Blanco out, Thole back

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Multiple tweets about Blanco heading out for a family illness issue, and Thole brought up the Citi.

[Frayed Knot]

I'm guessing that that's a 'Bereavement List' deal then.
I think that's a 3 day minimum to 7 day max thing?

[Ceetar]

That sounds right.

Doubt he gets much time anyway, probably Wednesday as the day game after night.

Although, knowing Manuel he may have to play SS in the 9th tonight.

[G-Fafif]

This is not a little spooky.

Saturday, of course, Blanco hits the walkoff home run. I'm there with an old friend with whom I've been going to games for twenty seasons. Our first game was an exhibition against the Blue Jays in 1991. His mother joined us then. Our first official game was against the Dodgers in '92. It was won on a walkoff home run by Dave Magadan. We were at Shea for Ventura's walkoff versus the just traded Turk Wendell in July '01, though he had to leave early and miss it. That was the last time, you may have read, that the Mets had back-to-back walkoff homers before this weekend (Robin's was the front end then; Henry's was the back end now).

We've been to lots of games together. Yet Saturday's, which involved a last-minute invite from him to me because the guy he was going to go with had to visit his mother's grave site with his family, had a special feel to it even before Blanco's blast. It was like we connected on a whole new level after two decades. I parted ways with him in a very good mood.

About twelve hours later, very early Sunday morning, he calls me. Tells me his mother died Saturday afternoon. Not utterly shocking circumstances (she was 83 and had been on oxygen for five months) but not exactly expected. He wouldn't have been going to a Mets game had it been. Obviously, a sad moment between us. Today he tells me he's since learned that his mother, a big fan, made it through the end of Saturday's game. The last swing she saw was Henry Blanco swinging for the fences. The last Mets game she ever saw was one that ended with Henry Blanco crossing home plate and being mobbed by his teammates. The last game her son went to while she was still alive was one where he and I embraced in jubilation at the end. I don't think we'd ever done that outside of our one postseason game.

And now, the day before my friend's mother's funeral, Henry Blanco turns up on the bereavement list.

Very spooky.

[Guest Edgy DC]

That's why you don't mess around. Every Mets game is somebody's last. I'm sorry to hear of the passing, but I hope my last is that sweet.

[G-Fafif]

I attended an MFY fan's wake in November 1999 and marveled that the last game he saw was one in which his team (and it had been his team since the 1920s) won a World Series. So yeah.

[seawolf17]

What is with you and dead people? I'm not hanging out with you any more.

[G-Fafif]

seawolf17 wrote: What is with you and dead people? I'm not hanging out with you any more.

Well, that's two in eleven years, including one I hadn't seen since 1991, so I can see your point.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Edgy DC wrote: That's why you don't mess around. Every Mets game is somebody's last.

Every time I see Oliver Perez on the mound, I hope it's his last Mets game.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Ollie is beautiful.

[seawolf17]

Ah, shit. Chase Utley hacked Edgy's account again.

Chase, we're not saying that he's not dreamy. We're saying he's terrible at getting major league hitters out with any reliability.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Schmeliability. He's got a better ERA than Santana.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Thole's with the team in Miami.

It remains unknown when catcher Henry Blanco will make his return, but he can only stay on the bereavement list until Sunday. "He'll go with us to Florida and then we'll find out where Henry is, and make a decision as to getting Josh back where he was," Manuel said.

Somewhere colder, where he actually plays baseball.