G-Fafif

E-mail from mets.com says K-Rod goes for No. 75.

SNY reairs his three-hit shutout, the final Mets win ever at Shea Stadium, tonight at 7:30.

I view this issue through the words of Benjamin Franklin (at least as conveyed in the musical 1776): "A rebellion is always legal in the first person, such as 'our rebellion.' It is only in the third person - 'their rebellion' - that it becomes illegal." Thus, OUR players' enthusiasm and joy for the game is beautiful. THEIR players' showboating and unsportsmanlike conduct is dreadful.

Wasn't there already[/url:2wqvsdkw] a Frankie Rodriguez?

Get some decent setup men in there and they can be Frank(i)e & The Knockouts.

Three years reportedly[/url:10qpkdcm] on the table for K-Rod from Mets, though he's not considered likely to jump at it.

The question about the Mets-Braves rivalry and playing at Shea was, if my ears weren't failing me, asked by Matt Yallof of SNY. Here's the full answer. ]It was fun. It was always fun going to New York. We had Chipper on our team, and Chipper always used to do big things there. It was fun watching the guys play there and it was also fun being a part of it. Shea Stadium was one of the best places to play baseball on the road, and especially when the Mets were good, and there was just a buzz in the air there that you'll never forget. There was a smell there at Shea that you'll never forget. There were just certain things about Shea Stadium, that 'this is a pretty cool place to be' and you're just lucky to be a part of it. Sittin' down there in the bullpen with Jimmy Jet, the security guard down there, talkin', tellin' war stories until the game starts. You have a lot of memories of every ballpark and it seems like you spend a lot of time in the bullpen at Shea Stadium. Can't vouch for the name of the security guard, though it would be comforting to know at least one Jet stayed at Shea.

Caught some of Greg Maddux's retirement press conference. Was asked about Mets-Braves battles at Shea. Gave a surprisingly deep and relatively emotional answer about what great games those were, what a great stage that was, what, well, great fans we were. Even namechecked a Shea bullpen security guard and marveled at the "war stories" they traded. Will post exact quotes when video is up, but it seemed heartfelt and the perspective of someone who really got it. Interesting that Maddux, in the one time I ever heard it come up, found nicer things to say about playing in front of Mets fans than his former rotationmate who actually played for the Mets ever did. Rooted against him as he pitched against the Mets and found his self-limited pitch count a little vexing (even allowing that he knew himself best), but Greg Maddux was one of those opponents I enjoyed standing and applauding for out of respect when he took the mound. There really isn't any other pitcher I can say that about in recent years.

Both will be out in center, according to Metsblog, which was on the media tour last week. ]For starters, Jeff Wilpon told reporters that the old Home-Run Apple from Shea Stadium will be on display in back of the concourse in center field, which was good to hear. However, a new Apple will pop up from a concrete cannister beneath the center-field scoreboard. That thing they're building outside, obviously, is a kiddie pool.

Jack Curry has filled Chass' role, but now that you mention it, the weekly column doesn't seem to be a staple.

Davidoff's Sunday column runs as usual and he is still hyped as covering the winter meetings. Perhaps they are reconstructing his arrangement. Perhaps the Pest is not necessarily right.

The Pest (as opposed to the Snooze) reports Johnette Howard, Shaun Powell and Ken Davidoff are the columnists in question, and that Davidoff may return at a lower rate of pay. I'm not a fan of any of the above (Davidoff, in particular, strikes me as a Yankee hack) but I hate to see this sort of thing happen for economic reasons. Worth noting that the Pest story misspelled Powell's first name.

I once received a letter letting me know Brett Butler would come and speak to my employees and motivate them with his life experiences and faith in Christ for only $20,000. How much is each Ace going to have to ante up for the privilege?

Talk about your stiff Breezes playing havoc with Shea's outfield.

Hired goons should be dispatched to collect anti-postseason shares from various Met relievers?

