Frayed Knot

I vote no also. A terrific player but in a fair assessment falls short of being an all-time great. I think a large part of the push behind this is his status as Hispanic America's first icon. As pointed out, he wasn't the first to play but he was the first to make it big. That, plus the circumstances surrounding his death have pushed him into near deity status to many.He's got his number retired in Pittsburgh where it should be, plus an MLB award/honor named after him. That's sufficient.

Seo - 2Reyes - 1.5Matsui - 1.0Wright - 2.0Jacobs - 2.0Diaz - 1.5

If this were a prize fight they'd have stopped it already.

Florida goes down.Phils score 1 in the 1st.

Sounds like legalized scalping to me.Not as bad as the scam the Cubs are pulling where they "sell" blocks of tickets (ones that [u:10c1a32aab]never were[/u:10c1a32aab] available to the public) to a ticket broker who they themselves happen to own -- iow, they sell them to themselves. They then re-sell them at an inflated rate to people who can't get them any other way.This Met system helps the ticket holders - they get an easy way to get cash for unused tickets. And it helps the team - they get a cut of the action. And if there are enough folks who want to pay above market for seats ... well then I guess they can justify that it helps them as well.

He has to clear waivers before he can report to Norfolk.And if/when he does, chances are that he'll be brought right back when the rosters expand on Sept 1.

November 17, 1954: Turley was traded by the Baltimore Orioles with players to be named later, Billy Hunter, and Don Larsen to the New York Yankees for players to be named later, Gene Woodling, Harry Byrd, Jim McDonald, Hal Smith, Gus Triandos, and Willy Miranda. The New York Yankees sent Bill Miller (December 1, 1954), Kal Segrist (December 1, 1954), Don Leppert (December 1, 1954), and Ted Del Guercio (minors) (December 1, 1954) to the Baltimore Orioles to complete the trade. The Baltimore Orioles sent Mike Blyzka (December 1, 1954), Darrell Johnson (December 1, 1954), Jim Fridley (December 1, 1954), and Dick Kryhoski (December 1, 1954) to the New York Yankees to complete the trade.

Zambrano - 2.8Reyes - 0.8Diaz - 1.7Jacobs - 1.1Castro - 2.1Wright - 1.5

]I was angered by the fact that the fans at Shea were booing Benson the other day. Sure, he didn't go a full inning and got pounded, but he's still been a very consistent starter for us this year.I agree.Fans who boo lack of results as if they were promised a particular outcome just plain don't understand the sport they're watching.

The time-of-game, btw, in Minnesota was 2:08That's a couple of bad starts for Thomson of Atlanta since his return from the DL. Andruw still managed his 40th!! HR. Burnitz hit a grannie.It was Beckett that took it on the chin for Florida.That's Clemens vs Peavy in SDOakland lost (that's like 6 of 7 for them now) but Cleveland won and stays in a virtual tie w/Yanx in WC race. Boston's in charge vs KC.

GYC wrote:Wow. They didn't boo him because he is pitching poorly, they booed him because he jogged to 1st. Odd.That's actually the kind booing I approve of.They're showing displeasure at the lack of effort as opposed to merely the lack of success.

In Minnesota, Freddie Garcia of the ChiSox takes a no-hitter into the 8th until Jacque Jones leads off with a solo HR. It's Minny's only hit of the game but it's enough for the 1-0 vicotry. Johan Santana combined w/Joe Nathan for a 3-hit shutout.

I remember the NYTimes (some time in the early '90s) ran a full page chart in their Sunday section detainling the [u:3e290fe6da]Six Degrees of Rogers Hornsby[/u:3e290fe6da].Hornsby not only had a long career during the '20s & '30s but also played for 5 or 6 different teams along the way (then about 1/3 of MLB) so had a large number of teammates.What the NYTimes piece did was to connect one active player from each of the (then) 28 teams back to RH in the requisite 6 steps, all while - and this was the fun part - never using the same intermediate player more than once.

Why is the size of hail always compared to sports equipment,but tumors always to fruits and vegetables? -- George Carlin

Glavine - 5.6Reyes - 1Diaz - 1Floyd - 1.2Matsui - 0.2Looper - 0.8Jacobs - 0.2

Koo wasn't necc there for "meaningful" spots so much as he was for specific spots; ie situational leftys.That he didn't do such a great job there is the reason he's expendable ... except that at the moment there's no one here to fit that description at all.

