Benjamin Grimm

Look who's July's Player of the Month (so far): Month-to-date totals for July 2008 Through game of July 7, 2008 RankNamePoints1Damion Easley6.872David Wright6.333Jos� Reyes5.154Carlos Delgado4.935Mike Pelfrey4.646Johan Santana4.317Fernando Tatis3.688Oliver Perez3.449Ramon Castro3.2210Endy Chavez2.7611Carlos Beltran2.5612Pedro Martinez2.4913John Maine2.4814Joe Smith2.3515Brian Schneider2.0016Tony Armas1.8817Duaner Sanchez1.5318Ryan Church1.2619Aaron Heilman1.0820Billy Wagner0.7521Marlon Anderson0.5422Pedro Feliciano0.4223Scott Schoeneweis0.10

VOTING FOR THIS GAME IS NOW CLOSED Totals for July 7, 2008 (12 votes) New York Mets 10, Philadelphia Phillies 9 NameTotal PointsPoints AwardedPlayer PerformanceDavid Wright31.902.662-5, R, 2B, HR, 4 RBI, SO.Pedro Martinez29.252.44(W) 5.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 SO.Endy Chavez18.621.553-5, 2 R, 2 RBI, SO.Damion Easley13.721.143-5, RBI.Jos� Reyes10.700.892-4, 2 R, BB, SB.Fernando Tatis8.780.733-4, R, BB.Carlos Delgado4.970.412-5, R, 2B, 2 SO.Tony Armas1.000.081.1 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO.Brian Schneider0.800.070-5, R, RBI, SO.Carlos Beltran0.250.021-5, R.

Frayed Knot wrote: I've yet to see any of these commercials -- that's why God invented the remote control people. What do you do during the commercials? Turn off the TV? Change the channel? That's too much trouble for me; I'd have to keep reminding myself to turn back to the game two and a half minutes later.

My sister liked him because he was cute.

metsguyinmichigan wrote: I can't even get SNY in Michigan and I'm still pissed about it. Get DirecTV.

I think Trot Nixon is out of sight and out of mind. Keith said something about how he thinks Charlie Samuels is losing it in his old age. Keith is always so tactful.

As I was watching the game tonight, my cat was sitting on my chest. They played the "You know he has an Edge" commercial twice in a row. I could see my cat had an angry expression on her face. I said to her, "You're only seven months old. I've been hearing about Jeter for the last fourteen years!"

Santana 3 Castro 3 Heilman 1.4 Sanchez 0.6 Smith 0.4 Delgado 1 Reyes 0.3 AReyes 0.3

TransMonk wrote: POURING rain with 2 outs in the top of the 4th. The umps letting them play for the out to make it official. That provided an interesting kind of drama. I liked the shots of Bruce Bochy looking dismayed. And Randy Winn did Santana a huge favor by swinging at the first pitch.

soupcan wrote: It will be parking but I believe the Mets have said that they will paint the bases and basepaths of where the infield was/is. Yes, they're going to do that. I'd like to also see them include a dotted line to show the path of Mookie's grounder and something to indicate where Cleon Jones was when he caught the last out of Game 5 and also the location of Ron Swoboda's diving catch. And while they're at it, the circle commemorating Tommie Agee's upper deck home run should be preserved, right where it is, atop a tall pole.

Average wins by position in NL East: 90.0 85.5 81.4 76.6 61.5 90.1 NL East W L Pct3 Avg W Avg L Champions Wild Card Playoffs 1D Change 7D Change Phillies 48 43 .526 86.8 75.2 44.56620 5.58918 50.15538 -7.20712 -9.59211 Marlins 46 44 .464 79.2 82.8 6.04122 1.25933 7.30055 -3.72908 -4.92413 Mets 46 44 .525 86.2 75.8 38.69230 5.76567 44.45797 6.87023 20.37172 Braves 43 48 .523 81.3 80.7 10.69957 2.61042 13.30999 2.46701 -8.23942 Nationals 34 57 .385 61.5 100.5 .00072 .00000 .00072 .00012 -0.00881 The Mets are averaging 86.2 wins to the Phillies' 86.8.

I'm glad there won't be an implosion (of Shea). It's not something I'd care to see.

