Frayed Knot

Gavin Floyd with a no-hitter thru 8 against Minny (though not a shutout) A 3R HR off Joba Chamberlain in the 8th gives Cleveland a 5-3 win in da Bronx

Beltran a late scratch in favor of Pagan - no details yet. Hu's on short for LA Furball out for Dodgers w/sore back

I once saw a lethal bantamweight named Hiroki Kuroda

Back when Frank Howard and Jim Fry were coaches they used to have ST inter-squad games which pitted the 'Jumbo Franks' against the 'Small Fries'

Former SI writer Steve Rushin was big on noting and repeating old and little-used phrases like that. He cited one where a visiting pitcher going out for the first inning was said to have "toed the alien humpback" Or when Chicago's woes on account of thin pitching was described as; "Cubs Blame Slump on Slim Slab Corps"

G-Fafif wrote: Would you believe Churchgoers? Only if they play the Pagans.

Beltran - 1.6 Alou - 1.0 Schoeneweis - 0.7 Sosa - 0.7 Delgado - 0.5

It was supposed to be El Duque's turn in the rotation but they wanted someone younger so they went with Indiana Jones instead.

Nah, you forget Pagan is a switchie

We'd have a better chance of scoring one of these innings if we'd quit having Perez lead off.

"when was the last time the Mets were involved in a game that lasted less than two hours " Two hours? ... dude, we've only got 1 game under 2:30 so far and only 3 or 4 under 2:45 We're averaging well over 3:00 this season.

]After failing to win the pennant for the past two years, Mets ownership is giving the GM only one more month to establish control over a weak National League East. So this means what exactly ... that if the Mets aren't in first place by a comfortable margin with 100 or so games to go then heads start to roll? I'm not buying it. Playing poorly at that point is one thing, but demanding that they "establish control" or else ?!?! And, btw, the "weak" East division is the only one above .500 so far.

One of several reasons why this shouldn't be a one man job And actually my comment wasn't one questioning Roger's taste in paramours so much as it was a statement that saying "John Daly's ex" isn't specific enough seeing as how there are at least 3 or 4 of them.

- Raffy Furcal, whose power numbers did a major dip last season, suddenly is having the best power numbers of his career. I find that very annoying. - Everyone else in their starting lineup not named Andruw is off to a hot start too - LA has a rookie backup SS from Taiwan Chin-Lung Hu, which ruins a good comedy routine because from now ow ... wait for it ... Hu's on short! - The bullpen trio of Saito, Broxton & Beimel aren't going to be a picnic, although I believe Torre is contractually obligated to call on Scott Proctor at least once a game

IIRC, the Felipe Alou family tree has a lot of branches and a lot of the connections got a bit complicated.

Plus we held serve with the Phillies even though they were playing the Giants at home whilst we were in Phoenix. Now it's Phiily's turn to head to the desert (4 games) where they'll miss Haren but still get Owings & Webb plus a pair of very old and very young hard-throwers: Randy Johnson in his 2nd or 3rd start back and the rookie Max Scherzer who made his debut as a reliever last week by retiring 13 straight including 7 Ks. Be interesting also to see how the DBacks fare after this is all over. They follow the Mets and Phils series with 3 agin the Cubs next weekend.

="sharpie"]He denied having an affair with a 15 year old girl but said nothing about having an affair with that same girl once she turned 16. That's the old SNL "Two Mile Island" skit, where "Baba Wawa" reported that 'wumors are wunning wampant' that the President has been exposed to 'wethal wevels of wadiation' and had become huge. Press Conference: Q: (to press secretary) Is it true the President is now 90 feet tall? A: No, absolutely not! Q: Is he 80 feet tall? A: No comment

Hey I was against the bunt before it was even attempted -- but just to play devil's advocate here for a second (or AG/DC advocate as he mentioned it several times) you're getting Castillo's slap-hitting ground-ball skills against a drawn-in infield thereby increasing the odds of a single through a hole somewhere. ** on edit: slow typing Or maybe Willie was counting on the IWW - although it certainly never crossed my mind.

He's certainly done interviews in the past - and not just the ST during-the-inning ones on SNY. Of course he tends to give long-winded answers which sail over the heads of some of the interviewers to the point where I'm not sure he gets asked back for future ones (maybe that's a strategy!) but he's alwasy seemed pleasent and cooperative while he's on.

I generally don't pay a attention to those 'Power Rankings' that a lot of websites put out. They most seem like an excuse to draw fans to the site so they can complain about how their team is being dissed. But I stumbled across the one at Hardball Times and noticed something about who we've faced so far this season; - that of our 29 games to date, only 7 have been against "lower half" clubs (acc to that list) a ratio will will move to 25-7 once we're through the Dodger series. Only our games vs Pittsburgh (2) and Washington (5) came against NL bottom feeders. The rest were against Arizona (#1 - 3 games), Cubs (#2 - 2 games), Braves (#7 - 5 games), *Dodgers (#8 - 3 games), Phillies (#11 - 6 games), Marlins (#14 - 3 games) & Milwaukee (#15 - 3 games) So all told, a 16-13 start isn't terrible - especially as it's come mostly minus the starting LFer, w/o the #2 starter, and having the backup catcher's backup and his backup get as much playing time as the 2 'regulars'. Yeah, I know everyone's got injuries (ours aren't particularly unique) and everyone's got their slow starters (we're dealing with 1B & CF) but we're coming off a 2 of 3 against the acknowledged best team in baseball to date while facing their best 3 pitchers at their place so I'm declaring that things are looking up right now.

The 'Bullet of Cool' is the oft-referred to (but completely non-existant) CPF Hall of Fame, a spot reserved for comments or posts cool enough, funny enough, or insightful enough to be put on a plaque for future generations to chuckle over and enjoy. So I started jotting down some over the last month as I came across them (not literally). Unfortunately I wasn't very diligent about it but it's a start. APRIL Best comment to the news that McArthur Park in Syracuse had been torn down Benjamin Grimm: I thought it had melted in the dark Most apt reaction to the death of a Hollywood legend bmfc1: You may now pry the gun from Charleton Heston's hands Most caustic dismissal of a rock demi-God smg1: The only thing Kurt Cobain did that Pete Townshend didn't do much better was self-destruct Best job summing up Anna Benson Nymr83: Why marry her, she'll do you anyway? Schedenfreude Award concerning an ex-Met: Soupcan: Glavine's been on my personal DL (douchebag list) since last September Best Play-by-Play of a Papal visit Willets Point: The Pope is celebrating from above second base. They were going to set him up by short-stop but Jeter refused to move. Best comment on a celebrity sentencing Centerfield: I hear Omar Epps is going to do the time for Wesley Snipes I encourage others to take note of and grab those lines, quotes, or entire posts that strike their fancy as being worthy of futre consideration.

Santana - 3.5 Wright - 1.5 Anderson - 1.0 Sosa - 1.0 Wagner - 0.5 Church - 0.5 Reyes - 1.3 Beltran - 0.5 Delgado - 0.2

It could giveth or taketh awayeth

btw, Felipe Alou mentioned a couple years back (maybe for the first time) that back home his name is pronounced not uh-LOO but something closer to uh-LOW -- as in, sounds like [u:146d757883]Allow[/u:146d757883] So I guess we're pronouncing Moises's name wrong too.

TheOldMole wrote: I think a bunt with no out and runners on first and second is often a good idea. As do I, particularly if it's late in the game and you're dying for just 1 or 2 runs. It's just that doing it into Castillo virtually removes the option of scoring a run via a productive out. The IF would be in killing the ground ball RBI and batting LH he's not likely to hit a long-enough fly ball. Oh well, it worked out for the best.