Theoldmole

I thought Jim Piersall had died...?

It was nice, having all those old Dodgers. And we lived with some losing teams...that was OK too. It was kinda fun. Casey, Choo Choo, Marvelous Marv...

That's from Jamaica Farewell.

1. First hit -- LoDuca 2. First double - Beltran 3. First triple - Reyes 4. First home run - Reyes - go for the upset here, he's bulked up 5. First stolen base - Reyes 6. First baserunner caught stealing/picked off - Beltran 7. First guy to hit into a double-play - Green 8. First batter to strike out - Wright 9. First fielder to commit an error - Wright 10. First guy to score a run - LoDuca 11. First guy to drive in a run - Delgado 12. First Met player to field a batted ball - Reyes 13. First Met to draw a walk - Beltran 14. First Met relief pitcher to make an appearance - Feliciano 15. First Met to reach base on an error - Beltran 16. First winning Met pitcher - Glavine 17. First losing Met pitcher - Glavine - Mets start the season with a winning streak 18. First Met to throw a wild pitch - Feliciano 19. First Met to be hit by a pitch - LoDuca 20. First Met pitcher to plunk an opposing batter - Perez

My vote to Oliver too.

I associate Robert Preston with Preston Foster.

Accepting the demotion to Norfolk took a lot of guts, and he sucked it up and learned from it. I always thought Trax could be counted on to go out and give you a professional performance.

Is anyone using "The Boy From New York City"? Probably not "Cathy's Clown"...

]Many pitchers prepare for the season by hiring personal trainers. Others work out at their old high schools. Some sit on their couches. And those who have tried everything, and are still looking for more, come to this studio on Ventura Boulevard, to lie flat on their backs. Jaeger�s regimen lasts five hours a day, and for the first four hours, no one touches a baseball. The pitchers meditate, stretch, listen to music, perform yoga poses, meditate again and listen to more music. They talk about dreams and visualize games. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/12/sports/baseball/12pitcher.html

Rod Kanehl here.

It is really baseball. Eddie Feigner was an American legend.

Amos Otis.

Someone with the Cubs -- right around the time that the Cubs experimented with no manager, just revolving head coaches -- wanted to experiment with a pitching staff where no one ever went more than three innings. It didn't catch on.

G-FAF -- I dunno who else you would have put in at cleanup in that Jim Tatum game, given the general wretchedness of the lineup. Also of interest, the 7 Mets on the opposite side of the lineup card.

They keep records of everything.

What's the record? I'm sure other teams have had two before the Mets.

I'm going to go out on a limb for Sele as #5.

A much better bet than Lima. Sele could contribute.

The real deal as pitcher or wife-beater?

Dr. Sharon Ryan, chair of the department of philosophy at West Virginia University, From SI:]As a child attending New York Mets games when the team's manager was the philosopher Yogi Berra, Ryan was already interested in man's most mystifying issues, like life, death and the infield fly rule.Now she's asking Big Questions of Mountaineers athletes, coaches and fans (and posting their answers at thequestion.blogs.wvu.edu). Some ot the questions answered by Mountaineer philosophers:] I asked the Tuesday Night Philosophers to weigh in on some of sports' most renowned thinkers, among them Satchel Paige, who said, "You win a few, you lose a few. Some get rained out. But you got to dress for all of them."Matthias Callison, a senior, pointed out that Paige had offered a view popular in the philosophy of religion: You can't ap�preciate good without experiencing evil.I asked for an exegesis of Mickey Rivers, who said, "I don't get upset over things I can't control because if I can't control them, there's no use getting upset. And I don't get upset over things I can control, because if I can control them, what's the use in getting upset?"Ryan said, "Rivers's view rings loudly of the Stoic philosophers." (They were masters of their own emotions.)And what to make of this from Shaquille O'Neal: "I'd like to be known as the Big Aristotle. It was Aristotle who said excel�lence is not a singular act but a habit."Hinton, the Aristotle expert, noted that the Greek word arete�which means excellence in performing any function� "is a state rather than a capacity. It re�quires training to ensure that it is sta�ble. It operates more like a habit. This is rather a strange thing for Shaq to say considering that his former coach Phil Jackson contends that Shaq was the only player he has coached who was not a 'worker.' "

Good for John.

]I can beat that. And I can switch hit-I'm just as good from both sides. None of us doubted it.

And one more.