Vic Sage

Assuming no Flores and an 11/14 ratio of pitchers/hitters: regular line-up (8): 3b - Reyes # SS - Cabrera # LF - Cespedes CF - Granderson* RF - Bruce* 2b - TJRivera 1b - Duda* C - d'Arnaud/Rivera Bench (6): C- Rivera/d'Arnaud LHed OF/PH - deAza* RHed OF/PH - Lagares LHed IF/PH -Johnson* RHed IF/PH - Campbell (or Reynolds, Kelly#, Cecchini) [Flores - DL] LHed PH - Conforto* (or Loney*, Nimmo*) SP (4): SP1 - Syndergaard SP2 - Colon SP3 - Gsellman SP4 - Lugo RP (7): CL - Familia SUp - Reed SUp - Salas RH - Robles (or Henderson, Goeddel) LH1 - Blevins* LH2 -Smoker* (or Edgin*, Gilmartin*) SP5/Lg - Verrett (or Ynoa, Gilmartin*, Montero)

Assuming for a moment that we have a post-season to play, which (if either) of these guys should make the post-season roster? TJ Rivera has played his way into being the primary 2bman, with Johnson the primary LHed IFer, deAza and Lagares in the OF, and R.Rivera behind the plate. But given Flores' ongoing injury situation,, there is a need for a RHed hitting IFer. Since Reyes and TJ both can back up Cabrera at SS, Reynolds' glove at that position is less critical, and with Campbell's better resume' as a hitter, and his experience at 1b, he may be the one. Also, now that Duda is back, is there any room for Loney? I don't think so, unless we go with an 11-man pitching staff. On second thought, I guess we could do that, with one of the starters likely going into the pen. Welcome back Loney!

just saw LEGEND. It's not a great movie (sort of rambling), but Hardy gives not one, but two great performances in it. I haven't seen LOCKE yet, but i'm planning to.

well, you know, if it's like Sandy says, and this is about being able to "associate with excellence", then they could hire Tebow to be a coach -- an "excellence" associate -- for the balance of the season. surely that will get us over the hump, right? And that way TBone won't be taking a roster spot on the Fall league or Instructional League team that could be filled by an actual prospect who has earned it.

In honor of the 50th anniversary, here's a consensus ranking of the 13 Star Trek feature films (based on Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes, and IMDB), plus the various TV series: [u:3grop4ca]Best of the lot:[/u:3grop4ca] STAR TREK (09) - JJ Abrams hugely successful reboot is best reviewed film in the series (by both critics and fans); rescued the franchise ST: FIRST CONTACT [VIII] (96) - The best (and only good) one of the NEXT GEN movies ST II: WRATH OF KHAN (82) - Best of The Original Series movies; Nick Meyers brought the franchise back after the disaster that was the first movie -[TV] TOS - sure, it looks cheesy and overacted now, but it clearly resonated in the culture at the time and, without it, none of the rest happens -[TV] TNG - a sequel that took the series forward, with better FX, acting and writing [u:3grop4ca]Good, too:[/u:3grop4ca] ST INTO DARKNESS (13) - Cumberbatch is great as Khan in the reboot's 1st sequel ST IV: VOYAGE HOME (86) - Comedy, time travel and environmentalism in fan fave from TOS cast ST BEYOND (16) - Most recent sequel; another solid chapter ST VI: UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY (91) - Last of TOS movies, with Christopher Plummer terrific as Klingon big baddie -[TV] DS9 - a different direction; the most philosophically interesting of all the series [u:3grop4ca]Marginal, but watchable:[/u:3grop4ca] ST III: RETURN OF SPOCK (84) - was there ever any doubt? ST: INSURRECTION [iX] (98) - Would have been a decent TNG TV episode ST: GENERATIONS [VII] (94) - uneven passing of the torch from the TOS cast to TNG cast; broke the odd/even pattern of bad/good movies -[TV] VOYAGER - Ok, but uneven [u:3grop4ca]A pox on all their houses:[/u:3grop4ca] ST, The MOTION PICTURE (79) - After all the years of waiting, the first one was an epic disappointment ST: NEMESIS [X] (02) - antithesis of ST; the last TNG movie that (along with dreadful ENTERPRISE tv series) sank franchise until JJ rebooted it ST V: FINAL FRONTIER (89) - Shatner's infamous turkey, he recently apologized for it -[TV] ANIMATED SERIES - good writing ruined by awful animation -[TV] ENTERPRISE - there was absolutely nothing worth watching here

Ceetar wrote: outside the race, the Twins were formally eliminated last night. yes, but have you seen the year that Dozier is having? i have him on my fantasy team, and i'm leading the league by 9 pts.

it was a fist pump when he got to 2b... i didn't think it was that big of a "celebration", but he did react to his putting a good swing on a major league pitch. Too bad he later hit into a DP with bases loaded and no outs, successfully snuffing out an 8th inning rally. Still, i'm glad to see him back.

