Who Loves Ya' Baby!

I'm happier than normal tonight.

And it centers around the return of Jaap Stijl to his keyboard to resume his blog known as "Archie Bunker's Army"...banging away at his keys to bring us his unique perspective on Mets baseball from across the pond. He's one of the many, many talented bloggers who write stuff that I only wish I could come up with. So as he makes his return, make your return along with him, and march with Archie Bunker's Army once again.

Speaking of other bloggers:

You ever see that commercial where the three suits are waiting for the elevator and run into Joe Buck? After one of the greatest suck up lines in commercial history ("that voice is like velvet with peanut butter") they get all flustered and suck up to him to the point that they're all touching Buck's throat while he utters Dave Kingman's most referred to phrase "swing and a miss".

Well, in 1986, Bob Sikes was an assistant trainer with the World Champion New York Mets, while I was in the stands for many of those regular season games buying 10 dollar t-shirts with every single name and number of every '86 Met I could find...basically worshipping this team that was doing things I never thought possible in Mets baseball.

Twenty years later, we're both bloggers. It's weird because this is a guy with a World Series ring for crying out loud...and I couldn't even get a ticket to a postseason game that season. Yet we're both bloggers now which means to the naked eye, we're on some sort of equal footing. Trust me, I know better. For example, he's a teacher now, which means he's serving America's youth. The closest I get to serving America's youth is when I tell our interns that they should find a line of work which pays more.

Equal footing my meniscus. I'm in awe.

He shows his versatility by writing on a wide variety of sports subjects, and his perspective on current stories that involve people close to him are particularly enlightening. When John Gibbons had to deal with the whole Shea Hillenbrand situation, the first thing I thought was that Bob was a cinch to come up with some perspective, having been with John in 1985 and 1986. And sure enough...

Maybe one day, like the guys in the elevator, I'll get to put my hand on Bob's rotator cuff while he says "Tommy John surgery".

But until then, the best I can do is help out when I'm asked. And Bob has asked for a verification on a potential lookalike situation. Mr. Sikes, I'm here to help.

As you can see from this picture, there certainly is a very strong resemblance between Mets general manager Omar Minaya, and Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis. Minaya, however, looks a little grayer and a little more pale, which tells me that being an employee of the Mets has probably caused much stress, and has kept him from spending relaxing days at the beach. Lewis, having only spent a couple of seasons with the Bengals, hasn't experienced that stress yet. However, with half of the Bengals getting arrested during this past off season, I think that Lewis will look even more like Minaya by December.

Come to think of it: Don't these two dearly departed share some physical attributes? Can't you see Bob Murphy coming home telling Edith about the beautiful cumulus clouds that hovered overhead...going on about the talents of young Kenny Boswell, who wants to be out there each and every day? Murph would ask Edith politely for a beer (Schaefer beer, of course).

Then there's noted Met fan Archie:

"Ah jeez will you look at this Skip Lockwood here, he comes in there, blowing the lead for Seaver! He's a bigger meathead than you, meathead!"

My kingdom for Archie Bunker's take on Jaerock Lee.