Benjamin Grimm

MLB: we want to play reg season games in Europe That, I think, would be a lot easier to pull off, jet-lag-wise, than Japan. A flight to Europe from the East Coast isn't that much longer than a flight from the West Coast to the East Coast, especially if you're only going to the UK. (Flying further, like to Rome or Vienna, would add a few hours to the trip.) The worst thing for me about flying to Europe is that every flight seems to be a red-eye. You arrive exhausted, and when you get to your hotel it's only about 9:30 or 10 a.m. local time and your room isn't going to be ready for at least an hour or two. MLB could have more pull with the hotels, and they could arrange a charter flight that would depart at a more reasonable time. And returning from Europe is very easy as far as jet lag goes. They could even do this in-season, I think. Have the two teams depart from the East Coast to London. Give them two days off on either end of the trip and they should be fine. Maybe fly Wednesday morning, play games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, then fly home and resume playing in the U.S. on Wednesday. They could possibly even play on Tuesday.

Yes, but it wouldn't be nearly as outrageous.

I love that some people seem to be thinking it's real.

I think you're right. I'll see if I can fix that when I get the chance.

I wouldn't begin to know how to tweet it, but if you'd like to do either of the things you suggested, feel free. (But please leave off the watermark.)

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

I suspect that Herrera's status depends on Byrdak's. If Byrdak is really healing as quickly as he says he is, then Herrera's spot is in jeopardy.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Olson and Loewen also, so good news for Hererra and Baxter, respectively. They're saying that Byrdak might actually be ready by Opening Day, or very shortly thereafter.

Maybe I will, once the season starts. I really haven't been paying any attention at all to the spring training games.

That would involve reading a book.

You want to save your jinxes for when the games count?

Nice article by Andy Martino. (Is he "Tracksuit"? I can never remember...) Tale is man-made for NY Mets' R.A. Dickey, goes against conventions of macho sports world for his own sake Knuckle-baller breaks the mold in memoir NEW YORK DAILY NEWS R.A. Dickey's memoir, scheduled to hit bookstores Thursday, reveals that he was abused as an 8-year-old and contemplated suicide as recently as 2006. PORT ST. LUCIE � Sports offers many definitions of manhood, most of which are warped and backward. A man plays through pain, even if that is an unhealthy choice. A man does whatever it takes to be bigger and stronger, even if it means shooting steroids. A man treats women as conquests, even if he is married. And a man does not stand apart from the crowd, or say anything controversial, unless he is a winner on the field. �Why is R.A Dickey writing a memoir?� a friend of mine in baseball, a good person who slipped into that old mentality, asked this week. �What does he have, 40 wins?� Yes, R.A. Dickey is 41-50 in his career, and for years wallowed in the minor leagues. With his knuckleball refined, he is now a valuable member of the Mets rotation, but he is not an All-Star. Since arriving in New York, with an ambitious vocabulary and Phish-fan hair, he has hardly acted the part of traditional macho athlete, a persona that has triggered the occasional eye roll from old-school members of the Mets family (although he is highly respected by most teammates, who see his on-field toughness). But if we could break free of the sports-world mold and imagine a more complete definition of manhood, it would look like what I saw in the Mets clubhouse on Tuesday afternoon: Dickey, his voice quiet but firm as he labored to stifle emotion, discussing being sexually abused as an 8-year-old, as revealed in his memoir, �Wherever I Wind Up,� written with the Daily News� Wayne Coffey, and published on Thursday by Penguin/Blue Rider. There he was, flanked by sportswriters in a locker room he shared with professional athletes � and all the buttoned-up attitudes they often display � ripping open the rawest, most infected wound of his life. Addressing people who usually ask him about pitch selection and muscle strains, he answered questions about child molestation, and its impact on his life and marriage. He spoke about his inability until recently to tell his wife, Anne, about his life-defining trauma. He spoke about the suicidal thoughts that arose after he cheated on Anne, and felt like a hypocrite posing as a Christian. This is not to praise everything about Dickey; when he said about the memoir that �the only person I throw under the bus is me,� he meant it. In �Wherever I Wind Up,� we meet a surly husband, an adulterer and a young man unable to face the deepest parts of himself. For most of the book, the reader might not love this character called �R.A. Dickey.� But it is in his willingness to be self-aware, ultimately confronting his flaws and embracing the need to treat himself and others with sensitivity, that the character is redeemed. And then, after reconnecting with Anne and processing the abuse he suffered, Dickey took the most courageous step: He shared with the world what he could not tell his family just a few years ago, and stood in the clubhouse � the epicenter of old-fashioned manly repression � and did it again. The often-cruel Internet lit up with appreciation. On comment boards and on Twitter, victims of sexual abuse thanked Dickey for sharing his story, and emphasized how his decision would help eradicate a taboo that ruins lives. With his openness, sensitivity, and above all, willingness to be publicly vulnerable, Dickey failed to live up to the traditional ideas of manhood often promoted in sports. In doing so, he became the type of man who has a chance to be healthy, happy and a true model for us and our sons.

