centerfield maz

  2013 marks the 40th anniversary of the 1973 Mets N.L. Championship season. All season long, centerfieldmaz will be honoring the '73 Champs, with stories, game recaps & all kinds of trivia. This was the year the "Ya Gotta Believe"  battle cry was born. Tom Seaver won his second Cy Young Award, Willie Mays retired & the Mets came within one game of a Worlds Championship..................... The Mets ended the 1972 season at 83-73, thirteen games behind the Pittsburgh Pirates in third place. They also finished two and a half games behind the second place Chicago Cubs. The year was a tough one, as they never really bounced back from the shock of Gil Hodges death. During Spring Training just before the start of the '72 season (which was also delayed by a players strike) Hodges suffered a fatal heart attack. The players loved & respected their manager who led them from being a losing bunch of kids to the 1969 World Series Champions. Hodges successo...

centerfieldmaz with Manager Terry Collins Spring Training- May 14, 2013: Just got back from a great trip to Florida, topped off by a visit to Mets Spring Training. It was a beautiful cool breezy day in Port St. Lucie although the Mets took a 9-1 beating from the A.L. Champion Detroit Tigers. We had amazing seats, first row on the side of the Mets dugout, right at the on deck circle. It was great to see the players close up, hear the crack of the bat & the pitchers fast ball pop in the catchers glove.  Mets Coach: Tim Teufel Spring Training is always a laid back old time baseball feel & worth the trip. A fun casual day at the ball park, sit back have a beer & a sausage sandwich & life is good. Players are usually more accessible & the possibility of a photo op. or autograph is much better than during the regular season. After the game I got the opportunity to meet Manager Terry Collins, although he was in a rush he did give us a few minutes of h...

Edward Charles Pellagrini was born on March 13, 1918 in the Dorchester section of Boston, Massachusetts. The five foot nine infielder, got signed by the home town Red Sox. He was then drafted into military service, serving three years during World War II. His parents never understood baseball & wanted him to go to Boston College.  He returned from the service, to make his MLB debut in April of 1946, entering the game as a pinch runner for the injured Johnny Pesky. Later in his first career at bat, he hit a HR off Sid Hudson of the Washington Senators. He only played in 22 games for the ’46 pennant winning Red Sox, hitting .211 with two HRs, three doubles a triple & four RBIs. He did not play in the World Series loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.  After two seasons in Boston he was traded to the St. Louis Browns where he saw action in 105 games, batting .238 with two HRs, eight doubles & 27 RBIs for the sixth place Browns. He was a good defensive player, as he ...

Alvin Lee was born Graham Alvin Barnes on December 19th 1944, in Nottingham England. By the time he was 13 he was playing guitar & would develop into one of the best blues/ jazz rock guitarist of all time. Lee was inspired by Scotty Moore & Chuck Berry on the guitar, eventually forming his own style with his band Ten Years After. The band began playing the Star Club after the Beatles success there in Germany in 1962. By the height of the late sixties San Francisco sound, Ten Years After began getting noticed there by underground radio stations in 1968. They caught the ear of legendary promoter Bill Graham, getting billed at the Filmore & a US Tour. This lead them to playing Woodstock in the summer of 1969. In one of the best most powerful performances at Woodstock, Alvin Lee belted out the lyrics while playing an incredible lead guitar on the song "I'm Going Home". The band hit the stage in the wee hours of Saturday Night into Sunday morning, electr...