G-Fafif

Why, to commeorate Planet Green Day! (Scheduled for last week, rained out; maybe Mother Nature wasn't impressed by the color scheme.)

The Jets indeed bled into the blue exterior era but the neon boys weren't installed until the big green men were long ensconced at the Meadowlands. Also, the modern Jet logo on the shirt doesn't match up with the Shea portrayed. The whole thing just doesn't come off Metically, Jetically or aesthetically. All that is my way of saying I'm continually tempted to buy the darn thing but at $28 and with all those inconsistencies, I'll wait 'til there's a massive markdown.

Hurrah for Junior. Shoulda come when we called, of course, but his has been a fabulous career even in the face of recurring injury. Never linked to mysteriously enhanced power as far as I can remember (remember when you didn't have to qualify your admiration of astounding home run totals?).

Alou allegedly ready to come off tomorrow (or any day now, which is Moises' most injury-free day of any week).

Cover story for a short-lived magazine called M Inc. (a World Journal Tribune type merging of M and Manhattan Inc.) that year focused on the Born-Again Dodgers: Darryl and Gary, Orel and Brett Butler, the '90s God Squad, as it were. Darryl was in his religious mode that season and the others, particularly Kid, were happy to take him up on it. There was an exchange in the article from Vero Beach in which Carter and Straw kept one-upping each other: "You feel the power?" "I feel the power!" Tommy Lasorda was portrayed as rather out of touch with his own clubhouse. "We have good Christian boys," he said, not quite getting (according to the author) that what he had in mind and what they had in mind were different or that it was allegedly dividing the club. That's what I think of when I think of Gary Carter on the 1991 Dodgers...that and him telling reporters late in the season that Lasorda was wrong to be benching him in favor of Scioscia in such a tight race with the upstart Braves.

Viola became the 18th pitcher to win 20 games "in both lihgs". That pronunciation of league drove my parents crazy.

I saw Donnels whack two home runs for St. Lucie at Baseball City in 1989. Had high hopes from there.

SNY currently showing a new Mets Classic, or as new as a game that is 17 years old can be: May 7, 1991, Darryl's return to Shea with the Dodgers. How odd it is to see Viola and Coleman in not altogether low esteem. And Chris Donnels in the starting lineup. And Hubie Brooks in right. All weirder, somehow, than Strawberry as a Dodger. Tim and Ralph doing the game. Tim at that point where he was becoming more tiresome and less insightful. Ralph bein' Ralph, just chillin'.

Officially speaking, no Richard Todd (he was gonna come, but he was intercepted on the way): ]JETS NIGHT AT SHEA RESCHEDULED: The New York Mets and New York Jets rescheduled Jets Night at Shea for Tuesday, July 8 before the Mets host the San Francisco Giants...Jets Night at Shea � originally scheduled for Monday, April 28 � was postponed due to inclement weather...Former Jets Pro Bowlers Joe Klecko, Wesley Walker, Jets Linebacker Legend Greg Buttle, and Super Bowl III Champions Emerson Boozer, Randy Beverly, and John Schmitt will return to Shea Stadium...These players and others will appear at a 5:30 p.m. pre-game fundraiser in Shea�s Picnic Area to benefit area charities through the Mets Foundation and New York Jets Foundation...A limited number of tickets to the Picnic Area Meet and Greet are $20 and are on sale now at Mets.com...The Mets will salute their former Shea housemates � both teams won World Championships in 1969 � during an on-field, pre-game ceremony including the first pitch and the Shea Countdown of games to be played at Shea in its final season; in-game video programming; and the opportunity for fans to have their photos taken with both the Mets� and Jets� 1969 World Championship trophies. A one-night patch might be appropriate, but green and white jerseys? C'mon... They are selling overpriced Mets/Jets t-shirts at Shea ("Guaranteed. Amazin." Illustration of modern Shea, not the one the Jets played in.) for $28 and wildly overpriced sweatshirts (same design) for $70. The Mets never cared this much for the Jets when they were there.

Heath Bell and Royce Ring to San Diego for Ben Johnson and Jon Adkins is looking pretty darn blatant this weekend.

Wherever Ron Darling goes, he makes sure he's comfortable.

This is an hour well worth everyone's time here. Even if you can only give it a few minutes here and there. Great job!

