G-Fafif

Rohan's best that I can recall: the guy who delivered the mail inside Citi Field. His official title is special services clerk, but he sorts the mail for everyone at Citi Field. He is believed to be the Mets’ longest-tenured employee. He is an institution. But not all of the Mets’ staff knows him or his story. As an infant, Tillotson climbed out of his crib, fell and smacked his head on a radiator. He was bruised but otherwise considered fine until he lost his hearing at age 5. Tillotson started working for the Mets in 1964, when he was 15. His father, Gerald, then a manager at the Regency Whist Club in Manhattan, had befriended M. Donald Grant, a member who was an owner of the Mets. Gerald Tillotson asked Grant for a favor, and his son went to work in the Shea Stadium mailroom that summer, and for the next few summers. After he graduated from the New York School for the Deaf in 1968, Tillotson worked full time in the Mets’ ticket office for about 10 years, then returned to the mailroom, where he has been ever since. Early on, he delivered the players’ mail and sometimes slipped into the clubhouse. He fondly recalled conversations with Bob Taylor, who first played for the Mets in 1964. Taylor, known as Hawk, was very good at reading Tillotson’s lips, Tillotson said, and he understood Taylor, too. But the Mets traded Taylor in 1967. A lot has changed since Tillotson’s first summer with the team. “Everybody’s gone,” he said through a sign-language interpreter. “I’m the only one left.” And these days, he has less mail to sort. Some current Mets, like Travis d’Arnaud and Daisuke Matsuzaka, check their cubbies every so often. Matsuzaka said his fan mail followed him wherever he pitched, even at Class AAA Columbus in the Cleveland Indians’ system this season. Fans sent kind words, inspirational notes and Bible verses. D’Arnaud, a 24-year-old catcher, said he received similar messages from people who root for him. “I’m still, like, so honored to be looked at like a hero,” he said. Others, like pitchers Jon Niese and Dillon Gee, will wait until the season ends to go through their mail. The correspondents, they said, include youngsters asking for autographs on baseball cards, people wishing them luck and those telling them how to pitch. “Everybody tries to put their two cents in,” Niese said. “You get old men who think they know everything about the game and tell you what to do.” Tillotson, 64, stopped delivering the players’ mail when the Mets moved to Citi Field in 2009. Because of stricter clubhouse rules, he said, he does not visit the players anymore. But he has worked for the Mets from Tom Seaver to Harvey, from Keith Hernandez to Wright, through their best times and their worst, through the good letters and the bad. Tillotson’s workday routine begins at 9:30 a.m., after he drives from his home in Fresh Meadows, Queens, to Citi Field. Then he sorts the mail and makes his rounds, pushing his large metal cart. He makes about six trips around the park, delivering mail and picking it up, walking on average, he said, about eight miles each day.

BIG TRADE! [crossout]Bob Seger[/crossout] Tim Rohan off the Mets beat at the Times, to be replaced by Washington Post Nats reporter @JamesWagnerWP. Wags has Natty stuff in today's Post so unclear how soon this all goes down. Rohan moving on to SI's Monday Morning Quarterback thing, which sounds like a step down to me. Recent Times Mets stuff being handled by college-sports reporter Marc Tracy. June 13, says Wags. Also moving: Jorge Castillo, who covered the Nets for the NY Post and joined the WaPo to follow the Wizards midseason, is going to be the Nats guy. So that's Nets to Nats after stopping for a quick Wiz. I thought Rohan did some good work. I also didn't notice he hadn't been on the Mets for weeks.

Don't worry, the columns can get dumber. Witness the perpetually sour Anthony Rieber in Newsday. Five days after the World Series ended last year, CC Sabathia sat down for a network television interview about the alcoholism that caused him to seek treatment on the day before the Yankees began the postseason. Sabathia was interviewed again about that topic several times over the offseason as he participated in charity events. He answered questions about it again when he reported to spring training in February. This is much, much more difficult than facing the media after a rough start, and it’s much, much more important. Much has been said this week about another New York pitcher who refused to talk to the media after his latest in a string of poor outings. That other pitcher was criticized for leaving his teammates to talk for him, which is a no-no in major league clubhouses. Use Sabathia's alcoholism and apparently more pleasant personality as a cudgel against the unnamed pitcher (ha, he won't identify Harvey specifically -- showed him). "Hi, I'm Anthony and I'm a fucking idiot." Dude also gets a plug in for MFY accountability.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I was also sorta surprised how quickly Gary Thorne jumped on McNamara for not going to Stapleton. He'd barely crossed the plate when he was on it. Kudos to Thorne for being on this in the bottom of the eighth, when Red Sox had a one-run lead to protect.

Juan Uribe just called and reminded me he played 3B, so now we're down to just I and X.

cooby wrote: Is there A to Z? Prolly not because of X Alfonzo Brooks Charles Drake Easley Flores Garrett Huskey I Johnson Knight Lamb Maddox Newhan O'Malley Pecota Quintanilla Randle Staiger Torre Uribe Ventura Wright X Youngblood Zimmer

Almost no young Mets catcher has ever hit out of the box. Grote, Stearns, Hundley all come to mind as sucking batting early in their careers. Even d'Arnaud looked a little clueless. I wouldn't give up on the guy based on what amounts to a few extended cameos.

Harvey on turn for his next start despite evidence that perhaps he should be winging his way to PSL.

Matt Harvey has lost all confidence in himself. Not just as a pitcher; as a man. Inside that All-Star, there's a minor leaguer who needs to be cuddled and held just like the rest of us. Actually, that's adapted from the Leslie Nielsen episode from the first season of M*A*S*H, when he played Colonel Buzz Brighton. But I keep thinking of those lines re Harvey, who's lately racked up twice as many casualties as any other regimental commander while only gaining half the ground.

