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Metphistopheles (my Buffalo-based friend) gives an informed take on Bisons vs. Chiefs here.

The Stokes win is as shocking (if deserved) as his 1970 card is glorious. Thank you, BG, for reaching back in Topps time.

They're both a million miles from here, but I tend to think everything above Riverdale is upstate. Voted for Buffalo because I have a friend, originally from Long Island, up there whom it would make very happy. I visited SU twice for high school journalism conferences. Bought one of my all-time favorite t-shirts there, an orange going through a net, the orange saying Syracuse in Sunkist lettering. Man did I wear that thing to death. If Syracuse wins, prepare to hear how the Mets are grooming their Chief prospects.

Nice Q&A with Jason Antos, author of the only Shea history to date at SNY site. Discusses, among other things, the missing speckles or shingles or panels from the outside pre-1980: ]Nobody even knows where those multi-colored panels are that used to hang on the side of the ballpark... those were completely discarded; there's not one person who they've been able to locate who has anything like them in their collection... I believe the Hall Of Fame was trying to find if anybody had these. Also at SNY, good piece on the NY Giants group I frequent by Alex Belth, pro's pro who is running a Giants tribute on Bronx Banter today and tomorrow. (I cross party lines to reflect on the NYGs in tomorrow's edition.)

I was hoping this had something to do with Jamie Moyer.

9/2/08: Mets enter day in first place, 2 games ahead of Phillies; Jon Niese goes 3 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 4 BB, 2 SO; Mets beat Brewers in Milwaukee; Mets continue to lead Phillies by 2 games.

Valera way more zaftig than Swan; Cashen far more tactful than Grant.

Ruddy Lugo long tosses with Jerry Moses.

The Niese precedent, small sample that it is... Mets making Major League debuts as starters in pennant races: 9/3/73: Mets enter day in fifth place, 5.5 behind Cardinals; pull within 4.5 after they win and Cardinals lose respective twinbill openers; in nightcap, Craig Swan goes 4.1 IP, 4 ER, 9 H, 2 BB, 2 SO; Mets lose second game of doubleheader to Phillies at Shea; Swan pitches twice more in relief; Mets win pennant by 1.5 games; Swan wins 59 games as a Met between 1974 and 1984. 9/1/90: Mets enter day in second place, half-game behind Pirates; Julio Valera goes 6 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 5 BB, 3 SO; Mets beat Giants at Shea; Valera starts one more game, gets rocked by Pirates; gets rocked in one additional relief appearance; Mets finish second by 4 games; Valera appears twice in relief in 1991; traded to California for Dick Schofield in 1992; wins 14 games between 1992 and 1996 for Angels and Royals. Mets making first Major League starts in pennant races: 9/26/07: Mets enter day in first place, 2 games ahead of Phillies; Phil Humber goes 4 IP, 5 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 0 SO; Mets, having led 5-0, lose to Nationals at Shea; Humber made two relief appearances in September '06 and two more in September '07; hadn't pitched in 15 days prior to first start; last Met appearance; Mets finish second, 1 game behind Phillies; Humber traded to Twins for Johan Santana in 2008; called up to majors for first time in '08 in September.

metirish wrote: Dave O'Brien , now he was brutal, him and Seaver in the booth was hell. O'Brien couldn't even make the Irish-American Baseball Hall of Fame's first induction class. Then again, maybe he was out of town.

If Delgado is still being talked up as an MVP candidate four weeks from now, we'll know it's been a very good month for the Mets.

Caught Ted doing some Olympic event (tennis, probably) and got annoyed at him all over again, particularly for how he never stopped talking about the bloody San Francisco Giants the entire time he was a Metcaster. Wayne drops in the occasional Cardinal or Rockie anecdote when it serves a purpose. McCarthy didn't harp on his Phillies aphillieation, but Ted never left his heart in San Francisco. He left the whole thing. The Olympic gig reminded me that he abandoned Met ship for other gigs continually: Wimbledon, Stanford football, two kittens playing ping pong. I didn't dislike him when he showed up, but I would have appreciated a greater commitment from a Rockville Centre boy.

I like Wayne. I like the outsider's perspective. It doesn't come off as just-passing-through, but as someone who has become genuinely fascinated by a baseball culture we take for granted. There's a real sense of "you New Yorkers sure do take this stuff seriously." I like the between-pitches insights. Early this year he watched Pelfrey struggle at Chase Field and talked about how the mouthpiece was working against him because it left his mouth dry and in Arizona, it mean he couldn't step off the mound and benefit from chewing gum. He's always noticing little things like that and throwing them in. I also think he's wry as hell. One night he riffed on how he and Chris Majkowski would be coming over to watch some hypothetcial big game on Howie Rose's plasma TV which plainly caught Howie off guard, though he recovered with, "not if my wife Barbara has anything to say about it." Their chemistry is middling, but they serve their listeners well. I dig the goofiness, the home runs "hit deep into the New York night," even though the New York night is, you know, the Mets bullpen. And I don't find myself lacking for descriptions of a given play. I couldn't stand Tom McCarthy (couldn't call a game, was boring as all get out) and was suspicious of Wayne's clearly generic-sounding voice, but he grew on me. I hope he sticks around a while.

metirish wrote: Not more gayer , good golly miss molly. There should be a bottle of that stuff in every cupholder in every Ford Edge.

And Ben Chapman was a racist.

Carlos Delgado hits it out of Citizens Bank Park, Veterans Stadium, Connie Mack Stadium and the Baker Bowl. The Phillies can't build or borrow a home that can contain Carlos Delgado.

Ethel...go get the ice pick...those Phillies guys are on TV again...

Citizens Bank Park, if you hadn't heard, is built directly on top of an abandoned air hockey table.

Is there anything less congruous than picking a guy off first and the guy stealing second anyway?

YES WE CAN!!! Beat the Phillies tonight, that is.

Blood on the tracks.

Phillie lineup already posted: SS Rivers Turning to Blood 2B Frogs LF Swarms of Gnats 1B Flies CF Diseased Cattle by Murrain RF Boils 3B Hail Mixed with Fire C Locusts P Darkness Death of first-born is warming up in the pen.

]1977-81 era Mets unis ...were filled by largely untalented players. I thought we were playing complete-the-sentence.

One hopes it is not ominous that a dark cloud has just this hour settled over the New York area.

Number 16 in Oughta Be follows on the theme of 1969 weekend...sort of: They have jobs today that keep them from being fans first and foremost, but make no mistake that their professions in 2008 are very much tied to what they were doing at Shea Stadium in the summers of '69 and the years directly before and after it, knowing and loving their favorite baseball team in a way that only true fans can. They took the knowledge they gathered and the passion they oozed and parlayed it into a life's work sharing the Mets gospel with everyone within the sound of their voices. When you listen to what each of these men has to tell you about the New York Mets, you know what you're hearing is drenched in the experience of fandom. That's why you've come to trust them, that's why you're happy to have spent countless hours with them. It is the Mets' great pleasure to present, as a tandem once more, this generation's voices of New York Mets baseball, Gary Cohen and Howie Rose. In real life, both showed up earlier to take down numbers.