Benjamin Grimm

SCHAEFER METS PLAYERS OF THE MONTH, APRIL 2015 The Schaefer Mets Player of the Month for April 2015 is fourth-time winner LUCAS DUDA. Lucas led the Mets in batting average (.325), OBP (.427) and slugging (.488) as well as in doubles, with 7. His 13 runs scored were second only to Curtis Granderson's 15, and only Daniel Murphy, with 14, had more RBI than Duda's 12. The Schaefer Mets Pitcher of the Month is second-time winner, BARTOLO COLON. Colon was 4-1 in April, with a 3.31 ERA and 25 strikeouts and 1 walk over 32.2 innings. The Schaefer Mets Relief Pitcher of the Month is JEURYS FAMILIA, for the fourth time overall. Familia pitched in 11 games in April, with 9 saves and a 1.69 ERA over 10.2 innings. He struck out 13 and walked 3. His 6.47 Schaefer points allowed him to finish ahead of Alex Torres (4.42), and Jerry Blevins (4.33). The Schaefer Mets Bench Player of the Month for April is a first-time winner, (in any monthly Schaefer category) CURTIS GRANDERSON. It wasn't a big month for bench players. Curtis won with only 0.70 points. (He walked and scored a run as a pinch-hitter in the Mets 4-3 win in Atlanta on April 12, and did the same in a 3-2 win over the Braves at Citi Field on April 22.) Other players to earn Schaefer points in games that they didn't start were Daniel Murphy (0.62), Kirk Nieuwenhuis (0.51), John Mayberry (0.25), Danny Muno (0.14), Anthony Recker (0.08) and Ruben Tejada (0.07). Updated award winner standings, with this month's winners in bold: PLAYER OF THE MONTH David Wright 14 Johan Santana 6 Carlos Beltran 5 Jose Reyes 5 R. A. Dickey 4 Lucas Duda 4 Daniel Murphy 3 Cliff Floyd 2 Tom Glavine 2 Carlos Delgado 2 Ike Davis 2 Mike Cameron 1 John Maine 1 Angel Pagan 1 Jeff Francoeur 1 Ruben Tejada 1 John Buck 1 Matt Harvey 1 Marlon Byrd 1 Dillon Gee 1 Jonathon Niese 1 Bartolo Colon 1 Juan Lagares 1 PITCHER OF THE MONTH R. A. Dickey 10 Johan Santana 9 Pedro Martinez 6 John Maine 5 Mike Pelfrey 4 Jonathon Niese 4 Tom Glavine 3 Matt Harvey 3 Dillon Gee 3 Jacob deGrom 3 Orlando Hernandez 2 Bartolo Colon 2 Alay Soler 1 Steve Trachsel 1 Oliver Perez 1 Livan Hernandez 1 Tim Redding 1 Chris Capuano 1 Zack Wheeler 1 RELIEVER OF THE MONTH Brian Stokes 5 Billy Wagner 4 Aaron Heilman 4 Bobby Parnell 4 Carlos Torres 4 Jeurys Familia 4 Francisco Rodriguez 3 Duaner Sanchez 2 Raul Valdes 2 Pedro Beato 2 Manny Acosta 2 Jon Rauch 2 LaTroy Hawkins 2 Darren Oliver 1 Chad Bradford 1 Guillermo Mota 1 Joe Smith 1 Jorge Sosa 1 Scott Schoeneweis 1 Pedro Feliciano 1 Sean Green 1 Fernando Nieve 1 Hisanori Takahashi 1 Elmer Dessens 1 Jason Isringhausen 1 Frank Francisco 1 Josh Edgin 1 Scott Rice 1 BENCH PLAYER OF THE MONTH Fernando Tatis 3 Daniel Murphy 3 Jordany Valdespin 3 Julio Franco 2 Damion Easley 2 Marlon Anderson 2 Endy Chavez 2 Josh Thole 2 Justin Turner 2 Scott Hairston 2 Andrew Brown 2 Eric Campbell 2 Eli Marrero 1 Michael Tucker 1 Ricky Ledee 1 David Newhan 1 Ramon Castro 1 Ruben Gotay 1 Robinson Cancel 1 Gary Sheffield 1 Alex Cora 1 Jeremy Reed 1 Omir Santos 1 Cory Sullivan 1 Chris Carter 1 Mike Hessman 1 Nick Evans 1 Jason Pridie 1 Willie Harris 1 Val Pascucci 1 Mike Baxter 1 Ronny Cedeño 1 Kelly Shoppach 1 Josh Satin 1 Zach Lutz 1 Ike Davis 1 Lucas Duda 1 Chris Young 1 Anthony Recker 1 Curtis Granderson 1