They should have skipped deGrom again. He's either throwing it down the middle or walking guys. He's probably bewildered, too.

Santa? Valdez? Corey? Godot?

As for Gig Young, it was reported that he collapsed on the set of BLAZING SADDLES on their first day of shooting, due to alcohol withdrawal, and was fired. Funny that it was Pryor that the studio was concerned about, but they were fine with hiring a notorious, raging alcoholic.

never mind, i looked it up. Here's what Brooks said: The studio didn’t want him because they said he was unreliable due to his personal problems. I fought hard for Richard and was going to quit the film but he told me not to because he needed his screenwriter fees to pay his mortgage. Then we had a long and expensive search to find the right actor for his part. When Cleavon Little auditioned, Richard was in the room and gave me a signal that he was our man!

Edgy MD wrote: At the same time, Sheriff Bart was originally intended to be Richard Pryor. It ended up being Pryor who advocated for Cleavon Little, who was always a ham. In Start the Revolution Without Me, he and Donald Sutherland got to be part of two comic pairings, as both played two roles. i always heard that, but i didn't know why Pryor didn't get the role. Wasn't he big enough name at that point for the studio to accept in a lead?

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Vic Sage wrote: Jerome Silberman (June 11, 1933 – August 28, 2016), aka, Gene Wilder, was one of the great comic talents of his generation, spanning a 50-year career on stage, film, TV and books. I heard an interview on NPR's All Things Considered with Wilder's nephew on the day that Wilder died. It would seem that both Wilder and his nephew would be offended by your use of the adjective "comic". Apparently he considered himself an actor who did comedy, and not a "comic actor." I don't know that I agree with that. If I'm listing the great comic actors of that generation, I'd certainly include Wilder. (And Walter Matthau too, among others.) But if I was listing the great actors, without the adjective, then you're dealing with a considerably larger field, and Wilder is a lot less likely to stand out. yeah, i don't think he ever did a NON-comic role in a feature film. Even his small debut role in BONNIE & CLYDE was essentially a comic performance. So, while i can understand his own view of his career, it doesn't really hold up to scrutiny. You could make a list of the great actors of the 1960s-80s, and you'd have to go a long way before you reached Mr. Wilder. And i say that as a huge fan of his work.

THE PRODUCERS had a limited release in November 1967, before opening in NYC in March 1968, and opening wider around the country later that year. So i guess technically its a 1967 film, but the MPAA considered it a 1968 film for Oscar purposes, with Brooks receiving his screenplay Oscar at the 1969 Academy Awards.

Gene Wilder’s films, ranked in order: Films to see: top tier - 1. YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) / (Oscar nom., Screenplay) 2. THE PRODUCERS (1968) / (Oscar nom., Best Actor) 3. BLAZING SADDLES (1974) 4. WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971)/ (Golden Globe nom) 5. BONNIE & CLYDE (1967) – supporting role 6. SILVER STREAK (1976)/ (Golden Globe nom) 2nd tier- 7. EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX (1971) – supporting role 8. STIR CRAZY (1980) 9. THE FRISCO KID (1979) 10. ADVENTURE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES SMARTER BROTHER (1975)/ (writer/director) 11. START THE REVOLUTION WITHOUT ME (1970) 12. QUACKSER FORTUNE HAS A COUSIN IN THE BRONX (1970) 13. THE WOMAN IN RED (1984)/(writer/director) To avoid: 14. SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL (1988)/ (writer) 15. HANKY PANKY (1982) 16. THE WORLD’S GREATEST LOVER (1977) /(producer/writer/director) 17. HAUNTED HONEYMOON (1986)/ (writer/director) 18. ANOTHER YOU (1991)/ (writer) 19. FUNNY ABOUT LOVE (1990) 20. THE LITTLE PRINCE (1974) 21. RHINOCEROS (1974) 22. SUNDAY LOVERS (1980) /(co-writer/co-director) – 1 segment TV films (chronological order): 1. DEATH OF A SALESMAN (1966) 2. SCARECROW (1972) 3. ACTS OF LOVE AND OTHER COMEDIES (1973) 4. THURSDAY’S GAME (1974) 5. ELIGIBLE DENTIST (1993) 6. ALICE IN WONDERLAND (1999) – supporting role 7. THE LADY IN QUESTION (1999)/ (writer) – TV movie 8. MURDER IN A SMALL TOWN (1999)/ (writer) –TV movie

