G-Fafif

I don't if the home office in Stockholm takes requests, but it occurs to me a silhouette of the principals in the accompanying photo might look good on a "This game is now available..." placard. Uncle Floyd, Oogie, together or separate. Stockholm's call.

You guys are right about Familia not facing a potential save situation. But I like the line (tweaking the paragraph nonetheless).

With his walkoff homer Sunday, Wilmer has joined an exclusive club and attained a singular distinction. Twelve Mets have ended games with home runs three or more times; only two have made a weekend of it; only Wilmer has done it in Loverboy style. Details here.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: G-Fafif wrote: ...in the only Metsian realm where I can see this happening, I have to take 1993 over 1986. And on a day that 2011 eliminated 1969! TWO REASONS THERE MIGHT BE A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP CURSE! CLICK HERE!

The 25th anniversary logo was genuinely exciting to behold. (Still slightly regret not grabbing a $5 pennant featuring it when I saw it at, I think, JC Penney's 32 years ago, though the ones I bought several months later that say WORLD CHAMPIONS are fine consolation prizes.) The Mets had never before produced anything like that logo. They'd never turned 25 before. Or 24 and thus celebrated their 25th season. This was the first team-specific commemorative patch they ever wore. The World's Fair patch promoted somebody else's neighborhood shindig and the MLB patch wasn't for the Mets (though it does nicely mark any picture in which it appears as from 1969). The silver-anniversary edition of the yearbook was the ideal place to spotlight it. I believe it intentionally strove for simple elegance and achieved it. The thirtieth season at Shea wasn't exactly an occasion commented upon, even while it was happening, but the Mets invented a worthy milestone for their yearbook. After 1992, I can see not wanting to parade the previous season's New Faces of the Impending Dystopia out front again. The tail that made its debut on that cover looks better on that cover than it did in action. Maybe if we remembered 1993 fondly, we'd get misty for the tail. But we don't. The tail may have wagged the cover, but it's not the only element tipping its cap. We have Casey's classic road jersey, the Sheacentric Mets logo that hung around the margins of Met marketing (would have made a decent patch) and that evocative collage of Mets history in the background. It's the kind of cover I can stare at from Woodside to Jamaica to my stop. I can also stare at the 1986 cover and be whisked back to 1986, as good a place as a Mets fan stay on to. This is one of the rare showdowns in which two very different covers from two very different seasons make splendid cases for themselves. The 1986 yearbook shimmers like the season from whence it came. The 1993 season is evidence that you can't judge a season by its yearbook cover. But it's a neat yearbook cover and, in the only Metsian realm where I can see this happening, I have to take 1993 over 1986.

The first-place Mets host the fourth-place Nationals, whom the Mets lead by six games (seven in the loss column), Monday night at 7:10 PM. The probable pitchers are Jacob deGrom for the home team and Jeremy Hellickson for the visitors.

Good ol' No. 42 comes through again.

The players are all wearing 42, but the thermometer can't get above 41.

I'm no Fman (who among us is?), but I've got the lineup: Nimmo RF Conforto CF Cespedes LF Frazier 3B Flores 1B Rosario SS Reyes 2B Nido C Syndergaard P They're all wearing 42 and mufflers.

I doubt you could find two better human beings in baseball uniforms to pose for a yearbook cover than those who sat on those steps in 2014. I was reminded yesterday what an all-around good man Curtis Granderson is when it was reported he'll be wearing custom-made baseball shoes that celebrate the life and career of Larry Doby for Jackie Robinson Day. Having honored Jackie himself via that feat of feet last year, he's now making sure the history baseball strives to highlight has a little more depth to it. I loved watching Grandy play and I loved watching him interact with fans. I loved reading how he gave of himself in every way possible. I'm glad he's off to a good start with Toronto. Obviously, the credentials of David Wright need no elaboration in this forum. As fine a person to excel with the Mets as have ever been. I'm very proud to have rooted for both players. But, despite the attractive portrait produced, I didn't get them as spotlight yearbook cover material entering 2014. Part of that was the sense we were having an ex-MFY shoved down our throats and positioned as a co-equal to the Captain. Patience was thin that winter and general improvement wasn't apparent. The choice looks better in retrospect in terms of the two guys chosen, but that's more from a character standpoint. Not to overlook that we should cheer character at every turn (especially on Jackie Robinson Day), but I think this works better as the cover for a magazine devoted to guiding kids to live their lives by the golden rule. A splendid goal, indeed. Back in my baseball fan mind, which is where I process these things, it never occurred to me that wow, this is gonna be the year we've waited for, the year of Wright and Granderson. You probably have to have a very good reason to focus on a duo: Seaver and Koosman ahead of 1969; Gooden and Carter coming off of 1985. Maybe Piazza and Alfonzo (or Alomar before knew better) in the early 2000s. As much as I admire the co-stars of the 2014 cover, I just don't see David and Curtis as a dynamic duo. Doesn't matter in this vote, though. Going up against Willard Mullin celebrating Mets fandom isn't gonna get you more than a "nice try, fellas" (which of course David and Curtis would accept graciously). Mullin looked at who brought what to the ballpark and gave us an image that captures the innocence of that toddlin' Shea. It didn't have to be Banner Day for banners to be carried high, proud and ebullient. Never mind that the Met kid was still finding his feet in tenth place the year before. Never mind that ninth place in 1966 was a crazy, dizzying height. We're all happy to be at Shea Stadium. GO-GO-GO Mets! indeed. GO-GO-GO 1966 to the next round.

