Benjamin Grimm

Yvonne De Carlo

Tumbleweed?

I agree that too much has been made of this, but I also approve of the change.

They may have to reconfigure the apple a bit. Maybe move it back, and create the "well" that soupcan mentioned. But if they're really going to "halve" the height of the wall, I think that would mean removing everything above the seam in the first picture that soup posted. And in that case, we're talking about more than the area immediately in front of the apple.

It sounds like they're just getting rid of that stupid tab that protruded right in front of the apple. And that's a good move; that tab looked, as I said, stupid. I don't know how much of a difference it will make. But I'm sure before long somebody will come forward with a study of how many balls hit the tab on the fly in 2009.

How will it be distinguishable from a statue of Jerry Lewis?

Jesse Hahn would be an interesting name; to me, Don Hahn was an original Met. And if "Jesse" is short for Jessica, then it's interesting for yet another reason. (Raise your hand if you remember Jessica Hahn. And bonus points if you remember which famous preacher she scandalized.)

Let's go with an actual catcher:

I've been WFAN-free for nearly five years now, and I've lost count of how many brain cells have regenerated.

The simple answer is, don't read that stuff! I know you've tuned out WFAN (as I have) so I know you can do this as well.

You had me thinking that maybe an ostrich chick was called a "proof."

I haven't looked at anyone's answers yet. I'm pretty confident about eight of them. The first one is a wild guess, and the Willie Stargell one could be a different kind of pitch other than the knuckler... 1. BASEBALL HISTORY (7/11/08): "For nearly 30 years, California's Catalina Island was the spring training camp for this non-California Major League team" Wild guess: Who are the Chicago Cubs? 2. BASEBALL TERMS (4/29/09): "Hall of Famer Willie Stargell called it 'a butterfly with hiccups'" What is a knuckleball? 3. MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL (3/23/05): "The team names of these two expansion clubs start with the same three letters; one might catch the other." Who are the Mariners and the Marlins? 4. BASEBALL HISTORY (2/2/04) "On August 10th, 2003, Rafael Furcal(notes) of the Braves became only the 12th man in MLB history to perform this single-handedly." What is an unassisted triple play? 5. BASEBALL (9/11/02): "It's the only team to win World Series titles in three different cities for which it played." Who are the Braves? 6. MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAM NAMES (10/19/01): "This team received its name after an 1890 incident in which it "stole" away an important player from another team." Who are the Pirates? 7. BASEBALL HALL OF FAMERS (4/23/01): "A Red Sox pitcher, later a Yankee, he held the World Series record for consecutive scoreless innings from 1918 to 1961." Who is Babe Ruth? 8. BASEBALL HISTORY (5/22/00): "Current name of the National League team that started out in the 1870s as the Boston Red Stockings." Who are the Braves? 9. BASEBALL TEAMS (11/27/98): "In the early days, this team was known as the Alleghenies." Who are the Pirates? 10. BASEBALL (12/04/96): "The best American League left-handed pitcher 1916-18, he was moved to left field in 1919." Who is Babe Ruth?

I have to wonder, would a team with a $140 million payroll get all these accusations of "cheapness" if the owners weren't Jewish? Just asking.

SteveRogers wrote: Ray Knight and Kevin Mitchell were jettisoned in the same fashion, for the same reasons. What??? Ray Knight was a free agent, who the Mets chose not to resign because they rightly suspected that he had had his last good season. He wasn't a bad clubhouse guy. He provided a lot of the spark that made the 86ers what they were.

So, if they finish with 81 wins, who wins the bet?

Me, I think the biggest neglect of the winter has been the lack of a new starting pitcher. Second to that, I would have liked them to add somebody to hold down first base until Ike Davis is ready. Delgado would have been nice. Murphy and Tatis might end up doing fine. I think the Mets will be reasonably okay at second base and catcher and in the bullpen. I just wish they had added an experienced starting pitcher.

Ohhhhhh SNAP!

I nominate G-Fafif and Mets Guy in Michigan and Johnny Lunchbucket to convene the summit of bloggers. Right now!

The 59th Street Bridge would have been a fabulous backdrop to a baseball stadium.

Would the summit of bloggers have enough influence? I guess it's possible that they would. I'm not much of a blog guy, so I don't have a feel for how much juice they may have. The other issue is that there's a generation of fans who either think of Tom Seaver as some old ghost who gets trotted out every once in a while, or as a broadcaster who they weren't particularly crazy about. Any grassroots name for Citi Field would have to be something non-generational. Something equally appealing to the fans of Seaver, Strawberry, Piazza, and Wright.

I agree. If the fans were all to settle on one non-corporate name, it would, before long, become semi-official. But coordinating this would be impossible. For everyone who accepts "Seaver Stadium" the will be others who want "Piazza Park" or something else. I'd be happy to go with a variant of Shea's originally intended name: Flushing Meadows Field.

I think Long Island City would have worked nicely. That's a great photo, by the way. The Mets should have something similar at Citi Field, perhaps with this image:

metirish wrote: What's wrong with Wright and mental issuses? He thinks he's Marlene Dietrich. Sad, really.

SteveJRogers wrote: Yeah, Jason Bay wasn't a signing done to shut up "Mets aren't signing anyone/No one wants to come here" peeps and to give a nice shiny thing to market and sell tickets. I think it was primarily done to get a slugging left fielder. SteveJRogers wrote: Reyes' health and Wright's mental state are also major question marks as well. So what should they have done about that this winter? Get replacements for both players? SteveJRogers wrote: To say nothing about the fact that the rotation is Santana, three question marks and who knows what... How does this team look like anything resembling an over-.500 squad? I'm with you on that. They needed to address their pitching and they haven't, and they don't appear like they're going to. They do look like around a .500 team to me.