Voting for the three games listed below will close on Wednesday morning, some time after 11 a.m. Schaefer POTG 5/1/15 - Mets 4, Nationals 0 Schaefer POTG 5/2/15: Nats 1 Mets 0 Schaefer POTG 5/3/15: Nats 1 Mets 0

I think Gee and Murphy for a hitter is a reasonable thing to pursue, even if the guy they get in return is a one-year rental. But what position do you target? They're not going to displace Lagares, Duda, Wright, or d'Arnaud. And it's not likely that they'd displace Granderson or Cuddyer either, but I suppose it's possible. That essentially leaves shortstop and second base. I have little idea of who's out there (beyond the list of players in the recent Shortstop 2015 post) or what they would cost. I don't think Murphy is washed up; I suspect he has a lot of hits remaining in his bat for the rest of the year. Who would they get that would make a deal beneficial for the Mets?

It's hard to believe that this thread went almost two years without an update.

Voting for Thursday's loss to the Nationals will close on Tuesday morning, some time after 11 a.m. This will close out the month of April. Schaefer POTG 4/30/15 - Nationals 8, Mets 2

I do remember when Bob Watson scored the One Millionth run, but I recall it as a fun fact; I don't remember any of the fuss that's mentioned in this article. The race between Watson and Concepcion, in two different ballparks, is cool, as is the reward of one million Tootsie Rolls. (I wonder how much space one million Tootsie Rolls would take up?) It also makes sense that the two millionth run isn't that far off; the second million would come in about half the time as the first because the number of teams has nearly doubled, and there was no "dead ball" era to get through. I find myself hoping that whoever it is who becomes the 1000th Met ends up scoring the 2,000,000th run. Bob Watson and the story of Major League Baseball's One Millionth Run BY Anthony Mccarron NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, May 4, 2015, 1:10 AM The whole thing started with a baseball junkie counting runs on his new $80 electronic calculator, which had eaten up about a week�s take-home pay from his job as a radio newscaster in Connecticut. It gained steam and became a big-deal promotion for Major League Baseball, with luminaries Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial and Ernie Banks talking it up. There was a countdown in every ballpark, a command center in Rockefeller Center and spotters on the telephone from every game, vital in the days before instant messaging and Twitter. Companies such as Tootsie Roll and Seiko were sponsors. And it ended in a home run sprint � yep, you read that right � with the run counter in every active ballpark sitting on 1. Houston�s Bob Watson stepped into quirky baseball history when he touched home plate at Candlestick Park. Forty years ago today, on May 4, 1975, Watson scored what was then counted as the millionth run in baseball history, running in from second base on a three-run homer hit by Milt May, 99 years and 12 days after a fella named Wes Fisler of Philadelphia�s National League club scored the first one in the history of the majors. Halfway across the country, only a few moments after May swung, Davey Concepcion of the Reds homered and dashed around the bases at Riverfront Stadium. �I got to third base and our bullpen was right behind third and the guys were saying, �Run, run, run!�� recalls Watson, who had worked a walk against John Montefusco. �I think I beat Concepcion by like a second and a half.� �I was the million and one,� Concepcion says, laughing. �I was flying around the bases, but I didn�t have time to score before Bob. I think I missed by eight yards.� Still, Concepcion originally thought he had done it and, he says, he and the Reds celebrated at the plate. �Then somebody said I came up short,� he laments now. Just before those home run trots turned into sprints, both Chris Chambliss of the Yankees and the Twins� Rod Carew had a chance to score the millionth run, according to news reports. But both were thrown out at the plate. There was much at stake besides just a slice of oddball lore � publicity, a Seiko watch worth $1,000, a million Tootsie Rolls and a million pennies that would go to a baseball charity. There was even a contest for fans to predict who would score and when; the winner would get the candy and the pennies, too. Folks were curious, recalls Ellen Gordon, now the chairman and CEO of Tootsie Roll Industries, Inc., and the promotion generated lots of television and print coverage. �We got a lot of attention out of it and it just seemed to fit in with Tootsie Roll,� Gordon says now. DiMaggio drummed up support for Tootsie Roll�s backing by uttering this much-reported phrase when someone wondered why the candy company was involved: �I ate my first Tootsie Roll when I was six.� And teams wanted one of their own to score the fateful run, too, says Marty Appel, the baseball author who was the Yankees� media relations director at the time. �We were hoping it was us,� Appel says. �We weren�t winning pennants then and it would�ve been a nice moment. �I think there was a higher level of interest in it than you might expect. It somehow got people�s interest.� There was, for instance, a countdown in the Daily News and stories speculating on how it�d be scored. One particular story in The News wondered whether players would try to steal home to do it. It was headlined: �Will Million Be a Steal?� Little did a 23-year-old recent grad of Emerson College know what he got going. A few years earlier, Mark Sackler, who worked at WMMM in Westport, Conn., had used the Baseball Encyclopedia to tally how many runs had been scored in big-league history, just for nerdy fun. When he bought his first calculator in 1974 � �I just had to have it,� Sackler recalls now � he revisited the project because he knew the game must be nearing one million runs. One of his father�s work colleagues knew someone in the promotions business, so a few connections later, Ted Worner Associates was involved and Sackler was part of a growing event. �It took a year to get it going,� he says. At one point, Sackler, who eventually left broadcasting to work in the pharmaceutical industry, was asked to project the day it would happen. �I came up with May 4,� he said. Watson, who would go on to hit .324 and make his second All-Star team in 1975, might not have had a chance at the milestone if not for a May 3 rainout that forced a Sunday doubleheader and an early start. Or if May hadn�t seen the counter drop to 1 and decided, �I�m swinging.� �I was not a power hitter,� says May, now the hitting coach for the Orioles� Gulf Coast League team who hit 77 homers in his 15-year career. �Maybe I should�ve had that approach more often.� The Baseball Hall of Fame collected the Candlestick plate and the spikes Watson scored with. Neither artifact is currently on display, a Hall spokesman said. One drawback, Watson recalls: he had just gotten his Kangaroo brand spikes properly broken in, something he says wasn�t as easy to do then as it is now. Watson did not accept the Tootsie Rolls, instead directing them to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. He did not want his 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter to have that much candy. But the watch, solid platinum, is still a prized souvenir of his terrific 19-year career. �It�s still in my safety deposit box,� Watson says. �I�ve never worn it. It came in a nice wooden box with a plaque on it. I would never sell it � it�s one of a kind. As far as I�m concerned, when I leave the planet, my son or daughter, whichever wants it, I hope they keep it.� Watson, now 69, went on to a long career in the game, including a stint as Yankees� GM when he became the first African-American GM to win a World Series title in 1996. He�s now the vice president of the Baseball Assistance Team, the charity that helps former players. Those involved in the millionth run can�t help but be curious about the next million � MLB estimates it is approaching the 1.9 million mark and could reach 2 million in 2020. But plenty of people still bring up the millionth run, Watson says. �I�ll hear, �Hey, you won me a pitcher of beer� because someone stumped their friends,� he says. �It wasn�t one of my goals as a player. It�s just something along the way that is a unique happening. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.�

