I immediately went to the search function on my DVR and programmed in dates and times for future airings of other years’ films.

I don’t remember these in their original run — and though I’m more a Mets hater than fan, I just love these films.  The 1963 film has great footage of the last breaths of the Polo Grounds, and ‘64 touted the opening of the marvelous Shea Stadium, universally hailed as the great modern multi-purpose park.

The films are a treasure trove of footage, from stars like Seaver and Mays all the way to “the next big things” like Mike Vail, Steve Henderson and John Milner.

Opening Day always got a disproportionate amount of screen time devoted to it, probably because even in their worst years, the Mets managed to win their lid-lifter.  Events like Banner Day, Helmet Day and Old Timer’s Day — yes, the Mets had them then, and there were even Yankees (gasp!) invited

The films were always forward-looking, even though they recounted the title year — so guys who didn’t figure in the 1979 plans were nowhere to be found in the ‘78 video.

I particularly enjoyed a featurette in one of the shows on Dave Kingman, trying to humanize the famously surly slugger, showing him talking to camp kids in addition to his prodigious homers.

It’s not really fair to have BaseballReference.com open, clicking on players as they are mentioned in the series, but it certainly is fun to look back 40+ years in some cases and see what happened to those guys.

If the Yankees did such a video series, I’ve seen only a ‘77 season recap and a WPIX feature called “It Don’t Come Easy” reviewing 1978.  I think films of those mediocre and poor CBS Yanks teams would be great as well, and I hope that if YES Network has those somewhere, and rights to use them, that they’d consider putting them on.

But that might be a bit to ask for the Undefeated Yankees Classics network.

Old Lou (turns out he wasn’t so old after all, as Gammon was just 49 when the movie was released) was just what you would want in a manager.  Firm and direct, demanding the best from his players. And clearly not taking any bullshit.  But compassionate as well, as we saw when he had to explain to Ricky Vaughn why he was being passed over for the final start of the season.

So Brown was a great movie manager.  But was he the best?  Here are some of my favorites, and my pick for the one I’d want to manage my fictional team.

Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks), A League of Their Own
Dugan clearly had no interest in the position coaching “a bunch of girls” but gradually grew into the job.  Of course, he delivered maybe the most famous managerial line in movie history, asserting that their is “no crying in baseball…” But as an ex-Big Leaguer, when motivated, he knew his stuff and helped lead the Rockford Peaches to the championship game.

Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau), The Bad News Bears
Also a reluctant skipper forced into a situation he neither wanted nor was ready for, Buttermaker was worn down by his troops and, in the end, did the right thing.  His biggest strategical decision — having Kelly Leak catch everything he could — turned out to be a morale-killing disaster, but he later redeemed himself in the eyes of the team and his pitcher-daughter.

Pop Fisher (Wilford Brimley), The Natural
Pop wanted to manage his team, moribund as it was, he just didn’t want his new, old right fielder.  Another in the line of cranky movie skippers, he was a less prominent but still important character in the movie.

Uchiyama (Ken Takakura), Mr. Baseball
I’ve always thought that Mr. Baseball is very underrated as a baseball movie.  Maybe people are scared off by the Japanese theme, but Tom Selleck can really swing the bat, and Uchiyama as both his hold-the-line, hold-your-tongue manager and father of Jack Elliot’s love interest sets a great tone of conflict that drives the film.  Uchiyama is so set in his ways and dedicated to the old ways, but they eventually find common ground.

Dutch Schnell (Vincent Gardenia), Bang the Drum Slowly
This is such a hauntingly sad movie and so focused on the Henry Wiggen-Bruce Pearson relationship that the Dutch Schnell character’s drive to find answers, to meddle even, goes overlooked.  But Gardenia nails it, and injects much-needed humor into the proceedings.

Len Sickles (William Frawley), Rhubarb
William Frawley played in a few baseball films of the 1940s and early ’50s, before his more popular role as Fred Mertz in “I Love Lucy.”  He was well-suited for all of them, and in a farce of a movie gets to play the straight guy again, not unlike Fred and his other baseball roles.

Those are my favorites.  As to the one I’d want to lead my team, I think I’d go with Brown, especially If my squad had a cast of characters as disparate as his rags-to-riches Tribe.

I’d hope he’d turn and say, “My kinda team, Charlie, my kinda team.”

