Lefty Specialist

I root for the Giants. However, I fear it may be in vain as the dreaded Phils-Yankee World Series rematch looms in the background.

If they got Terry Ryan I would plotz.

I always liked this shot of Turner Field's scoreboard. Crystal clear. The 11-1 lead made it more fun to watch.

It was interesting to see 5 seconds of a skinny, pre-assault K-Rod give up a 9th inning bomb in the 2002 World Series. I'd go out on a limb and say the 2004 Red Sox were the story of the decade, though. They may not have deserved half the show, but the Red Sox/Yankee dynamic has pretty much been the biggest thing around.

I work in what was a frozen zone for a few days after 9/11, so I had to stay home, and I have to admit one thing I kept thinking about in the back of my mind was, 'boy, this is really going to screw up the Mets'. I always felt a little guilty about that. I feel a little less so today. Thanks, Keith.

If I recall, one of the knocks on Thole in the minors was that he wasn't a particularly good defensive catcher (I'm assuming he was switched from some other position as many catchers are). Now, while he's no Gold Glover, he's more than held his own defensively (passed ball stats should have an asterisk because of Dickey). I think there's room to grow here. We'll always be a little spoiled by the memory of Piazza, but that's a once in a blue moon type of catcher. If Thole can hit well enough to hold down the #7 spot in the order, hit the occasional dinger and drive in his share of runs, throw out some runners and manage a pitching staff, he'll be acceptable. I like his attitude, and with a little more work I think he can be a good one. He'll never be Piazza, but he won't be Brian Schneider either. I see him as that 'complementary' player that you need on a real team.

When I look at the alternatives (Phillies, Braves, Padres, Giants) I find myself rooting for the Reds to go all the way to the World Series. I think they'd get smoked by any of the AL teams, though.

It was well done as always. The willful blindness to the steroid-fueled home run contest in '98 was explored well. And c'mon, you can't do a history of late '90's baseball without devoting plenty of time to the Yankees. There was actually less on them than I expected. And no matter how many times I see it, I can't get enough of that Endy catch.

I'm pessimistic if that's the roster. I know it won't be. But if you're missing Johan for at least half the year, things get pretty scary. In 2011, Pelfrey, Dickey, Niese, Gee, '?' is at least as risky as Santana, Pelfrey, Perez, Maine, Niese was at the beginning of this year. Yes, they got unexpected contributions from Dickey and Takahashi, but those kind of things aren't a given. Someone else made the point about the Phils. Their injuries this year were at least as significant as those suffered by the Mets, but while they kept on trucking, the Mets capsized. And even healthy, the Mets have difficulty with things like hitting with men in scoring position or with the bases loaded.

Gwreck wrote: Really? Bay, Beltran, Wright and Reyes are all very good-to-excellent players. If healthy and playing (reasonably) well, the Mets should be ok. If. The 500-pound millstone around all Mets teams from the dawn of time. That quote could apply to 2010 as well. And in various forms, 2002, 1992, 1972, to name just a few.

Well, there's a 75-win team.

The five most common words from John Sterling's mouth..... "Just past a diving Jeter."

Boy, starters were Mark Prior vs. Aaron Heilman. Seems like 100 years ago.

Duda batting second is, well, odd.

Wally has already said he won't be a bench coach. And I doubt that Bobby V. would want to have a manager-in-waiting sitting next to him.

I think there's a fair amount of bad blood between Bobby and the Wilpons, but the absence of Steve Phillips makes it slightly easier to come back. He won't take a discount. There's plenty of demand for his services and he's already turned down at least one job that we know of (the Marlins). Bobby's good at managing a young team and getting them to overperform, as he did with the 97-98 Mets. Considering the 2011 team is shaping up to be a lot of kids, this is not a bad fit in that sense. I think Beltran will have to go if Bobby V takes over, though, because he rankles veterans and gets on their case. He picks a player to humiliate each year, although 'humiliate' is probably too strong a word. He did it with Todd Hundley. He did it with Brian McRae. Not that they didn't deserve it, but they may not have deserved it as publicly as he did it. And that gets to the essence of Bobby. It's HIS team. More than money to come back, he wants control. That means veto power over the GM. And he'll give plenty of quotes that'll have you cringing. Bobby wears thin after a while. The kids become veterans and stop listening. The Todd Zeiles, Robby Alomars, Jeromy Burnitzes didn't buy into Bobby V. Neither did Rickey Henderson (not that he'd buy into anybody). I think we forget that when Bobby finally got fired, there was a sense of relief among Met-dom. He started well, but by 2002 he'd stayed too long at the fair. Nobody manages in-game better. He undressed Tony LaRussa in the 2000 NLCS. But I just have a feeling it won't go as well this time around.

I'm much too fast to take that test.

Shortwave radio. Imagine being so afraid you'll jinx the team that you leave the country. Anything that causes Yankee fans pain, even if it's 50 years old, is a welcome find.

It's pretty likely that they invested the annuity he's getting paid from with Bernie Madoff. The gifts that keep on giving, on a number of levels.

Well, if we're talking trends, I'm not exactly looking forward to 2011 with this crew (even assuming a new manager/GM).

Wow, it's like 'Talk like a Pirate Day' here. Blame MFS62 for this if it all goes catastrophically wrong. Yes, it's Lenny Harris, one of history's more useless Mets. Just because. As for the poll, I couldn't vote as there was no choice for 'ambidextrous'.

The failures stick out because there's been so little success. Yankee fans don't obsess about what Steve Trout did in 1987. Philly fans have let 1964 go. Red Sox fans welcomed Bill Buckner back to thunderous cheering. That's what winning does for you. It's because the Mets have had so little success in the past 25 years that the failures loom larger.

Thanks. It was either 'Lefty Specialist' or 'Luis Castillo Must Die a Horribly Painful Death and Take Ollie Perez With Him' but I found the latter name wouldn't fit.

Personally, I'm waiting to see Carlos Beltran remove his leg brace in center field to the strains of Jerry Lewis singing "You'll Never Walk Alone". And then a big tote board appears on the scoreboard telling us exactly how much Fred Wilpon lost in the Madoff scam. I'd like to see Gary, Keith and Ron do the play-by-play on THAT. Otherwise, the only thing worth watching are Dickey's starts.