Edgy MD

I'm no indulger of right wing talk, but I've found WFAN sports talk as unlistenable as the Rush format. Back in the early nineties when Rush went national on telebision and I had a period of unemployed uselessness, I'd occasionally stumble upon him late at night, and while I found him disagreeable, I thought he was much more reasoned and researched and restrained than those complaining about him portrayed him as. Henry Winkler starred in a brief-running sitcom called Monty, parodying Rush and portraying him as a mentally diseased hatemonger, treating Hillary Clinton as a vampire that must be chased by the sign of the cross back to the kitchen. "Have they even heard or seen his show?" I thought. But now, if anything, Rush, bouyed and emboldened by the wave of imitators in that have arisen in the generation since his rise, is now more off the hook than Winkler's character ever was, and to hear him now is to wonder how he is allowed out of the house to wander without restriction, how he could ever be invited to a polite party without a nodding, silent understanding going around that Uncle isn't quite well, and please forgive beforehand any mortifying behavior that is sure to come. I heard the real Rush, on the other hand, do "Xanadu" yesterday on the satellite radio. My word. Meandering and plodding, but wouldn't that be a heckuva format? Your home of extended progressive metal tracks by day, the New York Mets by night!

Terry Collins is ruining the team by night! Susan Collins is ruining the party by day! At your Clear Channel listening home, WOR! Shutting down the Wasthington Nationals in the evening! Shutting down the Washington Bureaucrats in the morning! Stay tuned on 710!

Unsure if Zach is any relation to Rich Dotson, or if Richie is spring from the same line as Rich Rodriguez. Dotson had been suspended for an ambiguous drug offense back in 2011.

Arrested minor league released by Mets October, 18, 2013 By Adam Rubin The Mets have released the minor leaguer who was arrested in Port St. Lucie, Fla., in July and charged with felony shoplifting. Alex Luciano Machillanda Romero of the Gulf Coast League Mets was accused of stealing clothes from a local department store, punching the store officer who confronted him and slamming his head to the concrete, fleeing the scene and yelling at and pulling away from the police officers who eventually apprehended him. St. Lucie County court records show he paid a $568 fine on Sept. 11 to satisfy the terms of a plea deal. Machillanda was sentenced to the 12 days of jail time he already had served. Machillanda, a catcher who turned 22 earlier this month, did not appear again with the GCL club after his arrest. The Mets also released minor league left-hander Zach Dotson and second baseman Richie Rodriguez, according to Baseball America. Rodriguez was the Mets' ninth-round pick in 2012. He hit .191 with Kingsport this season. Dotson was a 13th-round pick in 2009.

Just gobbled up by Clear Channel a month or two ago. Uggle.

I'm not sure how lumbering. I see some pictures of him, and he looks to have a solid athletic core. Other shots have me wondering when Dmitri Young went on to play for Team Cuba. Anyhow, I kinda had a notion the Mets would be in on that action. Maybe they were.

You should make a paper of this.

One of the more dramatic parts of this purging is that it really strips down their pitching staff to the bare bones. They are left with exactly 14 pitchers on the roster, and that includes St. Lucie's own Hansel Robles, who I'm adding only to keep a spot warm for whoever they end up bringing in or putting on the roster later. They are also left with only one bullpen lefty, whereas they finished the season with five or so. Something's cookin'. Dunno what.

The Dodgers DFA'd Alex Castellanos to make room. The Mets could grab him and make it an even trade. Didn't have a hot season, but he's a career .500 slugger in the minors.

Tennessee Diana Baxter, you did a good job looking after your man.

Fine season off the bench followed by him totally losing his approach following his injury. A lot like Eric Valent in that regard. Maintaining form and focus as a bench player is hard. One of Whitey Herzog's basic principles was to keep rotating them. Always seemed heartless to me, but I see where he's coming from.

Shared a hometown with his spiritual ancestor Bobby Myrick, and arrived in the majors just about the time Myrick died.

I was gonna guess that it was because Williams' first minor league team was PCL San Diego Padres.

I could certainly be wrong, but I'm thinking yellowjacket is Chub Feeney. You have to love how the NL and AL were still such separate entities back then that they couldn't even get together on sending an All-Star team abroad for good baseball diplomacy.

An inquiry reveals doubts both inside and outside the organization. The guy making the inquiries, however, remains more optimistic.

That one is pretty much true. So we're giving up on the callouts? A ruling, Centerfield?

That's OK. Before your time, certainly. Tanner was the original Jim Leyland. Old-guy manager, questionable in approach, but widely loved by players and peers.

That's Chuck Tanner, sonny.

Yeah, posing like a pitcher and wearing an Expos uniform didn't reflect too well on that guess.

And the Expos one looks like Terry Collins. The middle guy doesn't look like Jerry Manuel or Willie Randolph, however.

Yeah, that's Simmons. He's not disinterested so much as joining most of the players in being distracted by some phenomenon on their right. Funny thing is the pillbox caps (and not just on the Buccos) would seemingly place the photo in 1976, but the teams these guys are representing places it a few years later --- in the 1977-1978 or 1978-1979 off-season.

Yeah --- powder blue replacing road gray was a weak-minded domino mistake that somehow the Mets failed to make, even though a whole buncha teams --- Montreal, St. Louis, Philly, KC --- did. A lot of the same teams who went to artificial turf, in fact.

Chris Perez.

A) Kimbrel and, um, what's his name... Stumpy Joe.

I think Brock's our man. So it's Rose/Jack Clark(?)/Craig Reynolds(?)/Larry Parrish/Lou Brock/Ron Cey. There appears to be a Cub helmet on a tall guy back there, so that's got to be Kingman. He might have been getting set to pinch-hit, but once the Mazzilli homer tied the game, they kept him back.