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I'm rooting for Andruw and Francoeur to test positive, but that's about it for them. Any team that involves Drayton McLane signing checks to Roger Clemens will only be wished the worst by me. Pass.

The White Sox have waited 46 years for a pennant, 88 years to win a post-season series. I think Eight Men Out has a statute of limitations. Also, would like to see Cubs fans squirm a little. I'm a wee bit tired of the Red Sox. I'll be there for them if it's Good vs. Evill III, but they conquered their demons. I hope somebody else has a chance to do the same.

For once, I'm rooting for the Yan... Nah, can't do it with a straight face. Strongly for the Angels. I'm not even a front-runner on this as I've already specified the Los Anaheims of Angeles as my favorite American League squadron. http://mets2005.myblogsite.com/blog/_archives/2005/6/10/925957.html

ScarletKnight41 wrote: Now you see, I interpreted that more like Tom Seaver bowing to the crowd from those different directions on the day that he was honored. Oh, I definitely saw the Seaver-style bowing, but there was a moment there where it looked more like, all right, guys, enough. We have to play two more innings here. Or somebody has to play two more innings.

Notes from De Facto MP Day. 1) Some bright fan attached his/her own discs on the facing of the left field upper deck: 37, 14, 41, 42 and 31. They looked to be blowing away by game's end, but nice touch. 2) Mets Extra treated listeners to a marvelous montage of Piazza moments. Because of the damn NFL (I thought Mets had dibs on the flagship over the Giants), it was shunted to WBBR and at the moment it came on, as I was detraining in Woodside, it got very staticky. I certainly hope Steve Somers or Joe Benigno replays it. 3) Don't know what it looked like on TV, but Mike's putting both hands palms down in an "all right, take it easy" motion, said it all about him. Reminded me of Springsteen telling his audience, "siddown, we got a long way to go" or words to that effect.

Piazza 3 A. Hernandez 1.5 DeFelice 1.5 Floyd 1 Jacobs 1 Diaz 1 Williams 1

ScarletKnight41 wrote:I'm making my way through Greg's three-part 2000 flashback, and I wanted to comment that I'm amused how he referred to Jace as a "non-axe murderer." I'd like to think that came from last week's discussion Anybody who wades through three parts deserves a shoutout.

While I don't doubt we'll have similar smoke blown up our collective rears on Sunday, I wonder what fans are not told that they are the best in baseball by their own propagandists. "Hey Devil Ray fans, you may not have much to do, but we appreciate your doing it in here" would at least meet truth-in-advertising standards.

In an effort to drain my money's worth out of Extra Innings, I flipped on the intro to the Reds-Brewers game a little while ago. The Brewer announcers lavished some serious "Brewers fans are the best fans in baseball" praise all over their immediate audience. Why? Because 1) Milwaukee drew 2.2 million (thus sparking the Brewers to a winning home record and possibly a .500 record overall) and 2) They snapped up 38,000 free tickets to today's game. The Brewers' owner made a nice gesture of giving away every otherwise empty seat. Only 13,000 of the best fans in baseball bought in advance. No doubt it takes a lot of intestinal fortitude to remain a Brewers fan after 23 consecutive pennantless seasons and a dozen without a winning record (to say nothing of all that tailgating), but the best fans in baseball? Not "some of the best fans in baseball"? Or "the most patient fans in baseball"? Hometown hard-sell aside, come now. Maybe the best Brewers fan in the world is the best fan in baseball, but I can't imagine that as a group they're such hot stuff.

Willets Point wrote:"Dwight Gooden pitched for a team in the American League whose name escapes me. "The Cleveland Indians, duh![Sound of palm slapping forehead.]Of course! The Indians. What could have I been thinking?

FYI, the Marlins are having 2006 Magnetic Schedule Day on Sunday, not a badly timed promotion if you think about it (except that it probably has the Marlins' schedule on it).