Matt Reynolds has a major league base hit.

All the third dudes...carry the news...that we're up to 31 since No. 5 debuted and 160 overall after the ascendance of Ty Kelly last night. Also worth noting if you're into noting any of this is whereas third 79 Mets who played third, from Zimmer to Teufel, were immortalized in song on An Amazin' Era in the middle of the Mets' 25th season, 81 -- Carter to Kelly -- have joined their ranks in the roughly 30 1/2 seasons since. 160. Ty Kelly 05/24/2016 159. Matt Reynolds 05/17/2016 158. Kelly Johnson 10/03/2015 157. Juan Uribe 07/25/2015 156. Danny Muno 05/25/2015 155. Ruben Tejada 05/14/2015 154. Anthony Recker 04/14/2015 153. Eric Campbell 06/05/2014 152. Omar Quintanilla 09/15/2013 151. Wilmer Flores 08/06/2013 150. Zach Lutz 06/27/2013 149. Vinny Rottino 05/28/2012 148. Ronny Cedeño 04/10/2012 147. Josh Satin 09/28/2011 146. Nick Evans 07/17/2011 145. Daniel Murphy 05/31/2011 144. Willie Harris 05/12/2011 143. Luis Hernandez 08/31/2010 142. Mike Hessman 07/29/2010 141. Justin Turner 07/19/2010 140. Wilson Valdez 08/25/2009 139. Andy Green 08/19/2009 138. Fernando Tatis 06/17/2008 137. David Newhan 09/29/2007 136. Ruben Gotay 09/07/2007 135. Damion Easley 04/19/2007 134. Julio Franco 09/10/2006 133. Eli Marrero 07/02/2006 132. Jose Valentin 05/26/2006 131. Miguel Cairo 04/21/2005 130. Chris Woodward 04/13/2005

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Looks like Mr. Fafif will have to update this thread. The excitement builds.

Flores will be more or less fulltime 1B upon his imminent return.

Eight minor league seasons, first major league callup tonight for 27-year-old Ty. His manifest includes Norfolk, Memphis, Buffalo and Las Vegas, all former or current Met farm clubs.

LD to DL (stress fracture lower back; at least 4 to 6 weeks expected) and Kelly up for sure. Dario Alvarez off the 40 to make room.

Noah Syndergaard is your National League Player of the Week. Per Rubin... Syndergaard struck out 21 and did not walk a batter in outings against the Washington Nationals and Milwaukee Brewers. He became the fourth pitcher in major league history to allow no earned runs or walks in consecutive starts while recording double-digit strikeouts in each outing. The others: Nolan Ryan (1987), Jose Fernandez (2014) and Clayton Kershaw (2015).

The New York Mets are playing the Washington Nationals for the first time in four days. I doubt they've changed much. We've picked up a game in the standings on them since Thursday, what with us sweeping the Brewers and the Marlins taking only one of three from them. We trail by 1 1/2. Pitching matchups: Family man Bartolo Colon vs. chief no-goodnik Gio Gonzalez tonight. Overwrought Matt Harvey vs. personality-hiding Stephen Strasburg tomorrow. Long Island's own Steven Matz vs. David Hartman as Lucas Tanner Roark Wednesday afternoon in a legislator's special. Everybody who used to be a National who is now a Met is still a Met since last week. Ditto for Murph, Perez and I'm gonna say Livan Hernandez on the other side. Matt den Dekker is at Syracuse, as he was last week, apparently. Anthony Rendon has gotten hot. Jayson Werth is still loathsome. Papelbon is not invited to dinner by his bullpenmates or anybody else, presumably. As usual, Adam Rubin is all over this matchup. Mostly, we gotta do better than we did against these Natholes at Citi Field.

The plural works as intended, so the Mets are still knocking those home runs over the ball, though when they do so at Citi Field, they raise the Home Run Apple.

When did KABOOM! replace the words "home" and "run" when the latter are typed together?

Yoenis Cespedes has tied Kirk Nieuwenhuis for 12th place in the Citi Field Regular Season Home Run Derby, having notched his eleventh. With the Brewers in town, there was a little ceremony featuring the former teammates before home plate prior to Sunday's game to mark the occasion (albeit in my mind). Also, on the overall Met career home chart, Cespy is tied with Ken Boswell for 58th place. Boswell had 2,116 at-bats, Cespedes 371. Michael Conforto has tied Jeff Francoeur for 15th place after blasting his ninth regular-season home run at Citi Field. Francoeur, usually so loquacious, could not be reached for comment. Curtis Granderson, with 21 regular-season Citi Field home runs as a Met, sits six behind Daniel Murphy for fourth place, nine behind Ike Davis for third.

Monsieur Rubin is reporting Ty Kelly looms.

The Braves lost the Wild Card by one game in 2011, famously collapsing down the stretch until they were overtaken on the final night of the season. Perhaps they should've taken the forgettable Mr. Capuano more seriously, Irene or not.

Fman99 wrote: I have no memories of Capuano in a Mets uniform. Not a one. Pitched not only one of the greatest statistical games pitched by any Met at any time, but did so with a hurricane bearing down on Citi Field. Yet I agree that overall he was pretty unmemorable.

I watched TC's postgame availability (I hate the word "presser") after Syndergaard's start the other night and he said Noah rose to "the occasion". The AP story had it as rose to "the challenge". Both mean more or less the same thing, so the end product doesn't suffer, but I wonder how hard it was to get it as it was said.

If they win it all in 2016, I could see him pulling a Cuddyer ("there's life after baseball, Dave," his buddy will text him), but I can't see him not trying, trying and trying some more to keep going into next year, maybe treating it as the year after the year after and now everything will be easier. Darryl's HR record may endure.