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Raines would be the third -- and last? -- Expo when he gets in. Not a bad run for a team that only lasted, what, 25 years? 36 seasons, but it's a great point regarding the talent the Expos cultivated and nurtured. Two homegrown Hall of Famers, possibly a third, reaching the bigs and their potential in a period of about a dozen years: roughly Carter's standout rookie year of 1975 to that day Raines came back from collusion in 1987 and whacked the Mets around on the Game of the Week, which is the highlight they'll run into the ground should his election day come. By the time each left the Expos after about ten seasons with Montreal (Carter after '84, Dawson after '86, Raines after '90), you could have applied the tag "future Hall of Famer" and not been crazy. Only Seaver and Ryan, among the now 11 Mets in the Hall, were developed as Mets, and only Seaver was consensus future HOFer material when he left the Mets (twice). If/when Piazza, Gl@v!ne and Martinez get in, the ratio will be 2 of 14. So for concentrated "immortal" impact, the Expos figure to have us beat for a while, pending Raines's electoral momentum and David Wright's ability to continue to be David Wright -- and to continue being David Wright right here. But we're up two world championships to none on Montreal with the theoretical hope of more, so there, you hosers.

I'm not expecting even as much as an Olerud/Leiter showing, but I hope Fonzie at least makes the ballot.

There's a player wearing a Nationals' cap in the baseball Hall of Fame? Andre Dawson -- more like he's wearing an asterisk to make this list. An asterisk may be more attractive than that funky M that always looked like it said ELO to me. Expo fan to Dawson one year ago regarding Andre's preference to be bronzed a Cub: Don't bring me down...

Willets Point wrote: There's a player wearing a Nationals' cap in the baseball Hall of Fame? Andre Dawson -- more like he's wearing an asterisk to make this list.

The January 7 "Fact" (not trivia) would not pass the MBTN test.

I was given the same calendar and I must say they've yet to delve very far back in the Metropolitan archives for their trivia/facts. But it's still early.

Funny how it's not Mike Bordick.

metirish wrote: Scott Erickson , a Met but not a noted one WOW! I totally blocked that out! Thanks for noticing.

While winding down a Shea ramp after one of those Big Mac lovefests in 1998, I asked a friend why people didn't flock like this to see the great Barry Bonds when the Giants came to town. Answer: "Because Barry Bonds is an asshole." He never took injections of nice, but he sure knew how to draw a crowd eventually. Except to his name on the Hall of Fame ballot probably. Which, per the popular narrative, surely puts him in the same discussion as McGwire.

Larkin had been on MLBN earlier in the day (he's a regular there) being congratulated on his relatively strong showing, which was framed as a step toward his inevitable election. They gave him plenty of love. The Bonds-Clemens discussion ensued in the context of the poor totals by Palmeiro, Gonzalez and McGwire after they had wrung all the talk they could out of Alomar's and Blyleven's election. Costas's solution -- vote for Bonds and Clemens because their "authentic" pre-steroid performances were Hall of Fame worthy in their own right -- struck me as disingenuous. Be up in arms over PEDs or don't be up in arms over PEDs. I was with Verducci's disdain for "parsing" careers. Players are dismissed for careers that peter out from extraordinary to ordinary (like Dale Murphy's). Who's to say that Bonds or Clemens wouldn't have figuratively fallen off a cliff had they not (allegedly) used? How many players have had that "future Hall of Famer" tag wear off because they faded down the stretch and didn't seem all that impressive once the five-year waiting period was up? If you're looking at most players' full careers, I think you have to look at everybody's full careers.

Piazza more defined by his Met experience than Dodger in popular perception (I took a definitive survey of myself and came up with that). The World Series plus 9/21/01 puts him over the top. He became a star baseball player in L.A. He became a celebrated figure in New York while remaining a baseball star. Played a featured role in closing and opening a stadium for the Mets. Dodgers have ignored him. Didn't even put 31 into mothballs. Frank Robinson started as a Red, starred as a Red, played a long time as a Red -- but he's portrayed as an Oriole. Not a perfect precedent, but it seems reasonable. Robinson stepped up his profile as an O. Carlton Fisk played longer as a White Sock but nothing he did there transcended his time as a Red Sock. Gary Carter...he couldn't even outdo Dave Kingman as a Met according to CPF rankings, so no wonder he's an HOF Expo. Groping for clues in quest of the desired outcome. I think we'll get it, but no, it's not a certainty.