Fernando Tatis

Been a busy couple of weeks, and haven’t been particularly inspired by the transactions, though I have been interviewing some author and Hall of Fame shortstop and TV executive types for some stories on BaseballDigest.com and NewJerseyNewsroom.com, so feel free to check those out if you wish… My favorite was the author of a new book about Joe Black, it’s a quick and easy read from a guy with a unique perspective on Mr. Black.  Highly recommended.

METS – Placed INF/OF Fernando Tatis on the 15-day DL.

Tatis reminds me, in a way, of Ruben Sierra.  Sierra all but disappeared from the baseball scene, then re-emerged in the Independent Leagues before hooking back up with Texas and eventually re-inventing his image as a “good guy” after some years of a selfish persona.

Tatis’s first dismissal from the game was, by all accounts, not related to attitude issues, but strictly performance.  He also emerged with revived pep after a three-year hiatus in 2006 with Baltimore — it only seemed like it was longer than that because his last three MLB seasons were in Montreal from ‘01-’03.

But even after it seemed the Baltimore experiment was to fail (Tatis went .250/.313/.500 in 64 AB’s with the O’s), Tatis didn’t give up, signing with the Mets and playing the whole ‘07 season in the minors before coming back up for good in ‘08, playing a much larger role the past two seasons than most Met fans (and maybe Tatis himself) could imagine.

Hitting just .185 so far this year, the D.L. assignment could be a precursor to release, especially if the Mets, as expected, get aggressive at the end of the month and try to add a bat or two to the lineup.  This kind of fade-away season, not uncommon for 35-year-old players living on borrowed time, would be a sad end, if that’s the case.

I, for one, am rooting for Tatis to find his way, against all the odds, back to a Major League field.

He’s done it before.

Three demotions of interest here, including two young players who have bright futures and one six-year veteran who may be at the end of the line.

For Porcello, 2010 has been a major disappointment.  After a stellar rookie year, the Morristown, N.J., native has slid down the Tigers rotation and now out to Toledo.  It seems like hitters have adjusted the second and third time around the league and now Porcello needs to regroup and readjust.  His minor league track record suggests that he’ll be able to do it, but the list of second-year MLB flameouts is long.

Mejia didn’t figure into the Mets’ plans until his sizzling spring demanded that he break camp with the big club.  Comparisons to Mariano Rivera may have been premature, however, as he struggled with his command once the regular season bell rang, and this move to AA has him back on the original track, to build up starters’ endurance .

I always thought Encarnacion was a curious choice to replace Scott Rolen at third.  His free-swinging ways and merely adequate defense were bound to be exposed eventually, and this demotion seems to indicate that the Jays have given up on him.

A list of the highest paid players on each team in 2010 would include such luminous names as Alex Rodriguez, Johan Santana and Ryan Howard. Perceived underachievers like Carlos Lee, Alfonso Soriano and Barry Zito are there as well.

But Aki Iwamura?  His $4.85 million salary, which would rate in the bottom half of many teams’ rosters, topped the lowly (and low-paying) Pittsburgh Pirates, and the expectation was that the 31-year-old would recapture some of his 2008 form and anchor the young Bucs’ infield.

A .181/.292/.267 line through the first 54 games doomed that idea, and with Pedro Alvarez on the way up and Andy Laroche moving to a utility role at five years younger and 1/10 the salary, Iwamura’s roster spot became the one tabbed for Alvarez.

The Pirates, like other teams in their payroll range (only San Diego, at $37.8 million, is within $15 million of Pittsburgh’s MLB-low $34.9 opening day mark), can’t afford mistakes like this one.  But rather than compounding the error by keeping Iwamura out there, the Pirates have chosen to move Iwamura, either through a trade, or if no one claims him, back to the minors.  Teams are less willing to keep unproductive, higher-salaried players around, even bottom-10 payroll organizations like the Rays (Pat Burrell) and Nationals (Brian Bruney).

I sometimes see the news of a hiring and imagine that there must be much joy in that household.

From today:

UNLV-Promoted Jennifer Klein to women’s soccer coach.

Is this the culmination of a lifelong dream for Ms. Klein?  Is she ready to be the head coach?  Does she have the same doubts that most new coaches have?  Is she getting congratulatory emails and Facebook wall posts and calls?

And when I see that a player has been released or designated, I wonder what is going through his mind.  “Is this the end of the road?”  “What will I do next?”

Since I look through them daily, I’m going to try to pick one or two of the baseball items that initiate a thought or two in what I hope will be a new feature, “Tracking The Transations,” or TTT.

