G-Fafif

I'd also throw in that Omar had the worst DiamondVision picture ever and enjoyed a fine debut, the night Jeremy Hefner homered (3 for 4, two doubles).

The nerve of the Mets, selling almost everything associated with Johan's no-hitter -- why, they just sold the shortstop!

The passing of Robert Creamer brought to light this 1964 Sports Illustrated profile of Vin. In the six years that he has been in California, Scully has become as much a part of the Los Angeles scene as the freeways and the smog. His voice reporting the play-by-play action of the 162 games the Dodgers play during the regular season, plus the few dozen extra in spring training, plus playoff games (the Dodgers have been in two postseason playoffs in six years), plus World Series games, floods southern California from March until October. He is seen as well as heard on television a few times a year (the Dodgers usually telecast only the nine games the team plays against the Giants in San Francisco). "Everybody" probably is not a mathematically precise description of the number of people who listen to Scully's broadcasts, but it is close enough. When a game is on the air the physical presence of his voice is overwhelming. His pleasantly nasal baritone comes out of radios on the back counters of orange juice stands, from transistors held by people sitting under trees, in barber shops and bars, and from cars everywhere�parked cars, cars waiting for red lights to turn green, cars passing you at 65 on the freeways, cars edging along next to you in rush-hour traffic jams.

Much new to say about the D-O-D-G-E-R-S since we took three of four from three weeks ago? We were chasing them for the Wild Card lead back then. After that series, they went on to lose eight of thirteen and are now half-a game behind us. But we're not in the Wild Card lead. Kemp's back! That sucks. He hit a walkoff homer against Philly Wednesday. Of that dramatic marathon, Leader of Men Don Mattingly remarked, �I don�t know what this says about us. It was a nice win for us.� And to think the MFYs picked the charismatic Joe Girardi over this guy. Ethier's back! That also sucks. Mark Ellis is back, too. Exclamation point optional. The speedy Dee Gordon has since gone to the DL with a case of the feet were too fast for his own good, replaced at short of late by Luis Cruz. Remember that name. Luis Cruz. I sure don't, but he was a Pirate in '08 and '09 and a Brewer in '10 before resurfacing as a Dodger. He's driven in five runs in twelve games. Todd Coffey is also a DL denizen of recent vintage. Scott Van Slyke is no longer being attacked by fly balls, having gone to Albuquerque, jerky. We don't have to look at Kershaw (hurrah!) but will see the other three starters with whom we successfully tangled at Chavez Ravine. Friday it's Dickey's bitch Harang versus Johan; Saturday it's two guys I didn't want to see pitch for the Mets much last year, Capuano and Batista; and Sunday the soporific Niese tries to be interesting on the mound against Nathan Eovaldi. He can be as boring as he wants to be afterwards. The overarching story of the Dodgers in 2012 is the franchise's revival, detailed here by Albert Chen in an L.A.-lovin' SI cover story from late May when the Dodgers were running away with the West and every team in the Southland was playing playoff games at the Staples Center. Paul White makes similar points -- wrapping the Mets and Dodgers together as two resurgent peas in a feelgood pod -- in the current Sports Weekly. On a personal note, I kind of liked the Dodgers circa 1974 when it was good to see somebody who wasn't the Reds win the N.L. West. I rooted for them hard to beat the MFYs in 1977 and 1978, but their having let me down annoyed me so that when they fell behind 2-0 in the 1981 World Series, I wasn't happy about it but I wasn't sad for them. They roared back to take the Series in six, which made them all right in my book for five minutes, but then they broke up their longest-running infield, Steve Sax got on my nerves by winning them yet another Rookie of the Year as he threw ball after ball in the general direction of the Inland Empire, and I went on to . Yet I am vaguely happy to see that Dodger business is good business again, because, well, they're the Dodgers. I don't usually go for that sort of default elite status -- and bleep them a thousand times for abandoning Brooklyn (says the retroactive New York Giants worshiper) -- but as R.A. would phrase it, watching them flounder under McCourt was just sad. Let them flounder on merit. Let the floundering commence/continue this weekend. (Some two-year-old thoughts on a then 14-year-old trip to Dodger Stadium, embroidered with some meta-Dodger thoughts, offered here.)

Wright 4.0 Dickey 2.5 Torres 2.0 Tejada 1.5 Davis 0.5

METS ALL-TIME HIT LEADERS Through Games of 7/19/2012 1. Ed Kranepool 1,418 2. DAVID WRIGHT 1,363 COUNTDOWN: Krane Minus 55 2012 GAMES REMAINING: 70

Failure to completely suck = SUCCESS!!!

Now to increase the margin for error... [youtube:1wo8hso9]Bsp3D7dSU-c[/youtube:1wo8hso9]

Harper ain't God, man. Not yet anyway.

A five-run lead has never felt more precarious.

Tejada For Closer.

Five runs. Four outs. Ramirez. [youtube:s8fh8ryb]Zs9PZ_g2QAY[/youtube:s8fh8ryb]

Six runs. Five outs. One bullpen. [youtube:3117uvqe]8TLmpL2AzLs[/youtube:3117uvqe]

Swan Swan H wrote: Go nine, Dickey. Lock the bullpen door and don't let 'em out until the bus is loading. A good day to take the pitch count clicker away from Warthen. It's only a seven-run lead with two innings to go.

