Young Daniel Murphy was spotted at last nights Mets game at Citifield and played a pivotal role in the Mets victory over the Nats.
Murphy shown below got an assist on the last out of the game, a patented Ike Davis over the railing flip catch.

Faced with several organizational issues the Mets have once again been bailed out by the rookie, Ike Davis.

He wears it over his heart

 
Although raised in a secular home, Davis is in fact of Hebrew Heritage. Now in New York with the Mets Davis has decided to explore his Jewish roots to the fullest and will follow the path of the religious Jews and obey their laws concerning the Sabbath, a weekly occurrence between sundown Friday to sundown on Saturday.
 
Judaism prohibits certain types of work on the Sabbath, including playing baseball for a living. With that, Ike will no longer be available for Friday night games or Saturday afternoon games that appear on the Mets schedule.
 
“I’m not really sure what the trigger was for me”, said Davis, “coming to New York, seeing the large Jewish population, eating brisket at the Deli, the date I had with Wendy Morgenstern of Forrest Hills, reading @ElifromBrooklyn on Twitter, whatever, I need to get in touch with my religion”
 
At first viewed as a concern by the Mets, the move is viewed as a positive and solves some of the organizations biggest problems.
 
“Well, as you know, we made a big effort to attract the Latino fan here in New York” commented Omar Minaya, “LosMets.com, the Los Mets uniforms, the acquisition of Martinez, Beltran, Delgado, Castillo, Santana, Perez and Rodriguez to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.  Believe me, our Latino fan base has increased, but you know there aren’t too many guys named Hector that are going to shell out the dough for a seat in the Delta Club Gold section, you know what I’m sayin’? So this whole Ike-Jewish thing, we think, should help with those attendance issues. Oh, and we will be renaming that section Delta Club Gelt”
 
The other problem this solves is what to do with Daniel Murphy? The last thing the team needed was another left hand hitting first baseman with the success of Davis. But now, with Ike’s religious commitments in play, a spot for Murphy as Ike’s “Shabbos goy” became available.
 
“Of course, growing up in Northern Florida, I had no idea of what this meant” began Murphy “so while I was in Port St. Lucie, I took a ride down to Boca and found out about this Shabbos goy thing. I won’t be a full time starter, but hey, I’ll at least get in there twice a week. I always put my faith in religion to solve my problems, but I always thought it would be my religion that would help me.”
 
After the Friday night game, Murphy will report to Ike’s apartment to switch on the lights and push the start button on his Microwave.

A young major leaguer separated from his team for the first time stars in this remake of CAST AWAY.

Young Daniel Murphy, former third baseman, left fielder, pinch hitter, first baseman of the New York Mets portrays himself as a man marooned in Port St. Lucie Florida, struggling to stay alive while his former friends move on with their lives without him.

Young Daniel, comforted only by the presence of a baseball that he draws a face on and calls “Rawlings”, struggles with the idea of never seeing his life as it was before. Only his love of baseball keeps him going.

Will he survive? Will he make it back? Or will he remain:

CAST AWAY

Oh Murph! recently found this letter in the recycling bin outside of CitiField’s executive offices.

Dear Mr. Minaya,
 
I decided to send you this letter since I have been unable to reach you by phone. I tried dialing the numbers you gave me for your cell, office, and home. I also tried phoning Jerry, David and Jose but no one returned my call. Must be a glitch with those Metro PCS phone plans that you got for us, I love those commercials though “There’s always a Penalty!!!” hahaha.
 
Well, anyway, I visited my doctor down the street in the Doc-in-a-box store and he says I’m good to go, so I wanted to let you know.
 
There’s really nobody here anymore now that Spring Training is over. I asked Carlos (Lantigua, the cleaning man not Beltran) what to do when I couldn’t reach you and he suggested this letter.
 
Also, just so you know, my Mets credit card isn’t working anymore and the motel says I owe them $645 for the last week. I found out about the card the other night when I went to Chili’s and couldn’t pay for the Chicken Club Tacos I ordered. I tried to sell them a few autographs, but they didn’t want them and made me wash dishes for a couple of hours to work it off.
 
