Benjamin Grimm

I think that's a wise decision. Now, instead of embarrassing himself on the field, he can retire and go home and start bullying his neighbors into cutting down their trees.

When is the beginning of the steroid era? I'm inclined to put it somewhere around 1987, when there was talk of a "juiced ball" and Lenny Dykstra showed up for spring training all bulked up.

Jim Duquette and Andy Martino were both on Mets Hot Stove today. Sounds like they feel that Drew to the Mets is becoming a bit less remote the closer we get to spring training. Martino says that, right now anyway, the Mets are holding to only offering a one-year contract, but would probably be willing, eventually, to go to two years or three. (My hunch is that two could get it done.) Duquette says that there are only two teams in serious play for Drew, the Mets and the Red Sox, with the Twins as a possible dark horse.

dinosaur jesus wrote: I'm not sure how you define "between Blyleven and Maddux." The paragraph I quoted says that it's going by debut dates. Blyleven debuted in 1970 and Maddux in 1986.

Some of those pitchers debuted before Blyleven (like Lolich and, perhaps, Blue) but most do fall into that Blyleven-Maddux gap.

Adam Rubin wrote: Bobby Parnell cleared to pitch New York Mets closer Bobby Parnell, who underwent Sept. 10 surgery in California for a herniated disk in his neck, has been fully cleared for baseball activities. After attending David Wright's wedding, Parnell stayed on the West Coast to be examined by Dr. Robert Watkins, who had performed the procedure. Watkins cleared Parnell for full baseball activities. Parnell is expected to resume closing games for the Mets this season. He converted 22 of 26 chances last season. "He looked terrific -- toned, strong, limber," said one person who recently saw Parnell. Parnell had lost roughly 30 pounds while dealing with the herniated disk.

Saw this interesting tidbit in an Associated Press article: Maddux and Glavine become the first primarily starting pitchers to enter the Hall whose careers began after Bert Blyleven, who debuted in 1970. Maddux reached the major leagues in 1986 and Glavine a year later. That means that after the generation of starters that included Seaver, Carlton, Palmer, and Sutton, there's a long gap before another Hall of Fame starting pitcher came along. Gooden and Valenzuela are the pitchers that come immediately to mind when I think of the top pitchers from the time period between Blyleven and Maddux. And of course, Jack Morris has been discussed a lot lately. Who else?

It does seem unlikely that there would be much of a black market for Hall-of-Fame votes.

I totally missed the memo outlining why I should dislike Tom Glavine. "On behalf of everyone at the Mets, we congratulate Tom Glavine on his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame," said Mets COO Jeff Wilpon. "We are proud that Tom won his 300th game as a Met and were fortunate to have him on our club. His excellence as a player is equaled by his excellence as a person." Jeff Wilpon likes him! That's good enough for me!

Player (Years on ballot) Total Votes Percentage Greg Maddux (1) 555 97.2 Tom Glavine (1) 525 91.9 Frank Thomas (1) 478 83.7 Craig Biggio (2) 427 74.8 Mike Piazza (2) 355 62.2 Jack Morris (15) 351 61.5 Jeff Bagwell (4) 310 54.3 Tim Raines (7) 263 46.1 Roger Clemens (2) 202 35.4 Barry Bonds (2) 198 34.7 Lee Smith (12) 171 29.9 Curt Schilling (2) 167 29.2 Edgar Martinez (5) 144 25.2 Alan Trammell (13) 119 20.8 Mike Mussina (1) 116 20.3 Jeff Kent (1) 87 15.2 Fred McGriff (8) 67 11.7 Mark McGwire (8) 63 11.0 Larry Walker (4) 58 10.2 Don Mattingly (14) 47 8.2 Sammy Sosa (2) 41 7.2 Rafael Palmeiro (4) 25 4.4 Moises Alou (1) 6 1.1 Hideo Nomo (1) 6 1.1 Luis Gonzalez (1) 5 0.9 Eric Gagne (1) 2 0.4 J.T. Snow (1) 2 0.4 Armando Benitez (1) 1 0.2 Jacque Jones (1) 1 0.2 Kenny Rogers (1) 1 0.2 Sean Casey (1) 0 0.0 Ray Durham (1) 0 0.0 Todd Jones (1) 0 0.0 Paul Lo Duca (1) 0 0.0 Richie Sexson (1) 0 0.0 Mike Timlin (1) 0 0.0

I suggest that we change the name to the Swane Pool Forum for supermodel Candice Sawnepoel.

