Benjamin Grimm

Duda 1.3 Harvey 5 Murphy 1.4 Rice 1 Wright 1.3

Tarp on the field. ESPN saying that the Mets hope to get the game underway by 8, or a little before.

Zvon wrote: Scheffing was a manager once? I never knew. Now that I think of it I know nothing of this guy aside from his time with the Mets. I think it was mentioned in the 1971 Mets yearbook, which happens to be the yearbook I devoured more than any other.

And this, from ConnecticutHistory.org: ConnecticutHistory.org wrote: Re-creating Our National Pastime In an era before the Internet, television, or even live radio broadcasts, fans of professional baseball watched re-creations of games around the country thanks to an innovative company in Stamford, Connecticut. The Stamford Playograph Company brought live baseball to millions of Americans through the production of their �playograph� product. Playographs resembled large billboards, often standing about 9-feet high. Making up either side of the playograph was the vertical listing of the player lineups for each team. In the middle of the playograph was a reproduction of a baseball diamond, along with places for playograph operators to indicate balls, strikes, outs, and runs in real-time. The ingenious invention was operated by two men hidden from public view. The operators received transmissions from telegraph operators who watched the games live and communicated details about every pitch. Upon receiving each update, playograph operators depicted the transmissions on the playograph through the use of a baseball replica that they manually moved around the baseball diamond. The ball sat still on the pitcher�s mound until operators received information about the game�s next pitch. The operator then moved the ball toward home plate in a fashion that replicated the pitch thrown. Playograph viewers witnessed the ball move directly and deliberately toward home plate for fastballs. For curveballs, it moved with a sudden swing left or right at the end. If a batter made contact, the playograph operator moved the ball to a spot on the diamond reproduction that corresponded to where it had been hit in the game. A small �fly ball� indicator let viewers differentiate between balls hit on the ground and those hit into the air, while an �X� on a base represented a runner and an �O� indicated a runner who was out. Playographs appeared in theatres, opera houses, and on the sides of buildings and were wildly popular for a brief period of time. Used primarily for important games, like those of the World Series, the first match-ups re-created through use of the playograph were the 1911 World Series games between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Athletics. While playographs helped spread the popularity of baseball and bring together an entire community of sports enthusiasts, public outdoor displays in downtown areas proved a menace to local business owners who found access to their establishments limited or completely barricaded by the throngs of fans gathering around the playograph. Fortunately for them, the success of the playograph was short-lived and its use largely disappeared when radio stations began broadcasting baseball games in the 1920s.

Playograph From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Playograph was a machine used to transmit the details of a baseball game in the era before television. It is approximated by the "gamecast" feature on some sports web sites: it had a reproduction of a baseball diamond, with an inning-by-inning scoreboard, each team's lineup, and it simulated each pitch: a ball, a strike, a hit, an out, and so on. A telegraph operator transmitted the details of the baseball game to the two people operating the Playograph. An "X" on the diamond represented a runner; an "O" was displayed if the runner got out. A ball was moved animatronically to show fastballs or curveballs, where it was hit, and so on. A similar contraption, called the "Gridgraph," was used for football games. Here's an article about the Play-o-Graph, indicating that it met its demise in 1939.

I think that when Ike comes to the plate, the opposing pitcher should step aside and let Terry Collins pitch to him. In Pony League softball we called it "coach pitch".

Which is, perhaps, the best reason for him to do it.

The good news for the Mets this season: Harvey, Parnell, and Murphy.

I'm on Team Renfroe.

I think this line is interesting, from the unnamed source: "It�s hard to build an entire outfield in one offseason." Since it's quite possible that the Mets will need two, perhaps even three new outfielders for 2014, it would make sense to get one of those guys in July or August, if they can. This acquisition wouldn't have to be (and probably wouldn't be) a Giancarlo Stanton. I didn't read this article as saying that the Mets would make a big move that would make them contenders in 2013. I think it means that if they make a deal, they're more likely than in previous years to try to get someone who's already in the big leagues, not someone who's a year or two away. Anyone who runs out and buys tickets as a reaction to this fuzzy article is reading way too much into it.

