Benjamin Grimm

No, and no to Santiago and Simmons. Dwight Smith is a great guess. He's exactly the kind of player we're looking for for two of the slots. Our two remaining Cubs can both be described as "journeymen outfielders." Our remaining non-Cub was one of the biggest names in baseball when I first started paying attention back in 1971.

Oops! I found a misstatement among my clues. One of the two remaining Cubs also played in the post-season against the Mets. Not in as big a role as Bench, Perez, and Edmonds, so I overlooked him. Sorry about that.

No, not Santo. Still looking for two Cubs and guy who played in the 1960's. (New hint: Our 60's guy was never a Cub.) (Another new hint: both of our remaining Cubs played most of their games during the 1990's. They're not nearly as famous as the remaining non-Cub was.) 3 walkoffs: Schmidt, Edmonds 2 walkoffs: Bench, Lee, Sosa, Dawson, Perez, _______, _______, _______

Edmonds, yes! (Gonzalez, no.) Edmonds is our remaining playoff opponent, our remaining 2010 guy, one of our remaining Cubs, and, along with Schmidt, the only player with three walkoffs against the Mets.

All guesses above this one are incorrect, except for this one: Chad Ochoseis wrote: Former Red and Expo, and current HOFer, and '60's guy, and post-season opponent Tony Perez? We're now done with Hall-of-Famers, and are down to one post-season opponent.

Good guess, but no. (He was only a Pirate, so it couldn't be him anyway. See Schmidt and Bench, above.)

Did I neglect to post a "no" on Gwynn? Sorry. With Bench and Schmidt we've used up our two one-team-only slots.

Not Burrell, not Clark, and not Billy Williams. (Our remaining Hall of Famer was never a Cub.) We're still looking for one Hall of Famer, three Cubs, two post-season opponents, and two guys who played in the 1960's. 3 walkoffs: Schmidt, ________ 2 walkoffs: Bench, Lee, Sosa, Dawson, _______, _______, _______, _______, _______

Yes, Mike Schmidt. He's one of the two players who's hit three walkoffs against the Mets.

No, not Pujols. I'll add that the remaining entire-career-with-one-team guy has been retired now for many years.

To me, "San Francisco Giants" evokes Mays, McCovey, Marichal. That 1971 team participated in the first NLCS I ever watched. That team intrigued me, as did their opponents: Clemente, Stargell, etc.

I thought maybe it was this guy:

Two-homer guys correctly guessed so far: Derrek Lee, Sammy Sosa, Johnny Bench, Andre Dawson. Still need four two-homer guys, and both three-homer guys. Also need two Hall of Famers and three Cubs and two guys who played in the 60's.

Andre Dawson is correct. (Also one of the guys who hit 2.) Guerrero, Banks, Grace, Aaron are not.

Bench is correct! He hit two off the Mets, one in the 1973 NLCS.

Sosa and Lee are two of the guys who did it twice. (And two of the Cubs.) No to Sandberg and Chipper and Ramirez and Jordan.

The record for most walk-off home runs against the Mets is 3, shared by two players. (We're counting regular and post-season here.) There are eight guys who hit two walkoffs. Let's see if we can name all ten of them. Here are the initial hints: Four of them have been voted into the Hall of Fame. Six of them have played for the Chicago Cubs. (Not necessarily when they hit the homers, thouhg.) None of them were ever Mets. Two of them have played in the big leagues in 2010. Three of them made their big league debut in the 1960's. Two of them played their entire career for the same team. Three of them played against the Mets in the post-season. (And one of these three hit one of their walkoffs in a post-season game against the Mets.)

Because of the stadium announcer in San Juan, I now often think of Jeff as Zheff FranoCOO! Sorry for the interruption. Back to the previously scheduled discussion...

Two words: Vanis Takee!

