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Dodgers get on board, 14wise. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/dodgers-to-retire-number-14-for-hall-of-famer-gil-hodgeshttps://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/dodgers-to-retire-number-14-for-hall-of-famer-gil-hodges

Richard Sandomir gives a prominent New York baseball figure the Times treatment he deserves. “Piggy was the kind of friend to my dad who, if you fell backward, he'd catch you,” Gil Hodges Jr. said in a phone interview. “If a player had something negative to say about my father and didn't have the courage to say it to his face, he'd better be sure Piggy wasn't around.” In the bullpen, Pignatano oversaw relief pitchers as they warmed up — sometimes catching them himself — and telephoned Hodges or Rube Walker, the pitching coach, to say who looked good that day and who didn't. “He was very disciplined, a good company man who was also still young and pretty feisty,” said Jim McAndrew, a pitcher who joined the Mets in 1968. “He was opinionated about almost everything and wasn't everybody's favorite because he was Gil's sergeant.” In 1969, the year the Mets unexpectedly won the World Series after seven seasons as a losing team, Pignatano started planting tomatoes in the bullpen beyond right field. Up came cherry tomatoes, then beefsteak tomatoes. Eventually he grew pumpkins, cucumbers, eggplants, squash, zucchini, radishes and lettuce in a 30-foot long plot, with help from the pitchers who watered the plants. “I transplant the crops in the spring and we have it every year,” he told The Associated Press in 1977. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/25/sports/baseball/joe-pignatano-dead.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/25/sports/baseball/joe-pignatano-dead.html

Bob G. Miller, lefty roommate to and namesake of righty Bob L. Miller has died at 86 (May 24), making it two fewer 1962 Mets this week in this 60th-anniversary year. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/dailyherald/name/robert-miller-obituary?id=34928640https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/dailyherald/name/robert-miller-obituary?id=34928640

Nikita Richardson's the author of the piece. A she, if pictures imply pronouns.

For today at least, I think it's pronounced “mud.”

Nogosek says bye so Szapucki can say hi.

bWAR is Baseball Reference's metric, differentiated from the FanGraphs version (fWAR).

How very Timesean to assign the Mets neighborhood food beat to a Braves fan.

A few words on Piggy… http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2022/05/24/forever-ours-joe-pignatano/http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2022/05/24/forever-ours-joe-pignatano/

San Fran, San Fran It's a helluva town Peterson's up Jake Reed is down

What a presence. Fourteen seasons a phone call away from every manager from Hodges to Torre (or closer, when he transferred to the first base box his last few years). The tomatoes indeed separated us and Shea from everybody else. The good humor was a trademark, too. I always felt he was the uncle left in charge when the skipper couldn't keep his eye on everybody. "They're good kids," Joe would assure us in his way. Legendarily, he ended his career by hitting into a triple play, guaranteeing the Mets their 120th loss of their first season -- as if it wasn't guaranteed when they took the field that day. One isolated incident occurs to me. In 1975, John Stearns hit his first home run into the bleachers at Wrigley. Piggy took it upon himself to trot out to the crowd and arrange a swap of baseballs with the fan who caught Stearns's blast. The fan negotiated for a bat. Piggy complied, and Dude got his ball. What a wonderful bullpen coach thing to do.

Who's going, who's coming: -OF Starling Marte activated from the bearevement list. -RHP Jake Reed is up from Triple-A Syracuse. -RHP Max Scherzer to the injured list. -INF Gosuke Katoh optioned to Syracuse -RHP Adonis Medina added as the doubleheader 27th man

The word on Blake Street: -OF Starling Marte activated from the bearevement list. -RHP Jake Reed is up from Triple-A Syracuse. -RHP Max Scherzer to the injured list. -INF Gosuke Katoh optioned to Syracuse -RHP Adonis Medina added as the doubleheader 27th man

Nimmo CF Marte RF Lindor SS Alonso DH McNeil LF Escobar 3B D. Smith 1B Guillorme 2B Mazeika C - Carrasco RHP (3-1, 3.73)

Ron Hunt is there (there's a key inside the yearbook). Directly above Endy — half a face at the top.

Roger Angell, baseball writer extraordinaire, has died at 101. He covered the Mets from their first Spring Training and through all their successes and many of their failures. He always came through. http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2022/05/20/that-rare-inner-smile/http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2022/05/20/that-rare-inner-smile/

Temps in the mid-30s and 100% chance of snow at game time. So maybe not so much with the baseball for us tonight.

Seven-game lead. Gotta defend it for the next six to eight or more weeks. Big win in that you need to win every game when your starter isn't a question mark. Also every win is big at this level (something Buck would probably say).

Pete passed David on this homestand. He has 51 home runs at Citi Field, the 51st of them as emphatic as any. Lindor is alone in 19th place with 16.

Thin line between great game and groan game. That dog day game will hunt.

Fun article, but not new.