Alderson: NY Mets could be buyers in July, finally By Andy Martino For all of Sandy Alderson�s tenure, the Mets have acted as sellers at the trade deadline and even in the offseason. With an eye toward the future, the GM has moved Carlos Beltran, Francisco Rodriguez, and R.A. Dickey for minor leaguers. But while the Mets will not contend this year, they are open to trading prospects for big league stars as soon as July; sources have suggested this for months, and the GM went on the record with it Monday. Speaking before Game 1 of the Subway Series at Citi Field, Alderson would not discuss specific players or scenarios, but confirmed that his team is open to adding big leaguers this time, rather than restocking the farm system. "We will see how the market develops, but yes," the GM told the Daily News. "It�s a possibility. It depends on what is available. I have been involved in deals in the past whose first consideration was not the current season but the following season...The possibility of making an acquisition that has implications not just for the second half of this season? Yes." Heading into this Subway Series, the obvious themes involved the Yankees performing better than expected, and the Mets playing even worse. But let�s go counterintuitive here, with Alderson�s comments in mind, and ask if the Queens team is the one with brighter days ahead this summer, while the Yankees are draining their allotment of luck during these spring months. Let me be very clear: The Yankees will finish with a significantly better record than the Mets. But a midseason acquisition, if available (and Alderson notes that "with the second wild card there are more buyers than sellers, so we will have some competition there"), would provide a lift to which the team is not accustomed. We have reported in the past that the Mets are big-game hunting for top outfielders in the Giancarlo Stanton/Carlos Gonzalez category, depending on who becomes available. In talking to Mets people on Monday, it was clear that remained true, and that a midseason trade would not preclude the team from pursuing a free agent like Shin-Soo Choo this winter. "(Justin) Upton and Michael Bourn interested us last winter," said one team source, "in part because it�s hard to build an entire outfield in one offseason." With that in mind, the Mets will explore every possibility of adding top talent before July 31, and signing another guy after the season. The front office also sees the benefit of engineering a dramatic, star-powered move in the midst of a demoralizing phase for players and fans. "We are in a position now where that could make sense," said one team official. Alderson also noted the expected emergence this summer of pitcher Zack Wheeler and catcher Travis d�Arnaud, who is injured but still considered promising. Those prospects could provide a late-season lift, creating an inversion of every Met season since 2010, which were interesting in the first half, and dead after the All-Star break. And players like Jon Niese, Ike Davis and Ruben Tejada have to be a little better, don�t they? Plus, as one Met put it Monday, "There�s not one guy in here, other than David (Wright), who is guaranteed a job next year, so we�ll all be playing our asses off." Over on the Yankees side, there is reason for anxiety, though certainly not resignation. The team has ridden an aging rotation for nearly two months, but now Andy Pettitte is on the disabled list, and CC Sabathia is still missing his fastball, while hardly pitching like an ace. The Lyle Overbay-Vernon Wells-Travis Hafner bubble might not burst entirely, but it has to deflate a little. The Yankees have shown us enough to believe that they will remain relevant, but logic suggests periods of struggle ahead. The Mets will not contend, of course -- but as Alderson and other team sources said, they will spend the coming weeks actively exploring ways to finish with significantly more life than they have shown so far.

Lyon 1 Murphy 1.5 Niese 4 Parnell 1 Wright 2.5

Davis 1.5 Duda 2 Hawkins 1 Marcum 3.5 Parnell 1 Turner 0.5 Valdespin 0.5

Buck 1 Byrd 1 Duda 1 Hefner 3 Murphy 3 Parnell 1

Voting for the game played last Wednesday against the Reds will close tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon after 2 p.m. Schaefer POTG 5/22/13 - Reds 7, Mets 4

That's a New York Giants cap.

vtmet wrote: ...and Harvey will eventually be a Yankee... That's a real, and chilling, possibility.

I wonder if Leah Niese ever conflates herself with Liam Neeson?

They should give him an insulated suit so that he can safely swim in his pool.

Tejada 1.5 Burke 1

Hunter Renfroe, OF, Mississippi State University: A burly-but-athletic type at 6-1, 215, Renfroe took a giant step forward this spring as a power hitter thanks to better plate discipline. He's a certain first-rounder at this point and could go in the top ten under certain scenarios. His strong arm would look good in right field. I find myself kind of rooting for a college outfielder who can get to the Mets ASAP. I don't know if this is the guy, but of those listed he best fits that description.

If the Mets hadn't tied the game in the bottom of the eighth, would the Braves have had an eight-inning win? Or would they still have resumed the game today? I know that before the recent rule change, it would have been an eight-inning game either way, but now I'm not so sure. Do all suspended games get resumed, or just those that are tied?

The page I found the photo on said that it was taken in 1970.