Well, just to complicate matters, Trachsel DOES have to be activated by tomorrow (Wed). So at the moment HE is the guy assigned to the pen where, considering what a creature of habit he is, seems like a logistical mismatch. And, of course, somebody needs to go down - and maybe even a 40-man roster move made since I think he's been on the 60-day DL list all this time.Zambrano starts tomorrow and his next start (or lack thereof) may depend on this one.Did this Hamulack(sp?) guy made the trip? Cuz, as of now, we're still lefty-less in the pen. But that'll mean another name to drop.Oh, and it seems that Alberto Castillo did NOT sign a deal with the Mets. Rather he signed one w/Oakland.Something odd must have happened there.

Yanx winInjuns winBraves win 4-2 on 2 2R HRs for Chipper and a complete game for Hudson

Yanx up 6-0 heading for the 9thCleveland drops a 7-spot on Tampa in the 7th and leads 11-4Cubbies tie up 'Lanta, 2-2 in the 7thHouston in SD laterPhilly in SF later

Willie on Jacobs in pre-game: "I like young blood"

I gotta admit, I don't know shit about this enemy.I mean no other NL team has flown beneath my radar the way these guys have this year. They were a mildly interesting team back while they were winning the WS 4 years ago, or even while they were self-destructing into mess of debt, ownership purges, and big-name pitching trades to east-coast rivals and a 111 loss season. But only Luis Gonzalez & Craig Counsell (left and returned) remain from the WS team and hardly anyone even remains from last year's squad. This year they're just mediocre and boring (58-67) in a mediocre and boring division. They've lost 2 of 3 in each of their last 6 series (Hou, Col, Fla, Atl, StL & Cinn) which tends to put you in bad shape even if you're in the NL West. We played them here just after Memorial Day and took 2 of 3.Ex-Yank Brad (Admiral) Halsey skunked Benson & Koo 7-0 in game 1.Zambrano pitched 8 shutout innings and survived a shaky 9th from Looper to win 2-1 in game 2Pedro went 8 as the Mets won 6-1 in the rubber game. This time it's 4 games at 'The BOB':Mon - 9:40 PM EDT: Former ROY Brandon Webb (10-9, ERA = 3.89, WHiP = 1.32) vs. GlavineTues - 9:40: Claudio Vargas (7-6, 4.47, 1.31) vs. Zambrano Wed - 10:05: Russ Ortiz (4-7, 6.44, 1.82) vs. Seo(the altered start time probably means it's the espn game for you out-of-towners)Thurs - 9:40: Javier Vazquez (10-12, 4.67, 1.26) vs MartinezInjuries: Russ Ortiz and closer Brandon Lyon are fresh off the DL. New Faces: Highly touted 1B/OF Conor Jackson was called up earlier this month. ex-factor:Tony Clark is having a great year (317/365/667 - 22 HRs in 246 ABs) and would have looked great as our part-time 1B-man. He just got himself a 2-year extension.Kelly Stinnett - career backup backstop has been playing fairly regularly lately since he was reactivated from the DL.Shawn Estes - 60-Day DL w/a foot injury

Probably because the two biggest success stories over the last decade have been the cross-town rivals and the cross-division rivals, a significant pct of Met fans have acquired an inferiority complex and are using it to set new records for whining and crying about it. They're basically an angry lot who are looking for things to boo about so the leap from a guy striking out to "get him outta here", or the jump from 'I disagree with that pitching change" to "fire the manager NOW!!!!" isn't too far for many of them.I've said this before, but my definition of a Met fan is one who loves the team; he just hates the stadium, the owners, the GM, the manager, the coaches, and each and every one of the players.

]Of course, what I meant (at the deadly risk of redundancy) was MORE of a follower than now. No. Because seeing as how they're the local team and the only other team in MLB that I've ever had a consistant rooting interest in (just a negative one in this case) I already know them better than any other team, save the Mets of course, and follow them as closely I can now.What you've got to do is find the seeming multitude of Met fans who spent 1996 saying "ya gotta root for these Yanx because of Doc & Darryl & Coney". No I didn't then and I won't in the future no matter who's on the roster. If I were the type to believe in deserved fate I'd say that those NYM fans who pulled for the NYY squad of the mid-90s were the cause of the string of championships to follow that they now decry. In other words; their dogma wound up getting run over by their karma.

Like I said, it's fine with me, except that they're going to want to have a lefty up here at some point and the most logical candidates are:- Ishii, who seems hardly ideal out of the pen and is at least as despised as Koo by most fans- or Ring who - despite the fact that he's treated as a savior by some - had a worse ERA (5.00+ vs sub-4.00) and walk rate (nearly double) while he was here than Koo

Presumably Trachsel - but that would leave the pen w/o a lefty at all.Trax needs to be activated soon. His rehab time is all used up but they're now saying he'll pitch a simulated game on his next start.Something's gotta give somewhere.And while I'm not going to go overboard protecting Mr. Koo, he's hardly been the problem he's being projected as lately.