G-Fafif

Eddie Rosario.

This is the 9th time it's taken 10 games for the Mets to use a 5th starter. Last time was Mike Pelfrey in 2007 (Zack Wheeler became the Mets' chronological 5th starter of 2018 in that season's 11th game).

Nimmo LF Lindor SS Conforto RF Alonso 1B McNeil 2B Villar 3B Pillar CF Nido C Lucchesi LHP Vs. Germán Márquez.

If you loved deGrom in the opener, maybe you'll like Lucchesi in the nightcap.

I really wanted Jake to get the record, but I don't hate that Tom still has it.

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=61188 time=1618685018 user_id=68] =G-Fafif post_id=60552 time=1618328229 user_id=55] Stephen Tarpley serves as 27th man for today's doubleheader.

Nimmo CF Lindor SS D. Smith LF Alonso 1B McNeil 2B Conforto RF J.D. Davis 3B McCann C deGrom RHP Facing Chi-Chi Gonzalez.

J.D. Davis activated. Jose Peraza optioned to Alternate Site. Stephen Tarpley 27th man. Franklyn Kilome clears waivers, optioned to Alternate Site.

MFYS III attendees fired baseballs from the bleachers last night to protest rooting for a club that was in the process of losing the eighth of thirteen games played thus far. Mercy, if 5-8 makes them lose their composure, I can only hope to see how they react to 5-9.

I'm 37 Down in today's NYT puzzle.

Thoughtful attempt at a reappraisal of George Foster's Met legacy by Roger Cormier (too young to have experienced the downs, ups and dismissal of Foster, but he put in his research; also someone I know some). But taking a gander at his numbers, and watching games from Foster's time on the Mets generously uploaded to YouTube showed he wasn't a completely isolated and crummy teammate — that was just the neat, convenient, CliffsNotes version of his deal. His DRC+ was over 100 from 1983-1985 (103, 103, 117). He hit over 20 homers in those seasons — only Darryl Strawberry and Gary Carter accomplished that for the Mets during those years. On Willie Mays Day in San Francisco, Foster hit a grand slam and alertly backed up third base to throw out a runner at home plate. Before a September showdown against the Cubs in ‘84, manager Davey Johnson said that Foster was “probably” his best hitter since the All-Star Break. Foster smacked his 20th homer of the year that night, after Strawberry was intentionally walked in front of him. NBC cameras caught Foster celebrating his big bop with Kevin Mitchell, then a rookie with exactly one plate appearance to his name, dueting on a celebratory tune, using a bat as a microphone. Roger's larger goal is to figure how far we have or haven't come in terms of viewing racism in baseball. You can read it and decide how strong the connection from then to now is. https://meditationsinpaniccity.substack.com/p/from-george-to-domhttps://meditationsinpaniccity.substack.com/p/from-george-to-dom

Diamondbacks outfielder Kole Calhoun, Royals starter Brad Keller and Red Sox reliever Adam Ottavino do crosswords before every game. So did former Giants closer Brian Wilson, former Angels slugger Wally Joyner and former Brewers reliever Mike Fetters. The 1980s Mets had a quintet — Keith Hernandez, Tom Seaver, Ron Darling, Ed Lynch and Rusty Staub — that attacked the vaunted New York Times puzzle daily. Hall of Fame pitcher Mike Mussina was featured in a crossword puzzle documentary. The Athletic uses ink to examine ballplayers and their crossword obsession. Keith featured prominently. During the first half of his career with the Cardinals, he was the lone crossword enthusiast in the clubhouse, which made manager Whitey Herzog suspicious of him. “Whitey didn't like it and thought I spent too much time doing crossword puzzles,” Hernandez says. But Hernandez found his people after being traded to the Mets in 1983. There, he found no word nerd battles between teammates, just five friends spending downtime together. “We would do our own thing,” Hernandez says. “We would ask each other if we got stumped in the end.” Fun as hell story... https://theathletic.com/2522649/2021/04/16/words-are-fun-man-in-baseball-theres-no-better-way-to-pass-time-than-with-a-crossword/?source=user_shared_articlehttps://theathletic.com/2522649/2021/04/16/words-are-fun-man-in-baseball-theres-no-better-way-to-pass-time-than-with-a-crossword/?source=user_shared_article

From Newsday: DENVER — After another report about the Mets' bad workplace environment, owner Steve Cohen said he will consider further change but for now is in wait-and-see mode while the law firm he hired conducts "a review of the organization's culture." That law firm is WilmerHale, which Cohen used in 2018 to similarly investigate his hedge fund, Point72 Asset Management, after a female employee filed a lawsuit accusing Cohen and his company of gender bias and pay discrimination. "[WilmerHale] will provide me with a report of what they find," Cohen said in a statement Friday. "I will listen carefully and then take any steps I believe are appropriate based on the findings." That was the entirety of the Mets' public response to a report Friday morning from The Athletic, which detailed more examples of inappropriate behavior by team employees and the Mets' questionable handling of the internal complaints.

Every day that summer I couldn't wait to run out and buy the papers to soak up every morsel of the Magic and was convinced we'd use the Phillies series as a jumping off point. On Monday August 18, I bought nothing and read nothing. As for jumping off, good thing the windows didn't raise too high. I felt phantom pennant race pains for a couple more weeks. They'll turn it around, they'll turn it around... They didn't. The getaway 18-inning loss to the miserable Padres on August 27 is what convinced me contention was probably irretrievable. Probably. (It was the Expos who finished second.)

Weather permitting, and weather's been in a bitchy mood.

Dave Loggins wasn't kidding.

