G-Fafif

Takahashi is insisting he be used only in save situations, except for when he needs to get some work in to stay sharp, at which point he will expect to be inserted at his request, regardless of the score or how the pitcher on the mound is performing. No, not really, but give him three consecutive save opportunities and watch what happens.

One more bump. Tonight at 7, 1973. No matter how grainy, it's gotta look clearer than 2010.

Nelson got caught mumbling some anti-Jewish remarks at one point (or maybe more than one) although I forget the specific details. New York Observer story from 2000 recounted the episode here. Then, in the spring of 1994, a book about the ouster of baseball commissioner Fay Vincent by a group of owners led by Bud Selig and Jerry Reinsdorf quoted Mr. Doubleday, a Vincent ally, telling league presidents Bobby Brown and Bill White: "It looks like the Jewboys finally got you." A former employee told Newsday that Mr. Doubleday had said similar things in his presence, but only "when he was drinking." Mr. Wilpon, who is Jewish, stood up for Mr. Doubleday, saying: "It's not like Nelson to talk that way." After that, one person familiar with the team said, Mr. Doubleday disappeared from the scene and Mr. Wilpon took charge, with a more hands-on approach. He has installed loyal subordinates who have frequently come into conflict with executives loyal to Mr. Doubleday.

seawolf17 wrote: I want Ollie to close. ...the door behind him after it hits him in the ass on his way out of town.

Niese 4.0 Beltran 2.0 Wright 2.0 Francoeur 1.0 Takahashi 1.0

Will keep reminding because I don't want anybody to slap a forehead afterward: 7 PM, Tuesday night, SNY, Mets Yearbook: 1973.

Rockin' Doc wrote: I was hoping this was about a lost episode of Orange County Choppers. Oh well, this will just have to do. If all my research served only to set up the posting of this picture, then it was done in vain.

Self-effacing, bittersweet goodbye to an obsession, by Tim Kurkjian, here For the first time since 1989, I no longer clip every box score of every baseball game from the nearest newspaper and tape each one into a spiral notebook, a daily task that I've estimated, at roughly 15 minutes per day, has cost me 40 days of my truly pathetic life. I knew about Tim's "streak" from reading his charming Is This a Great Game, or What?. Am sorry to know he joins the rest of us in (finally) acknowledging the passing of the primacy of print as a box score delivery system.

Pelfrey 3.5 Reyes 1.0 Castillo 0.5 Pagan 0.5

Ashie62 wrote: Nice article. I had forgotten about Marge Schott. I wish David Wright could "rebrand" himself. Thanks. And I guess "DW: Defensive Wizard" is out of the question at the moment.

Jesse put Doug under the WAR microscope last week, with commentary by yours truly here. According to WAR, the lowest-rated player of the live ball era is Doug Flynn, who hit .238 with a .266 on-base percentage and .294 slugging percentage from 1975-85 with the Reds, Mets, Rangers, Expos and Tigers. There's no getting around the fact that Flynn's .560 career OPS is the fourth-worst in the majors since 1920 among players with at least 3,000 plate appearances, or that he was just 20-for-40 stealing bases. But would Flynn's teams, particularly the late 1970s and early 1980s Mets, really have been better off employing a revolving cast of minor-league call-ups? "I have an overwhelmingly positive association with Doug Flynn, mainly for his fielding," says Greg Prince, the author of the book "Faith and Fear in Flushing" and co-author of the blog of the same name. "Probably, along with Edgardo Alfonzo, the best defensive second baseman the Mets ever had, and from the vantage point of a 17-year-old, seemed like a good guy, and the kind of guy in those lean days I always rooted for. As a middle infielder who didn't hit a lot, he certainly did his job, to the point where he won a Gold Glove (in 1980). Nobody blamed Doug Flynn for the fact that the Mets weren't going anywhere in those days."

Loathsome collection of players in Phillies uniforms: Rollins SS Victorino CF Polanco 3B Ibanez LF Werth RF Dobbs 1B Ruiz C Valdez 2B Kendrick P

Random collection of players to wear Mets uniforms tonight: Jose Reyes SS Angel Pagan RF David Wright 3B Carlos Beltran CF Ike Davis 1B Chris Carter LF Josh Thole C Luis Castillo 2B Mike Pelfrey P

Can't get enough of the Hessman-Tatum axis, now featuring Billy Baldwin and Cory Sullivan -- here.

The strangeness of being at Citi Field as F. Rodriguez returned, here.

Misch 3.0 Parnell 1.0 Dessens 1.0 Reyes 0.5

And the pregame Irish Heritage Night music was a little overdone.

Can't Frenchy, Luis and Ollie be handed separate "itineraries" for the next road trip that take them into an easily locked closet instead of the team flight to Houston? Surely it would take them a while to figure out they weren't at an airport.

Took Hessman 28 plate appearances to complete the First Four Met Hits cycle. 2B: 2nd PA 1B: 8th PA HR: 16th PA 3B: 28th PA Last to do it? Jim Tatum, 1998: 13 plate appearances...and in "natural" order, to boot. 1B: 3rd PA 2B: 7th PA 3B: 11th PA HR: 13th PA -- a walkoff three-run pinch-hit job, at that Tatum, like Hessman, wore No. 19. He finished his Met career with more triples than doubles (2 to 1) AND more extra-base hits than singles (5 to 4). He is the only Met with more than one hit to be able to say such a thing. The other Met who can say such a thing, though I don't know if he actually ever mentions it? Eric Cammack, the 2000 reliever whose only major league plate appearance resulted in a triple at Pro Player Stadium...site of Tatum's second Met triple. ETA: As long as I'm obsessing on the topic, I've done a little more checking and discovered Jim Tatum is the only major leaguer since 1920 who has had as many as 50 plate appearances in a season (1998) and collected as many as 9 hits, with more extra-base hits than singles, and more triples than doubles, while registering at least one extra-base hit of each type. Roberto Ortiz of the 1942 Washington Senators had 5 XBH to 2 singles (7 hits total), and 3 triples to 1 double, in 48 plate appearances. Tatum came to the plate 57 times in his only Met season.

1973 Mets Yearbook, Tuesday night at 7:00. Repeat, 1973 Mets Yearbook, Tuesday night at 7:00. Watch, record, whatever. No excuses accepted if you have access to SNY.

Hessman's first four Met hits have been a double, a single, a homer and a triple: A cycle, albeit over eleven games, with a .167 average in tow.

Dickey 6.0 Blanco 1.0 Beltran 1.0 Wright 1.0 Reyes 0.5 Pagan 0.5

I have to say I'm quite fond of my headline tonight.

Only teams whose starters don't pitch complete game shutouts daily need closers.

It's the Met equivalent of a NO-HITTER!