stevejrogers

="MFS62"]Hold off on any talk of a jinx. We still don't know how Jose will perform in the post season. For all we know, an ESPN mag cover could turn out to be the Anti-SI. Later I'd agree with you, but the last time a Met SS was on the cover he was proclaimed to be one of the Next Big Time US Major athletes:

ScarletKnight41 wrote: Jose shouldn't be making his mama crazy. Awwwww now, I'm sure in 10 years MK will be making... or maybe DRIVING you crazy =

Coming to newstands this weekend:

Can we take some solace on the fact that this is EXACTLY what the 2000 World Champion MFY did the last month of their regular season?

Its a new month next week

Its like the Mets and Braves reversed current positions in the NL East!

="ScarletKnight41"]You suggested that Pearlman might be kissing ass while working on a new book. I was basically saying that I find what he has to say interesting, even if that is, in fact, the case. The Good Guys Won!

Quick story on Pearlman I worked briefly on the online side of IP when the Bad Guys Won came out. (By the time I got a nice opinion piece on the Boggs/Sandberg HOF class the site had gone heavy prospecting, something I'm not well versed in) and did a review of it for the site. I made mention that Doc and Darryl only show up in past articles and books, and I considered that a problem when its not mentioned why the two were not in the book (after I wrote the article Bobby Ojeda was on a radio spot and he said he was never approached for the book as well) Well Pearlman shot me a private email ripping me for not knowing the facts about his attempts at getting Doc and Darryl (to be fair, how would I know just by reading the book for a review. I'm going to email the author and get his diary of when he made contact with everyone that needed to be in the book?) I apologized on the site the next week for the offending comments. Not really apropos of the disscussion here. It (the piece today) does kind of remind me of those who are killing the media for not killing McGwire in 1998 and killed the USA Today writer who found the Andro tube in McGwire's locker. Some (Wally Mathews, Phil Mushnick) actually were saying the same things back then, but it does sound like an agenda when they turn the agrument into a "Hey where were YOU when this was going on?" Instead of simply bashing the attitudes and hiring practices the media gets blammed for "sweeping things under the rug" While I believe it happened, lets also have a case-by-case discussion of Omar's and Willie's failed job interviews (who was hired ahead of them) before pulling the race card completely to the forefront, its easy to cry a certain cry with a nice sounding number without the facts of each specific case.

I've stated the reasons in the past that the Braves are my third favorite team (behind the Reds, Giants are 4th) so with the exception of the 1999 NLCS I've rooted for the Braves every single postseason series

No I think this should be sent to the team:

3-0 Braves in the 2nd Braves Willie Aybar 3B Marcus Giles 2B Edgar Renteria SS Andruw Jones CF Jeff Francoeur RF Matt Diaz LF Brian McCann C Scott Thorman 1B John Smoltz SP Mets Reyes SS Lo Duca C Beltran CF Delgado 1B Wright 3B Floyd LF Valentin 2B Chavez RF Perez SP

cooby wrote: I like a catcher who will play through pain And we had ourselves quite a few through the years. Guys like Stearns, Hundley, and Grote. I'm sure "Camera" Carter and Piazza probably surprised alot of folks who only pay attention to Mets/Yanks with their respective toughness through the years as well.

I'm starting to realize why Coobster and others like the tight, down to the last day playoff dash. Geesh! Was it this bad the final weeks of 86 and 88? I guess the clear shot at history (108 is rarified air even if its 10 or so off the current all-time pace) in the 86 case and 100 wins in 88's case made the Mets "win hungry"

metirish wrote: Winning 20 games is not easy of course,how many 20 game win seasons did Seaver have?,or Koufax...again it's not easy. True, Seaver with 5, though none after 1977 and Koufax with only 3 during his heyday. I'd wager Koufax's 27 in '66 is the most a modern (since the turn of the 1900's) pitcher has won in his swan song year?

Gwreck wrote: Out of all the baseball records -- 56, 2,632, 130, 110, etc. -- 511 is still the least likely to ever be broken. I think comparing Zito to Wood/Prior is a mistake however. Different pitching styles, different career paths, different ages. I didn't mean to compare, that was more of a general "You never know" statement and using Wood/Prior as the latest examples

Begs the question, would Phillies be this hot if they ended up keeping Lidle and Abreu? And so much for that being a "White Flag" deal.