Here's a New York Times articleabout the Midsummer Double Classic. Cool! I guess I'm not the only one thinking about this today. When Midsummer Had Two Classics By RICHARD SANDOMIR Published: July 15, 2008 The American and National Leagues played two All-Star Games each year. It was a slightly daffy idea that sounds nothing but harebrained in retrospect. Who needed a second Midsummer Classic that wasn�t always a classic? Those were the days before interleague play, days when baseball lore tells us players from each league were raring to whip their rivals, and league presidents delivered pep talks to stoke the players� juices. But there was a simple and obvious reason to play two games: money. "If no dollars were involved," Commissioner Ford Frick said in 1959, "we wouldn�t play it. However, in my heart, I know it�s not a greedy grab as some have called it." The primary reason for the second game was to put more money into the players� pension fund. According to a news report at the time, baseball had fallen behind in some payments, and a second game would finance the shortfall, and then some. "The players were looking to address their pocketbooks," said John Thorn, a baseball historian. "They weren�t thinking that the two games diluted the All-Star Game." Marvin Miller, who would later become the head of the players union, said that the financial records he eventually found showed increased revenues to the pension fund. "But eventually, there was a realization that one game was better than two," he said. Miller said the talks that kept the two-a-year games going for four seasons became tangled in negotiations over extending the season to 162 games for expansion that would start in 1961, without paying the players "a nickel more." The deal, he said, was to increase the pension funding by perpetuating the playing of a second game. While Miller could not say whether the owners had enough foresight to use the 162-game ploy in 1959, Lee Lowenfish, another historian, said he believed they did. "In 1946," he said, "Larry MacPhail wanted to add 14 more games to defuse union possibilities. I definitely think they knew about the eight extra games, but that�s the problem with the history then: the records are hidden." (MacPhail was a top Yankees official at the time.) There wasn�t much consistency with the scheduling of the games. In 1959, Game 1 was played in Pittsburgh on July 7 and Game 2 in Los Angeles on Aug. 3. The next year, the games were two days apart, but in 1961 and 1962, they were separated by 20 days. In 1959, they were played in two National League stadiums; in 1960, they were staged at two American League ballparks (Municipal Stadium in Kansas City and Yankee Stadium); but in the next two years, they were split between each league. After the second game in 1960, which drew only 38,362 at Yankee Stadium, Harvey Kuenn of the Cleveland Indians, the American League player representative, said he wanted a final determination about whether the two-game format should continue. Before the second 1961 All-Star Game was to be played at Fenway Park, John Drebinger, a New York Times sports columnist, speculated that it might be the last year with two midseason games. "The public at large is finding a second all-star attraction something of an anticlimax, like playing a second World Series in Brazil," he wrote. The players had every reason to continue the pension-funding second game, so off they went the next season to play two again. In Washington, the National League won, with Juan Marichal the victor in relief. Then, at Wrigley Field, with home runs by Pete Runnels, Leon Wagner and Rocky Colavito, the American League won, 9-4. But four months later, owners ended this strange period in baseball history. They agreed to increase the players� share of proceeds from a single All-Star Game. "I don�t think any other sports has ever had two All-Star Games, and it just showed that baseball had no leadership," Lowenfish said. "It was certainly haphazard."

Yes, it looks that way. I thought Evans replaced Feliciano, but he actually replaced Igarashi. 07/12/10 New York Mets optioned LF Jesus Feliciano to Buffalo Bisons. 07/09/10 New York Mets optioned Ryota Igarashi to St. Lucie Mets. New York Mets recalled 1B Nick Evans from Binghamton Mets.

There was a period of time in the 1960's when two All Star Games were played each year. I know little of the details, though. Why was it implemented? How long did it last? Why was it discontinued? Was the All-Star break still three games, or was it longer? Were both games played on consecutive days? Were they both played in the same park? Was one of the games a Tuesday game? I guess I could look it up, and perhaps I will, but not just now.

Any word yet on who comes off the 25-man roster to open Beltran's spot? I'm guessing Nick Evans? (I just checked the Mets active roster on mets.com, and see Chris Carter is listed as a Designated Hitter. Huh?)

These games were actually due to close on Wednesday, but I guess my brain took an All-Star break too. Instead, the last three pre-break games, played at Citi Field against the Braves, will close on Friday morning. If you haven't voted yet and intend to, please try to get your numbers in today. Schaefer POTG 7/9/10 - Braves 4, Mets 2 Schaefer POTG 7/10/10 - Braves 4, Mets 0 Schaefer PotG, 7/11, Mets 3, Braves 0

I actually enjoyed not having any baseball to watch for the past three days. And it will extend a bit, because 10 p.m. games are not my speed.