G-Fafif

I can't believe it's been 35 years since Hubie Green Grabbed The Open.

Grabbed photo from @Mets Twitter feed. We stayed in 509, moving a few rows up to take in the grandeur of the Wagon, which meant watching the big screen. A few too many "NEW YORK CITY!"s for my taste and not enough (that is no) "Keep The Fire Burnin'" but for a band from the Midwest that peaked 30+ years ago, well done, I thought.

I believe it's time for this losing streak to fly.

Hairston 2.0 Nieuwenhuis 1.5 Gee 0.5

Half-game behind the Braves for 2nd WC.

METS ALL-TIME HIT LEADERS Through Games of 6/15/2012 1. Ed Kranepool 1,418 2. DAVID WRIGHT 1,327 COUNTDOWN: Krane Minus 91

Just finished Wherever I Wind Up. Much to recommend it. Dickey comes across less as the mesmerizing and quirky vocabularian of postgame media scrums and more as a perpetually (and not unreasonably so) insecure human being whose enormous athletic ability (No. 1 draft pick, three-sport star in school) took a wrong turn via physical misfortune. The baseball part of the book is the fight to repurpose himself as a "trustworthy" knuckleballer, with most of the story about the frustration and only a little of the apparent triumph of the past couple of years (which he seems unwilling to accept as anything but temporary). The personal part, about the sad childhood and the lapses of adulthood, is compelling, though nobody outside his professor in continuing education class would ever have read it had he not had the good sense to succeed as a professional baseball player. Big on the spiritual stuff. Very big. I both love and hate having to consider ballplayers as people, loving it because it makes them so much more real, hate it because I don't want to temper my dismay for a bad outing by understanding more might be going on than YOU SUCK! Dickey's memoir is an outstanding advertisement for understanding.

We'll end Flag Day in competition for the flag as the second Wild Card.

METS ALL-TIME HIT LEADERS Through Games of 6/14/2012 1. Ed Kranepool 1,418 2. DAVID WRIGHT 1,326 COUNTDOWN: Krane Minus 92

Nieuwenhuis 2.5 Duda 2.0 Santana 1.5 Rauch 1.0 Davis 1.0 Bay 1.0 Wright 0.5 Valdespin 0.5

Mucularity ensues.

That that Fred Wilpon guy he knew from Lafayette High School calls him every spring to invite him to Florida and won't leave him alone, so he goes, and he wishes he wasn't so nice about it because he shouldn't have listened to him about investing, oy, what a mess... Oh, you mean Sandy Alderson's headache.

This is Doc 1985 stuff with a lower speed limit.

Dickey 6.0 Nickeas 1.0 Murphy 1.0 Rottino 1.0 Davis 1.0

METS ALL-TIME HIT LEADERS Through Games of 6/13/2012 1. Ed Kranepool 1,418 2. DAVID WRIGHT 1,323 COUNTDOWN: Krane Minus 95 And I might grab an extra error for Dave tonight.

sharpie wrote: I'll take that bet. I bet that by next month a Tampa dance music station will not have a DJ going by the air name Jordan E. Valdez-Spin. Name of a top DJ in my long-ago Tampa days: Mason Dixon. So I'm almost tempted to put money to mouth.

My favorite song (and the only one I know of, save for Buccaneer fight songs) that invokes my college-era stomping grounds. [youtube:1isdxdhi]k9YMQlBdbYE[/youtube:1isdxdhi]

Prediction: By next month, a Tampa dance music station will have a DJ going by the air name Jordan E. Valdez-Spin.

Terry seems very "in" with the old boys network managerially speaking, branching off the La Russa/Leyland tree plust with the Dodger roots. Guess that comes from being a longtime baseball man and not being distracted by philosophy or whatever it was that made Jerry Manuel seem interesting before he just seemed an albatross. When SNY showed the Bisons game the other night, they were promoting the Triple-A All-Star Game there by harking back to the 1988 affair that was also in town. Managing in that game: a younger but still generally old Terry Collins of the Albuquerque Dukes. When R.A. is announced at Kaufman Stadium as the starting pitcher, instead of showing him warming up in the bullpen, he should enter after swimming the Missouri River.

I'll see your Valdespin and raise you a Rottino. Andres Torres-8 Daniel Murphy-4 David Wright-5 Scott Hairston-9 Jason Bay-7 Vinny Rottino-DH Ike Davis-3 Mike Nickeas-2 Omar Quintanilla-6 R.A. Dickey-1

Also, Ed outtripling David, 25 to 19.

Despite 1-6 week last week (with each loss to MFYs feeling like three apiece), we are tied with Pittsburgh one behind Atlanta for second WC. All it takes is a hot streak (or a cold streak -- five behind Nats for first in the division) to shake things up. MFYs in first, with best record in AL. Funny how quickly that happened.

MFS62 wrote: How do they compare in career errors? Krane 81, David 154.

Valdespin 3.0 Young 2.5 Davis 2.0 Nieuwenhuis 2.0 Duda 0.5

METS ALL-TIME HIT LEADERS Through Games of 6/12/2012 1. Ed Kranepool 1,418 2. DAVID WRIGHT 1,322 COUNTDOWN: Krane Minus 96