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Antonio Bastardo's last Mets game should be listed as 7/30/2016, the night they retired Piazza's number as well as everybody's patience where the slowest lefty who ever lived between pitches was concerned. Thank you for your indulgence.

Brandon Phillips will have nine chances to go a game in Flushing without a hit this year. It's something he's never done, carrying a 33-game Shea/Citi hitting streak from 2006 forward to his new team.

Took the ball and started down the stretch when needed. Surely wasn't in the gameplan. Gaby, we hardly Yknewa.

Decent MLBN doc on the A's dynasty reairs Sat nite and presumably repeatedly from there. Mets are mostly unremarked upon guests in 1973 WS segment, but good Shea footage with Mike Andrews receiving hero's welcome.

Ceetar wrote: Edgy MD wrote: James Wagner, who took the Times beat over from Bob Seger mid-season last year, is a native of Nicaragua and a native Spanish speaker. He made his bones doing a (terrible) crime story while he was still in school. I somehow missed this (I don't even remember Seger either) which probably doesn't bode well for him adding anything of value, but I followed him and Abbey, which means I'm +2 beat 'guys' which I'm sure will annoy me when they all tweet the same stuff so I'm sure at least one will get the axe by May Seger wasn't much on getting trade scoops during the day, but he was like a rock when it came to night moves. Since shifting to the Dodger beat, he's still the same working those Hollywood nights...or so I hear.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Perhaps Tracky (recently laid off by the Snooze) gets the Rubin seat next. I guess this makes Marc Carig the dean of Met Beaters I think Anthony DiComo of mlb.com has Carig, who joined in 2012, "beat" by a couple of years; he'd already been around a while when Marty Noble did our last Amazin' Tuesday (which was a Monday) in 2010 and said "nobody writes a better game story than Tony DiComo," his colleague at the time. Not sure when Mike Puma came along for the Post, but it feels as if he's been there quite a while. Throw in Kristie Ackert and it feels as if there is some genuine traction among these people after so many came and went. But institutional memory takes a hit with Adam's departure. Wagner's been good, and Guardado, in the limited sample I took in, did fine work. Ehalt is weirdly prickly on Twitter but writes well.

Kicking off this season's beatwriting thread (if one doesn't already exist) with shocking news: Adam Rubin getting out of the game, per his own tweeting. Heading to PR like the guy in the hat who works in retailing. No replacement named. Adam changed the beat for fans. He gave us information and interplay at a pace unprecedented and unmatched. We will miss his output and his sly sense of the absurd.

Keith Law, which the Obama administration never implemented despite hysterical warnings to the contrary, ranks Long Island's own Justin Dunn as his No. 84 overall prospect in baseball. Certainly sounds impressive.

July 24, 1998, Mets sweep Cubs a Friday afternoon doubleheader at Wrigley, picking up two games in the Wild Card race. I'm watching from Tribune Company seats a few rows behind the Cubs on-deck circle, courtesy of a great friend who worked for them at the time. As perfect a baseball day as I could imagine, save maybe for one menacing Cubs fan who was a few Old Styles to the wind on the way out and saw my Mets shirt as a red cape. I sort of prefer to see road parks in neutral circumstances, getting into the home team spirit where applicable, but it is nice to pack a win.

Rosenthal reports Fernando Salas is returning on a 1 year deal.

First memory of seeing Shea comes from sitting in the back seat of a Chrysler, driving by on the Grand Central, my family dropping off I'm gonna say Sam Zaret (my dad's accountant/friend) at LaGuardia on a Sunday afternoon. I believe it was the summer of 1970 and that the Mets were playing within. I thought it was frigging Oz from the outside. All those speckles. So much color. I'd seen pictures, not to mention games on black & white television, but to see it from the highway was enchanting. First game inside: July 11, 1973. Astros 7 Mets 1. Day camp group. Upper deck. Kooz started. Willie played first for us. Agee led off for the visitors. Bought my Official Yearbook and learned Ed Kranepool was once an All-Star. Ate kosher box lunch salami sandwich that probably sat on the bus too long. It did not agree with me. But Shea did. Favorite memory inside: October 3, 1999. Mets 2 Pirates 1. Melvin Mora scores on a wild pitch to clinch a Wild Card tie and, at the very least a tiebreaker game. The Mets HAD to win that day and they did. And I was there. A year after they lost five in a row and blew a playoff spot and less than a week after they were in the midst of losing seven in a row and blowing another one, it was the ultimate act of redemption. I could fill a theoretical season with my favorite games from Shea. Actually, I once did.

My day with Shamsky, Hodges and Seaver, though only one of them in person: http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2017/01/31/qbcs-nice-to-come-home-to/ Thought it was a wonderful event and venue. Teufel was brimming with enthusiasm and didn't mind emphasizing what a defensive project Muffy was. Is koo-koo for Rosario. Valentine had me worried in that he blended games from 1997, 1999 and 2000 into one situation, but his memory is plenty clear when it comes to the hearts of his stories. Praised Fonzie, Oly, Reeder and Pratt to the highest of heavens. Only element that was less than thrilling was the Mets sending over C-list sales personnel to give non-answers. Next year they can be represented by a brochure.

