Benjamin Grimm

Not gonna happen! Reyes and Gotay lead off the first with back-to-back homers. Mets 2, Reds 0 after 1.

CF's wish comes true.

sharpie wrote: Redlegs: Hatteberg 1b Freel cf Griffey rf Phillips 2b Dunn lf Encarnacion 3b Gonzalez ss Ross c Arroyo p Metropolitans: Reyes ss Gotay 2b Beltran cf Wright 3b Delgado 1b Lo Duca c Green rf Milledge lf Hernandez p

Sounds to me like he's a "just in case" kind of guy. Sort of like Edgardo Alfonzo last year, who never even got a September call.

Jamie Moyer, November 18, 1962, is also older than I am.

Yeah, that smells like an Urban Legend to me.

It's on Mets.com, so I guess it's official: ="Marty Noble"] Mets designate Franco for assignment 07/12/2007 3:09 PM ET By Marty Noble / MLB.com NEW YORK -- For weeks, Julio Franco had spoken privately of the need to find work elsewhere and the need to get enough at-bats to allow him to continue his career and reach his objective of playing at age 50. He was convinced remaining in what he considered a role more limited that he had anticipated would undermine his chances. He planned to ask for his release. The Mets beat him to the punch, though; they designated him for assignment on Thursday as part of the midseason roster restructuring. Some 5 1/2 weeks short of his 49th birthday, Franco now is a former Met. If no other club trades for him or claims him off waivers -- and the Mets don't reverse the process, which is quite unlikely -- he will become a free agent in 10 days and begin looking for a place where he will be likely to be given more opportunity to swing for 50. Franco was pleased Thursday afternoon, but a little off balance. "I thought I would surprise them," he said by telephone, "But they surprised me. It's what I need to do, so that part is good for me." Franco played sparingly in his 1 1/2 seasons with the Mets, starting seven games of the Mets' 87 games this season -- four at first base, two at third and one as the DH -- and batted .130 in 23 at-bats. His work as a pinch-hitter was more effective, seven hits in 26 at-bats, but all were singles. He played in 95 games last season, starting 25, mostly at first base. He batted .273 with 26 RBIs in 165 at-bats and was disappointed by the number of opportunities. Despite the disappointment, he considered seeking a contract extension during Spring Training. He never made the request, and when he found his playing time unsatisfactory, he reversed this thinking and weighed leaving. Now he is gone, creating more pinch-hit opportunities for Ramon Castro, who will be freed of the No. 2 catching restriction by the presence of Sandy Alomar Jr. The Mets wanted the veteran catcher and son of their third base coach because of his catching skills and leadership. Castro's hitting played no small role in this set of decisions. He has driven in 17 runs in 19 starts and has 11 hits -- six for extra bases -- six runs and six RBIs in the last eight games in which he had batted.

Frayed Knot wrote: And, for me personally, this removes the last remaining major leaguer who was ... oh never mind. Yeah, me too, I think. Let me check... Nope, Roger Clemens (August 4, 1962) is still older than me. But he is the last Met to have been born before me. Unless, of course, they reactivate Rickey (December 25, 1958) in September.

seawolf17 wrote: I'm not saying she's not annoying, I'm just agreeing that she's cute. I agree with that too. But I find that she's far more annoying than she is cute. I'm glad she's off the Ritz Cracker boxes. I shudder to think that some day she may be on my boxes of Pop-Tarts!

No, for that you'd have to buy Triscuits.

True. Maybe Omar can trade Franco to Florida for Dontrelle. Well, maybe not, but he can at least make the phone call.

I was all set to call Nabisco and demand that they remove Rachael Ray's picture from their boxes of Ritz Crackers (she could actually be seen on four of the six side of the carton) but somebody apparently beat me to it. After we returned from Alaska last summer, I noticed a "Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels" in my TiVo Alaska wish list. Since we had just returned from Anchorage, I figured we'd watch the show and see her take on the city. What a mistake. It was 30 minutes of pure stupidity. She went to the Alaska Native Heritage Center and concluded her visit by saying, "If you're interested in Native Alaskan Heritage, then the Alaska Native Heritage Center is the place for you!" How inane can you get?

Good!

Me too.

I hope so. This "semi-retirement" of number 24 is stupid. Give it to Rickey, and when he's done with it give it to the next Kelvin Torve who comes along.

If I'd only seen photos of Rachael Ray, I'd probably think she was attractive. But I've seen her in action and heard her talk. She's unbearable.

I don't think I care for the fancier font either. There was nothing at all wrong with the uniforms, both home and away, that the Big Red Machine wore. If I were a Reds fan, those would be the uniforms I'd want to see.

I really want to see the Mets get a good start to the second half, winning 3 or 4 games against the Reds. It's time to start opening up a big lead in the NL East, and a four-game series, at home, against a last-place team with a .409 winning percentage is an opportunity not to be wasted. Incidentally, the Mets and Reds are the only NL Teams playing today. The rest of the league gets a four-day All Star break. This modern schedule is too darn quirky.

Prior to this, what were HoJo's duties, other than coaching first base? I don't see anything wrong with having two hitting coaches, as long as they're not sending conflicting messages to individual players. I remember the Mets had two pitching coaches back in 1981: Rube Walker and Bob Gibson. I don't have a sense of how well or poorly that worked, but I think they repeated the routine for Atlanta when Joe Torre went over there in 1982.

Hitting Coach: Howard Johnson Offensive Invigorator: Rickey Henderson

Well, Endy Chavez played better with the Mets than he ever had previously. It's always hard to know when to credit or blame a particular coach, so I really can't even form an opinion about whether Down deserves to keep or lose his job. Having Rickey around should be fun and interesting. I wonder how long the job will hold his interest?

Closing on Friday: http://cranepoolforum.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=6806 That's the Sunday afternoon 8-3 loss to the Astros in Houston.

Twist and shout!

Schoeneweis 1 Sele 1 Beltran 1 Newhan 1 Reyes 1