Frayed Knot

]This picture is going to change every day. Yeah that's the danger of posting newspaper images. One of these days someone's going to write something along the lines of; 'this headline cracks me up', and a day or two later that same front/back page is suddenly going to read; 'THOUSANDS DEAD IN EARTHQUAKE'

Yeah, but it's like reading code with George. Notice that whenever he's OK with someone he calls them by their name: 'I think Joe and his coaches are doing a wonderful job' But when he's mad at someone he starts inventing titles: I'm not pleased with the manager' ... or 'the 3rd baseman isn't getting it done' So the press corps then has to interpret these signals and transform them into major news because if they don't they know their competitors will. In the meantime the Sox take the condom (rubber) game 5-3 - and who but the Yanx can turn a 5-3 game into a 4+ hour affair? - Loretta's 8th inning 2-RBI single erased a 3-2 MFY lead and then they tacked on another off Mariano in the 9th. Rivera was the Yanx' 7th pitcher of the night. - Boston really should have killed them; they left about eleventeen runners on in every inning and the Yanqui OFers stole two HRs (Crosby & Damon). Funny part was that after all that good defense it was 2 errors by Captain Clutch which contributed to a couple of the runs (wonder if he'll be on the back pages tomorrow? ... no I don't). - Chacon only gave up 1 run thru 4.2 but had thrown over 100 pitches so Torre pulled him 1 out short of a possible win and brought in Proctor to get the final out of the 5th. - And Hidecki Matsui's consect game streak is over. He twisted (or maybe worse) his wrist trying for a sliding catch against the 2nd batter of the game - and apparently there are specific rules as to what qualifies for a game appearence. And so because he neither batter nor completed a full inning in the field it doesn't count as an appearance. He had a streak of some 1,700+ games dating back to Japan and about 1994 which was a big deal to him and to the ever-present Nippon press corps. The way he left the field it looks like he'll miss tomorrow anyway and maybe more than a few tomorrows. Looks like Melky Cabrera is up for a while.

It's about the only other original programming on that channel for now -- it's only natural that the station's going to want them humping it for all it's worth.

Well yeah, if he's not hitting well then he's not hitting well. My only point is that the difference in his two swings isn't necc a problem because it can fit into his other strengths.

Latest actual news on Clemens is that he claims to be almost physically ready but nowhere near mentally ready. Translation: I'm not into it mentally at $3mil/month, get back to me when the bidding hits $4mil-per.

9 = B is the only one I know

Reyes's speed gives a big advantage to continuing his lefty batting. Backman's bad side was his RH hitting; JT Snow was never a speed guy. Reyes came to switch-hitting relatively late (after he was a pro) so you could argue that he's still evolving that way. He more of a bail-out/slappy hitter from the left side but maybe that's not such a bad thing to be with his speed.

Making 2 15-team leagues wouldn't mean that inter-legue has to occur all at once, it would mean that inter-league has to occur every day of the season. Your proposal: 30 IL games per team; means an approximate doubling of the number IL games played now and approx 2-3 games IL games/day. Is that really what you want?

Glavine - 5.1 Beltran - 0.9 LoDuca - 1.0 Reyes - 1.0 Delgado - 0.6 Wright - 0.6 Nady - 0.5 Julio - 0.2 Bell - 0.1

Well no one yet cuz they don't have to add him until Saturday.

The culprits are Inter-League, the move to 3-divisions, and expansion. Teh Mets used to have 11 opponents, now they play 20 different teams and there's just no way to divide that evenly. That odd extra (or missing) series here and there plus the inter-league games comprise about 15% of the sked. You're also fighting for the Wild Card against teams which can have vastly different skedules. Plus, if you want to be really picky, odd numbers of games against teams means someone has an extra home game. The schedule was great after they first went to the 2-division set-up (6 teams per). The season was essentially divided into fifths with all play being INTRA-divison in the 1st, 3rd, and final 5th of the season, while the 2nd & 4th sections were cross-division. So while you were playing in-division so were al your division opponents and same w/cross division. Much easier to track as well as being fairer.

Dunno either. He's been pitching for Newark in the independant league and was supposed to be used right away for Norfolk although it looks like they got rained out last night. He spent last year in AAA Louisville (Cincy system) to the tune of 5-11 -- 5.46 The other news is that it'll be Lima Friday & Jeremi Gonzalez Saturday instead of the other way around.

As soon as I heard about this last night I wondered how long it would be before the first Piazza joke popped up.

You can pretty much use the term "Fielder's Choice" in either case, but FC is specifically designed to account for the batter; the fielder could have gotten him out but chose to do something else instead - ergo it's an out against the batter's record. Saying that a runner advanced on an FC can be true but it's really no more descriptive than a runner advancing on say a fly out; it's simply a runner moved up where the fielder may or may not have had an option of making a different out.

On a Reyes side-note: Willie - on his weekly radio interview yesterday - said that he was pretty sure Reyes was safe at 2nd the other night but didn't go out and argue because he was too mad at Jose getting caught on the fake-to-3rd play ... especially since the coach had just warned him about it the pitch before. 'Tryin to teach a lesson there' - or something along those lines. I kinda like that. It wouldn't have changed the call, of course, and Willie's kind of a wimpy arguer anyway, but it says to him that; 'I'll have your back but you've got to do enough to earn that right'.

Throwing bombs for TDs late in a game where there's a finite amount of time to score is not the same thing as simply deciding not to play. "Running out the clock" helps the winning team to win since it, well ... runs out the clock. Choosing not to tag doesn't bring about the end of the game any sooner. There's nothing for Philly to be upset about tonight except for their own inept play.

FREE HEATH BELL!!!!

As in this Jeriome Robertson; has been signed by the Mets and will pitch in the minors. I remember him vaguely from his stint in Houston a few years back - although more for the fact that he was challenging Burnitz & Gonzalez for the most creative spelling of Jeremy (Jeromy - Jeriome - Jeremi) in the league. Sounds like insurance and/or replacements for the lost AAA-ers suddenly pressed into service for the big club.

They discovered those "lost" HRs in the late '60s when they first started to computerize baseball's records. That uncovering, seeing as how it came just when Aaron was approaching Ruth's record, sparked a mini-debate over whether the Babe should get credited with his 715th HR and move Hank's target ever so slightly. As I remember it, the Commish (Kuhn) quickly decided that the records should stand based on the rules as they were at the time.

My greedy half thinks that we should have "saved" this offensive onslaught for one of the other pitchers coming up over the next few days who may actually need it. But my sane half realizes how stupid that is.

Which is where I suspect he'll stay for the time being. Tough to make an argument that he'll be worth much as a bench player.

Pelfrey's AA stats (3 starts): 16.2 IP; 8R (7ER); 23 H, 5 BB (1.68 WHiP); 3.78 ERA; 21 K That's a small sample size but it doesn't even come close to suggesting dominance. Add that to his brief Fla St Lg stint and he still has less than 40 innings pitched as a professional which follows a nearly 10-month layoff. Let's calm down here a bit, OK?

I guess X-man failing to come up with that 9th inning triple just proves that the old expression is really true: Nobody puts Nady in a corner

"Scoring" has taken on several meanings in this thread.

I'd venture to say that most nuns are single. Problem is, I'm not Catholic.