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Not in the Schaefer box score: Lagares and Cabrera (particularly Lagares) each made huge defensive contributions.

I think Catfish Hunter opened the door for Jim Bunning. The case for Catfish was 224 wins and a Cy Young Award. And that's not that much, but it's Catfish. And then somebody says, well, hey, Bunning won exactly the same amount of games, and had a perfect game, cool nickname or not. Hunter went in in 1987, but Bunning had to wait until 1996. Bunning and Kooz were pretty darn close statistically but Bunning had the sorts of things on his CV that stood out: a hundred wins in each league, the perfect game, the post-career profile. It never occurred to me I was watching a Hall of Famer in Jerry Koosman, but it never occurred to me that Bunning was one, either. (I only caught him toward the end of his career, so maybe I missed his aura, but I really don't remember him being spoken of in reverential terms.) Bunning got in, Koosman was never seriously considered. Catfish was indeed Catfish. I'm always surprised by retroactive circumspection that he wasn't an automatic. Seaver, Palmer, Hunter for the bulk of the 1970s were strung together as the best in the game. Those impressions don't go away easily.

First five new Mets for 2017 were/are pitchers. That's unprecedented. Sewald, Pill and Zack Wheeler were born within a four-day span of one another during the final week in 1990. If they were switched near birth, it's nice to see them reunited at last.

Good kid doing a good thing in the fight against ALS.

Mets up by one. They should be up by ten. Or more than one.

Was talking with a friend recently about Bunning's perfect game, recalling what a regular reference point it was for Bob, Ralph and Lindsey. It was always discussed warmly if not reverentially. I nominated it for least unliked (you might not want to attach the word "best") loss in Shea Stadium history. When you watch the clips, you hear only cheering as Bunning makes it 27 in a row. There was no emotional let alone tangibledownside to a tenth-place club finding a novel way to lose. And it was an achievement that hadn't been seen in the National League since 1880. Bunning's probably not in the HOF without it and, who knows, maybe he never goes to Congress. Certainly it gave our announcers a nice story to tell regularly over the years.

[fimg=450:3a4zmgfw]http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/ralph-padre-gm.jpg[/fimg:3a4zmgfw] Padres GM Ralph Kiner, manager George Metkovich (nice name) and ball fan Bing Crosby.

The "voluntary" 24-man roster was born in 1986, made it to 1989. The 1990 CBA put an end to that nonsense.

Edgy MD wrote: I'm guessing that, by the end of the season, this will be the most days they've had three catchers on the roster since, like, 1983. Carter, Lyons and Sasser held down spots from start to finish in 1988 -- three catchers on a 24-man roster that won a division title. As if that's a guaranteed formula for success. But still.

Milone to DL with knee (and the rest of him). d'Arnaud returns.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: What is that Spy magazine? Funny stuff The Voice.

1,030. Neil Ramirez

These bleeping guys... Maybin LF Calhoun RF Some Guy CF Valbuena 3B Simmons SS Marte 1B Pennington 2B Graterol C Meyer P

The nine who'll make it two in a row, perhaps... Conforto LF Reyes SS Bruce RF Walker 2B Granderson CF T. Rivera 3B Duda 1B R. Rivera C Wheeler P

Ceetar has tweeted within the past 24 hours, so the authorities don't need to be alerted.

Mac Scarce, No. 44 in 1975 (per latest edition of MBTN, BB Ref, 1975 yearbook and 42-year-old memory), is listed on UMDB, both on his player page and the numbers page, as No. 33. Anywhere else, I'd say, "believe it or not, the subject of Mac Scarce's number came up in conversation last night," but here it doesn't seem like something I'd have to convince anybody of.

"I just got an offer from New York, darlin’" "The Yankees?" "The Mets." "Oh." "Yeah, I know." —Kansas City broadcaster Jim Brockmire (real-life Mets fan Hank Azaria) and his then-wife Lucy, in a flashback to 2007, Brockmire, "It All Comes Down To This," Season 1, Episode 8, May 17, 2017

The mayoral elections involving fringe ex-Mets are this country's most underreported political phenomenon.

The bad guys... Blanco CF Ahmed SS Goldschmidt 1B Owings RF Tomas LF Drury 2B Descalso 3B Mathis C Greinke P

Your arid Mets in the desert, where maybe they'll remember their name... Conforto LF Reyes SS Bruce RF Walker 2B Flores 3B Duda 1B R. Rivera C Granderson CF Milone P

Cabrera on DL, Ramirez added to roster.

There aren't enough exclamation points extant to emphasize what a move this is.

Holy fuck, that was awful. --Wes Westrum

Jay Stadium is an instant classic. Cespedes has one PotM and Cabrera has none. Both feel surprising.

Villar 2B Thames 1B Perez RF Shaw 3B Pina C Franklin LF Broxton CF Arcia SS Peralta P