="Edgy DC":1fnx751x]Have you ever heard a Bravier name than "Boone Logan"?[/quote:1fnx751x] Brent Lillibridge served as a colonel under Stonewall Jackson in the War of Northern Aggression. Nymr83 Dec 02 2008 08:16 PM Yeah thats a pretty good Braves name itself. sharpie Dec 03 2008 07:00 AM With Javy Lopez retired they needed to get a replacement Javy. willpie Dec 03 2008 01:09 PM I hate this. Vazquez may not be as good as he was with the Expos, but he's still a solid pitcher who strikes dudes out. And he's moving out of a very hitter-friendly park and into our division. Bleah. Frayed Knot Dec 03 2008 01:17 PM Vazquez always seems to be a guy who winds up being worse than the sum of his parts. Or, to put it Sabermetrically, his results seem consistantly worse than what his peripherals (like K/IP) would suggest. metirish Dec 03 2008 01:19 PM Braves apparently are going to offer Burnett a five year deal , so says the Snooze today. Nymr83 Dec 03 2008 02:50 PM Vazquez will give you a bunch of league average innings, which is fine, but i too wonder why he never really got great, the whips arent terrible and the strikeout rate is good smg58 Dec 03 2008 03:28 PM Vazquez is a lot like Ollie -- the talent of an ace, the tendency to alternate between looking really good and really awful, and the numbers of an OK 4th starter. He'll give you more innings, though. From my experience having him on my fantasy team last year, Vazquez seemed to give up hits in bunches -- not unlike certain Mets relievers -- and when he was off, he was OFF. Zvon Dec 03 2008 04:11 PM ="Edgy DC"]Have you ever heard a Bravier name than "Boone Logan"? Culturally, it's a great move. Now, if they can only find a way to send Casey Hodges to New York, all will be right with the world. Where have I seen that guy before...? OH YEA!, Edgy DC Dec 03 2008 07:55 PM That's a helluva commitment for a Boone Logan crack. Nice work. Nymr83 Dec 03 2008 11:11 PM thats took under 5 minutes with Zvon's skillz Frayed Knot Dec 04 2008 10:45 AM The bigger Braves pitching news is that they've reportedly made an offer to AJ Burnett - no details yet. The big thing with him is whether or not some team will hold their breath and go 5 years. Zvon Dec 04 2008 04:20 PM ="Edgy DC":3acs2ynx]That's a helluva commitment for a Boone Logan crack. Nice work.[/quote:3acs2ynx] lol, yea, it t'was. It just so had to be done though. Meh, 10 mins Nymr83. Took 5 mins to find a picture of the stupid game.

]Still incomplete, the rotunda will become Citi Field's main entranceway, allowing fans to spill out of the Willits Point subway station Anthony DiComo obviously drives to games and has never seen the sign for the station (or met our own Willets Point). With the ballpark name in at least a little limbo, one hopes the MTA hasn't invested in new station signs just yet.

Very pretty pictures of a very pretty ballpark-to-be. But their immediate impact is to make me sad in that it's so not Shea. I know, I know: that's the idea. A few innings inside could have me changing my tune pretty quickly, but it just looks like something else from somewhere else right now.

="Edgy DC":hthd8qtk]'Zactly. KC has a way of making ol' nuggets retain a certain freshness. He also has a good sense of what's "so 2003" and needs to stay there.[/quote:hthd8qtk] The funk hasn't really come up in conversation lately, but the champagne line stays in circulation until the Mets complete a September intact. And three in the morning I'm keeping around in case of boneheaded management emergency. But yes, I can't believe I forgot "been a winner all my life."

The Willie Randolph Edition: --Music and facial hair --The funk --"When we sip champagne..." --My guys --Three in the morning

Two great Rickey stories, for real: Tom Verducci, here[/url:2jaxect0]; Ralph Wiley, here[/url:2jaxect0].

Thanks for finding that. I don't see in those excerpts any indication that Klapisch was swimming against the conventional wisdom tides or that insiders were tipping him off that this was a bad deal. The fourth year was commonly cited as a potential drawback. There was a ten-minute window circa 2004 wherein pitchers were never going to get mega long-term deals again, that three years was the norm, but you gotta make an exception for Pedro. I [Heart] Pedro in the upper percentile, but to say they got 2-1/2 good years out of him is fuzzy math at its fuzziest. All of '05, the first third of '06, one valiant month at the end of '07 and, charitably, a little here and a little there in '08 isn't even two years.

I'd like to see Rickey wear a batting helmet[/url:405dua2r] in honor of those three different guys he played with in Toronto, New York and Seattle who each wore one in the field.

Lost in Klapisch's larger point, that Pedro may have been overpaid versus his production, is that, well, Klapisch is an idiot. ]No doubt Martinez made the Mets respectable -- his arrival coincided with a 12-win surge from 2004-05 -- but the realists in the organization know Beltran's decision to sign with the Mets had less to do with Pedro than it did with money. "We were the highest bidders," is how one insider put it. Indeed, no one got close to the seven-year, $119 million deal the Mets dropped in front of Beltran. But even after he was entering the final round of negotiations, Beltran still wasn't sold; agent Scott Boras secretly told the Yankees the center fielder would accept less money if the Bombers would make an offer. So much for Pedro's recruiting powers. The driving force of the Mets' renaissance has been the Wilpon family's willingness to outbid the market for star players. That's why GM Omar Minaya is moving slowly on renewing ties with Martinez this off-season. Beltran only cared about money. Except he would have taken less money to go somewhere where he had a better chance of winning. Which is what the Mets became (at least versus where they had been previously) once they had Pedro. As long as Klap has an "insider," that insider must make Klapisch's conclusion du jour correct. Provided today is Monday, "so much for" the Pedro-Beltran storyline. Tuesday he might have a different insider and a different conclusion. And I like Boras "secretly" telling a team something when he's peddling his client. Are all aspects of all negotiations otherwise held in the public square? Wonder what Klap wrote four years ago.

If the entire purpose of the Hall of Fame becomes keeping Roger Clemens out, then I applaud the Hall of Fame's entire purpose.