And Hey, let me know how the team is doing. I can’t get SNY down here. Carlos (yeah, Lantigua again, really haven’t seen Beltran much) suggested I ask you for one of those iPad things. He’s got one and has that MLB app on it and can see all the games.
 
If you see HoJo let him know I gave up on that standup stance and I’m back in the Pete Rose crouch. Now if I could only find someone to pitch to me I’d be all set. It’s hard to judge your progress hitting fungos against the fence. And the covers are coming of the 4 balls that I found in the drainpipe.
 
Please let me know soon if I should come up to New York and I hope you can do something about that credit card. I only have about half a tank of gas left in the Civic. I could probably just about make it to Miami if you want me to hook up with the team when they are there.
 
God Bless You,
 
Daniel Murphy

We like Ike.  And we still like Murph, the way you think your ex-girlfriend is still kinda cute and you’d still hit it, but not while you were with a new, more exciting girlfriend. Then, one day, the ex-girlfriend sends you a heartfelt letter that reminds you of all the good times you shared, and of all the reasons you hit it in the first place.

Life happens

Well, today, Murph wrote us that letter.  He told Adam Rubin of the Daily News ESPN New York that he appreciated our time together, and that he understands that the new person in our life may even be better for our future development.  He holds no grudge because, hey, shit happens.  We had a decent run together and it just didn’t work out.  He even wants to stay friends, to be there as a fallback for whenever he’s needed.  He even eased the transition for his own replacement.

The first couple of days he showed me around — what I needed to do, where I needed to be. It’s never really been awkward.   – Ike Davis

So he’s also like an older brother to our young stud.  Come to think of it, it’s like having dated two sisters, and you’re now with the younger, hotter one and the older one is okay with it. Except that they’re brothers.  And, you know, no offense but we don’t really swing that way.

Have a read of Murphy’s discussion with Rubin, and tell me you won’t choke back tears. Goh Murph.

By the way, despite not having set foot on Citi Field this season, Beltran and Murph are the Mets All Star candidates for their positions.  Vote early, vote often.

Osse Jorosco provides a running commentary on tonight’s game, Daniel Murphy Jr.’s major league debut

5-8!:  Ike (Mejia) catches Fukudome looking for a called strike three to end the game.  A nice debut overall for our young first baseman.  The Mets are undefeated in games in which Ike Davis plays.   Funny to see Frenchy give Ike the ol’ pie to the face, although I’ve never known of a pie made of shaving cream.  SNY’s pre-game coverage also showed a lot of video from Ike’s pre-game workouts, with Franceour being awfully chummy with him.   And Bay often sits next to Wright in the dugout.  You see where I’m headed with this.  Anyway, Osse out.  I can be reached at osse@whoisdanielmurphy.com.

Let’s put it in the books already:  Ike probably won’t get another turn at bat here unless the Cubs come back with 5 in the ninth.  How ’bout a web gem for your fans, Ike? 

Murph’s loading the chamber:  Ike, supposedly weak against lefties, goes back up the middle against Marshall to record his first major league RBI and pull his career average back up to .500.  Somewhere, Irish eyes are not smiling.

Follow along, people:  Ike (Bay) continues his hot hitting in the inning by lacing a deep double over Soriano’s head in left.  Piniella is out making his second pitching change after Ike (Frenchy) reached on an error.  Up now:  IKE.

IKE!  Davis blasts a go-ahead, two-run homerun in the bottom of the 7th to pull the Mets ahead of the Cubs 3-1!  Ok, so it was really Angel Pagan.  But as the SNY booth points out, this is the Mets’ first extra-base hit in about 19 months, and what’s different about the team tonight?  You guessed it.  If the ‘pen holds up for two innings, Ike will get his first major league win in relief.

A retarded monkey can go 1-for-3:  After making a loud out to right-center that would’ve been 13 rows into the stands in Philly, Ike is now down to .333 for the season.  Yawn.  Meanwhile, our team of crack investigators intercepted a text message Murph sent to R.A. Dickey in Buffalo.  It reads:  “Hey dick need pointers on nukel [sic] ball might need 2 add versatility LOL”

A different kind of position change:  Our sources at Citi Field tonight spotted a pile of job applications just behind the Shake Shack counter.  A fax cover sheet with Murph’s name on it tells us he’s considering his non-baseball options should Ike continue breathing this season.

