The team met tonight to settle paperwork and get acquainted. Here’s the lists for tomorrow’s skate:
“Team DiPietro,” 10 a.m. — G: Nathan Lawson, Mike Mole. D–Andy Sertich, Dustin Kohn, Jamie Fraser, John Gleed, Reagan Leslie. F–Jason Pitton, Vladimir Nikiforov, Mike Walsh, Tyler Haskins, Rob Hennigar, James Sixsmith, Jesse Joensuu, Pascal Morency, Tom May.
“Team Hunter,” 11:15 — G: Peter Mannino, A.J. Bucchino. D–Mark Wotton, Andrew MacDonald, Jordan Hart, Russ Moyer. F–Trevor Smith, Marc Rechlicz, Kazuma Takahashi, Kurtis McLean, Jean Bourbeau, Sean Bentivoglio, Joel Rechlicz.
Micheal Haley is here as well, but is apparently tired from beating down Flyers. (Actually had a hand wrapped; no word on severity.) Tomas Marcinko is also supposedly here (or coming; didn’t see him, but I’m not exactly confident enough that I’d know him if I did) but wasn’t on either list. Joe Callahan is on waivers.
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You learn very quickly as a young sports fan that the bad times are what make the good times so good. The 100-loss seasons make the wild-card runs even sweeter.
I have grown to believe that the maxim doesn’t work for the near-misses, the times when they’re good but not good enough: the late-game heroics for the other guys, and the unhittable curveballs; the monumental, historical collapses; the blown leads, whether in the eighth or ninth, or in the standings, and the nights when, inexplicably, nobody can drive in a run.
All those do is rip your heart out, stomp on it and throw it back in upside-down. They’re incurable. The good times are just good times, not redemption, after those.
I hope.
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Ed Lynch. Terry Leach. Rafael Santana. John Mitchell*. Mackey Sasser. Jeff Innis. David Cone. Todd Hundley. Daryl Boston. Josias Manzanillo. Rico Brogna. Edgardo Alfonzo. Pete Harnisch. John Olerud. Masato Yoshii. Melvin Mora. Todd Pratt. Tsuyoshi Shinjo. Mike Piazza. Vance Wilson. Dan Wheeler. Cliff Floyd. Carlos Beltran. John Maine. Mike Pelfrey.
As noted this week, the physical plant leaves — left — something to be desired. It’s guys like those who made going to Shea what it was since my first appearance in 1984.
The deconstruction begins almost immediately. Said it before about a barn stuck in my heart: Tear it down, boys, but you’ll never take it away from us.
*-Have a cousin who used to live in Norwalk. We visited one day in 1987. She pointed to a house down the block and mentioned that, I think, it belonged or had belonged to John Mitchell. I was stoked.