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Two weeks to go to the deadline. Perhaps bringing Nancy Seaver into the discussion can calm things down.

Congratulations to the winners and kudos to the scorekeeper/cardmaker!

The day Jeff Innis was Called Up. I got there, and the culture shock was just unbelievable. Nothing would have ever prepared me for it, because I'd never been to big league camp and I didn't know anybody except a couple guys. My uniform was there and I was just blown away by how regal everything was. And being in New York, it was just crazy. My head was spinning the whole time. Reporters came up to see what the new guy's about. Then, the game started, and I felt like a child among men. It was a Saturday night game, and this was the year after the Mets won the World Series. The Giants were in town and there were nearly 50,000 people there. I was down in the bullpen. In the seventh inning, the phone rings, and it's the loudest phone ring ever. The bullpen coach yells my name, and it scared me to death. I got up to warm up, and I swear, I couldn't even feel the ball in my hand. I was numb. My first throw to the catcher sailed 10 feet over his head and hit the wall behind him. I gradually started to settle down a little bit, but I didn't get in that inning. I got up the next inning and didn't get in that inning. By the time the eighth inning rolled around, I had gone from being scared to actually wanting to get into the game. It was tied, and had we gone ahead, Roger McDowell was going to pitch the top of the ninth inning. If it was still tied, I was going to go in the game. I was praying we wouldn't score because I wanted to pitch. That's how much of a metamorphosis happened in about an hour. I got into the game and what I noticed when I went out there was that the lights were so bright. It's not like the minor leagues. It's almost like a fight or flight response. You're either going to be scared or you're going to dig in and have the concentration you've never, ever had. That's what happened with me. I was really very concentrated and and my stuff was really good. The first time I ever met Gary Carter was on the mound when I was pitching. He was really cool. He was like, ‘Hey, listen, I've never caught you. I know you're a sinker slider guy, but if you need to, just shake me off, okay? You're the guy in charge.' I was like, ‘Okay, thanks.' That's how I was. I threw the pitches I wanted to throw. I didn't care who was catching. So, I was glad he said that. The first guy up was Chris Speier and he grounded out to second. I struck the second and third guys out. Three up, three down. https://www.facebook.com/104004107709626/posts/jeff-innis-in-the-seventh-inning-the-phone-rings-and-its-the-loudest-phone-ring-/353586849418016/https://www.facebook.com/104004107709626/posts/jeff-innis-in-the-seventh-inning-the-phone-rings-and-its-the-loudest-phone-ring-/353586849418016/

News, to use the expression loosely, from one of the Gilmartins:

http://leaptoad.com/mets/cards/AmedRosario1979.jpg> Don't look back. Giménez might be gaining on you.

Edwin Diaz's friends good-naturedly call him Tookya, as in “took ya long enough to win Reliever of the Month.” Not awarding any points to deGrom following his abysmal outing in Philadelphia was a strange sensation. That'll the night that allowed Peterson to sneak through. Good show as always by Grimm.

If you had Steve Zabriskie in the Met connection to Bob Gibson pool, this article's for you. As we celebrate the life and remarkable baseball career of Gibson, the Hall of Fame pitcher who died Friday night at 84 after battling cancer, one chapter of Gibson's story that is mostly forgotten is his sports broadcasting career. He and Zabriskie worked together in 1990 calling games for ESPN. It was Gibson's second foray into sports broadcasting. Fourteen years earlier, Gibson worked as an analyst for ABC's “Monday Night Baseball” as part of a backup team with Al Michaels and Norm Cash. Of Gibson the rookie TV broadcaster, Sports Illustrated media writer William Leggett wrote in May 1976 that he “is a rarity among broadcasters in that he does not talk unless he has something worth saying.” Gibson's year with ESPN coincided with the company's first as a national baseball rights holder. The $400 million deal gave ESPN the right to televise as many as 175 games a season, including spring training. The network needed on-air talent, and Gibson and Zabriskie were assigned to call the Wednesday night games. (The other ESPN announcers that year included game-callers Chris Berman, Bob Carpenter, Sean McDonough, Jon Miller, Steve Physioc and Gary Thorne and analysts Dave Campbell, Norm Hitzges, Tommy Hutton, Mike Lupica, Ray Knight, Joe Morgan, Jim Palmer and Bill Robinson.) Zabriskie said Gibson approached broadcasting very much from a pitching perspective. “That's where he lived, and it was apparent from time to time that he was not a fan of hitters,” Zabriskie said, laughing. “He sometimes tried to downplay that a little bit, but it was obvious that there was still a competitive fire that burned in him. It would still bubble to the surface a bit when he would have some issue with a hitter. But he was always fair. He was always objective. He didn't have any dog in a fight. He called it like it was. I think that the best analysts are people who really love the game and allow that to come through. I think that's one reason why Timmy (McCarver) was so successful because it was apparent that he loved the game. And Bob had a lot of that, too. He was true to himself. I think what makes a really good analyst is whether you agree with what they come up with regarding the game or the circumstances or the philosophy or the strategy, you have to admire the fact that they are committed to it and they stick to their guns. That was the kind of analyst Bob was.” Zabriskie said he first met Gibson in the 1980s during a road trip to St. Louis when Zabriskie was the television voice of the New York Mets. Zabriskie and McCarver worked together on the Mets broadcasts, and as many baseball fans know, McCarver played for years with Gibson in St. Louis and was a close friend of the Hall of Fame pitcher. McCarver invited Zabriskie to go to dinner one night with him and Gibson — and Zabriskie and Gibson hit it off. “I think the fact that Tim was such a good friend of his and because they were so tight, I was accepted by Bob,” Zabriskie said. “But he and I hit it off right away.” https://theathletic.com/2112826/2020/10/03/steve-zabriskie-bob-gibson-was-always-true-to-himself-as-a-baseball-analyst/https://theathletic.com/2112826/2020/10/03/steve-zabriskie-bob-gibson-was-always-true-to-himself-as-a-baseball-analyst/

Johnson's teammate, reliever Ron Perranoski, 84. One of the first of the firemen to excel as the save rule was being institutionalized.