(Looking at watch):  Ike’s due up third in the bottom of the inning.  Stop walking people already, Niese.

The Ike Watch continues:  Davis meekly pops out to Soriano in his second at-bat.  Trade the bum.  When’s Murph due back anyway?

UPDATE AGAIN!!  Recognizing that Ike’s path to the Hall of Fame begins tonight, MLB has decided to un-retire #42 again in Davis’ honor.  In fact, they mandated that both the Mets and the Cubs all wear 42 out of respect for Ike Davis.  Ike is now batting 1.000 after his first at-bat, securing his place in the Mets Hall of Fame.

UPDATE!  Ike will be wearing #29.  That’s right – he’ll literally be one-upping Murph.Which has a better ring to it, Daniel Pipp or Wally Murphy?  In a move that smells of both desperation and common sense, Mets prized position prospect Ike Davis is reportedly on his way to Citi Field for tonite’s series opener with the Cubs.

Murph, we hardly knew ye

In light of recent events, Jerry Manuel has been signed as the new face of Target Corporations replacing “Bullseye” the adorable white dog with the unfortunate birthmark.

“We thought it was a good direction for the company” remarked CEO Gregg Steinhafel.

“Jerry has been wearing our logo for a while we thought it was about time he was compensated” he added.

Although details of the deal were not released, it is believed to run for the remainder of the season Jerry’s tenure as manager.  It also involves wearing the company’s logo on his back during game and all official Mets functions, as well as making a number of appearances at Target stores both in the Tri State Area as well as when the Mets are on the road.

Fans of baseball and bargains alike turned out yesterday at the Brentwood Target just outside of St. Louis for Jerry’s first in store appearance and reaction amongst the fans was mixed.

“We just hope when he shows up he actually gives us the Jerry Manuel routine. A few laughs and chuckles. Maybe a wordy sentence or two. We don’t want him just standing there and mailing it in like he does on the field, we want to see some fire Jerry” Said one fan.

Despite the high hopes of that fan it is widely believed Jerry will only have his heart in one out of his three weekly scheduled appearances. The other two he will most likely just stand there and nod before abruptly calling a closed door meeting in the Home & Garden Department.

Much like the season, Jerry’s career as Target spokesman has gotten off to a rocky start. At the Brentwood in store appearance a mob of customers showed up, not for the Mets manager but for the $500 door buster sale on 52” HDTV’s. When they were turned away after the only two items in stock sold out and the circular clearly stated “No Rain Checks” Jerry had to man up and take responsibility as the new face of the corporation.

“What can I say? We were just unprepared” was the only response Jerry could come up with when asked about the in store debacle.

Walter worked across the street from Murph’s corner bar.

When he first started working there, the bar was called Mertz’s and Walter only went there for lunch once in awhile. When Murph bought the bar he left the big Mertz’s sign up for a while out of respect for Mertz. Then he really like the way the M looked so he just painted over the ertz and painted in an urph.

Now Walter was at Murph’s just about everyday.

Got there about 11:40 most days, ordered the special usually, or a grilled chicken sandwich. And of course the beer. Michelob on tap, in small glasses. Everyday, just about.

Walter didn’t make it back to work at lot of times these days. Sometimes he just made it back for an hour. He was still a great worker though, and somehow got to work everyday at 7:00. Nobody could be trained to do what he did, when he retired the company was going to have to shell out some big bucks for a fancy new computer system to do what Walter did, so they tolerated him, looked the other way.

And if you saw Walter between 7 AM and 11:30 you would never know. He was always ready to help, taught all the youngsters there on their first job the ins and outs. But if they saw him in the afternoon, they knew that’s when Walt needed his space, no questions at that time please.

Wasn’t always like that. Walt went to the Mets games with the wife and daughter or watched them on TV; WOR, then WWOR with that smug McCarver, then got a cable hook up for MSG. Then the daughter got married and moved west. The wife got the big C. She went quick. Walt missed her something awful. Then he started going to Murph’s.

Kid behind the bar tried to meter the beers out at first; he thought Walt might be a problem. But after a while he got to know him and he took care of him. Kept the small glasses coming, buying him back until he would put the last one up which Walt would sip once then announce its time to leave.

