Benjamin Grimm

Yeah, I know I won't be extending it to the NBA. And no Nancy Lopez, either. But I figure if the other half of the relationship are already in the UMDB as a farmhand or an opponent, then it's no trouble at all to include it. That means that Felipe Alou is in, but D.J. Strawberry and Ralph Branca are out.

Just dropped by the theater and picked up my tickets for tonight's showing. Look for me at the 7 p.m. show. I'll have rings on my fingers and bells on my toes.

I remember that commercial too, as well as Tim McCarver expressing his disbelief during a Mets telecast. He went to Hershiser and asked if that was actually true, and Hershiser confirmed that it was. (If I remember correctly, he showered eight times a day. YouTube, anyone?) I wouldn't be surprised if he has some form of OCD.

DocTee wrote: I could see Orel Hershiser replacing Peterson. THAT would be interesting. What's Orel doing now? I remember he was in the broadcast booth for a nationally televised game that I watched last year. (The one where he criticized John Maine's intensity.)

I haven't seen any of the Planet of the Apes sequels since I was a kid, but I agree that Escape was the best of them and Beneath was the worst.

Oh, I know that there have been pitchers who became managers. But it's the promotion from pitching coach to manager that seems to rarely happen. (Not that it can't; I just wanted to point out the rarity.) And speaking of pitching coaches, during his playing career, I never would have pegged Roger McDowell as a future pitching coach. (I imagine he's no longer doing that hotfoot thing?)

No, I don't see him as a manager at all. (Also, there's not much precedent for pitching coaches becoming managers. Roger Craig did it, I think. And maybe Bud Black? It's pretty rare, though.) I'd keep Peterson. I don't know who you'd get who would be better. I'd also be inclined to keep Omar for a while longer. He's made some bad moves, to be sure, but he's put together a good team. (Although I'm a bit intrigued by the guy who was just cut loose from the Reds.)

Preston Wilson is Mookie's nephew/stepson. Jesus Alou is Moises' uncle. John Maine is the son of Kevin Maine. Tug McGraw is the brother of Hank McGraw. Roberto Alomar is the son of Sandy and the brother of Sandy Jr. ============================================== And going outside the organization... Hubie Brooks is the cousin of Donnie Moore. Wayne Garrett is the brother of Adrian. Doc Gooden is the uncle of Gary Sheffield. Mike Maddux is the brother of Greg. Brian Bannister is the son of Floyd. What else do we have?

Batmag is talking to himself again.

It's just about time to close out the month of April. Voting for Wednesday's 13-1 loss to the Pirates will close some time over the weekend. There will also be an announcement of April's Player of the Month and Pitcher of the Month.

*62 awarded 10.1 points, and the votes were prorated as follows: Santana - 2.5 2.48 Feliciano - 0.7 0.69 Schoeneweis - 0.7 0.69 Wagner - 0.7 0.69 Sosa - 0.5 0.5 Reyes - 2.0 1.98 Church - 1.0 0.99 Wright - 1.0 0.99 Chavez - 1.0 0.99 VOTING FOR THIS GAME IS NOW CLOSED Totals for April 29, 2008 (10 votes) New York Mets 5, Pittsburgh Pirates 4 NameTotal PointsPoints AwardedPlayer PerformanceJohan Santana22.632.265.2 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 SO.Jos� Reyes18.801.883-3, R, 3B, RBI, 3 BB, SB.David Wright14.471.451-5, 2 RBI, BB, 2 SO.Ryan Church13.621.361-5, R, HR, 2 RBI, SO.Billy Wagner7.120.712.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO.Jorge Sosa6.790.68(W) 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO.Endy Chavez6.310.633-5, 2 R.Scott Schoeneweis4.330.430.2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO.Pedro Feliciano4.230.420.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO.Luis Castillo1.200.120-2, 3 BB.Carlos Beltran0.500.050-3, R, 2 BB.

Yes, you definitely got more comfortable once the focus become the book and the website. I did notice the nervousness at first, but that may have been because I was subconsciously looking for it, knowing how I'd probably be in that situation. If I was just a regular listener I would have had a different perspective, you're a book author doing a spot and I probably wouldn't have picked up on anything at all. (EVERYONE does um's and ah's. Some more than others, but everyone does it.)

That's also part of the experience, I guess.

We typically get to the park, get something to eat, and then settle into our seats. Last time, we sat down just before the National Anthem was about to start. Perfect timing, except that I had to balance a half-eaten slice of pizza while I held my cap over my heart.

I was hoping he'd mention how blue my eyes are.

Especially for a day game, when you get there it's lunch time. If you live nearby, it's easy enough to get to a night game after an early dinner, but otherwise, you do get hungry while at the park.

He did very well!

He's being introduced now!

Nor is he available. Acta currently has a managing job, and I doubt the Nationals would grant the Mets permission to steal him away.

Hiring a candidate to appease the fans is not a good idea. Hire someone who'll make the team win. Then the fans will be happy. But the goal should be winning; the fans shouldn't be a factor. Oh, and here's my prediction from that other thread, made on October 3: If, in May, the Mets find themselves around .500 and in third place (which is not at all far-fetched) Willie will probably be fired anyway.

I don't have high hopes for an Avengers movie either. It would be monumentally difficult to mix Iron Man, Thor, and the Hulk (plus Ant Man, Captain America and the Wasp) on screen without it looking very silly. But that's another story. I don't mind villains being killed off in the movies. You have to keep Dr. Octopus alive in the comics because there are forty or fifty years worth of stories to tell. But at most there will be maybe five or six Spider-Man movies; they won't need to go back to Doc Ock again. (And if they reboot the Spidey series twenty years from now, then can once again reuse Doc Ock anyway.) I didn't like how they piled on the villains in Spider-Man 3. I don't know if it's a lack of confidence in Sandman or Venom. It may be partly that, but I think it's largely from a desire to get more characters to merchandise. And that's even worse, because it drives the storytelling in a way that's counterproductive. Favreau seems to have a plan. I think he'll take the Iron Man franchise in a good direction. My hunch is that Iron Man 3, if it gets that far, will be the best superhero movie to have a 3 in the title.

I do expect to see the Mets get kicked around in Arizona this weekend. (Hopefully I'm wrong.) But they'll have plenty of time to recover from an early May beatdown, if they're good enough. (Which is the real question, I think.)

Our previous discussion of this hot topic: Willie's Seat ... and How Hot it Might Be

More women coming out of the woodworks today, as revealed in today's Daily News. Me, I'm waiting eagerly for Sam Champion's name to be added to the list. (It could explain the animosity towards Piazza.)

With 30 votes in, half of us think that Willie will be fired before the season ends, and two thirds of us think that he'll be gone before Opening Day 2009.