Don't want to criticize someone who no doubt could not be feeling any lower, but this is weird. ]Crane vic's fiance turns down aid from Mets player BY MATTHEW LYSIAK DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Wednesday, June 4th 2008, 10:42 PM The fiancee of a crane operator killed in last week's tragic collapse on Wednesday rejected an offer of help from Mets star Ryan Church because her future hubby was a Yankee fan. A day after burying Donald Leo, Janine Belcastro said she couldn't accept the offer from the right fielder and his wife. "Don was a die-hard Yankee fan," Belcastro said in a statement. "It would not respect his memory if he accepted this." The grieving Belcastro added that she "greatly appreciated" the offer. The money was to come from Church's participation in a Mets' fund-raiser for a variety of causes. A spokesman said Church will choose another charity.

]Still trying to get out from under the shadow of his ex-Met brother Mike, Maddux is 3-4 with a 3.48 ERA. Most recently snapped Cubs� win streak. Has Braves taint. Greg Maddux, described to a tee.

There was a predecessor league, at least in terms of what was on Channel 9 when I was in sixth going into seventh grade. The IWF I think it was: Mil Mascaras was world champ. Dick "The Bulldog" Browser was North American champ (which I couldn't figure out since wasn't North America part of the world?). Ivan Koloff was the Soviet bad guy du jour. Mighty Igor was the crowd favorite, munching on a kielbasa en route to destroying opponents. Ernie Ladd, the old AFLer, had become a villain. Some guy named Tex teamed up with him for a tag-team steel cage match which was surprising since Tex was a good guy...but Ernie ended up double-crossing him (poor Tex). It was during this brief flirtation with professional wrestling, undertaken for the same reason I started watching "Happy Days" (so I wouldn't be left out of 12-year-old water cooler talk) that I learned the phrases "foreign object" and "mid-section". It was also then, 1975, when professional sports leagues were blossoming everywhere (WHA, WFL, NASL, a lacrosse league before it seemed plausible) so I didn't think anything unusual of professional wrestling. Though upon reflection, the way chairs could be cracked over wrestlers' heads while referees' backs were turned...that didn't seem quite kosher. Then again, neither did the kielbasa.

Tarzan play world tiniest violin for Braves.

Miami Herald recalls the night Shea was the mecca of the skewed, square circle of professional wrestling.

Was last night the first time Carlos Muniz's uniform carried a tilde, thus making his last name MU�IZ even though it continues to be pronounced Myoo-neez (and even though it will be pronounced at New Orleans for a while)?

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I'd retire 3 for Richie Hebner before I'd retire it for Dale Earnhardt. I assume the reason the Mets replaced all the seats and painted all the fences in 1980 was to remove as many traces that Richie Hebner Was Here in 1979.

Mark Herrmann of Newsday tacitly endorses the retirement of No. 3 throughout baseball, and not for Carl Everett. Same columnist who last week did a Mets uniform numbers column without bothering to attribute his pretty bleeping obvious source material. Same columnist who insisted Mets fans watched Carlos Beltran come up in Game Seven and were thinking about Derek Jeter; same columnist who wrote some tripe last October about the Mets deserving bad things to happen because, among other things, Ramon Castro was allegedly rude in the clubhouse to some reporter friend of his. But never mind Mark Herrmann and his lame and dim output. Retire 3 for Babe Ruth? Now? Why on earth? Because nobody's ever heard of him? Because the MFYs don't get enough press? Because he blazed paths for a more open society? Ruth was a great player. And he was great for his industry. His legend is as secure as anyone's in the game, including Jackie Robinson's. Isn't that enough?

Tonight at Shea: Ron Swoboda. Who'd argue? (He shows up much later for us). Tonight in Oughta Be imagination: The year 1975 gets its due, as in all four NY teams that could have -- Mets, MFY, Jets, Giants -- shared Shea. To pull down Number 53: � '75 Jet John Riggins � '75 Giant Dave Jennings � '75 MFY Sandy Alomar (convenient, no?) and leading the way, co-MVP from your 1975 All-Star Game, former rookie of the year Jon Matlack. One of the best southpaws to ever wear a Mets uniform... Thus endeth the implied Joe Torre-era tribute weekend. Take in the full homestand just finishing up here[/url:396eb32x].

SteveJRogers wrote: ="G-Fafif"] � Scioscia, Gibson, Hershiser...oy 1988. That was also the night (well, early evening is when it happened) WFAN moved from 1050 to 660 on your AM dial, forever silencing WNBC radio. A couple of days earlier, actually: 10/7/88, Friday evening. NLCS Game 3 got rained out (some omen for WFAN). Game Four wound up being Sunday, 10/9/88.

