Frayed Knot

And just to be clear, I'm not advocating for the inclusion of pre-NYM history into these decisions, just 'splainin part of what was NYM ownership/mgmt's mindset in those early days. Between being a brand new team with no history of its own in a city that the NL had just abandoned (x2) and next to the team in the final years (although no one knew it at the time) of a forty year run of absolute MLB dominance, there was a question of how well or even if those disgruntled Dodger/Giant fans would accept the newcomer much less embrace it. So incorporating the other NYC teams' histories -- colors, uniform details, executives (George Weiss), managers, legacy players, etc. -- was, in effect, part of their marketing strategy and the honoring of Stengel and Hodges was an outgrowth of that.

So that above graphic still holds as the Yanx still don't have a win vs a +.500 team. Cole threw five shutout innings but the final score was Rays 4 - Yanx 2 as Judge, representing the tying run, flew out to the warning track w/two outs in the 9th to end the game.

Yeah, they were on the pre-game as well. It was great ... cliches in two different languages!!

The two balls Marlin CF Jakob Marsee did catch and the fly ball down the RF line that Benge did Not catch = La Differance

Nertz!!

Benge should have challenged the 2-2 pitch ... although now it doesn't matter.

Nice to see a GiDP where the ball ends up in Vientos's glove as opposed to starting out off his bat.

And, instantly, my hypothesis is confirmed.

It's my contention -- with absolutely no evidence to back it up -- that the Mets are leading both leagues in hits being caught on the warning track and/or against the fence.

<cross-posted with GWreck> I think part of this goes back to the mindset of the early days of the Mets. The team was born just five years after the city was coldly abandoned but not just one but two NL teams with more than a half-century each of history. So the mindset seemed to be one of drafting aging 'name' players particularly if they had some NYC history. So while expansion Houston went after young players (they fielded an all-rookie lineup at least once in their first year) the Mets were going after the aged Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, and Warren Spahn, for instance, with Casey Stengel to lead them. And even the Mays acquisition was just a decade into the team's history. The point being, that when players/managers were imported in part for their NYC ties they wind up getting honored for the parts of their careers which preceded the Mets. And while it's easy to say that only NYM content should count it was tough for some to divorce the Met stuff from the earlier stuff. Just think back to the Hodges HoF induction just a few years back (and the lengthy argument that led to it). By the time of Gil's eventual induction only a tiny percentage of those leading the charge or cheering the result had ever seen Hodges play a single ML game.

Hater!!!! j/k

It's not hate! It's merely saying that a guy who had just two good seasons as a Met and played 3/4 of his career elsewhere falls short of qualifying for what should be the club's ultimate honor of number retirement. AND ... it's an argument against having his #8 stuck in this nether world where the number is neither retired nor in circulation. Also, I think your question, Coobs, can be part of the problem as well. Too often, these days, it seems an argument against someone having a number retired or for Not inducting one into the Hall of Fame gets painted as if it is hate, or at least disrespect. No, it's just a value judgement.

Gerritt Cole makes his 2026 debut tonight in the Bronx vs 1st place Tampa. And not just the first game of the year but the first one since Game 5 of the 2024 World Series where, with a 5-0 lead, he (and his defense) fell apart in the 5th inning and gave back the entire lead. Cole's defense was part of that inning when he crucially failed to cover 1st on an infield grounder. He came back to pitch a clean 6th and, when the Yanx scored a run in bottom 6 he was in line to be the winning pitcher. But the Dodgers tallied twice in the 8th to win both the game and the WS, so that night was Cole's final ML pitch until tonight as he was diagnosed as needing UCL surgery during spring training of '25 So far: 2 innings, 0 runs, 2 BB, 1 hit

What I remember from Armando in Miami was that WFAN host Jody McDonald was one of those (Gary is another) who subscribed to the label of: Benitez = choker. So when he got off to a good start that year Jody poo-poo'd it and said, 'just wait until he faces the Mets ... he'll fall apart as soon as he sees New York on the other unis'. First game vs NYM: 1-2-3 Save in a one run game. Second game (2 days later): a 1-2-3 on just 9 pitches for a two run save. But since both those games were in Miami Jody then altered his claim to where Benitez would fall apart once he faced the Mets in New York, that had been the missing ingredient. Well that bold prediction crashed and burned too. In all, Benitez faced the Mets 12 times that year notching 11 saves in 13.1 innings. He faced 44 batters and allowed 1 run on 4 hits, walked None, K'd 12 and held the team to a collective 250 OPS Unlike you, I vividly remembered him w/Miami, but what surprised me when looking up his stats is that 2004 was his only season w/the Marlins.

Well, the more they schmell the more likely they are to sell.

In the two big NL matchup series this week, the Dodgers took 2 of 3 vs SD after the Pads win 1-0 in Game one. In Game three the Friars got 'Ohtani'd': First pitch of game HR, then tacked on five shutout/3 hit innings from the mound. Dodgers started the series in 2nd place but now lead West by 1.5 And in the Central the Brew Crew just steamrolled the Cubs sweeping the series 3-0 by a combined score of 19-5. Been a bad overall week for Cubs CF PC-A starting with vulgar arguments with a female White Sox fan over the weekend and finished with two brutal errors including turning a single into a Little League 3R HR Brewers now lead the Central by 1.5 over Both the Cubs and, surprisingly, the Cardinals.

That's pretty funny. Of course the Mets have all of four wins [PIT x 2, NYY x 2] vs .500+ clubs but we're near the bottom of the standings while the Yanx are 4th best. The Marlins are finishing up their series with Atlanta tonight with the game just starting (2-0 Braves after two batters) so the Mets will likely be in their Miami hotel before the Marlin players get to their homes. A Marlin loss would vault the Mets ahead of them in the standings (We're Number Four!!!) as the just completed game in DC put those two in a dead heat. ... and now it's 3-Zip/Top-2 as Sandy Alcantara serves up his second tater.

Williams gets the one-inning/four-out save.

Tena pinch hitting. Tena, Tena, Tena .... isn't that an Israeli folk song?

Well, we got to the one rested guy in the pen, but the wind puts him in immediate trouble.

The weather forecast for DC now shows rain starting around 7PM (so the game should be to bed by then) and then rain is in the forecast for every single hour between one hour from now and at lest noon Saturday. It may even go beyond that but that's where my hourly forecast runs out.

Peterson should have thought of that before throwing 28 pitches in the 1st inning ... about 20 of them after 2-out/none-on

And now out of challenges. I don't know if the Mets are dumber than other teams re: ABS challenges (I've seen plenty of dumbpth elsewhere too) but they certainly are dumb.

Rain expected to start right around first pitch and continue pretty much non-stop for the two or three days.

24 runs scored by the Nats in this series [7, 9, 8] 11 of them came with two outs.