Jerome Silberman (June 11, 1933 – August 28, 2016), aka, Gene Wilder, was one of the great comic talents of his generation, spanning a 50-year career on stage, film, TV and books. Gene Wilder, an everyman with a Larry Fine haircut, offered unperturbable, thoughtful, poignant characters with a hint of madness behind their eyes, inevitably reacting to the chaos around him by exploding into paroxysms of uncontrolled hysteria. His impeccable comic timing served to put a clown nose on his absurdist sensibility and style. Though primarily noted for the uniqueness of his performances, his greatest work was often in partnership with a complimentary comic foil, from Mel Brooks, to Richard Pryor, to Gilda Radner. And though best remembered as an actor, his success as a writer and director is worth remembering, too. During a string of Broadway and off-Broadway successes in the early 60s, Wilder met comic genius Mel Brooks, who was working on a screenplay at the time called SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER. After an auspicious film debut as a supporting actor in the lauded BONNIE & CLYDE (1967), Wilder starred in Brooks’ film, eventually called THE PRODUCERS (1968). Though unsuccessful at the time, it earned Wilder an Oscar nomination for his performance and Brooks won an Oscar for the script, and is often ranked as one of the great screen comedies of all time (it's certainly on MY list). The story offered Wilder the opportunity to play off of the legendary Zero Mostel*, and the two had comedy chemistry as great as any ever put on film. It would also establish a pattern for Wilder, who was often best as part of a duo. * Note: Mostel and Wilder would later work together in the film adaptation of Ionesco's absurdist play, RHINOCEROS (1974), but the film is entirely unwatchable now; it probably was then, too. Over the next 5 years, Wilder starred in a range of equally unsuccessful films, including START THE REVOLUTION WITHOUT ME (1970) (a mediocre swashbuckling comedy about the French Revolution, with Donald Sutherland as his "twin" brother), QUACKSER FORTUNE HAS A COUSIN IN THE BRONX (1970) (a strange little Irish romantic comedy), WILLY WONKA (1971)(for which Wilder earned a Golden Globe nomination), and Woody Allen’s hit-and-miss EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX (1971) (where Wilder is brilliant as a man in love with a sheep, decades before Albee's play, SYLVIA). In 1974, he re-teamed with Brooks on their two biggest hits: BLAZING SADDLES and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. Brooks asked Wilder to fill in on SADDLES at the last minute when the original actor fell out*, and it’s now hard to imagine anybody else as the Waco Kid. FRANKENSTEIN, however, was Wilder’s project and his script, for which he would share an Oscar nomination with Brooks. The result was the quintessential movie genre parody, which worked as a film on its own terms (unlike the episodic gagfests that the “movie parody” sub-genre would later become) and ranks as one of the greatest screen comedies ever, as well as the biggest hit of both artists’ careers. * note: Wilder was in Europe at the time, filming scenes for a supporting role in an odd little musical, THE LITTLE PRINCE (1974), which is also unwatchable now. Those two movies, back to back, firmly established both Wilder and Brooks as bankable comedy stars, but Wilder had greater ambitions and wanted to write and direct his own films. The following year, he wrote, directed and starred in THE ADVENTURE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES' SMARTER BROTHER (1975), with actors from Brooks’ stock company (Marty Feldman, Madeleine Kahn, Dom DeLouise); it was an unsuccessful (and still underappreciated) directorial debut. He later made THE WORLD’S GREATEST LOVER (1977), an equally unsuccessful work, though in that case, its failure was entirely warranted. In between, Wilder shared the screen with the great comedian Richard Pryor in the comedy-action-romance, SILVER STREAK (1976), for which Wilder would get another Golden Globe nomination. Pryor had earlier been one of the writers on BLAZING SADDLES and had also appeared in EVERYTHING…SEX, so he had crossed paths with Wilder before. The intensity of their pairing in STREAK was palpable, making the movie a hit and the first of 4 films they would do together. But that would be later. At this point, Wilder teamed with Harrison Ford in a sweet western comedy, THE FRISCO KID (1979), another underrated work that didn’t find much of an audience. But Wilder’s role as a rabbi in the old west, aided in a cross-country journey by a train robber, Amish settlers, and native American tribes, allowed him to project the gentle pathos so evident underneath even his most outrageously over-the-top performances, from Wonka to Leo Bloom to Victor "Frahnkensteen" to the Waco Kid. Wilder’s next film re-teamed him with Pryor in one of his biggest hits, STIR CRAZY (1980), a buddy comedy with the two trying to escape unjust imprisonment in the American Southwest, directed by Sidney Poitier. What’s interesting about the Wilder/Pryor team is that, unlike most comedy duos, there isn’t a straight man and a comic foil. Instead, they each take turns at both roles within the same story, demonstrating the strong acting skills of both, and adding an element of unpredictability, which keeps a level of tension going within the comedy. Wilder would then meet Gilda Radner on the mediocre comedy HANKY PANKY (1982), and they would later marry and do 2 more films together, including the moderately successful WOMAN IN RED (1984) and the utterly awful HAUNTED HONEYMOON (1986) (both of which Wilder wrote and directed), before he did two more not-good Pryor films, SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL (1988)(for which he wrote the script) and ANOTHER YOU (1991). At that point, Radner died after a long battle with cancer, and her passing devastated Wilder. He did some TV work over the next decade (winning an Emmy for an episode of WILL & GRACE), and wrote his memoirs and a few novels, but he never did another feature. Throughout his film career, Wilder’s comic team-ups gave him the opportunity to display his greatest talent: reacting to the madness around him, often exploding in unpredictable ways, without ever losing the underlying poignancy of his performances. As a director, he was a pretty good writer; as a writer, he was a great actor; as an actor he was utterly unique… sui generis. Though his body of work is not huge, nor filled to the brim with commercial and critical hits, his impact on film comedy was significant. So long Gene, and thanks for all the fish.