="mlbaseballtalk"]Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, Juan Marichal, Tom Seaver, THEY WOULD HAVE PITCHED! One might not have. In fact he didn't: "On the last day of the [1970] season the Mets played the Cubs in a battle for second place. The team that won would finish second and collect at least a thousand dollars extra per man. It was Tom's turn to start but his shoulder had stiffened and he didn't start. Young Jim McAndrew, who had won only nine games, started and he was beaten by the Cub ace Ferguson Jenkins, 4-1. Several Mets grumbled that the Mets could have won if Tom had started." --from Tom Seaver: An Intimate Portrait by John Devaney Let's turn around and switch. Say the Mets had clinched the division (ahhhhh) and the Phillies were battling for the Wild Card with the Astros. Willie Randolph decides to conserve Pedro's strength for the post-season and announces he's shutting him down 'til Game One of the playoffs. In that case, I'm betting, there are few complaints (outside of Houston and the ubiquitous Don LaGreca) that Martinez isn't pitching. Now this is, sadly, a different circumstance but the core element is taking care of Pedro for the Mets' sake, not somebody else's race. (Of course the hypothetical division champion Mets would have more of an interest in the outcome of the Wild Card since they might have to play the winner in the LDS or LCS, but that's another story.) I'm with Sparky Anderson on this. He said it was folderol to pretend there was one set of rules for 25 players and that there was no way he was going to treat Bench, Rose, Morgan and Perez the same way he treated some rookie. If the Mets have to handle Pedro a little delicately, especially after the season he just gave them, so be it, as long as it's all in the interest of Pedro 2006.

Sounds awful. I'd rather spend the 49 cents (plus a penny) on the Daily News so I can read about where Derek Jeter bought his latest pair of shoes. This puts me in mind of Doris Kearns Goodwin, who developed a lucrative (or at least highly noticed) sideline as go-to Red Sox fan for the literati. She grew up in Rockville Centre, loved the Dodgers, they left town, she was abandoned, she went to school in Cambridge and, in the midst of the 1967 pennant race, found a second love in Boston. Why weren't the Mets an option? In her memoir "Wait 'Til Next Year," she mentions in passing that her father became a Mets fan. You're too good for this, Doris? Or was it that the Dodgers were in the World Series every year and you couldn't lower yourself to the expansion Mets and couldn't "care" about baseball until a World Series was in sight? The Mets-Red Sox alliance (save for a week or two 19 years ago and the occasional interleague cameo) is a strong one. But why an actual Mets fan would go all the way over the 37-foot-wall is beyond me. I understand October crushes. I developed one on the Angels in 2002. It's even lingered slightly in the A.L. realm. Yet when the Mets went to Anaheim in June 2003, that was irrelevant. The Angels were just another opponent to me, even if I couldn't remember the last time any monkey rallied at Shea besides the fans.

Today Greg parties like it's 1995Part 1The Exciting ConclusionAmong other things, Greg recounts meeting Jace in person after meeting him through AOL first. This was five years before I started meeting Internet friends in person at Mets games (in our household we call them axe murderer friends, or axies...I have to admit, years after the fact, that I held those same perceptions and reservations in principle, based on whatever scattered reports of such meetings I had absorbed. But Jason was not an axe murderer nor have the other dozen and some people I have come to meet this way (if they were actively axe-murdering on the particular day I met them, I guess I wouldn't be posting right now). I imagine there's still some reason to fear the unknown, but I don't even think about axe murderers, et al when I make let's-meet plans with cybersouls. But all I'm after is a ballgame.Perhaps our forebears felt the same way about making the acquaintance of people by telephonic device.The Greg-Jason big (or blog) bang was covered in detail on its tenth anniversary:My perspective:[url]http://mets2005.myblogsite.com/blog/_archives/2005/6/17/949407.htmlHis perspective:[url]http://mets2005.myblogsite.com/blog/_archives/2005/6/17/950681.html

SI Metman wrote:So, anyone buy their tix for October 2nd yet, which could be Piazza's last game as a Met?Got mine at Shea tonight.FAFIF will be all hands on deck for this historic occasion. Of course we were there for Todd Zeile's and Joe Hietpas' last game as Mets, too.Day game after a night game. Think Willie will start Castro?