The predictability of Teddy losing grew tiresome two seasons ago. So wrote political columnists in 1914. Ouch! I've read that he was considered a contender for the GOP nomination in 1920 -- until the sad event of January 5, 1919 put the damper on things. HARDING '20: HE'S BREATHING

bmfc1 wrote: The predictability of Teddy losing grew tiresome two seasons ago. So wrote political columnists in 1914.

METS ALL-TIME HIT LEADERS Through Games of 7/18/2012 1. Ed Kranepool 1,418 2. DAVID WRIGHT 1,361 COUNTDOWN: Krane Minus 57 2012 GAMES REMAINING: 71

Wright 2.5 Young 2.0 Bay 1.5 Torres 1.0

METS ALL-TIME HIT LEADERS Through Games of 7/17/2012 1. Ed Kranepool 1,418 2. DAVID WRIGHT 1,358 COUNTDOWN: Krane Minus 60 2012 GAMES REMAINING: 72

Niese 3.5 Valdespin 2.5 Murphy 1.5 Wright 1.0 Thole 0.5 Tejada 0.5

Win a game, then maybe we can track.

Speedo Tracksuit reveals some among 25 guys working and traveling in close quarters in jobs where competitive instincts are a prerequisite are not always thrilled with one another or their situations, go figure. ATLANTA � Aug. 1, and not a day before: That is the earliest we will consider believing this Mets movie is different from the two bombs they dropped in 2010 and �11. Has this grim weekend not underscored the risk of drawing early conclusions? We are not alone in these thoughts. Despite all the quotes from players and team officials about better vibes at Citi Field, there is a fairly high level of trepidation in some corners of the organization about dark weeks ahead. Consecutive losses to the Braves after the All-Star break, defined by pitching failures, validate the concern. The Mets are glad to have a young team, happy there are no veterans asking publicly to be traded, as Jeff Francoeur and Luis Castillo did in 2010 (this year�s club is not without its surly older players, but most discord remains in-house). But they also know that youth, the same element that gives life in the spring, can sap it in the summer, when kids unaccustomed to 162 games wear down. Mets officials love Kirk Nieuwenhuis� makeup, but see a fading rookie with far too many strikeouts. They still believe in Lucas Duda�s power potential, but consider his defense in right field unacceptable, and are trying to convince him to stop attempting home run thunder with every swing. They like Jordany Valdespin�s versatility, but worry about cockiness in the clubhouse and herky-jerky hacks at the plate. They still hope that Ike Davis is a future star, and say publicly that his Valley Fever is no longer an issue � but believe me, the Mets are monitoring Davis� health, and wondering how it might be tested by relentless summer heat. Pile all these concerns on top of one another, without even mentioning the bullpen or rotation, and it is simply too soon to say we were wrong in predicting irrelevance, no matter how many times the Mets crush Jonathan Papelbon�s spirit or speak of a brighter vibe at Citi Field. Hey, New York is a savvy baseball city, but not without its dumb narrative traps. Each spring for the past two years, the town has bought Mets� first-half hope that is equal parts organic and synthetic, created by a combination of decent play and our willingness to regurgitate story-assisting spin. The script, predictable as a Hollywood rom-com, proceeds like this: In May and June, the team wins more games than the media sourpusses thought it would, and the fellas in the clubhouse tell us how well they are getting along, so much better than in other years. We should have learned by now that these story lines are too fast and too easy. But the time to hesitate in judging is nearly through: In about two weeks, it will be safer to say whether this team is capable of accomplishing more than its recent predecessors. Conveniently, and somewhat remarkably, these Mets will face a nearly identical test to the one that confronted them at the end of July two seasons ago: a long journey west. On July 15, 2010, a 48-40 team began a three-city swing through San Francisco, Arizona and Los Angeles. Two wins and nine losses later, the Mets flew home amid club-generated rumors that coaches would be sacrificed. Within weeks, the clubhouse devolved into a Lord of the Flies-style survival game, with anonymous sniping, players annoyed with coaches, coaches annoyed with each other and a 79-83 finish that felt much worse. This year, following a challenging week of games against the Braves, Nationals and Dodgers, the Mets will close July with a three-city march through the National League West, facing two strong teams in the Giants and Diamondbacks, and last-place San Diego. By the middle of that trip, we will know if this year is special, or merely another dud, a reminder that first-half bubbles don�t often remain inflated. �It�s a different cast of characters (than in 2010),� one team official said. �Let�s see how they respond to a similar challenge.�

Torres 1.0 Ramirez 0.5 Santana 0.5

That bike was presented to him by Tug McGraw, who arrived on it with the visor down on his helmet so it came as a surprise to John and the crowd. Nice moment for sale. Mets sponsor for years was Hempstead Harley, which might have had something to do with John getting something he'd find no use for. In 2003, the Mets honored Gary Carter's induction into the HOF with something similar. Gary being Gary said, graciously, something to the effect of I've never ridden one of these before...but oh boy!

Torres 2.0 Tejada 1.5 Davis 1.5 Valdespin 1.0 Thole 1.0 Edgin 1.0 Turner 0.5