You know, you took the words right out of my mouth. You�ve got to be blind as a bat to mistake bad for good. In fact, if god could talk, he�d cry to heaven and say the future ain�t what it used to be. Me? I look at the box scores and just read em and weep. I feel like we�re jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. But it�s all coming back to me now and, for crying out loud, I�m all revved up with no place to go. Hell, it just won�t quit. But you don�t have to cry over me. I�m still alive. And why would i give up on my team? I'd do anything for love, but i won't do that.

Frayed Knot wrote: If trouble vs LHP was his only trouble then he wouldn't have been farmed out in the first place. But starting May 1st he hit .160 w/63 K in 192 AB, and almost all of that came vs RHP. He'll be back when rosters expand next week unless Bruce's 'cramp' is in fact a fracture fibula in which case he'll be back sooner. As bad as Conforto's numbers are, they're still better than what Bruce has given us so far, so I'm rooting for that broken leg. God, i hated that trade and I hate it more every day. I just know Dilson will come back to bite us in the ass; I can feel it in my bones.

how about the current met who just went on the DL? Niese.

i think his plane went down in the Andes. He may have eaten himself by now.

i've never been a big "fire Terry" guy, but he seems dispirited and lost at this point. Pulling the plug now would be a mercy killing. Nobody they name now is going to make a bit of difference this year... we've been a sub-.500 team for over the past 1/2 season [80 gms], and you are exactly what your record says you are. But a move might change the mood around the team and could help the younger players relax a bit and give us a better look at what we have for next year. I don't want a guy desperately trying t salvage this season, playing vets over kids to eke out a win here or there. At this point, i want a guy whose sole job is to put our kids in positions to be successful. Bring up Rosario and Hererr... um, i mean, Cecchini. Give Dom Smith a look-see. Next man up; let's go!

Jets pre-season games happily start tonight, so i can forget about baseball until 2017.

well Denny would know.

it goes without saying that it depends on the cost (both in $ and in prospects), but i don't think it's a terrible idea to get a relatively young and talented guy on the roster, with demonstrable major league production, as long as you keep your options open and are prepared to dump him if necessary.

i'm still waiting for Tim Leary's first all-star appearance.