And he's back in the running to be the thousandth Met! (Are we the only ones who know about this upcoming milestone?)

Gee 2.5 ATorres 2 Familia 1

I gave it six stars. I enjoyed it, but I don't think I'll remember a whole lot about it after a few weeks have gone by. And I don't plan to see it again until I can do so for free, when it's on HBO or EPIX or whatever. The Vision was cool. I really don't like Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner. (Bring back Art Carney!) I really don't have much sense of what makes a man attractive, but I'd think that Natasha Romanoff would prefer any of the other guys on the team to Banner. I also suspect that if I didn't know these guys and their stories from decades of reading comic books, that I would have thought this movie was a hot mess.

Niese 4 CTorres 2

Cuddyer 2 Familia 1 Harvey 5 Murphy 2

Voting for Wednesday's loss to the Marlins will close over the weekend, but not before 10 a.m. on Saturday. Schaefer POTG 4/29/15 - Marlins 7, Mets 3

Granderson 1 Plawecki 1

Fman99 wrote: Hot chick rides talking/singing horse, inducing erections. I just found out that that girl on the horse in the DirecTV commercial is Derek Jeter's girlfriend. BLAH!

Zvon wrote: "Action" Jackson Todd. That nickname never stuck, like all my nicknames. *sob Maybe you need to work on your "Nickname Methodology."

I know.

You said, "Well, they knew he had it in him." MFS62 suggested vivisection as a way of extracting what is "in him."

Does anyone actually like Crackerjacks? It seems like something you eat when you're bored or hungry and there are very few other options available.

Voting for Tuesday night's loss to the Marlins will close on Friday morning, some time after 10 a.m. This game looks to be short at least a few votes. Schaefer POTG 4/28/15 - Marlins 4, Mets 3

A man is still at large Thursday after he allegedly groped a 12-year-old boy while the pair rode aboard a subway train in Queens, police said. "The pair"? It kind of makes it sound like they knew each other. I gather that's not the case, but it's a strange word to use. (And it was used twice, I see.)