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Sports Then and Now



A Ray of Hope Springs Eternal for the Mets 1

Posted on April 06, 2010 by Richard Marsh
Florida Marlins at New York Mets

The Mets opened the 2010 season with a big victory over the Marlins.

Perhaps they are right. Certainly 2009, nor this most recent spring training has given even the most loyal New York Mets fans some ill conceived notions that this team will win the NL East going away in a wire to wire race.

Plus the fact, regardless if you win or lose on opening day, whether it’s a blow out like today’s victory over the Florida Marlins or it’s a walk off hit, you are always reminded that this is a 162 game season and there’s still plenty of games to be played.

Fortunately the Mets have a pretty solid major league leading winning percentage on opening day despite losing that opener in it’s firstĀ  eight seasons. They are 32-9 since then and although you would like to believe that would carry through the 162 game schedule, more often than not, it hasn’t happened that way for the Mets.

The obvious pluses, those the optimists expected to see where apparent from the very first inning. Johan Santana put the Marlins down in order. In fact he got the first seven batters out before giving up his first hit. No no hitter today! Read the rest of this entry →

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      The Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Month is a former major league baseball player who came into the game as a teenager and stayed until he was in his 40s. In between, Rusty Staub put up a solid career that was primarily spent on expansion or rebuilding teams.

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      Though he hit only .224 splitting time between first base and rightfield, Staub did start building a foundation that would turn him into an All-Star by 1967 when he finished fifth in the league with a .333 batting average.

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