Frayed Knot

If I ever moved out of the NY sphere to a city with [u:386c8p3r]an American League[/u:386c8p3r] team nearby I could see adopting them as my AL team (never really had one with the exception of whoever was playing the Yanx that day) but not as a replacement of or substitute for the Mets. Besides, long-distance fandom is definitely easier these days. Thanx Al G.

Jerry made some statement about Mathews getting the OD assignment because he wanted Cora leading off and was more comfortable with GMJ down the lineup a ways than with Pagan -- a statement which skews more logic than a carload of Kardashian sisters dropped off at a physics convention. Anyhoo, I wouldn't be surprised to see Pagan up top tomorrow w/Tejeda at SS -- for much the same reason.

Was Zambrano one of those guys that Omar "had an obsession" with? I can never keep these things straight.

Hey, if he's going to throw it with his glove you might as well catch it without. Also, that ball didn't just hit Burhle, he deflected it with his foot so the play was intentional - at least to a degree. Reminds me a bit of one of my favorite GiDPs, turned in the playoffs by one the Indians teams of the late-90s: A hot-shot up the middle was deflected by the pitcher's glove towards Vizquel at SS -- he promptly did his patented glove-scoop-shovel thing over to Alomar covering 2nd who caught and threw it bare-handed to 1st to complete the GiDP. Two outs were recorded - four guys touched the ball - all of them used only one hand.

BA: The Pirates are preparing to stash outfielder John Raynor [on] the team as one of six outfielders. From left to right field, Lastings Milledge, Andrew McCutchen and Garrett Jones are the presumptive starters, with Ryan Church, Delwyn Young and Raynor available as backups. "In John Raynor, we've got a guy who can play all three outfield positions, provide some speed off the bench, and he's a guy we think has the upside to be an everyday player," [said] Pirates GM Neal Huntington

24 hours into the season and the play of the year contest is OVAH!

'Shea Bridge' does sound a bit like some young actor who starts out getting all the teen heart-throb roles and is the star of the gossip pages before his career eventually stalls when he grows out of his "cuteness". Years later he will time his attempted comeback with an announcement - to the surprise of absolutely no one - that he's a proud gay American and that the hot starlets he was seen with all those years ago were just a concoction of studios to bolster his box-office image, but now he's glad to no longer be living a lie. His comeback goes nowhere.

Santana - 3.6 Wright - 1.4 Bay - 1.2 Barajas - 1.0 Mathews - 0.7 Nieve - 1.1 Pagan - 0.5 Francoeur - 0.5

I'm more than fine with it. A symbolic - if not actual - bridge from the old stadium to the new gets named for the first place and franchise founder while it helps to reverse the feeling that the Wilpons wanted to bury any hint that there even was a park before this one. Nice little plaque with a representation of Shea next to it also.

Carlos Zambrano exits after giving up 8 runs while getting 4 outs (and committing an error) Texas comes back to win the game off Toronto on a game-winning hit by Gerald Salatalamacacahaia

Toronto OD starter in the post-Halladay era, Shaun Marcum, had a 3-zip lead and was working on a no-no thru 6.1 -- and then promptly went BB-1B-3RHR (Nelson Cruz) and the game was tied. Toronto re-took the lead 4-3 and are trying to close it in the 9th with Jason Fraser on the mound.

#876 - Frank Catalanatto (striking out)

It's definitely bending the rules although I don't think you'll see it regularly. ESPN & MLB reached some sort of one-time agreement where the network got a ultra-high profile game for their Sunday Night Baseball opener while allowing the two local networks (both team-owned) to have the rights in their areas because it was opening day - er, night. And, yeah, while ESPN lost their two biggest markets for the game, the fact that they put it on ESPN2 and spent half the game telling the audience to switch over to their main focus of UCONN's streak versus the he-woman from Baylor kind of shows where their priorities are anyway.

