Benjamin Grimm

I realized it was Jackie Robinson Day when I went to Baseball Reference this morning and all of the photos on the home page were of players who had played in the Negro Leagues.

The first time I saw that photo used in a meme, the girl in the foreground represented Andres Gimenez and the girlfriend represented Amed Rosario. I guess that would have had to have been in 2020.

I noticed that Mets hitters no longer seem to be swatting away armpit odor after they reach base on a hit. This makes me wonder if it was a thing promoted by one of the prominent recent departures. Nimmo? McNeil? Alonso? Which of them was a crusader against armpit odor?

I agree. The Braves jersey should have peaches. The Pirates jersey should have steel. Or three rivers. The Reds jersey should have, um, uh, Les Nessman?

I agree that the Braves have the best one. The Pirates don't look like they've done much at all, nor have the Rangers. It's like they ran out of X's but had some leftover J's. The Padres look pretty good. The Royals' cap is stupid.

Like FK said, wait until Soto comes back. Or a couple of more weeks, whichever comes first.

Oh, and this is Soto's calf. I'm told that her name is Penelope.

I remember a time, I think it was in 1999 as the Mets were chasing the Wild Card, that Mike Piazza went on the DL. Fortunately, Todd Pratt did a good job filling in and the Mets did pretty well. Every game that the Mets won without Piazza meant that it was a game where they didn't miss Piazza. I'm getting that feeling again as they've won four straight without Soto. If Soto ends up missing fifteen games, there are now at least four of them where it didn't matter. (And hopefully that number will continue to grow!)

"Know Thy Enemy" (Or is it "Thine Enemy?") It was traditionally a report about whatever we might need to know about a Mets opponent at the start of a series.

From the MBTN data: 1 Chris Cannizzaro 04/14/1962 10/02/1964 2 Yogi Berra 05/01/1965 05/11/1965 3 Yogi Berra 04/15/1972 08/05/1975 4 Dan Norman 07/13/1979 10/05/1980 5 Rick Sweet 04/09/1982 05/21/1982 6 Phil Mankowski 06/29/1982 07/22/1982 7 Ronn Reynolds 09/29/1982 06/15/1983 8 John Gibbons 04/11/1984 09/30/1984 9 Gary Carter 04/09/1985 09/30/1989 10 Dave Gallagher 04/06/1992 10/03/1993 11 Steve Swisher 04/04/1994 09/29/1996 12 Carlos Baerga 04/01/1997 09/27/1998 13 Cookie Rojas 04/05/1999 10/26/2000 14 Desi Relaford 04/04/2001 10/07/2001 15 Matt Galante 04/01/2002 09/29/2002

I'm sure it's because of the extra rounds of playoffs. The regular season starts earlier than it used to, and the post season ends later than it once did. November World Series games used to be unheard of.

Was Wilhelm with the Dodgers? I have a 1972 Topps card of Hoyt Wilhelm as a Dodger.

Hoyt Wilhelm?

Clemens isn't in the Hall.

It looks like this is now about guessing the pitchers, independent of the hitters. Is one of the three remaining pitchers... Gaylord Perry?

Piazza... Roy Halliday?

I wonder if people would have been more upset or less upset if I had simply shut it down, as I had considered doing.

I'm getting some frustrated messages through the UMDB Facebook page, which is still mine. (The new guy didn't want it.)