Gibson fiercely hit, too. https://retrosimba.com/2016/03/22/bob-gibson-and-his-mighty-home-run-seasons/https://retrosimba.com/2016/03/22/bob-gibson-and-his-mighty-home-run-seasons/

Lou Johnson, 1965 world champion Dodger outfielder, 86.

Another Hall of Famer passes. Bob Gibson — MVP, Cy Young, personification of stubborn competitor and, of course, Mets assistant pitching coach in 1981 — is gone at 84.

Full Late Night segment here. Only about the first 1:40 didn't air. https://youtu.be/en9XW_VVxR8https://youtu.be/en9XW_VVxR8 David being his affable self, though he takes a dig at a National League opponent to Wright-naturedly razz the host.

The guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers when NBC News broke in to announce Trump tested positive for COVID-19 was David Wright, promoting his upcoming book, The Captain. After the initial report, the network rejoined the Wright interview, already in progress.

From Howard Bryant. After two decades, the memory of Dec. 7, 1941, was neither forgotten, nor did it hover so viscerally over the new generation of Americans entering adulthood in 1961. This is appropriate. The memory of 9/11 should not be forgotten, nor should the difficult and inevitable geopolitics that created it. But its memorializing can be a respectful, tasteful annual event without the daily elevation of law enforcement, which serves a political motive almost completely detached from the twin towers. https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/29979519/police-protest-pandemic-end-9-11-erahttps://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/29979519/police-protest-pandemic-end-9-11-era

Twelve seasons in... 1. Duda 71 2. Conforto 60 3. Wright 49 4. Granderson 38 5. Flores 37 6. Alonso 34 7. Cespedes 30 8. Cabrera 30 9. I. Davis 30 10. Murphy 27 11. J. Reyes 25 12. Frazier 22 12. d'Arnaud 22 14. Nimmo 19 15. J. Davis 18 16. Bruce 17 17. Smith 16 18. Pagan 15 19. McNeil 14 19. Walker 14 19. Beltran 14 22. Rosario 13 22. Hairston 13 24. Nieuwenhuis 11 25. Lagares 10 25. Bay 10 27. Cano 9 27. Ramos 9 27. Plawecki 9 27. Francoeur 9 31. R. Rivera 8 32. Recker 7 32. Byrd 7 32. Valdespin 7 35. Bautista 6 35. T. Rivera 6 35. K. Johnson 6 35. C. Young 6 35. Buck 6 35. Tatis 6 41. Nido 5 41. Turner 5 41. Barajas 5 41. Sheffield 5 45. Hechavarria 4 45. Mesoraco 4 45. Cuddyer 4 45. Brown 4 49. Reynolds 3 49. Uribe 3 49. Tejada 3 49. Satin 3 49. Cedeño 3 49. Thole 3 49. Pridie 3 49. Schneider 3 49. Delgado 3 17 PLAYERS TIED FOR 58TH Giménez 2 deGrom 2 Matz 2 Syndergaard 2 Gomez 2 De Aza 2 Loney 2 Campbell 2 Herrera 2 Baxter 2 Cowgill 2 Nickeas 2 Rottino 2 N. Evans 2 Blanco 2 Santos 2 Sullivan 2 28 PLAYERS TIED FOR 75TH Heredia 1 Marisnick 1 Guillorme 1 Lugo 1 Panik 1 R. Davis 1 Wheeler 1 Altherr 1 Jackson 1 Taijeron 1 Harvey 1 Ceciliani 1 E. Young 1 Mayberry 1 Teagarden 1 Abreu 1 Quintanilla 1 Hefner 1 Torres 1 Paulino 1 Pascucci 1 Santana 1 Carter 1 Lu. Hernandez 1 Jacobs 1 Castillo 1 Church 1 R. Castro 1

So delighted the Twins did not draw their traditional tormentors in the first round. C'mon Tribe. Do us a solid.

Jay Johnstone, dependable fourth outfielder and staple of “characters of the game” features in his day, 75.

Your final answers: 26-34 Tied for 4th No playoffs, not even in this farcical setup 16 home runs, most of them in the last three days, it seemed

On the Season 32 premiere of The Simpsons (“Undercover Burns,” September 27, 2020), Mr. Burns takes on a new identity: Fred Kranepool.

The Mets finish tied with the champs. So therefore that.

The last of its kind... LF Brandon Nimmo DH Robinson Cano 1B Pete Alonso 3B Todd Frazier C Wilson Ramos 2B Luis Guillorme SS Amed Rosario CF Guillermo Heredia RF Ryan Cordell -- RHP Seth Lugo

Amazingly, they're still doing this: Ramirez to the IL, Oswalt returns.

Whatever his euphemisms, Howie is all class.

I would like the Nationals to be confirmed for sole possession of last place before sundown.

My most-informed guess is Wayne was likely quoting the postseason probability percentages proffered by the likes of Baseball Prospectus. ”The Mets have a 1.1% chance of making the playoffs”, that sort of thing.