Johan Santana and Chien-Ming Wang are tied with 18 wins, leading the Majors and unless Ron Gardenhire suddenly becomes Gene Mauch in order to overtake the Tigers for the Division this will be the very first non-work stoppage shortened season (1981, 1994, 1995) that no one in MLB will have won 20 games. Incredible. Probably more indictive of the increase in specilization than it says about the dearth of pitching period in the majors. I've never actually belived the "Oh X, Y and Z are probably the last guys to win 300" opinion pieces (especially those touting Don Sutton and Phil Niekro's enshrinement into Cooperstown against those like Tommy John, Jim Kaat and Bert Blyleven) but I'm starting to wonder. Right now Glavine and Johnson are knocking on 300's door. Clearly Cy Young is safe for a few more decades! Active with over 150 as of this moment Clemens 348-177 Maddux 331-203 Glavine 289-190 Johnson 280-147 Mussina 238-134 Wells 229-148 Moyer 215-166 Rogers 207-137 Martinez 206-91 Schilling 206-138 Smoltz 191-137 Pettitte 185-104 Appier 169-137 (active according to MLB) Oh sure guys like Oswalt and Zito are still young enough to probably hang around and get to 300 and beyond, but then again I guess Kerry Wood and Mark Prior are still the poster children of pitching promises going to pot (glad Gen K is off that particular hook)

Fixed. The one drawback with all the new stadiums going up is that you now have to keep track of which stadiums go with which teams! Lincoln Financial = Eagles Citizens Bank = Phillies Oi VEY!

Shaping up to be an intriguing week in MLB: Chasing C Notes: Detroit has stormed back and overtaken the best record in MLB at 94-62 but have a very slim margin to get to 100, granted that includes a weekend against the Royals but still. Mets and Yankees both have 93 with 7 to play. Seems having a 100 win season is very unlikely, and it will be the majors first since 2000 Going the other way we have Tampa Bay needing 5, but since they just beat the Yanks 2 in a row this weekend its possible they'll strive to stave it off. The Royals need just 3 more to ensure the Major's 5th straight season of a team losing 100 or more ballgames. Now to the races The AL is heating up on the Central, Wild Card and even jockeying for position seed wise. Tigers hold a slim 1 game lead over the Yanks for home field throughout (and won't that be an interesting time for NYC baseball with two LCS games same day) with the A's at 90 wins close behind. The AL West race is all but over. Angels staved off elimination again today, but here is how their week looks: 9/25-9/27 vs Rangers 9/28-10/1 vs Oakland The A's have 9/25-9/27 at Mariners 9/28-10/1 at Angels Magic number for A's is down to 2 I found it a bit odd that the Tigers had a champange celebration for their "playoff birth" today. They still have work to do as they have a slim 1.5 game lead over the Twinkies Tigers 94-62 9/26-9/28 vs Bluejays 9/29-10/1 vs Royals Twins 92-63 9/25-9/28 vs Royals 9/29-10/1 vs White Sox The AL Wild Card race, such as it is, is all but over. The White Sox at 87-69 have a tragic number of 2 and will face the Indians and Twins on the road this week NL: The Mets at 93-92 have wrapped up the Home Field througout the NL postseason, Padres/Dodgers are ahead of the 80-73 Cardinals (man the 1999 to 2000 Yanks didn't have THIS bad of a drop) NL Central Such as it is, the Cards magic number against the Reds 76-79 is 4 and 5 against the Astros 76-79. After tonight in Houston the Red Birds face the Padres and Brewers at home The Astros have at Philly, Pittsburgh and Atlanta left while the Reds have vs the Cubs, then at Florida and Pittsburgh NL West Padres 83-72 "opened" up a 1.5 game lead, magic number is now 6 against the Dodgers 82-74 Pads 9/25-9/27 at Cardinals 9/28-10/1 at Diamondbacks Dodgers 9/26-9/28 at Rockies 9/29-10/1 at Giants And the Wacky Wild Card is getting even more wacky Philadelphia 82-73 has a .5 game lead over the Dodgers with a 7 magic number, Houston with a tragic number of 3 and Cincy with a tragic number of 2 are fading. Giants and Marlins have a tragic number of 1 Philly has: 9/25 Makup game at CBP against the Astros 9/26-9/28 at Washington 9/29-10/1 at Florida

Awww I wanted it to happen when we were down there this week. Oh geez, you want to talk about stupid ballpark crap, how about next week, no one in the ballpark, the Braves have a rally going and the FSU fight song plays!

I forget who it was, but I did hear an ESPN talking head say this last week, that what you said was the reason we've seen the Wild Card team do well in postseason play as opposed to division winners whom clinched weeks before the season ended... Ohhhhh boy...

The few, the...uhh maybe not so proud, the one inning Mets: Bob Gibson 7/25/1987 Manny Hernandez 9/16/1989 Bill Pecota Non Pitcher 9/26/1992 Kenny Greer 9/29/1993 Derek Bell Non Pitcher 8/22/2000 Desi Relaford Non Pitcher 5/17/2001 Todd Zeile Non Pitcher 7/26/2004 Philip Humber 9/24/2006 I find it interesting that all of the one-inning career appearances by Mets have all come within the last 20 years. Especially how pitching strapped the Mets were back in the pre-Gil/Rube years

Not a bad inning of work. A little shakiness with Lopez, but the job was gotten done. Lets hope that was the first of many, many, many innings in a Met uniform!

That was Val I believe WELCOME A BOARD ICK! Met number 799

More intrigue Looks like Milledge has a shot at the postseason roster next week! And a Beltran update at the bottom of page