Mets to add Strawberry, Gooden, Davey Johnson and Frank Cashen to HoF

I like it.

A look at Citi Field’s new additions [Photos]

I was at Friday night’s Mets game at Citi Field and snapped a few grainy photos of the new additions around Citi Field.  Take a look…

The new video board in the RF corner…

The new banners on the LF wall…

The new photos viewed from the Field Level…That was all I saw as I walked around.  I didn’t get a chance to look at the improved sightlines, but I’m going back Monday, so I will see if I can spot any changes.

Twitter Poll: What to do with Doc’s signature?

Yesterday, the firestorm that was the Doc Gooden Signature Scandal broke and was “resolved” by the New York Mets.

If you happened to be living under a rock yesterday, the story goes that Gooden took out a Sharpie and signed a section of the wall in the Ebbets Club.  It reads “Doc Gooden 84 R.O.Y., 85 Cy Young, 86 W.S. Champs.”  Pretty cool if you ask me.  Not so much if you ask the Mets.

A report came out that the Mets were going to cover up the signature, because the building is “brand new.”

Well, after an outpouring of criticism from both the media and the fans, the Mets have “decided” to keep the signature, just move it elsewhere.  (Anyone know how they’re going to move an entire section of a wall?)

"We've listened to our fans on this," Mets PR chief Jay Horwitz said. "The last thing we want is for them or Doc to be upset. We just didn't want everyone to think it was OK to start writing on walls all over the stadium.”

So last night, I asked my Twitter followers if the Mets should remove the signature.  I also asked them who else they would like to see sign the wall.  Here are their responses…

• susi__ said: Every Met...EVER..or legend if there isn't enough room.
• Retire31 said: No, move it if anything. / I want my fellow Filipino comrade, Benny Agbayani to sign it!
• metschick said: NO! I'd love to see Kiner (among others) sign the wall.
• Section518 said: Next up has to be Mex. Keith would eat that up...and he wouldn't even have to travel.
• fscker said: that signature was epic, they should have put glass around it.
• d_kris said: Doc did too much for the team to diss him by painting over it! Seaver, Piazza, '86 & '69 teams, Bobby V, etc, all should sign
• metgirl4ever said: No!! Piazza & Keith
• DonCheech said: No, move it like they said they would. also, every Met alive should sign the wall.
• supermannino said: I would rather have anything from Doc Gooden over Mike Piazza. What Doc did in his extracurricular time only hurt himself...
• kerelcoop said: for starters, everyone from the 86 team should sign
• darknova306 said: I'd want the infield from 99 and the 86 championship team to sign it.
• MetsNY81 said: Definitely keep it! I think any true Mets fan would agree. Would be cool if other members of the ‘86 team signed as well.

And from the peanut gallery / jokesters…

• kierankelly said: They should actually make it a feature and get all different Mets to sign the wall. It would be a cool feature.
• ProctorsArm said: No. Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Roy Campanella. Oh wait.
• PerpetualMemory said: Steve Philips and Victor Zambrano hah

Not on Twitter?  Hit the comments to toss in your 2¢ about Doc’s signature and who else should sign the wall.

Follow me on Twitter to participate
in the next Twitter Poll!

Opening Night nuggets

Here are some nuggets of info from the gameday press pass for tonight’s game…

• Tom Seaver will throw the first pitch to Mike Piazza.
• On hand for tonight’s game: Rusty Staub, Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry and John Franco.
• The Broadway cast of West Side Story will perform the National Anthem.
• 200 veterans will be on the field in a pre-game ceremony to unveil a football-field size American flag.
• Four F-18 Hornets will fly over as the National Anthem comes to a close.
• Sgt. Felix Perez, the wounded solider who was in the clubhouse after the Team USA WBC win over Puerto Rico, will be in attendance tonight as a guest of the Mets ownership.
• The Empire State Building will be lit up in orange and blue.
• The game will be broadcast in front of SNY’s studios and will also be carried on the ABC SuperSign  above the Good Morning America studios in Times Square.
• The Mets are 30-17 all time in home openers. (0-2 at the Polo Grounds, 30-15 at Shea Stadium.)

Answers: Best pitching seasons

I received a few guesses for the four pitchers named in the Sports Illustrated list of 15 best pitching seasons.

Everyone nailed down the four pitchers names, but only one person correctly identified the year picked out by SI. Half-congrats to Andrew Fletcher of Scott Proctor's Arm.

The pitchers, and the years they had their best season are:
Tom Seaver, 1971.
Dwight Gooden, 1985.
Pedro Martinez, 2000.
Johan Santana, 2005.

Here are the blurbs:
Seaver won three Cy Youngs, but his best season may have been in a year in which he didn't win the award. In 1971, "Tom Terrific" validated his nickname by leading the league in ERA (1.76) and strikeouts (289) while going 20-10 for the Mets.

Few pitchers have burst onto the scene with as much promise and dominance as Dwight Gooden. "Doc" was a mere 20 years old and in just his second big-league season when he cut through the National League in 1985, going 24-4 with a 1.53 ERA, eight shutouts and 268 strikeouts.

Pedro Martinez's power pitching style was on full display during the 2000 season in which he won 18 games, posted a 1.74 ERA, hurled seven complete games, and whiffed 284 hitters. He also set a number of marks. His WHIP was 0.74, breaking a 77-year-old record set by Walter Johnson, and he also became the only starting pitcher to have more than twice as many strikeouts in a season (284) as hits allowed (128). The only question: How did he lose six times?

During his first full season as a starter in 2004, Johan Santana enjoyed one of the best second halves of a season for a pitcher. He went 13-0 and achieved a 1.21 ERA to finish the season with a 20-6 record, 2.61 ERA and 265 strikeouts on the way to his first of two AL Cy Young awards.

I'm predicting John Maine being added to this list after this season.

Also, I left off a player who completed the task with another team, and later pitched on the Mets for one season. Orel Hershiser's 1988 season was recognized, which he pitched over 10 years before coming to the Mets.