Benjamin Grimm

If you start watching the game an hour or so after it starts, it's easy enough to avoid any "spoilers." I used to TiVo the Friday and Saturday night games and watch them Saturday and Sunday mornings. I've fallen out of that habit in the last couple of years because I haven't been as interested.

I still usually watch baseball live, but I do a TiVo-delay when I can. When I'm watching a delayed game, I always fast-forward the commercials and usually watch the game action in real time. But I have sometimes done the zip-between-pitches thing when I'm pressed for time or not feeling particularly patient.

Ceetar wrote: cool. Very!

Is there some kind of evil spaceship hovering over the stadium in the Yankee version?

The 1986 World Championship season is now so long ago that it has slipped into the first half of Mets history. When I first became a Mets fan, the second half started in 1967!

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: ...and briefly in 1967 had white walls. Really? I don't think I've ever heard that before. White walls? I'm curious to know more about this. Did they paint over the white because it caused problems for the hitters?

Today is the first I've heard about blue walls. I think the black walls look okay, but I wouldn't be opposed to a Shea Stadium blue.

And happy birthday to Jon Niese and Pedro Beato! (And Ruben Tejada! And Ralph Kiner! And... Pumpsie Green! And Gil Flores!)

Extends our exclusive Jose negotiating period by a day. I'm not getting the sense that Sandy is taking advantage of this window. I hope I'm wrong, and that there's some intense hush-hush discussion going on.

Well, it helps the medicine go down.

It's probably still a bit early to call this one, but my hunch is that Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief will qualify for this category.

I've never heard of her either. She's cute. And toothsome.

Or maybe being a GM or manager in New York is such a high-profile and desirable job that guys hang on to it as long as they can, until they eventually go down in flames. And once that happens, the fall is also high-profile which leaves them undesirable to other teams. If you fail in Houston or Kansas City, three or four years later relatively few people will remember it. But if you fail in New York it gets so much attention that anyone hiring you is going to have to face potentially uncomfortable questions about why they made such a choice. I'm not arguing that the above is true, just throwing it out there as a possibility.

Frayed Knot wrote: I could swear we've had this thread before. Maybe. I remember one about point values of player names (like MIENTKIEWICZ) but I don't recall one looking for valid first and last names. But maybe there was such a thread and I've forgotten it.

I was gonna put Ken Singleton in the outfield, but SINGLETON wasn't deemed to be a word by the online Scrabble dictionary. Isn't that the word for an individual birth, as opposed to a twin or a triplet?

Is DENNIS a word?

I remember late in the season I noticed that several players in the Mets (and opposing team) starting lineup had both first and last names that were valid SCRABBLE� words. Inspired by that, I belatedly decided to put together an all-time Mets team comprised solely of players and coaches who fit that criteria. Here's what I came up with: C - Norm Sherry 1B - Dick Smith 2B - Bobby Valentine 3B - Ray Knight SS - Jay Bell LF - Mike Vail CF - Angel Pagan RF - Tom Grieve DH - Mike Piazza SP - Frank Viola, Jay Hook, Randy Jones, Randy Tate RP - Bob Miller, Tom Hall, Dean Chance Mgr - Art Howe Coaches - Rube Walker, Chuck Cottier, Chip Hale, Bobby Wine

I haven't watched ESPN since... since... I have no idea. Maybe the 2006 post-season?

I didn't even find out until Sunday night that the Cards had won Game Three!

With the elimination of the Mo Zone, will the Pepsi Porch still overhang the playing field?

While I won't miss the Mo Zone either, I think I'll be most glad to see the end of the orange home run line that takes an arbitrary 90-degree turn.

So you're getting on Rubin for posting stuff that we've known about for months, yet there must be something new here, otherwise Lennon and others, as you say, wouldn't have tweeted it yesterday. And if it's worth reporting by them, why shouldn't Rubin report it too? This thread is about the changes to Citi Field, not your peevishness towards Adam Rubin.

I think this is new info: The new left-field wall will not be constructed exactly parallel to the old wall. That would make it too close down the left-field line. Instead, a more modest reduction in depth will occur at the left-field foul pole, with a wider gap between the new and old walls in left-center. And the specific measurement of 390 feet is also new.

Source: Citi Field changes on tap By Adam Rubin ESPNNewYork.com Substantial dimension changes to Citi Field will be announced after the World Series, in an effort to make the 3-year-old ballpark more hitter-friendly, a team official confirmed. Citi Field allowed 1.33 homers per game last season, which ranked 14th among 16 National League ballparks, ahead of only San Francisco's AT&T Park (1.00) and San Diego's Petco Park (1.23). New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said last month that the intention was to make Citi Field more neutral -- not to tilt the balance in favor of hitters. Alderson added at the time that offense sells. And the Mets need to fill seats, having experienced three straight seasons of declining attendance. "We're not looking for an advantage with respect to home runs versus visitors' home runs," Alderson said last month. "At the same time, I think there is some sense that the park is a little more overwhelming to a team that spends half its time there as opposed to a team that comes in for three games and doesn't really have to alter an approach or think about it too much and leaves." The 16-foot wall in left field will remain because it is structural, but a new 8-foot wall will be erected in front of it, a team source said. The new left-field wall will not be constructed exactly parallel to the old wall. That would make it too close down the left-field line. Instead, a more modest reduction in depth will occur at the left-field foul pole, with a wider gap between the new and old walls in left-center. Additional seating is expected to be added between the new and old walls, although there cannot be the same number of rows added throughout that area because of the different space between the walls in the corner versus in left-center. In right field, where the "Mo's Zone" nook currently exists, the fencing will be moved closer to eradicate that crevice. A dramatic change will occur in right-center, which had measured 415 feet from home plate. The new depth is expected to be 390 feet -- a 25-foot reduction. That should particularly benefit third baseman David Wright, whose natural power is to right-center.

I think that will soon take care of itself. When I was in Japan in 2006 I noticed that many of the younger locals spoke English. Not only those that I'd normally encounter as a tourist (in hotels and restaurants) but also those I'd meet on the street. In Japan, English has become part of the high school curriculum.