G-Fafif

Ceetar wrote: G-Fafif wrote: You can give away goodies, but you can't manufacture passion. well, unless you're a Gatorade commercial. DI2MAY

Brett Butler.

They were handed out to fans within camera range the two times I sat in 1B field level seats not far from the dugout. I guess the Mets wanted to create the illusion of hysteria over deGrom and hoped everybody would wave them in unison. Problem was even in those very nice seats, there wasn't much of a poster-waving frenzy (or that many fans) -- but when Jake went on his strikeout roll in September, the customers were properly engaged. You can give away goodies, but you can't manufacture passion.

Bob Bailor.

Know your animated Orioles. Or your cartoon bird, at least. With special appearance by the man who remade the Mets in the 1980s, Frank Cashen!

1. Giants-Royals. --I sort of enjoy SF's biennial familiarity. A year on, a year off...seems reasonable. The Cardinals, OTOH, are the thing that wouldn't leave. --Spent enough time with swell NY Giants diehards and descendants that I've grown empathetic to their even-year cause. Call it Sausalito Syndrome. --Royals too good a story to cut loose. --My senior cat and the Kansas City first baseman share a name, and I can't get enough of hearing "Hosmer" on television. 2. Giants-Orioles. --Neato note I picked up on Twitter, I believe: if this is the matchup, it will mean the Giants will have faced each of the eight American League franchises (in one iteration or another) that were in business in 1903 -- the year the World Series began -- in the World Series. --Also lots of black and orange ahead of Halloween and two to-die-for gorgeous ballparks. 3. Cardinals-Orioles --Only for the spate of 1944 rematch features by way of the Browns on the 70th anniversary of the Streetcar Series. Once those are over, no thank you to anything with the Cardinals in it. 4. Cardinals-Royals --I'm 1985ed out. Though whoever wants to beat the Cardinals is welcome to do so.

Frank Edwin "Tug" McGraw.

Edgy MD wrote: How much did we really know back during World War II? Enough to defeat fascism.

1973: Led N.L. East by five games on August 5. Lost Bob Gibson to injury (against the Mets). Still in first place as late as September 11. Fell behind Pirates. Eventually both fell behind Mets. 1974: Led N.L. East by 2 1/2 games on September 17. Lost division to Pirates by 1 1/2. 1981: Had best record for totality of season, but didn't finish first in either first or second half, which is what ya had to do in a year rent asunder by strike. Cardinals go home and watch Phillies play Expos in the first NLDS. Plus Game Seven losses in 1968, 1985, 1987, 1996 and 2012, all after leading those series (four by 3-1 before losing three straight). Stuff has happened. Just not enough.

Dizzy Dean's brilliant career derailed In 1937, Dean was pitching for the National League in the All-Star game. Earl Averill from the Indians, was batting for the American League. Averill hit a comebacker that hit Dean�s foot, fracturing his toe.* * �Fractured. Hell, the damn thing�s broken!� Dizzy responded. I love that quote. Almost as good as Gomer Hodges, after going 4-for-4 to start his big league career, stating, �Gollee, fellas, I�m hitting 4.000�. It was this toe injury that led to Dean�s injury-shortened career. While still nursing a sore foot, Dean resumed pitching. The soreness caused him to change his pitching mechanics, leading to the shoulder and arm problems that Dean was never able to fully overcome, leading to his retirement in 1941.* * Apparently Dizzy learned from his mistake. In his one-game comeback in 1948, he pitched four shutout innings before hurting his hamstring running out a single. He took himself out and stated he was done.

The coin of the realm!

Billy Cowan?

Stearns: 363 PAs, 1 IBB, 0 HR in 1980. Somewhere between Tejada and Hodges.

Just checked: Stearns hit 0 HR in 1980, was IBB'd once. But not enough PAs.

Felix Millan.

John Stearns.

Ron Hodges.

Wally?

Ruben Gotay teamed with Jose Reyes on a singular four-bagger feat on July 12, 2007. NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York Mets have had all sorts of adventures during their 46 seasons. What happened Thursday night, however, they had never done before. Jose Reyes and Ruben Gotay opened with consecutive home runs for the first time in franchise history, and New York beat the Cincinnati Reds 3-2 Thursday night. New York needed both drives, some daring baserunning by Lastings Milledge and six sharp innings from Orlando Hernandez to win its first game of the second half. Reyes, fresh off his three-hit performance in the All-Star Game, led off the bottom of the first with his fifth homer and Gotay followed with his fourth, both against Bronson Arroyo (3-10). It was the third time this season that the Mets hit back-to-back homers but the first time in 7,238 games the club opened that way. "I don't know if they were mistakes," Arroyo said. "I threw the pitch I wanted to Reyes. The other one [to Gotay] was a 2-1 breaking ball. I was surprised he hit it out of the park." It was a strong start in the first game since New York dismissed hitting coach Rick Down and added Rickey Henderson to the coaching staff. It has not been decided whether Henderson or first base coach Howard Johnson will replace Down, but Johnson filled the role against Cincinnati. New York also jettisoned 48-year-old Julio Franco, who hit only .200 in 50 at-bats with one home run and eight RBIs, and promoted Milledge from the minors. A busy Thursday night.

That same Sporting News book is the first place I ever saw MFYS II completely conflated with MFYS I (Ruth, DiMaggio, et al, portrayed as playing in the 1976 version), which is when I sensed the world was going to hell.

Rafael Santana.

Butch Benton is the catcher of the future. I'm still banking on that breakout year. Him or Luis Rosado

That was tough. My three would-be guesses yielded one right answer (Pfeil). Don't see Jay Bell or Butch Benton up there.

It appears Wheeler was maybe 3-5 good innings from fending off Colon. And had Niese not slipped out of that Fourth of July start for his annual "let's save him for later" DL trip, the brewskis were his cold. DeGrom wins the Schaefer per start non-award, for sure. And since Colon was signed as Harvey's proxy, Matt will be accepting his award. He deserves the additional attention.

That it's 69.86.