Benjamin Grimm

Now FOUR of the eight games have been played, and ONE of them has turned out the way we wanted. Here are the remaining Monday morning scenarios: Mets WinsPhillies WinsMonday morning Mets LeadMonday morning Magic Number323.54332.55222.55341.56231.56121.56240.57130.5714-0.58 I'm sticking with my prediction that the Monday Morning Magic Number will be 6.

cooby wrote: I want the Mets to win this for my dad. That would be nice, cooby. (One thing we didn't need, though, was for you to raise the stakes! Sheesh!)

Old Kinderhook is OK with me! Nice to finally see you, Marty!

Box score!

56 pitches for Pedro through three. I'd like to see him get a few quick innings. I'd love for him to get 7 innings in.

Just peeked at the score. Yay! Even if Philly wins, I'm okay if we only reduce the magic number by 1.

Ugh. Phillies have scored three in the 3rd and are still batting. 4-1 Phils.

They're just trying to get me to turn the TV back on! But I'm going to hang tough!

I just turned off the TV. Can't watch. Maybe I'll tune in again later. I hope I don't.

Hopefully he can delay it until April. (Or during the post-clinching period, should such a period come to exist.)

And now we've slid most of the way back to where we were two days ago. We're still a little bit better off than we were on Wednesday, since the lead is still 1.5 and we're two days closer to the end of the season. The real killer is that we were well over 99% a little over a week ago. yeesh. Average wins by position in NL East: 90.4 88.1 84.7 71.8 69.7 NL East W L Pct3 Avg W Avg L Champions Wild Card Playoffs 1D Change 7D Change Mets 84 68 .562 90.2 71.8 81.75885 6.27873 88.03757 -6.45261 -11.72753 Phillies 83 70 .532 88.1 73.9 17.78720 18.70678 36.49398 7.10476 17.51778 Braves 80 73 .538 84.8 77.2 .45395 .64912 1.10308 .20417 -0.78322 Nationals 68 85 .440 71.5 90.5 .00000 .00000 .00000 .00000 .00000 Marlins 66 87 .467 69.9 92.1 .00000 .00000 .00000 .00000 .00000

Well, now two of the eight games have been played, and, as we know, neither of them went our way. So the nine possibilities that were eliminated were most of the best ones. My prediction at this point: One Monday morning the Magic Number will be 6 and the Mets will still have a 1.5 game lead. Let's watch (from between our fingers, perhaps) and see. Let's GO Mets! Mets WinsPhillies WinsMonday morning Mets LeadMonday morning Magic Number314.53323.54213.54332.55222.55112.55341.56231.56121.56011.56240.57130.57020.5714-0.5803-0.5804-1.59

Voting for Wednesday night's win in Washington will close some time over the weekend:

VOTING FOR THIS GAME IS NOW CLOSED Totals for September 18, 2007 (9 votes) Washington Nationals 9, New York Mets 8 NameTotal PointsPoints AwardedPlayer PerformanceShawn Green21.552.393-4, 2 R, HR, RBI, BB.Endy Chavez13.751.533-3, 2 RBI.Paul Lo Duca11.251.252-4, R, 2B, 2 RBI.Moises Alou10.251.142-3, R.Jeff Conine9.501.062-2, RBI.David Wright5.500.612-5, R, 2 2B, RBI.Aaron Heilman5.400.601.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO.Pedro Feliciano5.400.601.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO.Carlos Beltran1.500.171-5, R, RBI, 3 SO.Guillermo Mota0.500.060.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO.Scott Schoeneweis0.200.021.1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO.

Some recent updates on what Felix Millan has been up to: http://leaptoad.com/mets/profile.php?PlayerCode=0215&tabno=7

Yeah, but the indestructible cheerleader is still plenty cute. I've gotten to a point in my life where I get far more pleasure from a Mets win than I get pain from a Mets loss. I'm able to shrug off the losing seasons and enjoy the hell out of seasons like 2006. So this freefall isn't causing me the angst that it would have, say, twenty years ago. But having said that, this still sucks like crazy. I feel like there's a little cloud following me around. A nagging buzz in my head that there's a disaster going on. I can't just wash my hands of this whole mess, as much as I'd like to. At least it hasn't made me surly or short-tempered. Years ago, it might have. If the Mets do end up somehow winning the 2007 World Series, I guess this experience will make the ending all the sweeter. But I think I'm more likely to end up with an October with no baseball excitement, and early bed times.

That would be fine, too. (Would you include Bucky Barnes?)

What would really make sense, though, is if the bottom of the ninth has righties coming up, Heilman, and if lefties, Feliciano. Do the old Orosco/McDowell (or McGraw/Frisella) thing.

Edgy DC wrote: Is Feliciano tonight's closer or Heilman? I'd say Heilman, only because Willie seems inclined to remove Feliciano after one pitch.

Delgado, yes. Let Pedro pitch as long as he feels he can. He's a fierce competitor and I'll bet he's fired up for this. I don't know why his pitch count has been so high in his three starts so far. Hopefully he'll get a few eight-pitch innings in there. I'd prefer to have Green in the lineup, too. He's a veteran, and he's been keeping it cool. Can we get the holiday rescheduled until November?

He left with a big f-you. He may not care to come back.

Marvel is also planning to start tying their movies together. Avengers is in the works, but expected to follow Iron Man and Thor and, I think, Captain America. I think it's an okay idea. Part of the fun of the Marvel Universe is how it all overlaps. Movie audiences need to be eased into that, however. Launching them into a full-blown Marvel Universe would require too much suspension of disbelief. (Imagine working all those different origins into one film.) DC has the advantage that their heroes are more familiar. They may be able to get away with introducing Flash and Green Lantern and Aquaman without going into their origins. (Much of the audience already knows who they are.) But seeing a bunch of guys in outlandish costumes sitting around a conference room table waiting for evil to strike will look nutty no matter what. Such a movie would probably be better as a high-end computer animated feature. (Easier to suspend the disbelief.) And I agree with what Edgy said above about superteams like X-Men, FF, and Doom Patrol compared with conglomerate teams like Justice League, Avengers, and Defenders. And one more thing: I want an Invaders movie!

Yeah, I don't care what Jeff says or doesn't say. He's certainly entitled to his opinion. I just don't like hearing Steinbrenner-esque bluster coming from the Mets front office.

A win or two would do it for me if it's accompanied by a Philadelphia loss or two. As long as the magic number keeps moving we're fine. In the last seven or eight days, we've only had one day where the number dropped. And that's the problem. We're running out of days. It has to drop by 9 in ten days. We had been at a point where it had to drop by 11 in 18 days.

I agree. One of the reasons the pen has been such a problem is because they've been getting a lot of work. More starts that last seven or eight innings would go a long way. I thought Glavine would get it done for us last night. I think Pedro can give us six tonight. If he goes seven, it will be for the first time this year. I'm less confident in Perez on Saturday and not at all confident in Maine on Sunday.