Elster88 wrote: Actually, I think there is a whole lot more to it than a baseball game. There's all that new crap: memorabilia shows, carnival type stuff (All Star Fan Fest or something), concerts, etc. besides the derby and the celebrity softball game. Probably a pain in the ass for whatever town hosts it. I always figured the money they got out of it was the incentive to put up with all of that stuff. All-Star festivities at Shea (or any ballpark) would include the prospects game on Sunday, the workout, celebrity softball game and home run hitting contest on Monday and the game itself on Tuesday. The Fan Fest would be held off-site as it is in other cities. Any concert would take on the same character as the post-game Merengue Night or Irish Night concerts of years past. Essentially, Shea would be given over to the ASG for three days. The Mets would presumably be on the road for a series or two before the break so preparations could be made. The only ones who would be put upon for the entire event would be the same Shea operations staff that can't keep all its lights on for a single night game.

The only time the Mets even mentioned a post-1964 All-Star Game hosting possibility was 1988. Al Harazin admitted, after the fact, that the team thought it might be nice to host it for the 25th anniversary season of Shea but said it was too much work. Al Harazin is long gone, but that same obtuse, maddening attitude exists. I know the ASG ain't what it used to be, but I've been quietly hoping I'd get to see one in my team's home park before it or I die. Too much work? It's a frigging baseball game. Is that why they so assiduously avoid October? Perhaps the new yard will be christened as the current one was, with glitter.

willpie wrote:I've always found 24/7/365 (i.e. hours a day/days a week/days a year) to be on awkward construction anyway. I mean, 24/7/52 (i.e. hours a day/days a week/weeks a year) seems more consistent to me. And anyway, doesn't 24/7 already mean "all the time"?Let's see...seven days in a week, 52 weeks in a year...364 days. That leaves one day that if not specified may trickle into foul, non-baseball territory.And ya can't be too careful.

Anderson Hernandez waited his entire life for this moment, to hear his name being read by a Major League public address announcer as part of a Major League lineup Yesterday, the lineups were read by some kid who won a contest, 40 minutes before gametime because the Mets had to run a string of promotional ceremonies between 12:30 and 1:10. Granted, Hernandez probably had other things on his mind, but it seemed, talk about Irony City, rather minor league.

The Shea moment of silence was a lovely gesture but they kind of screwed it up by not asking everybody to stand. Thus it was actually kind of noisy. Not that that's a bad thing. As the PA announcer recalled Donn's career, and DiamondVision showed his stats, there was a heartfelt round of applause. I've always felt that's a more appropriate tribute to a fallen ballplayer. When the semi-silence was over, the PA asked everybody to "remain" standing. Ah, Mets. Even when you mean well...

ScarletKnight41 wrote: 41, actually. Tom turned 42 a few weeks after the 1986 season ended. It always stuck with me that he played his last pro game at the age of 41. Thinkin' 'bout his free agent period, most of which came after 11/17/44.

Edgy DC wrote: Well, the Turner people as well as I are reporting it in the light most suitable for effect, and I'm sure both joints bothered him during his career. It was an ankle injury that kept him out of the 1986 series. I don't know if that was still his problem or not in 1987. I heard Tom say in an interview, within the last year or so, that it was his back, combined with collusion, that kept him from getting offered a contract in the winter of '86-'87. I don't remember his back being an issue as a Red Sock but he was 42 and his health wasn't top of mind following October 27, 1986. I like that almost two decades after 311 wins, 20 seasons and, as pointed out, creating a model in motion for countless power pitchers everywhere, that he still carried a twinge of regret about not being able to continue pitching

http://mets2005.myblogsite.com/blog/_archives/2005/9/18/1237417.html Damn.

ScarletKnight41 wrote: Thanks Greg. When I lived on the West Side it was a no brainer - the 1, 2 or 3 (and, eventually, the 9) to Times Square and the 7 the rest of the way. But this is the first time I'm attempting to take the train in from NJ, and with MK in tow I want to make sure I know what I'm doing. Not to load you up with extra commutation information, but the Port Washington line of the LIRR leaves from Penn for Shea at 11:22 and 12:22 (and the like). It gets to Shea in 17 minutes. I'm fairly certain they have half-fares for kids; buy before boarding to avoid extra charges. But as mentioned previously, you're just as well off with the 1 (or 2 or 3) to the 7. Buy a $10 Metrocard in advance and you can swipe the two of you through coming and going. (It will leave you with an extra fare, but it never hurts to have one in your wallet.) Egads, I'm turning into my sister's father-in-law, the guy who used to bring every conversation around to "what do you mean you don't take the express bus?"