I'm finding that I, and my son, are definitely in the minority regarding this film. Just about everyone else I encounter has nothing but praise for Wall-E. For whatever reason, this movie just didn't push my button. Maybe it was the sparse dialog. Maybe I just can't connect to a robot lead character. Maybe they were trying too hard to make me like that pathetic little robot. (That last reason is why I didn't click with The Fox and the Hound, It seemed to me that they were telling me to care about the lead characters instead of showing me why I should. Everyone else sees The Fox and the Hound as adorable and heartbreaking, but it left me entirely cold. I could see some good in Wall-E, a clever premise, a few good scenes, and great animation. But I totally despised The Fox and the Hound.)

That would be my assumption too. But Detroit didn't look so hot in 1988 either. When I was there it looked like all of downtown's prosperity was clustered in just one building. I think it was called the Renaissance Center, a big gleaming skyscraper with offices, shopping, restaurants, etc. Outside the immediate area of the Renaissance Center, there were a lot of closed up stores and empty streets. I haven't heard anything about a Detroit revival at all, but the article did make it sound like the Tiger Stadium area, at least, has improved in the last twenty years.

I may not be remembering correctly, and Michigan can correct me if I'm wrong, but when I was there in 1988, it seemed like Tiger Stadium was in a depressed area. If, as the article suggests, the surrounding area has become vibrant, then it's even more of a shame that Tiger Stadium couldn't have been saved instead of replaced.

That's the one! Danny Heep did DH for the first time in the 1986 World Series, but he was the first Designated Hitter in big league history to have those initials.

Oh, and I was glad to read that Tiger Stadium had some influence on the design of Citi Field. (The overhanging outfield porch.)

I only attended two games there (both during the same weekend in 1988) but I just loved Tiger Stadium. I liked it better than Wrigley or Fenway. It had all the charms of an older stadium without the bitter taste that trendiness adds. Of course, if it was as trendy as Wrigley and Fenway, the Tigers would still be playing there.

No. I'm afraid it would be an experiment that would fail. But I'd like to see it tried because I'd like the upshot of its success.

soupcan wrote: Wait - I meant 4,000! I didn't mean that one either!

="soupcan"]Nolan Ryan's 3,000th strikeout victim? Oooh, that's a good one! But not the one I was looking for.

I've never heard of Danny Meyer until today, but from now on, wherever I go, I'm going to tell people that I'm his friend.

The 1986 stuff should be interesting. The University of Incarnate Word stuff, maybe less so. Give me a trivia question for which the answer is "Danny Heep." (There's one in particular that I'm looking for.)

He's 77 years old. I don't know how his health is, and I doubt he'd be interested, but... I'd love to see some team hire Earl Weaver and tell him, "Manage just like you did in 1970."

] Tiger Stadium�s outfield walls begin coming down By BEN LEUBSDORF, Associated Press Writer Demolition equipment stands outside Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Monday, June 30, 2008. Crews began the process of tearing down the baseball stadium Monday; most of the demolition work involved the removal of trash and other debris from the interior of the ballpark. An Aug. 1 deadline still stands for a nonprofit group seeking to raise enough money to save part of the stadium. DETROIT (AP)Demolition crews smashed the historic walls of Tiger Stadium on Wednesday, punching through to the interior of the ballpark that stood for decades. Outfield walls cleared by baseball legends Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle as well as Detroit Tiger sluggers Norm Cash and Cecil Fielder came down as two contractors intensified their efforts to bring down the venerable park. Backhoes and excavators, sometimes hard to see through dust and spraying water, whizzed around the site, picking up debris and dumping it in oversized bins. During one flurry Wednesday morning, an excavator smashed through the exterior wall beyond left field, throwing support girders to the side. The scene was tough to take for longtime Tigers fan Chas Matreal and his 23-year-old son, Ryan. "All beautiful memories," Chas Matreal said. "It is something beautiful that we�re destroying, and it�s history." The 49-year-old bricklayer from Milford said he attended 400 to 500 games at Tiger Stadium, many with his own father, starting in 1966. Farrow Group owner Michael Farrow said crews planned to spend all day demolishing some of the stadium�s massive concrete walls. The Detroit contractor and MCM Management Corp. of suburban Bloomfield Hills started demolition of the ballpark last week. They expect to make an estimated $1 million by selling scrap from the park. City officials say an Aug. 1 deadline still stands for a nonprofit group to raise enough funds to preserve the field and part of the stadium between first and third base.