I think the only caveat with the NYDN sports coverage is that they're so in bed w/the Yanx from a co-promotional standpoint that you need to go through it with an ability to mentally separate what's news and what is essentially advertising come-ons. Do that and you'll be OK. If, on the other hand, you let the fact that one of the columns happens to be next to a half-page of ads that talk about free Yanqui player posters being in tomorrow's paper, or for a NYDN-sponsored contest to win free MFY tickets, and you allow that to color your opinion of what's in the column then you're going to have a problem.

Yup! Not only blow up but accuse the league of conspiring against him. Now, in this modern era with 81 sellouts (or nearly so) for each of those teams, those things don't matter as much anymore. This season ends with those two teams facing each other in Fenway also.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: ... Steve Chilcott's first pro contract?* *Clearly, a "What Were We Thinking" moment, though not exactly on Wilpon's watch What the Mets were thinking is that they were drafting a real good ballplayers. Chilcott's career ended due to injuries not lack of talent so that the Jackson v Chilcott saga ended as lop-sided as it did is obvious in hindsight but not so much at the time. A story - relayed in Baseball America a few years back - had the Mets torn between the two as the #1 overall pick. After going w/Chilcott, then NYM farm-director Whitey Herzog went around to his (then) 19 counterparts asking who they would have chosen. The results were 10-9 in favor of Jackson - making it a dead-heat w/the NYM vote. And, yeah, there's the story about how the conservative NYM mgmt was leery of drafting Jackson on account of his being a black man who (in the parlance of the times) 'didn't know his place' and had a white (actually Mexican) girlfriend to boot. But the only source of that story seems to be Reggie himself - he claims his college coach told him that - and the list of people I'd believe prior to him is a lengthy one.

I didn't see the beginning of this game and when it exactly started (may have been some pre-game stuff) - but the point is that they're either closing in on - or have already passed - the three-hour mark and there's still two innings to go. Yup. These two are in mid-season form already.

What is a Marlin? It is often referred to as a Billfish and is a Blue Spotted Tuna with a snout that can grow up towards 1800 pounds. That would be one big, fucking snout!

I don't particularly care either, I just found it odd and - seeing how the Yanx are involved - wondered if there is/was an angle being played somehow. Actually the whole Yanx-v-BoSox sked is cock-eyed this season; all the games are crammed early and late with only 1 series between like mid-May and late-Sept Hey Jorge, the next pitch you glove cleanly this inning will be your first!

Here's a question: why is this game being played at Fenway? Since this modern day "tradition" started to emerge over the last decade or so of having the defending champ being one of the teams in the opening Sunday Night slot, it seems to me that those in possession of the WS trophy have always been the home team ... I mean, I thought that was pretty much the point. Maybe my memory if off here but I doubt it - and at the same time I also can't help wondering if the Yanx asked that it not be at their place for some reason (like: 'we're the Yanx and we don't do night-time home openers' - or something like that) or agreed to a switch in exchange for some other schedule consideration.

MFS62 wrote: His brother, Peter, has stuck to basketball reporting. And he has made the hoops hall of fame doing it. Peter and I have exchanged correspondence, holiday greetings, emails, etc. for years, but the topic of his brother has never come up. Later The two write at least as differently as they look - ie, not similar at all - and I'm not totally sure they're all that close. I think I remember some story about friction that developed over an issue involving one (or maybe both) of the aging parents but maybe my memory is fading too. I wouldn't even attempt to compare them as sportswriters. Peter not only stuck with one sport but retained the snarky, fast-talking style as urban & caustic as the tabloids he's worked for all his life. George's prose, on the other hand, fits the style of the old gray lady and frequently waft from topic to topic on sports both mainstream and obscure, as likely to be written from a cafe table in some European city as in the press box of some modern American stadium. He was even, for a time, the paper's religion writer and it was through that avenue that he wound up writing 'Coal Miner's Daughter' for Loretta Lynn.