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Twin staff that includes Nolasco, Pelfrey & Hughes is like something mined from my subconscious in 2010.

Darren Meenan, builder of The 7 Line empire, is now in business with MLB. That's some entrepreneurial spirit in action.

Johan's still keepin' on. At last check, the first CY was a minor league Nat. Several of these guys are in the "retired" thread.

d'Kong76 wrote: I give up ... I'm a loser, baby ... [youtube]YgSPaXgAdzE[/youtube] Irony drips at your choice of bow-out music...or the choice you didn't make. qmxg0JnQX8U

I knew this existed but my "search" efforts proved fruitless. Thanks for merging, merging officials.

Don't think we already have a thread for this year, so starting this one with Nick Kroll, start of The Kroll Show on Comedy Central and Rodney Ruxin (everybody calls him Ruxin) on FXX's The League. On with Olbermann last night describing his never-dimmed enthusiasm for the '86 Mets, having been at Game Six (WS edition) as an eight-year-old. Also recalled making prank phone calls in the mid-'90s to the Sweater and the Schmoozer on WFAN, demanding Patrick Ewing to point guard.

Batting eighth, the pitcher, warming up in the bullpen... That will/would be strange.

Come March 31, we'll be chillin' with Dillon, according to Terry C.

Anthony Recker, you got the sweetest ass in the league! --Viv, Fever Pitch, revised for purposes of accuracy and relevancy

Jorge Arenguere visits with veteran Jose Reyes for Sports On Earth ten years after first covering him for the Record. Then: That spring was a time of transition for Reyes. The Mets had moved him from shortstop to second base after signing Kazuo Matsui. Yet Reyes never complained, either on or off the record. If he was bitter, he never showed it. He happily went about his work, even though reporters -- and I suspect some in the front office and the coaching staff -- thought moving him out of his natural position was a silly move. Reyes clearly was the superior shortstop, but Mets ownership believed Matsui was pivotal toward building a contending team, so they did everything possible to accommodate him. Each day Reyes eagerly took the field and took grounders at second base, and he even developed a good rapport with Matsui. The two often joked with one another, as much as they could across the language barrier. Watching Reyes play was an even bigger pleasure. He was dynamic in every way. Anyone could see he was a remarkable player, and he made you believe that one day he would be considered one of the best in the game. He also seemed to be the type of player Major League Baseball could market to a young Latino audience: hip, gregarious and without controversy. Reyes had never been entangled in any steroid scandals, nor had he ever feuded with teammates or opponents. Most everyone seemed to like him. It seemed at the time that Reyes was destined to become one of the most important players of his generation. Now: So despite being 30, despite the fact that speed is one of the first things that abandons an older player, and despite coming off a year of injury, Reyes vows he can be the same dynamic player he was with the Mets. He's so emphatic that you want to believe him. But the odds aren't good. Speedy players don't age gracefully. Reyes was supposed to be better than the average athlete. He was supposed to be impervious to all the things that hindered the common player. He was supposed to be one of the best, and the best usually find a way to excel past their primes. So maybe, just maybe, it's not too late for Reyes to become one of those defining players of his era. "The goals for me?" Reyes says. "I have so many, since last year essentially was a lost season because of injuries. There were so many things I couldn't do, like steal bases or hit triples, things that are part of my game and my identity. I ask for health. If I'm healthy, I know I can put up numbers and do the things I've always done." As he dresses in front of his locker, Reyes puts on a Superman undershirt. The Man of Steel is Reyes' favorite superhero, and he owns several shirts with the iconic "S" insignia. Not coincidentally, Superman was someone whose powers were unaffected by age and time.

Luis Ayala is now an Oriole.

Given that Martino's having a good spring getting players to open up on the record (Harvey, d'Arnaud, Murphy), it's disappointing that he smugly lashes back at those who question reporters' reliance on blind quotes. Justin Turner took a shot at anonymous sources in Metsville, and while I greatly respect Turner and understand his complaint from a player standpoint, I�ll say this: Baseball people often feel the need to say B.S. on the record. If you, the reader, want stories full of fluff, fine. But if you want stories that cut closer to the truth, and bring you near to the heart of any matter, sometimes anonymity is necessary. A reporter always prefers to quote someone by name. But oftentimes, reality is too hot or delicate, and people need to be protected. If that�s the cost of telling you what�s really going on, it�s an easy one to pay. As for Harvey, good for him wanting to stick it out in New York. Port St. Lucie in July was described by Keith and Ron as "dying on the vine" for a major leaguer. When I think of players rehabbing there, I think of Kaz Matsui sleeping in the clubhouse as a hurricane bears down on Florida. I don't get how the Mets imposed an alleged ban on one-on-ones with Harvey this spring. Did the kid really think that was kosher? Did all it take was Martino being enterprising enough to go up to him and ask him to talk? And WTF with Jay hovering over their interview? "You're causing me some problems" -- did Horwitz mean with his employers or because now, goddamn it, everybody who'd been kept away from Harvey was going to want a turn? And why would the other media outlets get to March 18 and not have gone after "an exclusive" or a simple on-the-record chat? The Mets' thing about not wanting Harvey to be the story of the spring has sprung leaks. But since when is it the media's responsibility to agree to not make waves? Implicit (I think) is how well The Alderson Group has tamed the Mets' press corps. They'll all passive-aggressively snark and snipe about how much the team sucks but everybody buys into "oh well, there's nothing this management team can do" almost unquestioningly. New York is supposed to be such a nightmare, yet for going on four seasons this administration has had a near-total media honeymoon. Even if we factor in the Wilpon element -- that it's all on Fred and Jeff, and Sandy's crew is dutifully trying to navigate through circumstances too complex to be easily cleared away -- it's astounding that nobody's really challenged them even for the hell of it.