But a lot of days, he didn’t hit the beers too heavy. Kid was also a Mets fan and he liked to ask Walt about the old teams, the players he heard about. A few of the other regulars would always tilt an ear and ask questions. Walt knew the game, he knew the team. Coached some softball for his daughter, she was a hell of player.

So this day he sat at the bar just sipping and got a bag of chips which he tore open first at the top, then down the side and picked the chips up one by one. Did it that way so his fingers wouldn’t get all greasy and crumby.

Kid wanted to know about Seaver, saw this was a good day so asked.

“What do you want to know?” asked Walt. Kid wanted to know why they traded him to the Reds.

“That’s a short story” Walt started “so I’ll tell the real story about Mr. George Thomas Seaver, the way I remember it, if you start increasing the buying back action here, getting’ a little cheap in your old age”

“Here you go Walt, you know I always take care of you”

“Seaver was the best reason to be a Met fan. Not just a great pitcher but a great competitor, the guy always wanted to win, it oozed out of him. Guy like that you sometimes wish was a position player, Centerfielder or Shortstop with all that fire.

But man he could pitch. Back when pitchers were pitchers and the only guy that got Tommy John surgery was Tommy John. He took the ball and didn’t want to give it up until the game was over.

Today, the pitchers don’t even toe the rubber any more, up there doin’ some kind of pirouette barely scratching the mound. Seaver would dig a hole against the rubber and push off with those big legs of his and get really low. He’d scrape his right knee against the mound, have a dirt patch there.

What movement on the pitches. Late movement, everything fast. Came from his hands, huge for a man his height. There were games that you wouldn’t even see foul balls against him, he was that good.

Went 25-7 in ’69, got one fourth of his teams 100 wins. After they win the World Series, he negotiates his contract for the 1970 season himself. $80,000 for one year, seems unbelievable now, but its true. Ollie Perez gets $12 mil a year, makes my head explode.

I was a kid then, read it in the Daily News. My Dad brought it home everyday. It probably taught me how to read. Loved the baseball stories. No computers then, no Metsblog, no instant gratification like you have today. Everybody sending out a tweet everytime a player farts.

Read the game story the next day, then read the Dick Young column. In the winter I read his column first, then just started to read it first all the time. The inside scoop, stuff you never hear other places. Simple to the point writing, gotta admit I really couldn’t wait to read it everyday.

Then in 1977 Dick Young wrote the column about Seaver. Said some stuff about his wife and family. You didn’t know if it was true or not, but you had to figure Seaver was going to be pissed when he read it.

Then before you could think about it again, there he was tearing up on TV at a press conference. June 15, 1977. Can’t believe I still followed the team after that.”

The room was quiet for a while.

“Sorry Walt, here’s another beer”

“No Thanks Kid, I gotta go, I owe someone a visit. Take care”

When NASA scientist Buddy Harrelson heard those two high-pitched squeals from his nanophonic transmitter at approximately 1:31AM on Wednesday, he ended one of mankind’s deepest mysteries: there is now absolute proof of alien life. But that’s not the real surprise.

What truly shocked NASA’s engineers is the fact that our galactic companions appear to be single-mindedly obsessed with injured Mets utilityman Daniel Murphy. “Apparently, there is very little of what we would call speech on their planet” stated Rusty Stubb, a 30-year NASA veteran. “They communicate mostly using the baserunning signals used by the Oakland A’s of the early 1980s. They watched Rickey Henderson’s 130 steal season carefully.

These aliens know what they are doing.” When the aliens do “speak,” the language is deceptively simple. Language experts from MIT deduced that all of their noises are just variations on the name “Murph,” the nickname of Mr. Murphy.

 When scientists found lunar mounds on one of their planets’ five moons in the shape of Daniel Murphy’s face, it only confirmed what scientists guessed from their unique language: a race of creatures positively obsessed with Daniel Murphy.

What made this discovery not only scientifically important, but also hauntingly beautiful, is the fact that the only other known lifeform on their planet, the Bobbivee, emits a low, almost-indetectable “ohhh” sound. At night on the rocky crags of the yet-to-be-named planet, all that can be heard for lightyears is the sublime song that results: “ohhhhhmurrrrrphhhhhh” “ohhhhhhmurphhhhhh”

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