Frayed Knot

OHernandez - 4.0 Delgado - 1.8 Wright - 2.2 Heilman - 1.0 Wagner - 1.0

Oliver - 1.2 Reyes - 1.0 Bradford - 0.5

Floyd - 1.1 Beltran - 0.8 RHernandez - 0.5 Milledge - 0.3

The '69 & '86 clinchers were "clean" so to speak. But the '73 one was certainly unique, especially since it came - like the WC in '99 - a day after the season was supposed to be over. If I recall everything correctly, the Mets had clinched a tie but still had a DH against the Cubs remaining (one or both were makeups). The Cards were a full game behind but had finished their sked, while Pittsburgh was 1-1/2 games out with a makeup against (I think it was) San Diego which no one thought was going to need to be played but was because of the theoretical 3-way tie for the division that was still possible. So the last-place Padres had to be dragged back from what they thought was the start of their off-season (bet they were REAL happy 'bout that) while the Mets played a week-day (Monday?) DH against the Cubs in ... a steady rain! The upshot was that the Mets won game 1, eliminating both the idle Cards plus the Pirates whose game was still going on. But the kicker was that no one seemed to know whether the 2nd game of the DH was to be played. The division was decided but, because a game was still scheduled to be played, the policy was to play it. So the team is celebrating in the clubhouse but no alcohol is out yet. Thankfully, the umps called game 2 on account of the rain (probably didn't take much convincing) and the party was on.

* Mon: Williams faces Clarabell (or whatever his name is) Sanchez - coming off his no-hit game vs 'Zona Philly = off day * Tues: Oliver (the boy who wants more) Perez vs NL ERA leader Josh Johnson Philly @ Atlanta: Wolf vs Davies * Wed: Glavine vs Olsen - that highly emotional lefty who almost got into it w/his 3rd baseman earlier this year. Philly @ Atlanta: Leiber v Hudson * Thurs: Off day for us Philly & Atlanta finish up with Moyer & Chuck James (or we can reverse his formal/informal names and call him Charles Jimmy) - Taking two of three eliminates both the Marlins & Braves no matter what happens in Georgia. - A sweep clinches at least a tie - Two wins + two Brave wins sews it up Would slightly suck to "clinch" while the team is sitting on their collective asses on Thursday - but I'm sure they'll take it. The clincher's almost certain to come on the road anyway so the stadium crew gets a reprieve one way or the other.

and on a somewhat baseball-related note; I'm flipping channels the other day and some station is playing old clips of Jefferson Airplane while various talking heads spoke about them - and at one clip I'm wondering why the hell they're interviewing super-agent Scott Boras about Gracie Slick. And then I realize that it's not Scott Boras but rather a middle-aged Marty Balin serving as a dead-ringer for Boras. If someone can dig up a couple of proper-aged head shots of those two ... Another good one is a middle-aged Jim Bouton and former Sec of State Zbigniew Brzezinski. It's uncanny.

Jesus Flores gets some pub from Baseball Prospectus: Jesus Flores, c, High Class A St. Lucie (Mets) The St. Lucie Mets cruised to the Florida State League championship over the weekend, completing a three-game sweep of Dunedin (Blue Jays) and going a perfect 5-0 in the post-season. In Sunday's 6-2 clincher, Flores went 4-for-4 with a double and a stolen base to complete a playoff run in which he reached base 11 times; he's coming off a regular season in which he hit .266/.335/.487, tied the league lead with 21 home runs, and finished fourth in slugging. While the Mets felt strongly about Flores' potential, this is still a massive breakout for the 21-year-old Venezuelan who hit a Bill Plummer-esque .216/.250/.339 last year at Low Class A Hagerstown. This write-up doesn't mention it but the team LOVES his defense. That plus a good season w/the bat in the GCL 2 years ago is what first gave him 'prospect' status - albeit somewhat speculatively since, well ... it's the Gulf Coast League. Nice bounce back after falling through the floor last year.

Somebody's being insulted in that Xavier Nady comparison ... I'm just not sure who

Padres salvage the final one from the Giants and avoid the sweep. There's now a 3-way tie for 2nd in the WC race. TEAMRECORDPCTGBPADRES74 - 68.521---GIANTS72 - 71.5072-1/2MARLINS72 - 71.5032-1/2PHILS72 - 71.5032-1/2REDS71 - 72.4973-1/2ASTROS70 - 72.4934BRAVES69 - 73.4865 [u:5c0c1c49b8]This Week[/u:5c0c1c49b8] SD: @ Cincy, @LA (4) SF: Col, @ StL Fla: Mets, @ Atl Phil: @Atl, @ Hou Hous: @StL, Phil Atl: Phi, Fla

This continues to be the most interesting division in baseball this year. * The Twins - 12-1/2 games out in late July - are now within 2 games of the Tiggers after taking 3 of 4 from them this weekend. The've also opened up a 1-1/2 game WC lead over the ChiSox * Detroit - once on pace for a 108-win season - has lost their 'best record in AL' lead (to the Yanx) and are headed for only about 96-97 after going 7-18 in their last 25. * The defending champs are 11-15 over their last 26 - and are 1-/12 out of the WC spot and 3-1/2 off the division lead. [u:0102952301]This Week[/u:0102952301]: Det: Tex (2), Balt Minn: Oak, @Cleve (4) ChiSox: @LAA, @Oak

Yeah, but I think history would be against us in that matchup.