Chad Ochoseis wrote: And in the early 1970s, it was OK to root for both. As blasphemous as this sounds today, it rings true. It was never something I could abide (by 1970, at age seven, I just hated the idea that there was another New York team getting any attention), but I remember "I like both teams" being not altogether uncommon among my elementary school peers. At QBC this past weekend, one of those who appeared on a panel I moderated self-identified as a Met/MFY fan way back, though he eventually drifted to the dark side. By junior high and the onset of Full Steinbrenner, there was no common ground to be had. Fuck them, fuck all of them. Yet I never felt any true enmity for your Stottlemyres and Whites.

1969 for the beginning, intransigent loyalty/force of habit ever since.

AY's due for a decision to go his way. May it be this one somehow.

I considered Cabrera the day-in/day-out MVP of this crew, but Syndergaard's credentials, in a Player of the Year sense, are overwhelming. Somewhere in between is the indispensability of Cespedes. They are my unassailable Top Three, and Colon is No. 4 for sure. I suppose Familia and Reed could flip, but I'm still impressed at how many saves in a row -- whatever one thinks of saves -- Jeurys strung together. Granderson, flaws notwithstanding, is one of the quiet success stories of recent Met history, in there almost every game, transcending his uninspiring batting average and playing inspiring defense, give or take a throw. From No. 8 down to No. 30, I am struck by how many partial seasons were strung together to create a Wild Card entry. If I wasn't sure Collins isn't a great manager, I might think Collins is a great manager. 30 Syndergaard 29 Cespedes 28 Cabrera 27 Colon 26 Familia 25 Reed 24 Granderson 23 deGrom 22 Walker 21 Flores 20 Matz 19 R. Rivera 18 Reyes 17 Robles 16 Blevins 15 Loney 14 Conforto 13 Lugo 12 Gsellman 11 Harvey 10 Johnson 9 T. Rivera 8 Wright 7 Duda 6 d'Arnaud 5 Lagares 4 Bruce 3 Reynolds 2 Verrett 1 Henderson

When the Mets were courting Pedro Martinez, I recall reading about how Met execs (I don't remember if it was just Omar or if Jeff and/or somebody else was on the trip) were frightened out of their minds by how fast Pedro was driving, blowing by traffic lights, the whole bit. If it's not exactly a cultural tic, that example of dangerous driving comes back to mind today. What a shame, whatever the explanations.

Meet Todd Pratt, Grasshoppers. Todd Pratt, a former catcher who played 14 big-league seasons, will be the new manager of the Greensboro Grasshoppers this season. It is Pratt's first season in the Miami Marlins organization, and he starts in the Class A South Atlantic League, where he played as a 19-year-old with the 1986 Greensboro Hornets. A career backup in the big leagues, Pratt batted .251 in 662 games with the Phillies, Mets, Braves and Cubs from 1992 through 2006. He played in the 1993 and 2000 World Series.

Jeter taught them both how to win. Bagwell, too, presumably.

Was there when we needed him. "Why can't we get James Loney?" was asked when Duda was out and Loney was available. We got him and he filled in like a pro (and like a guy who wasn't playing for anybody else at the moment). His big home run on Wild Card Day was the 218th of the Mets season, which may stand as the franchise record for a long time. Scooped up the throw at the end of the double play that sealed the most improbable of saves. [youtube:1oukjpx8]KfD_RqLQBMw[/youtube:1oukjpx8]

Terry rode him hard in April when playoff spots are won as much as they are in September. Followed the path of Ken Henderson in that he was never as good in the other months of the year. Glad he made it back. Good luck.

For a while I thought of him as Almostandro de Aza, for every time he showed up in the frame, it was because he almost hit a ball out, almost got on base, almost made a catch. Game of inches will do that. Not almost, but always hustled down the line. I appreciated that. A good player who took a while to show it. Vaya con Dios.

Harry Minor, the scout responsible for securing so many of the players who'd compose the 1986 world champion Mets, has died at the reported age of 89. There doesn't seem to be a definitive birth date available for him, but we know he was on the planet, in the game and with the Mets for a very long time. He entered baseball in 1947 and retired in 2011. If you showed up for Mike Piazza's Mets HOF induction in 2013, you saw Harry receive the Mets Hall of Fame Award. Eerily, I was in the audience for a discussion of baseball scouting last night and Harry's name came up for one of his misses: he recommended the Mets not draft Greg Maddux because he was too short. The speaker said Harry considered it his biggest misjudgment. With Doc, Darryl, Mookie, Wally, Hubie, Mitch, Elster and Jefferies on his ledger, he clearly got plenty right.

I applaud the News keeping alive phrases that would otherwise languish in Bugs Bunny's subconscious.

One of these? https://www.amazon.com/Ryne-Duren/e/B001KIWS8S