I assume Bonds, Clemens, Piazza, Sosa, Schilling and Biggio all held off on retiring until 2007 because they knew going up against Fonzie would be futile.

Prepare for 15 years of simmering "Bernie Baseball" haranguing.

SIDELINE: Chris Cotter (2006), Kevin Burkhardt (2007-). STUDIO: Matt Yallof (2006-2008), Chris Carlin (2009-).

Eligible for 2012 first-time consideration: METS: Edgardo Alfonzo, Jeromy Burnitz, Danny Graves, Carl Everett, Matt Lawton, Jose Lima, Mike Remlinger, Scott Erickson DEMI-METS: Ruben Sierra (briefly a Norfolk Tide), Joe Randa (paper Met for six days), Eric Young (grew up a Mets fan) NOTABLE METS OPPONENTS: Javy Lopez, Mike Matheny, Tony Womack, Brian Jordan, Phil Nevin, Bill Mueller, Felix Rodriguez, Vinny Castilla, Tim Worrell, Jeff Fassero NOTABLE AMERICAN LEAGUERS: Tim Salmon, Brad Radke, Rick Helling BARRY STANTON'S BALLOT: Bernie Williams, Jeff Nelson

On MLBN, Gammons brought up without provocation Piazza and the back acne charge as an example of the kind of talk that goes around, though he cushioned it with Piazza coming to him and asking "WTF?" Whereas Bagwell was a great-hitting first baseman, Piazza has that "greatest-hitting catcher" tag going for him, plus a large, favorable NY contingent (minus Chass and presumably a couple of contrarian cranks). Still, I wouldn't bet on first ballot for him -- unless he seems so much more appealing than his first-time ballot mates and voting for good ol' Mike indicates some sort of statement.

Matt Loughlin was the primary pre-SNY pregame host, late '90s, early '00s.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: I think Beltran'll be glad to get the hell away from this stupid furshlugginer stadium the Wilpons signed off on. The Lighter Side of Carlos Beltran by Dave Berg.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: Willets Point wrote: I was thinking of taking Baby Willets on a road trip this season with Pittsburgh one of the possible destinations. I'd like to do a road trip to Pittsburgh. What's the deal with those famous Primanti's sandwiches? I'd guess that an order of large fries packed into a sandwich is gimmicky schlock, but they're so popular. Cole slaw also packed in there. The mythology as I understand it is Primanti's customers included truckers who needed to eat with one hand while driving. Well then why stop at fries and slaw? Why doesn't Primanti's dip the entire sandwich in a tub of coca-cola to top it off? Garnish with Pepcid and you'd be set.

The spirit will be willing, the body might come along, the steals probably won't reach double-digits.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Willets Point wrote: I was thinking of taking Baby Willets on a road trip this season with Pittsburgh one of the possible destinations. I'd like to do a road trip to Pittsburgh. What's the deal with those famous Primanti's sandwiches? I'd guess that an order of large fries packed into a sandwich is gimmicky schlock, but they're so popular. Cole slaw also packed in there. The mythology as I understand it is Primanti's customers included truckers who needed to eat with one hand while driving. Or maybe it's that Pirates fans always want to keep one hand free to dial for World Series tickets, 'cause they're an optimistic, multitasking bunch.

Edgy DC wrote: Preston Wilson. There's 50 hours I can feel good about getting back.

Conine was the only other zero-homer guy as a Met in the Top 41. I've taken the liberty of looking up the extra credit answers and one guy in there was also of the no-homer variety, and he's a guy I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have considered as Top 50 material if I devoted the next 50 hours to this.

Edgy DC wrote: metirish wrote: Why is Noble so uncomfortable voting for Alomar? , I don't get his unease, it's not like Alomar spit at him or something. He holds the spit thing in high contempt. "I don't care that Hirschbeck forgave Alomar for spitting at him; I haven't." Larkin's in. I lost him in the cutting and pasting, but he's a standard bearer. Also thought he was stealing money in 2002-2003. Which he basically was.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: Never mind. Misunderstood question. Are you withdrawing your correct answer? No, I'll keep it. I thought you were looking for most career home runs by a Met who never hit any as a Met -- but Bay did hit a handful in 2010. "None as a Met" confused me. I thought I made a funny. HaHa. Good one!