Or really go back to the old way. Pick a spring training site wherever you please: Tulsa, Oklahoma; Mobile, Alabama, or wherever. Play college teams and intrasquad games and then when spring training is over, barnstorm your way back north. If it was good enough for John McGraw, then it's good enough for me.

Edgy DC wrote: Not for nothing, but it isn't baseball that we're spreading. Japan has been baseball-mad since the 1930s, probably earlier, in many ways to a degree that would shame us. What we're spreading is MLB's affiliated brands. Excellent point. And as for jet lag, I think they're making more of it than necessary. I've flown to (and from) Europe many times, and I've been to Japan as well. Sure, you arrive exhausted, especially when flying east, but you go to sleep and the morning after your arrival, you're fine. It may (or may not) be different for the elderly, but I can't imagine that a young athlete would need five days to recover from jet lag. And returning from Asia is easy. Your first day back, you'll wake up about three hours earlier than usual, but after that, you're fine.

I rarely do the spring training thing (2008 was my first and so far only visit to Port St. Lucie) so I really don't care where the Mets play. In fact, I wouldn't mind if they moved to Arizona, because if I was to go to spring training, I'd rather be in Arizona than Florida. But having said that, Port St. Lucie didn't seem like a bad place. As Ceetar said, it's a pretty typical suburban town. Is Fort Myers that much more "happenin'" than Port St. Lucie? I'm sure that Miami is, but you can't put all the teams in Miami. Florida's East Coast does seem to be dying out as a spring training site and if that's the case, all I can say is "oh well."

They should've sent Dave Sims to Tokyo.

Can we get Bernard King to buy the Mets?

Some of you may have received an e-mail from Max Lawson, Casey Stengel's great nephew. (The message had a very large distribution list.) The gist of it is that Max is cashing in and selling off Casey's collection. You can see what's for sale at this site: http://unclecaseysbaseballphotos.com/ Here's his full message: I would like to introduce you to unclecaseysbaseballphotos. Items from Casey Stengel's personal collection are now available for purchase! You will find exclusive, original vintage photos, prints and baseball memorabilia from Casey's career with the New York Mets, New York Yankees, Oakland Oaks, Brooklyn Dodgers, Boston Bees and New York Giants. Items include: � Original photos � Affordably priced custom sized prints � Autographs � Signed bank checks � Postcards � Plaques and awards � Vintage pins � Hand written letters � Autographed baseballs � More! This website is in honor of my great uncle, Casey Stengel. Please enjoy this online gallery of photos and Casey's personal items, which span his career and celebrate his life in Baseball. You can order directly from my secure website or contact me with any questions or bulk orders. My website takes PayPal, and I will ship everything first class the same day it is ordered. I am continually posting items, which I inherited directly from Casey's estate. If you don't see a specific item of interest, keep checking or contact me directly. I am a collector myself, so I am also willing to trade items. To visit unclecaseysbaseballphotos, you can click any of the highlighted links or the baseball below. You can always google unclecasey. Happy Collecting, Max Lawson Grand Nephew of Casey and Edna Stengel

I don't think he had AIDS, did he? Just HIV, if I remember right. And HIV is no longer the death sentence it once was, thanks to the drugs that have been developed. Magic Johnson is, literally, living proof of that. He's been living with HIV for about twenty years now.

I haven't read the books or seen the movie either, but it sounds to me like it's more of an anti-1% than it is anti-Obama. But I suppose you can read whatever anti- into it that you like.

The review in the Daily News was very good: five stars. I was willing to take my daughter to go see it (she's very eager) but it turns out that she'll be seeing it with some friends this weekend. So I'll wait for it to come to cable.

I suppose. It partly depends on what Pagan does for San Francisco.

I hate to say it, but I'm getting a tremendous flop vibe on him. 70 games. .218. 3 homers. Gone before August 1.

When you're more optimistic than Ceetar, there's cause for alarm.