G-Fafif

Chris Capuano, he who ate innings adequately in 2011, will reportedly tie on the bib and attempt to gobble 'em up for the Red Sox in 2014 not by way of the ever-popular minor league deal but an actual MLB contract. You may recall the Sox tried to buy Caps (as one of our U.K. readers liked to call him) with about a week to go the season they collapsed.

Edgy MD wrote: Maybe that's just David's Tidewater dialect coming through. ...the Met captain said, before declining an opportunity to impress this Jeter-loving reporter by making him eat a spoonful of cinnamont.

New Star-Ledger/nj.com guy Mike Vorkunov wrote the other day of David Wright's workout "regiment," which tells me either the Captain is really taking his title seriously -- lining up all the enlisted men for jumping jacks -- or a relatively major metropolitan daily hired a reporter (and an editor) who can't distinguish regiment from regimen. (Or, to be charitable, maybe auto-correct kicked in and these things happen...but probably not.) It wasn't that long ago that the reporter was touting his MFY fandom in the hopes of landing a sportswriting job. I guess it works. If the MFYs of the '70s were around in the '30s, headline writers might have referred to them as the REGGIEMEN.

In the sad 1998 sequel The Odd Couple II (popping up on one of the HBOs suddenly after keeping its existence unknown to me for 16 years), a Bruce Stark print of Yogi Berra as Mets manager hangs in Oscar�s apartment. Oscar is also asked by an acquaintance if covering minor league ball in Sarasota is comedown after years of writing about �the Yankees and the Mets�.

Zvon wrote: [Can I parody a Rutles song that is already a parody of a Beatles song? *head explodes* Only if you can confirm Che Stadium also opened in 1964.

Don Larsen the last Brownie?

Nellie Fox the Phila. A?

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Here's two more (one's easy): Who was the last active Houston Colt .45 and the last active pre-expansion Washington Senator? Rusty the Colt, Kaat the Nat.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: What about Gary Sheffield? Wasn't he a Brewer? That sounds even righter!

dinosaur jesus wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Don't know the answer, and maybe it's not yet resolved, but who was the last American League Milwaukee Brewer? Which Brewers? The 1970-1997 Brewers (I knew someone would reach back before that.) Jeff Cirillo is my guess off the top of my head. His last game was the end of 2007, meaning he outlasted Jose Valentin and Jeromy Burnitz.

Casey Stern and WOR/Mets amicably part ways. Pregame/postgame host still TBD.

It wasn't the last time Mets fans would be in mourning over Ike.

Almost every generic clip of the 1969 Mets on SNY or MLBN includes footage from Opening Day, whether they're talking about Opening Day or not. The giveaways are the American and Canadian flags displayed by the press gate and men in top coats milling around the batting cage. It's often included as the narrator says something like, "The World Series returned to Shea..." Regular-season footage less expensive to use than postseason footage. But I've also seen those establishing shots for the Mets-Cubs series in July even if the temperature precluded topcoats by then.

Don't know the answer, and maybe it's not yet resolved, but who was the last American League Milwaukee Brewer?

Didn't batmags have the M. Brave answer with P. Niekro?

April 8, 1969, was a Tuesday. Scoreboard added the Bud monstrosity in 1982.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Why is the flag at half-mast? I was wondering that myself.

Again we are reminded of the difference between the perennial juggernaut Yankees and their hopelessly outclassed crosstown neighbors. The Yankees strut confidently without the need to introduce themselves one by one to their opponents. All that matters is the interlocking NY on the front at home, the big, bold block letters spelling out NEW YORK on the road. The game is half-over and those hapless bands of pastel-tinged Royals and Rays are already beaten before they know who and what has hit them. The Mets? Lower-case letters for a lower-caste kind of baseball team, one too hung up on punctuation to pack any meaningful punch. It's bad enough the Mets have never had a Jeter. It's worse still they'd have to spell it out if they did. The next commissioner should do everybody a favor and airlift David Wright one borough north to fill in for Alex Rodriguez. He deserves a better fate than that Mets uniform. His current teammates, sad to say, do not. Score this one another TKO for the Bronx Bombers. It's enough to make The Great Mariano emerge from his richly deserved retirement and throw a few more perfectly formed cutters.

Five to tie, six to win!

The Mets are, be still my heart, acknowledging the 50th with a canvas print giveaway on April 19th to the first 20,000 fans. Should there be any more than 20,000 fans, just forget you ever saw Shea.

Just occurs to me Boston Brave would be a good name for a CBS procedural about the Boston fire dept.

Boston Brave: Eddie Mathews?

I answer my own question here. My thanks for all your thoughts on the matter, which helped me work through my own. They are reflected in the above post as well as this one.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Stately, tasteful... if a little generic. I'll take it. But, hey, while we're wheel-spinning... ... a play on this would have been unique, and uniquely befitting Ralph, right? Hoping that whatever they say they're planning for the museum is in that vein. Maybe they'll display the old set (displacing the high-end merch on the far end of the space that I've never seen anybody buy).

Ryan Dempster not pitching this year, Ken Rosenthal reports, due to "physical reasons" and a desire to spend time with a politician's family (or his own). Will be 37 in May. But not exactly retired.