. Then based in the historic Polo Grounds, the Mets shared the venue with the New York Jets for two years, until Shea was completed.
During their history, the Mets have won two World Series titles (1969, 1986) and four National League pennants (1969, 1973, 1986, 2000).
In 1957, the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants abandoned New York for California, leaving the largest city in the United States without a National League franchise. Two years later, on July 27, 1959, attorney William Shea announced the formation of a third major baseball league, the Continental League. He tried to get several existing clubs to move, including the Philadelphia Phillies, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Cincinnati Reds, but no National League club was interested.
One of the CL's five charter members was a team in New York City. Charles Shipman Payson and his wife Joan Whitney Payson, former minority owners of the Giants, as the principal owners, along with George Herbert Walker, Jr. (uncle of future President George H. W. Bush), who served as vice president and treasurer until 1977.[2] Former Giants director M. Donald Grant became chairman of the board. Grant and Joan Payson had been the only members of the Giants board to oppose the team's move west.
The existing leagues, who had considerably more autonomy at the time, responded with plans to add four new teams, two in each league. One of the new National League teams was to be in New York. The NL offered this new franchise to the CL's New York group, provided that they commit to building a new park. Shea told New York Mayor Robert Wagner, Jr. that he had to personally cable every National League owner and guarantee that the city would build a new facility.
The new team required a new name and many were suggested. Among the finalists were "Bees. "Burros", "Continentals", "Skyscrapers", "Jets", as well as the eventual runner-up, "Skyliners". Although Payson had admitted a preference for "Meadowlarks", the owners ultimately selected "Mets" because it was closely related to the club's already-existing corporate name "New York Metropolitan Baseball Club, Inc.", it hearkened back to "Metropolitans", a historically significant name used by an earlier New York team in the American Association from 1880 to 1887, and because its brevity would naturally fit in newspaper headlines. The name was received with broad approval among fans and press.
From the first, the Mets sought to appeal to the large contingent of former Giants and Dodgers fans as well as presumably those New Yorkers who disliked the New York Yankees. The Mets' team colors reflect this--orange for the Giants, blue for the Dodgers, although not precisely the same shade of those colors as used by the two former residents.
In October, 1961, the National League held an expansion draft to stock the rosters of the Mets and the Houston Colt .45s with players from other clubs. 22 players were selected by the Mets, including some with notable previous success such as Roger Craig, Al Jackson, Frank Thomas and Richie Ashburn. But rather than select talented young players with future potential, Mets management preferred to sign faded stars of the Dodgers, Giants and Yankees to appeal to fans' nostalgia. Legendary Yankees manager Casey Stengel was hired out of retirement to lead the team, but his managerial acumen wasn't enough to overcome the severe deficiency of talent among the players.
The Mets began their on-field play in 1962, losing their first nine games en route to a 40-120 record. Their .250 winning percentage was the third worst by any major league team since the beginning of the 20th Century, and the fourth-worst in baseball history. Throughout major league history only the 1899 Cleveland Spiders (20-134) lost more games in a single season than the 1962 Mets. It wasn't until 2003 that the record would be threatened by the Detroit Tigers, who finished the season at 43-119. The ineptitude of the Mets during their first year is chronicled in colorful fashion in the 1963 book Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?, written by New York columnist Jimmy Breslin.
Beloved by New York fans despite their losing ways — or perhaps because of them — the Mets of the early 1960s became famous for their ineptitude. Journeyman players like the ironically nicknamed "Marvelous Marv" Throneberry became icons of athletic incompetence. Ex-Dodger and Giant pitcher Billy Loes, who was selected by the Mets in the 1961 expansion draft, was credited with this ungrammatical quotation: "The Mets is a good thing. They give everybody jobs. Just like the WPA." Even the Mets proved to have standards, however. In 1962, Cleveland Indians catcher Harry Chiti was purchased by the Mets for a player to be named later in the season. That "player to be named later" ended up being Harry Chiti. Chiti was the first player ever to be sent back to his original team in a trade in Major League history.
The 1963 Mets featured a pitcher, Carlton Willey, who was having a great year, pitching four shut-outs, when he incurred an injury and finished with a 9-14 won-loss record.
In 1964, the Mets, who played their first two seasons in the old Polo Grounds, the former home of the Giants, moved to the newly constructed Shea Stadium, a 55,300-seat multipurpose facility built in the Flushing neighborhood of the Borough of Queens, adjacent to the site of the 1939 and 1964 New York World's Fairs. One high point of Shea Stadium's first season came on Father's Day, when Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jim Bunning threw a perfect game against the Mets, the first in the National League since 1880. For perhaps the only time in the stadium's history, the Shea faithful found themselves rooting for the visitors, caught up in the rare achievement, and roaring for Bunning on every pitch in the ninth inning. His strikeout of John Stephenson capped the performance. Another high point was Shea Stadium's hosting of the 1964 All-Star Game. Unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight in the final hectic weekend of the 1964 season, the Mets relished the role of spoiler, beating the Cardinals in St. Louis on Friday and Saturday (keeping alive the hopes of the Phillies, Giants, and Reds) before succumbing to the eventual National League champions on Sunday.
The Mets' image as lovable losers was wearing a little thin as the decade progressed, but things began to change slowly in the late '60s. The Mets acquired top pitching prospect Tom Seaver in a lottery and he became the league's Rookie of the Year in 1967. Even though the Mets remained in last place, Tom Seaver was a sign of good fortune to come. He was originally signed by the Atlanta Braves in February 1966 out of the University of Southern California, but his contract was voided by Commissioner William D. Eckert on the basis that the USC season had already started when Seaver signed. In order to resolve this issue, the Mets, Indians, and Phillies were all placed in a hat since they were the only teams willing to match the Braves offer, and the Mets were fortunate enough to win the drawing. In addition to Seaver, two other young players were catcher Jerry Grote and shortstop Bud Harrelson. This trio of youth formed a new, determined clubhouse nucleus that had no interest in losing, lovably or otherwise. By the 1968 season, Wes Westrum would be replaced as manager by Gil Hodges. Pitcher Jerry Koosman joined the staff and had a spectacular rookie season in 1968, winning 19 games. Left fielder Cleon Jones developed as a batter and exciting center fielder Tommie Agee came over in a trade. But although much improved, the 1968 team still finished the season in 9th place
http://www.enterbet.com
Baseball Futures and Props Betting Lines on point spreads , money lines and totals ... Baseball -MLB -NCAA -Future/Props + Basketball -NBA -NCAA -WNBA -WNCAA
Baseball Cards. MLB Players Association. News. News Homepage. Noticias en ... the Futures Game ... Futures MVP Chin-Lung Hu 400K. • Legends and Celebrity The Home For Baseball Insiders ... Baseball America Awards Gala. College World Series. Futures Game/All-Star Game. Upcoming Events
Labels: bet arbitrage, bet bookie, bet gamble, bet ncaa, bet odds, bet parlay, bet wager, casino bet, futures baseball, live baseball, pinnacle baseball