* Peterson never predicted arm problems for Kazmir * Can anyone - like maybe one of you with the keys to the way-back machine - find the terms of Peterson's contract? I keep hearing how he makes "way more" than Willie but I've never seen the specifics one way or the other. We all assume that Willie - who's coming up on the final year of his deal - is in line for a significant raise himself, but it's tough to imagine Rick hanging around while getting his pay slashed just to keep it in line.

Three turning points in that game ... and they all occured in the same AB!! 1) the decision to NOT walk Wright and have Green face the lefty 2) The 2-2 pitch to Wright that was NOT called a strike 3) The hit itself on the following pitch

John Harper reporting that Rick Peterson is likely to re-up with Mets. His initial 3-year contract is up after this year. Adam Rubin maintained that in the 1st year or two of the deal he would have bet almost anything against his return as Rick tended to butt heads with some of the front office. Those somebodies were always un-named but you get the idea that it was the "senior scout" types that the Wilpons initially hired as a hedge against trusting the keys to the kingdom too much to Duquette.

Howie Rose reporting that singer Ian Hunter (Mott the Hoople, plus solo work) is a big Willie Randolph fan and has followed his career for a long time now.I guess he thinks, he thinks, he thinks, he thinks, he thinks, Willie's the best

JD Drew has looked at a ton of 3rd strikes in this series. You def get the feeling that there's something missing in that boy.

This is weird: the TV is several seconds ahead of the radio call - like maybe 7 or 8 seconds. It used to be the other way around.

* It's been mentioned here that we're only a player or two away from the 800th Met - and that it could be Humber if/when he gets into a game or the first new player next year if he doesn't. But aren't you MBTN/UMDB types counting the one or two guys who, because they occupied a spot on the reg season roster (and therefore a uni number) even tough they never appeared in a game, as part of that 800? And if so, should Humber be incuded now? * Have any of our "two-timers" ever had their NYM appearances seperated by as much time as Kelly Stinnett's 11 year span?

If nothing else, the team should be entering a good financial phase. - the new network is now up and running and while I don't know what that's done to the bottom line they wouldn't have entered into this w/o a decent idea that it was bettr than dealing with Cablevision. - then figure that it's usually the year after the good year where attendance spikes, so the ticket base for '07 will likely surpass that of '06 which itself could surpass 3 mil. - then by '08 you'll have the "last year of Shea" drawing card, followed by the 'new stadium' bump in '09 (assuming all keeps on sked) where, if combined by a good team and the reduced capacity, could spark a Cleveland-like string of sell-outs or near sell-outs.

Maine - 1.0 Bell - 1.0 Bradford - 0.5 Wright - 0.6

Let's just hope we don't also have to face Hong Chih Kuo's brothers; Sta Tsus and Quid Pro

So am I the only one who finds 'The Onion' stuff to be so simplistic that it barely even rates as sort of funny?

I expect to have no specific expectations. An int'l draft is something that's long been discussed but I think is still a ways from reality. - The first problem is that the teams want to fix various things in the existing draft before they go ahead and expand it. - The other thing is that many tout expanding the draft to cover int'l players as a way to help small market clubs ... but the small market clubs don't want the help. They look at those markets (Dom Rep, Venz, Mex, etc) as a place where some entreprenurial effort can pay off and actually negate the money advantages of the big clubs. Incorporating those countries into the draft would eliminate the advantage of beating the bushes for young kids and undiscovered gems since there's no point in finding them if there's only a 1-in-30 chance of actually landing him. The are a handful of "high-profile" FA signings from those areas that are off-limits to smaller budgets but many of those are more miss than hit and many smaller clubs feel that an open system is to their advantage.

Glavine - 3.0 Valentin - 1.5 Green - 1.0 Reyes - 1.5 Beltran - 1.0 Wright - 1.0 Mota - 0.3 Heilman - 0.3 RHernandez - 0.3

In City Slickers II Billy Crystal does a dance on finding the gold based on an old movie and I believe it was Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Is that correct? At one point, the Walter Huston character does a bit of a jig as he explains to his two rookie goldmining companions that they're sitting on a big find. I never saw 'City Slickers' but I assume that's what you're alluding to.