Valadius

The Avengers has been announced for summer 2011. A Captain America movie will be released a few months before it.

How awesome is the scene after the credits?

I've never heard the word "larrup" before.

Casanova knocks in Beltran! Mets lead, 1-0.

So far, I think the Milledge deal has worked out better for us. Church is awesome.

]Julio Franco retires from baseball MEXICO CITY (AP)�Julio Franco finally called it quits. The oldest player to hit a home run in the majors announced his retirement from baseball after a 23-year career in the major leagues and stints in his native Dominican Republic, Korea, Japan and Mexico. �It was the hardest decision in my life,� Franco said in an interview published Saturday by Mexican sports daily Record. �I always said I would be the first one to know the exact moment. I think the numbers speak for themselves, the production speaks and this is the right moment. �I understand that my time has passed and the great men and athletes know when to say enough.� The 49-year-old infielder announced his retirement Wednesday night to his Mexican league team, the Quintana Roo Tigers. The league posted the news its Web site the next day. Franco last played in the majors in 2007, when he played in 55 games with the New York Mets (40) and the Atlanta Braves (15). He batted .222 with one home run and 16 RBI in 90 at-bats. Franco hit his last major league home run against Randy Johnson on May 4, 2007. At 48, he became the oldest player to homer in the majors. The Dominican retired with a .298 average, 2,586 hits and 173 home runs in 23 seasons in the majors with eight teams. Franco began his professional career in 1980 with the Escogido Lions in the Dominican winter league, and debuted in the majors in 1982 with the Philadelphia Phillies. He also played for the Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox, Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. In Japan he played with the Chiba Lotte Marines, in South Korea with the Samsung Lions and in Mexico with the Angelopolis Tigers and the Quintana Roo Tigers.

That Ryan Church has sure been worth it so far, hasn't he?

KABOOM

Thanks Willets. I needed that, for more than one reason.

]Several sources told the Daily News Wednesday that Clemens had a relationship with Paulette Dean Daly, a former wife of champion golfer John Daly. The sources said Clemens, a married father of four, arranged trips to Anaheim Stadium for Daly - the latest woman to emerge as an alleged Rocket flame - to watch him pitch for the Yankees against the Angels. Sources also said he spent time with her in Palm Springs, Calif. The pair met at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, a Palm Springs golf tournament that Paulette Dean Daly has been involved with for many years - including stints as a "Classic Girl," one of the beautiful women who help in ceremonial duties at the event, sources said. ]News reports have described Clemens as being in attendance as recently as two years ago, dancing around the party with an 8-foot-long boa constrictor around his neck. That one's the kicker.

]McNamee, who worked with and traveled with Clemens extensively over the last decade, has confirmed that he saw Clemens and McCready together on many occasions, including in Clemens' room at his apartment in the former SkyDome, now Rogers Centre, in Toronto, and that Clemens talked of McCready often. Should McNamee decide to countersue for defamation, McCready could surface as a witness for that case as well. According to sources, Clemens was with his Red Sox teammates in a Fort Myers, Fla., bar when then-teenager McCready caught his eye. After Clemens threw a shirt with his and several teammates' signatures onstage, an introduction was made. "It was love at first sight, no doubt about it," said a source with intimate knowledge of the relationship. According to the source, McCready did not learn that Clemens was married to Debbie Clemens until McCready attended a baseball game with her two younger brothers and read Clemens' bio in the program. The source says that McCready was too young to be angered by the news that Clemens was taken. ]Even during her troubles, the sources say Clemens was never far from McCready. Clemens would frequently send bundles of cash in FedEx packages, they say, as she dealt with her legal issues. According to one of the sources, Clemens even reached out to McCready through an intermediary while she was in jail last year, although McCready had cut ties with the Rocket as far back as 2006. Sources say that when McCready, now 32, and Clemens were together, there was barely any friction between them. The two were known to take lavish trips to Las Vegas and New York. One time, McCready attended a Yankees game at the Stadium and jokingly donned a catcher's mask near the home dugout. During another Big Apple excursion, the two holed up in the trendy SoHo Grand and later partied with Monica Lewinsky and Michael Jordan. McCready, according to a source, even bummed a cigar off His Airness to give to Clemens. There were personal love missives to Clemens hidden in McCready's album liner notes. And it wasn't just McCready benefitting from Clemens' generosity. McCready and her brothers used the Rocket's plane for quick hops to to the Florida Keys. Clemens also bought golf clubs for McCready's father, Tim, according to the source with knowledge of the affair. The seven-time Cy Young Award winner's orchestrated public relations blitz began shortly after the Dec. 13 release of the Mitchell Report on drug use in baseball. It focused as much on Clemens' family-man reputation as it did on McNamee's checkered past and apparent lies about his involvement in an incident in Florida in 2001 for which he was investigated for sexual assault. No charges were ever filed in that case, but Clemens' lawyer Hardin papered the media with accounts of the incident. The relationship with McCready paints a very different picture of Clemens than the one drawn by Jose Canseco in his book "Juiced," where he went out of his way to say that Clemens was one of very few professional ballplayers who was faithful to his wife. And it smacks of a different Clemens than the one who spoke passionately of his family in his opening remarks to Congress Feb. 13. Debbie Clemens was seated behind her husband at the hearing. "Anyone who has spent time around me knows that my family is and has always been my top priority," a portion of the statement read. "My wife, Debbie, and my sons - Koby, Kory, Kacy and Kody - mean more to me than anything in the world. Having said that, baseball has definitely provided me with significant opportunities off the field."