But there may have been no bigger collection of crossword talent in the game than on the 1980s Mets. “The New York Times was the puzzle that we all did in New York,” Hernandez says. That was back when the Times was hard, he says, “when the editor was Eugene Maleska.” Now, he thinks “the New York Times has dumbed down the puzzle” under current editor Will Shortz. Still, he'd encourage today's players to level up. Like anything else, you improve with practice. “I would suggest the players start tackling the New York Times,” he says. “I started from scratch and got stumped, and I just got better at it.” https://theathletic.com/2522649/2021/04/16/words-are-fun-man-in-baseball-theres-no-better-way-to-pass-time-than-with-a-crossword/?source=user_shared_articlehttps://theathletic.com/2522649/2021/04/16/words-are-fun-man-in-baseball-theres-no-better-way-to-pass-time-than-with-a-crossword/?source=user_shared_article

The lede (I was just sharing the more salacious excerpts): On March 8, the Mets played the Washington Nationals on a warm, windy day in West Palm Beach, Fla., an early spring training test before a season holding great promise for an organization with a new majority owner, hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen, and a new star, shortstop Francisco Lindor. On that same day, about 1,200 miles away in New York, Joe DeVito, the team's executive producer for content and marketing, told people he was leaving the team. Two days later, in an email to some Mets employees that included the subject line “roster move,” DeVito wrote that “it's time for me to take a step back and assess what next steps should be in my life, and in my career, moving forward.” DeVito, 46, had been with the Mets for five years, during which time he steadily accrued more clout and responsibility within the organization, adding social media and marketing to his portfolio. Given his stature, and the timing (less than one month before Opening Day), his departure was a surprise to many. Unmentioned in the email was that earlier in March at least two women who worked with or around DeVito had spoken to team lawyers, describing incidents they believed were sexual harassment.

Niese pitched consecutive starts in Minneapolis and Denver in April 2013, both in frigid conditions. He missed time later that year, but I don't remember a connection.

In an interview, Alderson chastised The Athletic for what he felt was an unfair characterization of how the organization handled allegations of wrongdoing. He also felt some stories spotlighted employees who were tasked with gathering information but were not decision-makers. “Let me try to make a point as strongly as I can, OK? Not every instance involving men, women in the workplace is a capital offense, OK? Every time something happens, it doesn't mean somebody has to be fired,” Alderson said. “There are a lot of intermediate steps that can be taken and we've done that in a variety of different cases. And have included capital punishment as a consequence in some cases, but not every case rises to the level of execution. And that's what honestly I think is happening with these articles (in The Athletic). People are getting executed, including women, by the way, for reasons that are unjustifiable.”

Since 2013, Holly Lindvall, who was hired after 10 years working in the hotel business, has held a leadership position with the Mets HR department. Hired as an executive director, Lindvall has risen to senior vice president, human resources and diversity. She was described by multiple sources as a deft politician — adept at cultivating connections with those above her, including Jeff Wilpon, with whom she was close. Said one former employee, echoing the opinions of others: “It was clear that her interest was protecting ownership and executives and not the office as a whole. You could not go to HR to feel protected, comfortable, anything.” Lindvall, 45, wields considerable power. She has input on both promotions and raises, and employees feared she could imperil their position with the club or stymie their ability to ascend. It was widely understood within the organization that if you had a problem, it was best to try to fix it rather than risk going to Lindvall. “There was the fear that she could do that to you, get in the way,” said one former employee. “Even if she didn't like you, she was HR, she was supposed to be a good person to go to. She was not liked, she was feared.” Some employees surreptitiously referred to Lindvall as Regina, a reference to the antagonist in the 2004 film “Mean Girls.” Lindvall came under scrutiny in 2014 when she was named multiple times in Castergine's lawsuit. Castergine said Jeff Wilpon “frequently humiliated Castergine by … pretending to see if she had an engagement ring on her finger and openly stating in a meeting of the team's all-male senior executives that he is ‘morally opposed' to Castergine having this baby without being married.” In the complaint from that lawsuit, Castergine also said that Jeff Wilpon told her “when she gets a ring, she will make more money and get a bigger bonus.” Castergine said that her boss, Lou DePaoli, and the team's general counsel, David Cohen, heard Wilpon make sexist comments to her, and that “neither one did anything to stop it or even, at minimum, reported Wilpon's behavior as they were required to do.”

DeVito quickly gained responsibilities and power within the organization. Eventually, he began to make some women feel uncomfortable. Among the allegations conveyed to Mets lawyers and to The Athletic by two women who worked with DeVito or were around the team: DeVito gave one of the women an unsolicited back rub in front of others in spring 2020; he invited another woman, a female employee, to a closed-door meeting during the 2019 season where he encouraged her to drink scotch with him during a workday; on multiple occasions – including as recently as December 2019 – DeVito sent that same woman suggestive text messages (which The Athletic reviewed). At least once, the recipient said that DeVito later told her to delete them. Among the comments DeVito texted the women: “At least I am not as creepy as Mickey. #goals” “I've barely hit on you. So that counts for something.” “I want to let you know something…..I don't want to be ‘that' guy.” “I respect the fuck out of you. And I'm not being Mickey right?” (followed by a crying laughing emoji). He also responded “#ThatsWhatSheSaid” to one of the women's comments, potentially a reference to a sexualized running joke from “The Office.” He once messaged her, “I'm not flirting right?” but then later in the text string wrote: “By the way….totally flirting” (followed by the crying laughing emoji). He then wrote that he mistyped and meant to insert a “not” in that sentence.