Not a ton of great, momentous games leap to mind where the Dodgers coming to Shea are concerned. But some images do eventually creep onto the scene. Presented in no order whatsoever except stream of consciousness: � Lo Duca's double-tag, NLDS Game One 2006. � Ralph throwingo out ball before Game Two in a yellow sweater so bright we could see it from way the heck up in the upper deck. � Scioscia, Gibson, Hershiser...oy 1988. � Jefferies being hit by batted ball the next day. � All that mud the previous Saturday when things looked better. � Various Dodgers singing Happy Birthday to Casey in 1964. � Tug beating Sandy, 1965. � The Happy Days crew playing softball, 1978. � Sutton and Garvey going at it in the visitors clubhouse, same series. � All-Amazin' Team announced on a Saturday night in 2002. � Seaver lashing out at Bobby V the next day for not having the team in the dugout for Tommie Agee's HOF induction the next morning. � Billy Crystal and Robin Williams being not all that funny in promoting Comic Relief with Ralph and Tim, 1990. � Doc striking out 15 despite the presence of Billy Crystal. � Darryl's circusish returns in 1991. � Darryl hitting 'em through the Big Top in 1991. � The Mets going 53-38 on a Sunday in 1991 and me thinking that with this split against the Dodgers, we're clearly on our way to overtaking the Pirates. � Magadan walkoff HR, 1992 � Rodney McCray's only at-bat, a winning walkoff infield single, the night before. � Brett Butler changing clubhouses, ours to theirs, 1995 � Nomomania falling short of Izzy Fever, same series. (Birmingham Barons caps given out that day seemed to pop up at Shea for years thereafter) � Young Pedro coming out of the bullpen and outpitching Doc, 1993. � Me snarking to my friend Rob "he's probably only there because his brother pitches for them" and Rob informing me, no, this Pedro Martinez is gonna be way better than Ramon. � Tom Prince doubling and homering off Pete Harnisch, 1995, and me applauding the only Prince I ever saw in the big leagues (I'd later be given a ball autographed by Tom, congratulating me for having "a great last name"). � Willie Randolph plunges dagger into 1989 surge, homering off Don Aase � Cone sticks it to Hershiser to avenge 1988 a tiny bit two nights earlier � Chan Ho Park lures Korean-American fans from Flushing during interminable doubleheader, 1997, first International Night. They root for Dodgers. Dominicans on Hispanic Night root for Dodgers in deference to Raul Mondesi. Few seem to root for Mets. � Mets wear "Los Mets" unis, 2007; fans root for Mets; world doesn't end � Delgado gets fans on his side with key hit (they urge him on with runners on base, forgetting they'd been booing him) the next day � Jackie Robinson Night, 42 retired, 1997. � Horrible Fireworks Night ruined by John Franco in ninth, 7/31/98 (my sister, who only came for the fireworks, insisted on leaving before the fireworks) � Dotel outduels Park 2-1, Mets maintain first place, August 6, 1999 (I watch from directly behind plate and see that curves actually curve); caps the 40-15 stretch Bobby V promised he'd deliver � Gil Hodges Night, early 2000, I squint into visitors dugout and see Orel Hershiser back with Dodgers, wonder if he'll pitch against us (he doesn't) � Darling shows Leary who's boss on Monday Night Baseball, Memorial Night 1988 (setting tone for untold Met success over Dodgers that season...sigh) � Jack DiLauro's nine shutout innings, Mets eventually win in 15, sweep L.A., part of 1969 record streak of eleven straight � Ventura's last grand slam, as Dodger, versus Mets, August 2004 (our season is shot, I standing-ovate Robin) � El Duque outduels Maddux, 2006 � Jose's inside-the-parker, 2006 a couple of nights earlier (probably the absolute peak of that season in retrospect) � Doc loses hyped matchup to Valenzuela May 1985, record falls to 6-3; Gooden eventually 20-3 � Fernandomania for Valenzuela, 5/8/81; beats Mike Scott 1-0 � Fernandomania for Tatis, 5/31/08; beats Broxton 3-2 That's just stream of consciousness, aided slightly by UMDB and Baseball-Reference. The stream's running dry. Please add your own.

No weekday afternoon games at Nationals Park because the potential for neighborhood congestion is intimidating, apparently. Hey Washingtonians, are they really this easily confused? I hear there's an area of Chicago that gets pretty busy during the day and they still manage to have games and stuff.

Thanks for spurring Big Pelf on, bmfc1. He needed all the help he could get.