Benjamin Grimm

Maybe we can get this Richard A. Smith on the phone and ask him if he's really dead?

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Good gravy, Grimm. That's not a tendency; that's Fandom pathology. What can I say? My interest in baseball has become very narrow. I used to be a rabid fan. I followed every team around the league. I knew who all of the starting players were. Who was hot and who was cold. Had informed opinions regarding who should win the post-season awards. Tried to watch every pitch of every post-season game. But that's all gone now. I never would have imagined that I could become as disaffected as I've become, but I have. And if it could happen to me, it could happen to you! BEWARE!

Edgy MD wrote: C'mon, we've played the shit out of the Giants the last few weeks. Surely you got a taste of Brandon Crawford. Nope. You'd be surprised at how little attention I pay to the opposing team. I honestly don't know who Brandon Crawford is. (If he ever becomes a Met, I'll start paying attention to him.)

I lost interest in the All-Star game around the time I stopped caring about opposing players. When I was a kid, I was definitely interested in seeing a game that had Hank Aaron and Willie Mays and Johnny Bench and Willie Stargell playing on the same team with one or two of my own Mets. Now, the All-Stars are mostly guys who I'm barely familiar with. I'm looking at the rosters now. I have no idea who Jose Altuve is. Or Salvador Perez. Or Lorenzo Cain. Or Jason Kipnis. Or Manny Machado. I don't even recognize their names as the names of baseball players. There are even guys in the National League who I don't know. If you asked me what team Brandon Crawford was on, I couldn't tell you. Or Nolan Arenado. or Yasmani Grandal. At least in the NL I'm familiar with all of the starters, but there are very few players on either team whose faces I'd recognize. I know who Madison Bumgarner is, and Clayton Kershaw, and Max Scherzer, but if you showed me three mugshots, with them not wearing their caps, I wouldn't be able to tell you which one was which. Given how disaffected I've become from everything other than the Mets, (and even from the Mets, to a degree) the All-Star game has no interest to me at all. A bunch of strangers (and Jacob deGrom) playing an exhibition game. Tonight I'm going to watch Falling Skies and The Emperor's New Groove. And I probably won't even be conscious that I'm not watching the All-Star game.

Nope, never. My general baseball curiosity completely evaporated in 1994, and it hasn't come back. I haven't even seen a single pitch of a post-season game, live or on replay, since Carlos Beltran took that called strike three in 2006.

Are we sure that's the same guy? There can be any number of Richard Smiths, including the famous bull-riding founder of my hometown of Smithtown.

Hmmm... that has me wondering... maybe if we lock this thread, the injuries will stop?

When did Home Run Derby start? I haven't watched an All-Star Game since the early 90's, and I've never seen a Home Run Derby.

metsmarathon is referring to Don Buford and Damon Buford. I had totally forgotten that Damon Buford was a Met. (44 games in 1995.)

Zvon wrote: Can anyone explain the new format? I don't even have the sound up. I thought that Fman's post, above, was the explanation of the new format.

Voting for the three games played against the Giants last week will close on Tuesday morning, but not before 10 a.m. Schaefer POTG 7/6/15 - Mets 3, Giants 0 Schaefer POTG 7/7/15 - Giants 3, Mets 0 Schaefer POTG 7/8/15 - Mets 4, Giants 1

I remember hearing Strawberry's third homer on a transistor radio (!) in the Long Island Rail Road waiting area in Penn Station.

Edgy MD wrote: Former Mets shortstop prospect Corey Ragsdale was a manager in the South Atlantic League All Star Game. You mean, the "much-despised" Corey Ragsdale???

I remember Strawberry's most vividly. I also recall Reyes and Carter and Claudell Washington. I have no memory of Ike Davis', and Beltran's vaguely rings a bell. (Vanis Takee, Carlos!)

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Edgy MD wrote: Howie throws down a shoutout to mbtn.net and Kirk celebrates with a second kaboomie. What'd he say? I'm curious too. What did he say?

Familia 0.5 Murphy 1 Niese 3 Nieuwenhuis 5 Parnell 0.5

Harvey 6 Duda 1 Tejada 1 Familia 1 Parnell 1

Cuddyer 1 Duda 3 Syndergaard 6

At least he still has his index finger.

Campbell 2.01 deGrom 6 Familia 1 Murphy 0.33 Plawecki 0.33 Tejada 0.33

Brian Stokes is probably wishing I had shut this thing down after the 2014 season, instead of giving it one more year. I still haven't decided, by the way, whether or not Schaefer will continue in a different format. I just know that voting will no longer take place in this forum.

@Mets wrote: We�ve teamed up w/@Twins because Jeurys Familia, @BrianDozier are #ASGWorthy #VoteFamilia #VoteDozier #MetropoliTwins Oh.

Metropolitwins? Are the two franchises merging or something?

The Games Ahead/Behind thing is a good idea, and I'll probably go ahead with it as time permits. I'm also thinking of doing something with bullpen usage.

Colon 2.5 Plawecki 1