Frayed Knot

Well a fractured tibia for Valentin (off a foul ball) pretty much eliminates him from the competition for now.

DocTee wrote: With JVal hurt and Easley out, who backs up the Goat? move Anderson to 2B -- although a Gotay/Anderson combo won't exactly give the greatest defense in the world.

martin wrote: i know people hate to hear "addition by subtraction", but i don't mind if valentin takes the rest of the year off to heal. I do. I mean even if we decide (after what, a few dozen ABs?) that Gotay is the real deal, it's not like bench players with Valentin's ability to switch-hit w/enough power to scare the opposing bench grow on trees.

That Valentin foul ball high off the shin looked like the same type that broke Jermaine Dye's leg in the playoffs back about 5 years ago.

and the cry goes out for a seperate thread ]Yet, Steve Zabriskie got heat for NOT saying something memorable at the moment that the Mets clinched the NL East in 1986. Wasn't the problem that he mis-called something, or failed to properly say what was won? Doesn't really matter to me either way. I too was unaware of any "problem" at the time and it hardly ruins my memory of the moment now that I know in retrospect that it was imperfect. ]You'd be surprised (perhaps) at how many people pay close attention to these so-called signature moments No, I'm pretty aware of it, and I suspect part of it is because fans have been trained to expect it and the announcers, in turn, expect us to expect it. I also suspect many of them are doing it to impress and one-up their peers in the same way that White House correspondants ask 30-second long convoluted questions as press conferences; for the reflected insider glory. A lot of this, in my mind, got its start back to when Al Michaels' vaulted to national prominence by asking the country; 'Do you believe in miracles?'. The difference there was, after allowing the final 2 seconds to tick off and then answering his own question with an emphatic "Yes", he shut the fuck up and allowed us to watch the result without interruption. I'm not sure his modern-day equivelent would do the same because he's thinking about his call not just for those watching at that moment but for the future and the ones who'll see the replays on ESPN who will forever have the benefit of his golden tones telling those watching athletes celebrating that they were watching athletes celebrating.

Iubitul wrote: ... allowing the pictures to say the words for about two minutes, should be required viewing for any broadcasting candidate. This concept is so foreign to announcers these days since most have the idea in their heads that they need to turn prominent games into their signature moment to be preserved for all eternity. After all, how would we and future generations know whether it was an exciting or momentus game without them there to tell us so? Mike 'Doc' Emerick is one of the few who grasps the art of selective silence but seeing as how he does NJ Devils (and occaionally network) hockey there's only like 23 people in the country people who actually know this.

Cool things about this thread: - typical ambler. He was a big fan of employing the win/win tactic of predicting the worst for your team so you could either brag afterward about how you were right and ahead of the curve in outlining their faults, or declare how happy he you were to be wrong. Lots of fans use it but Ambler employed it to the Nth degree. - keep in mind that that was opening day, meaning that he so distrusted Ventura he was arguing to preemptively PH for a starting player with only 161 games to go - sounds like it was the first revelation that that Doc G character was saving threads for posterity. The software used in those days used to keep just 20 pages of threads before they'd fall off the back end and disappear forever.

And tonight's start is a half-hour later. Might have to record this one and check it out tomorrow morning.

Sele - 1.4 Castro - 1.1 Delgado - 1.0 Gotay - 1.2 Reyes - 1.0 Wright - 1.0 Anderson - 1.3 Beltran - 1.0 Green - 1.0

One of the stats that the talk-radio crowd has been complaining about lately is that the Mets haven't won a game in X numbers of weeks when we've given up more than 3 runs. Not sure they're going to like this route any better.

Tough categories to compare since multiple winners of CY or MVP are, almost by definition, likely to be HoF material -- but you can only be ROY once.

WE GOT THE LEADOFF BATTER OUT !!!!

D. J. Houlton pitching for LA What is it with ballplayers using only initials these days? - J. J. Putz pitched in the All-Star game to J. J. Hardy. The result was, of course, a BB - And up in Toronto, GM J. P. Riccardi is having a tough year as both B. J. Ryan and A. J. Burnett are on the DL

Dodger baserunning is saving us tonight.

GODDAMMIT, how many lives do you need?!?!

Johnny Dickshot wrote: It's astonishing how poor a decision Newhan turned out to be. Remember that he hit 3 or 4 HRs during ST. Not that I (or prolly anyone) expected much from him on account of that, but between him and Franco they really put a hole in the early season bench.

I think Marlon already has more hits than Newhan.

I hate that we gave Lowe (and the Dodger pen) breathing room

Consider that between the out at 3rd and the one by Lowe (pitchers don't count) Glavine's really only tallied 2 outs so far while facing 10 and giving up 4.

And yes, we have the obligatory Alyssa Milano sighting. I can't say for sure but I think she was looking over both benches saying; had him ... still need him ... had him ... had him ... still need ...

bmfc1 wrote: I know that Vin Scully is baseball royalty but he never stops talking. Yes, it's amazing for a man of his age and he's one of the geatest ever but take a breath once in awhile. Ya gotta remember that he's working radio alone so any time spent NOT talking is essentially dead air.

Good thing he sat out the previous three games I guess huh? Without that mini-vacay he might have hit the record HR in Wrigley where they not only would have thrown it back but they would have thrown it AT HIM.

Reyes's SBs are up, at least in part, because his power is down. More singles and fewer 2Bs, 3Bs & HRs give him more opportunities. Given the choice I'd prefer the pop to the run & gun. Plus, between his caught stealings (13) and the pick-offs (at least 5) those steals aren't adding a whole lot to run creation anyway.

Blue Jays trying to salvage a game in this series. Wang was mowing them down and held a 2-0 lead but the Jays tallied 3 runs in the 7th and are trying to close out the 9th. - Replacement closer Jeremy Accardo in - ARod ... single - Matsui ... K - Cabrera ... a groundout too shitty to either get a DP or even a force play (I swear the Yanx specialize in those) so it's tying run on 2nd, 2 out, Cano up .... and he skies to LF and the Jays win !!!!

D'oh!! wishful thinking perhaps