Mets � Willets Point wrote: When does the actual vote tallying and announcement take place? Announcement is scheduled for Wednesday at 2 p.m.

On the same day the Indians signed Scott Atchison to a minor-league contract, they did the same with Jeff Francoeur.

Do you still count the Schaefer results as one of the voters?

I was at a Cyclones game in 2009 where there were seven different people or groups throwing out the first pitch. Not all at once, but one after another. The seventh person to do so was actually throwing out the seventh pitch, but no one seemed to acknowledge that.

Adam Rubin wrote: Can anyone say awkward? Mets insiders now expect Ike Davis will be in spring training with the team in Port St. Lucie, Fla. -- while cautioning they are willing to reengage the Pittsburgh Pirates or Milwaukee Brewers or any other club in search of a first baseman in trade talks in the six weeks before pitchers and catchers report on Feb. 15. Sources add that Davis genuinely does want to remain with the Mets. Of course, there is a difference between Davis coming to spring training and making it all the way to Opening Day. Another team could have an injury during spring training and need to acquire a first baseman. Or, a team like the Pirates -- who recently traded for Triple-A first baseman Chris McGuiness -- could become dissatisfied with their internal options during spring training and resume speaking with the Mets. Mets officials largely project Lucas Duda as having the better long-term potential, but are not averse to Davis being the first baseman in 2014. If both players were on the Opening Day roster, there technically would be a first-base competition during spring training. Still, Davis likely would get the bulk of the early season duty. After all, while Duda has significant home-run potential, Davis has hit 32 homers in a season as recently as 2012. A surplus at the position is viewed as a good problem to have by team officials. Davis, who is eligible for arbitration, is projected to earn $3.825 million this season. Duda, also eligible for arbitration, should earn about $1.8 million.

When is the deadline for him accepting/rejecting that $14 million?

Adam Rubin wrote: The Mets remain engaged with agent Scott Boras about free-agent shortstop Stephen Drew, but a source familiar with the process continues to portray Drew as more of a "possibility" than a "probability." Team officials are divided about how valuable Drew would be to the Mets, who otherwise appear prepared to use Ruben Tejada at shortstop. The team would be more willing to consider a one- or two-year deal for Drew at the right monetary figure, while likely being averse to anything three years or beyond. But if Drew were to accept a shorter-term deal, the feeling is that he ultimately would just return to the Boston Red Sox. So there is some belief within the Mets organization that Boras partly is engaging the Mets in order to maximize the terms with Boston. The Mets' first-round pick is protected in 2014 and the second-round pick has been forfeited to the Yankees for signing Curtis Granderson. So the Mets would lose a third-round pick if they were to sign Drew -- something they are not totally averse to considering. The Mets partly are downplaying their interest in Drew because they do not want to get the fan base excited and then seem to fail in pursuing a player they believe ultimately will end up back with the Red Sox anyway. A team insider does not believe the Mets would need to first shed payroll -- Ike Davis and/or Daniel Murphy -- in order to free available space for Drew. Drew, who turns 31 in March, hit .253 with 13 homers and 67 RBIs in 442 at-bats last season with Boston.

dgwphotography wrote: Who is the ghostly left-handed batter?

My guess is that it was intended to be permanent, but didn't look as good in reality as it may have looked in the imagination, and they fairly quickly reversed course. It may have been that they rethought the aesthetics, or else the problem was with the batters' ability to see the pitched ball with that light colored fence in the background.

My guess is that in the spring of 1967 somebody forgot to order paint for the fence, so the Mets had to instead apply a few coats of toothpaste to the surface. I blame Jeff Wilpon!

themetfairy wrote: The Pendelton game. I was at that one too. That's my second choice, after the Scoscia game.

October 9, 1988. Game Four of the NLCS. Doc Gooden takes the mound in the 9th with a 4-2 lead, and the Mets are about to go up 3 games to 1 and seem destined for their second pennant in three seasons. Mike Scioscia ruins it with a home run, and everything just feels bitterly cold and miserable the rest of the way.

Dr. Zhivago seemed about an hour too long for me. Would have been much better if it was shorter. Fiddler on the Roof was great. In that case, I didn't mind the length at all.

Definitely plural. You don't say "the Mets is"; you say "the Mets are". As for the apostrophe, in "Mets fans" I do think that Mets is an adjective. But you'd say, "Terry Collins is the "Mets' manager" but you'd also use "Mets manager Terry Collins." Does that sound right?