]Clemens had 10-year affair with country music star McCready Roger Clemens carried on a decade-long affair with country star Mindy McCready, a romance that began when McCready was a 15-year-old aspiring singer performing in a karaoke bar and Clemens was a 28-year-old Red Sox ace and married father of two, several sources have told the New York Daily News. The revelations could torpedo claims of an unsullied character that are central to the defamation suit Clemens filed Jan. 6 against his former personal trainer Brian McNamee. Vivid details of the affair could surface in several media projects that McCready is involved with � including a documentary that begins filming today in Nashville, a new album and a reality show. McCready, who lives on a quiet, tree-lined street in Nashville, is attempting a career comeback following a string of legal and personal woes. Contacted by the Daily News Sunday through his lawyer Rusty Hardin, Clemens confirmed a long-term relationship but denied that it was of a sexual nature. "He flatly denies having had any kind of an inappropriate relationship with her," Hardin said. "He's considered her a close family friend. ... He has never had a sexual relationship with her." Hardin said the Rocket's wife, Debbie, knew McCready and that the singer had traveled on his plane. Source: New York Daily News

Reyes scores on a wild pitch!

That may be the closest we'll ever come to a no-hitter. I'll take it... for now. I'd still like to see it.

Yes, this is the right forum for it. We've had Mets eBay threads in the past.

Why do Collazo and Muniz have the same picture?

... on candy. ]Yankees go the healthy route in clubhouse So it has come to this in New York: You can't get a Baby Ruth in the clubhouse that was home to Babe Ruth. New York Yankees Manager Joe Girardi has banned candy and ice cream in an effort to create a more healthy diet. Furthermore, the Journal News of Westchester County reported that the Yankees asked opposing teams to remove the offending items from the visitors' clubhouse before the team arrives. In Tampa Bay, the candy was replaced with nuts, dried fruit and granola, hardly an inspiring rhyme scheme for "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" ( . . . Buy me some peanuts, dried fruit and granola, I don't care if I ever go hoo-ma?). Yankees players, meanwhile, were seen smuggling banned items (candy bars, not steroids) into the clubhouse. It all leads to one important question: If the Yankees announce the hiring of Craig, will it be Roger or Jenny? Source: Los Angeles Times

I think he's a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame, personally.

I understand it and it makes sense, it just infuriates me that the Cubs get away with the "lovable losers" garbage when they've been more successful than not.

So is Winston Church-ill!

At least last night, it was about evenly split between Mets and Nats fans.

Oh great. Wait, if his thumb hurts so badly, why'd he play last night?

Barry Zito = Brian Lawrence.

I noticed the "Unknown" flub. Didn't see the Pagan one.