Today’s TTT:

SEATTLE MARINERS–Designated RHP Ian Snell for assignment.

Okay, I could leave this one up to Tom, but I’ll take a crack.  Snell, fans may recall, broke in pretty strongly with the Pirates a couple of years back., winning 14 games in 2006.  But after signing a fairly sizable contract extension, he struggled in ‘08 and ‘09 and famously requested a demotion to AAA, citing “too much negativity” in Pittsburgh.  After pitching extremely well for Indianapolis, he was later included in a deal with Jack Wilson to the Mariners.

That Snell regressed this year may be related to the issues that came to the front in Pittsburgh.  He is in the last year of that contract extension, and he’s just 28, so the going-nowhere M’s must really think he’s done.

My guess is that we haven’t seen the last of Snell.  Some team will try to make a reclamation project out of him and the arm that was firing 95 mph fastballs not too long ago, especially with another team footing the bill.

Which brings me to the commemorative Memorial Day caps teams sported in yesterday’s games.  Last year, the Yankees were forced to wear hideous red caps which looked terrible against their road grays and home pinstripes.

Yesterday’s white caps fit the uniform quite a bit better (even if Brett Gardner, as noted in today’s Star-Ledger, noted that it was worse than his Little League cap).  I suppose I had put the red cap disaster out of my mind, forgetting about the new Memorial Day “tradition,” but of course immediately noticed the white lids when the team began stretching.  To me, it recalled the look of some of the very early Yankees teams.  To others, it might have recalled the Good Humor man, an apt connection on such a hot day in the Bronx.

I like that the Yankees don’t have alternate jerseys, Sunday jerseys, or other alterations to their uniforms, even though I enjoy seeing teams wearing “throwback” or Negro Leagues jerseys from time to time.  I recall only one game that the Yankees wore Negro League jerseys, I believe it was at Detroit in 1996 when they donned N.Y. Black Yankees uniforms.  I think once a year, maybe Old Timer’s Day or another weekend game, or even a road game against a classic rival, I wouldn’t mind seeing them in a Highlanders jersey (say, 1911 next year) or revive the Black Yankees, since they played at the Stadium on occasion.

My three favorite on-field alterations:
- Jackie Robinson 42’s (but one day only, please)
- pink bats, sweatbands for Memorial Day
- occasional throwback jerseys

The only caveats that have been shared with Bats Both so far are that the devices are available to turn on and be inspected by security if asked, and that they are in bags or cases of the sizes currently permitted into stadiums.

We’ll continue to update the list as we receive additional responses. If anyone is aware of a team’s statement in media or elsewhere, please feel free to send it to tips (at) batsboth.com or leave it in the comments.

[ed. note: Props to the hugely helpful Tableizer, which made this post a lot more easy to publish.]

• The Texas Rangers have declared bankruptcy as part of the deal to sell the team to Chuck Greenberg, Nolan Ryan and others. [Ballpark Digest] Amusingly, A-Rod is apparently the team’s top unsecured creditor. [via WasWatching]
• Tyler Kepner has a great post about how John Fogerty came up with the song “Centerfield.” [NYT's Bats Blog]
• Our own Jerry Milani has the lowdown on where the American League All-Star voting is as of today, with Joe Mauer and Derek Jeter leading the voting by a wide margin over their fellow league-mates. [Baseball Digest]
• Given the Yanks’ off day today, Rebecca Glass took a moment to break down the team’s season so far. [This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes]
• Landon Evanson is looking for baseball’s ultimate gamer. Go vote. [Bugs and Cranks]
• Some thoughts on the passing of Jose Lima from Landon Evanson, Ben Shpigel and Bill Ivie.

When reached earlier today, a New York Yankees spokesperson informed Bats Both that the team had no further comment, but that they had spoken with the Associated Press on Monday regarding this issue. Tonight, the AP published this story, which states that the team’s policy is due to “a security-and-safefy [sic] issue.” It also goes on to state that policies on iPads are a “team-by-team” decision, which surely makes it tricky to even consider bringing the device with you to a game without clarity from each and every team.

While ESPN’s iScore application might not have caught on with every iPad user just yet, it’s surely an attractive option for those fans who enjoy scoring the game – but it looks like the printed program or paper scorebook will live another day – at least at Yankee Stadium.

[update 5:48pm] Aside from the Mets, Angels, and Mariners being three teams the AP story states would allow iPads in their stadiums, CenterNetworks reported on May 20 that the Boston Red Sox also let fans bring them in.