Cain CF Thames 1B Braun LF Shaw 3B Santana RF Sogard SS Villar 2B Bandy C Anderson P

Conforto CF Cabrera 2B Cespedes LF Bruce RF Gonzalez 1B Frazier 3B Rosario SS Lobaton C Harvey P

Cubs 14 Braves 10 in the ninth. The wind must be blowing in the Braves' faces.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Your world has just totally been rocked. It has! I've noticed the space along the way, especially today with '72, but I never thought of it as a thing. But I guess it is.

1,047. Jose Lobaton 4/13/2018 1-for-4, triple; catches 6 pitchers across 9 innings of a 6-5 victory over the Brewers at Citi Field

2008, as pictured above, is a revised edition without saying exactly that. It's the FINAL SHEA STADIUM edition. Manuel is in for Randolph (who was on the one they sold at the beginning of the season) and Wright is wearing the Final Season patch (which he wasn't on the earlier cover). I can't speak for the contents, though I imagine if they changed the cover, they probably slipped Willie out of the manager's page. The Final Season logo of the original look meeting the contemporary -- 2008 stepping right up to greet 1964 -- was a spiritual triumph for those of us who assumed the Mets would acknowledge Shea's imminent demise only by promoting where to reserve your season tickets for New World Class Citi Field. Of course it gave them an avenue to sell more stuff (remember the temporary store set up outside Gate E?), but we were not reluctant buyers -- or shall we say preservationists. The logo lives on emblazoned along the Shea Bridge, added a few years ago. I really appreciate the idea of expanding its core pieces to create a yearbook cover. But I don't think it's effective, not when we want to celebrate Shea Stadium. The deep blue background and pitch-black skyline create too somber a tone. Maybe it's supposed to say please remove your hats for a moment of silence as the sun sets on on Shea, but we're mournful enough in 2008. We don't require the cue. Shea, especially in our youthful memories, lives on as a bright, sunny stadium. This cover is standing by with spades to start turning over dirt. We also don't need the ever-present strip of Mets who we should really go see, 718-507-TIXX. Shea and Shea's farewell, basking in the sun, should have the cover to itself. We know we have some good players. We can take it from there. I was conditioned to expect a collection of Mets filling my yearbook cover by the 1972 iteration. It is my first. I was sold so often by our announcers on how great it would be to have this in my baseball library, featuring a team picture suitable for framing, that I asked my mom if she could write a check the New York Mets for $1.50 (including shipping and handling) so it would be delivered to our mailbox. I'd have preferred to have picked it up at Big Shea, but no trip to the promised land was on my docket. I was nine and had only so much agency. So the 1972 yearbook came unto me, with four Mets busy being four Mets facing out. "This must be how it's done," I figured. "You put your best players on the front." Seaver? Obviously our best pitcher. Jones? Hit .319 last year. McGraw? Lots of saves and stuff. Harrelson? All-Star shortstop the last two years, starter over Kessinger last year. I wasn't of a mind to sort through the roster and speculate on who else could have been cast in a leading role. These four made sense. It was an endorsement of constancy. These Mets had always been around ("always" meaning howl ong I'd been paying attention, which was about two-and-a-half years). The Mets were Tom Seaver, Cleon Jones, Tug McGraw and Bud Harrelson (along with another pillars of the franchise not pictured) and, presumably, always would be. That was fine as long as the Mets were winning, as they were when the yearbook arrived in the mail. I got antsier and wanted new players when winning became less common, but that's a later story. This cover cemented my team's identity for me on a practical level. That logo in the middle is also a triumph. Having it here allowed me for the first time to really study its components: bridge, buildings, same NY from their caps in the upper left hand corner, that beautiful script "Mets" from their uniforms, that stitching like it's a baseball. I might not have used the word in 1972, but it struck me as really intricate. I didn't know that every building was supposed to represent something, but I got that the New York Mets were really the New York Mets. My attempts to replicate the logo in pencil were many, if messy. Took me a while to realize there was no tail on the "s". I'd learned to write in script the year before, so that made for a bonus revelation. The overall presentation is a little on the staid side (talk about your annual report covers), but forty-six years of Mets fandom later, it sure is effective.

Mets announce d'Arnaud will have Tommy John surgery next week, will be out for remainder of year.

Tonight's new-look lineup: Conforto CF Cabrera 2B Cespedes LF Bruce RF Gonzalez 1B Frazier 3B Rosario SS Lobaton C Matz P

Td'A indeed going for TJS.

Lobaton taunts d'Arnaud's 60-day DL stint by wearing No. 59. "HA! ONE LESS THAN YOU HAVE TO WAIT!"

OK, here we go: Lobaton selected. Nimmo recalled. Rhame optioned. Plawecki 10-day DL. D'Arnaud 60-day DL.

Multiple sources reporting 2015 backup-backup catcher Johnny Monell has signed anew with the organization, presumably for depth behind 2018 backup-backup catcher Jose Lobaton.

Not sure if there's already a current thread for MLBSes, but I have learned that one of the eminences of broadcast journalism has a well-placed "soft spot". I know it's spring... and hope springs eternal... and it's a long season... BUT count me in as someone who believes the NY @Mets can continue to impress. I have family members who are diehard Mets fans, and I have a soft spot in my own heart for the Amazin's. #LetsGoMets This is Dan Rather reporting.

Here's the story: https://nypost.com/2018/04/13/kevin-plaweckis-hand-is-broken-and-the-mets-are-in-trouble/

Puma in the Post reports it ain't just a bruise. Step up Tomas and Jose and whoever else.