Charley Feeney, longtime Pittsburgh writer, 89. Have to admit that for years I confused/conflated him with Charles "Chub" Feeney, the NL president between the serendipitous years of 1969 and 1986. But this Feeney had quite the career of his own. Mr. Feeney spent 41 years in the business, starting in 1946 after he served two tours of duty in the Pacific with the Navy during World War II. He received the Bronze Star for his work as a radio man on the aircraft carrier USS Essex. The son of a New York newspaper man, he went to work after school as a messenger boy for the old New York Sun before the war. Mr. Feeney began covering the New York Giants baseball team in 1951, and he covered the playoff game in which Bobby Thomson put the Giants into the World Series with a ninth-inning home run against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Mr. Feeney moved on to cover the Yankees, the Mets and the NFL's Giants for the New York Journal American. When that paper folded, Post-Gazette sports editor Al Abrams hired him to cover the Pirates in 1966. There, he covered two World Series winners, the death of Roberto Clemente and baseball's 1980s drug scandal in Pittsburgh. He also met what would become his best friend, a little pitcher for the Pirates, Elroy Face. The two met in Mr. Feeney's first spring training covering the Bucs in 1966. Mr. Face invited Mr. Feeney and his wife, Bea, to a party at his house and they hit it off. "He never knocked anybody unless they deserved it," Mr. Face recalled Monday about his friend's coverage of the Pirates. Covering baseball was quite different in Mr. Feeney's time. There was no World Wide Web, no Twitter, no "chats." But Mr. Feeney's work day was full. He arrived at the ballpark at mid-afternoon and filed an early story for the old Post-Gazette "bulldog" evening edition that would go on sale in the ballpark before that night's Pirates game ended. He then had at least two separate deadlines to meet after the game ended. He also served as one of two official scorers who alternated at home games. He called everyone, even his close friends, "Pally" because he was not good at remembering names and he did not want to offend anyone. Naturally, he earned that nickname himself, leading to this famous exchange when he phoned the Post-Gazette one night and clerk Danny Palmer answered. "Pally," Mr. Feeney addressed him. "This is Pally, get me Pally." Mr. Feeney's Spink Award at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., includes a brief bio about him along with this descriptive paragraph: "Highly respected for his integrity, knowledge of the game and journalistic skills, Feeney thrived under the pressure of A.M. deadlines. He had a unique ability to satisfy readers and please editors while simultaneously maintaining a positive relationship with ballplayers and front office personnel, earning their confidence and trust." BTW, if he was covering the Giants in 1951, he surely crossed paths with the other Charles Feeney, who was Horace Stoneham's nephew and VP before moving on to run the NL.

And coming up soon, the first on-air appearance of Seth Everett. Tell me a Monday afternoon Mets-Marlins Spring Training game isn't fraught with significance.

Mets-Marlins on 710 this afternoon.

Former pesky Nat & Redleg.

Bill Bray Tweets his goodbye.

LaTroy Hawkins retains his loyalists.

metsguyinmichigan wrote: That's awful. Soon as I saw the reference to "low-wage chain stores" I knew right where were going. Later there's the comparison of "sterile mall transactions" and wild dogs and people chasing you through the streets to fix your bumper. He's romanticizing chop shops. I like sterile transactions. I call them "safe." And is he implying that the people chasing the broken bumper cars are paid well? Are those jobs even on the books? FICA being withdrawn? I like legal transactions. Howard's become a one-trick pony. You know exactly what's coming. Howard didn't write this.

Is that red hot Red or Reds Hot?

Correcting above: The WOR games this weekend are the Florida games: tonight at 7, tomorrow and Sunday at 1. Carreon.

Livan Hernandez, who looked done on the back end of his 2009 Met stay but kept at it for a few more years, officially packs it in.

This weekend, John Franco takes his turn, in Las Vegas.

deGrom not so deGreat, at least not deYet. Cut, along with the less fun named Jeff Walters.

Cam Maron, with fringe on top. Maron has some real talent, and as a lefty-hitting catcher in the Mets farm system, he has some serious potential to advance. His bat has never been known as his strong suit, as it lacks some of the power that is expected out of most catchers, but his eye at the plate is what intrigues most scouts. He is an extremely smart batter, and that intelligence shows in his 11.7 BB%, and while his power may not be there just yet, he is still too young to factor out the possibility that he can work some pop into his swing. Maron is also known as having a strong athletic base and good fundamentals; only helping to develop his defensive abilities. The essentials are all there for Maron, he just needs to prove that he can adjust to the increasing pitcher abilities as he moves up the ranks. If he continues to work on his bat, there’s no reason why Maron won’t continue to work his way up the minor-league ladder. 2014 is the year for Maron to show that he has, once again, improved his skills and is able to adjust to improved pitching. He has moved quickly through the ranks up until this point showing flashes of greatness along the way, however, he had some trouble with his bat in 2013. I suspect that he will, at the least, start in St. Lucie again this year. However, his many other advanced abilities lead me to believe that if he can bring his average up a bit and add some more power to his swing, the Mets will have no problem promoting him once again before the years end.