The Big O

KC wrote: (let's not forget just how prolific a home run hitter was in his shortened career) People, least younguns nowadays, are usually surprised when I point out that Ralph is a member of the 50-HR club. Not only that, but also of the hallowed multi-time 50 HR club: Ruth (4), Foxx (2), Kiner (2), Mays (2), McGwire (4), Sosa (4), Griffey Jr. (2), A-Rod (2). Nice company. Similar Batters 1. Darryl Strawberry (888) 6. Carlos Delgado (873)

My team gets Mr. Henry Aaron, Robbie Alomar and precious little else besides 1-time All-Star and City Slickers reference Don Hoak. I learned that I share Feb. 5 with the sometimes-active Abraham Nunez. C Mike Heath 1B Lee Thomas 2B Roberto Alomar (pre-Mets) 3B Don Hoak (Don Hoak) SS Roger Peckinpaugh LF Abraham Nunez CF Chuck Diering/Norm Miller platoon RF Henry Aaron P Al Worthington P Jack Lynch

Walks kill.

Valentin gets the first Met hit off Bedard, who walks Woody. Bedard's heard about LM's attitude, so he fans him. Then Alay sacs, Reyes delivers a 2-out 2-rib double and then steals 3rd. Plod F8 to end the inning. 3-2 Mets.

Elster88 wrote: Nicely done. I'm trying to think of what former Mets might join the list this year. Who is Payton playing for? D'oh, misread the question. I was just thinking general X-Mets. (The original list looked awfully short; now I know why.) Sowwy. On edits: Dotel's rehabbing his elbow for AAA Columbus.

Team totals StatCurrent (65 gms)Projected rateRecordYearChange over last 16 gamesAB23355819.53856181996+96.641Runs 348867.3238631999+54.017Hits6231552.70815531999+64.9532B140348.9232971999+41.4543B1537.385471996, 1978+7.630HR88219.3231982000-2.187TB10572634.36924301987+115.104RBI333829.9388141999+49.694BB223555.7857171999-9.562SO4381091.63112031968+10.529SB72179.4461591987+20.752CS1229.908991980+3.459GIDP3689.7231491999-6.154XBH243605.6315131987+46.896HBP3177.262652001-2.085SF2254.831591997+5.239SH4099.6921081973+7.121BA.267.267.2791999OBP.336.336.3631999SLG.453.453.4341987, 1999 StatCurrent (65 gms)Projected rateRecordYearW42104.6771081986L2357.3231201962CG37.477531976SHO49.969281969Ra (least)279695.3544991968ERa (least)258643.0154491968Ha (least)5451358.30812171969HRa (least)76189.415781968BBa (least)226563.2624041988K4961236.18512171990ERA3.843.842.721968Sv1639.877511987Pitchers used1947.35427196710+ win guys04 (Dro, Tom, Steve, Duaner)61968 Projected broken records in bold type (through 65 games)

Gwreck wrote: 3. If there is big-headness to be had, great! I'm all for some confidence and swagger from the players. It's been sorely missed. Nope, that'd be worrisome. Better send all such players with out-of-whack attitudes down to Norfolk when Nady comes back.

AP wrote: BC-BBN--Padres-Magadan Fired,0198 Padres fire Magadan as hitting coach, hire Rettenmund SAN DIEGO (AP) � Dave Magadan was fired as the San Diego Padres' hitting coach on Thursday and replaced by Merv Rettenmund, who held the job from 1991-99. Rettenmund, who had been a roving hitting instructor with the Toronto Blue Jays, will join the Padres on Friday for the start of a three-game series at the Los Angeles Angels. The Padres went into Thursday's 7-3 loss to the Dodgers with a .253 team batting average, worst in the NL and the third-worst in the majors. Their 54 homers are the fewest in the majors. Magadan was hired as San Diego's hitting coach on Nov. 8, 2002. He retired as a player at the end of the 2001 season after spending parts of 16 seasons with the New York Mets, Florida Marlins, Seattle Mariners, Houston Astros, Chicago Cubs, Oakland Athletics and Padres. Rettenmund has been in professional baseball for more than 40 years as a player and coach. He played for the Padres from 1976-77. During his tenure as hitting coach, he worked with a pair of NL batting champions: Tony Gwynn and Gary Sheffield.

Also Rich Aurilia around that time. Not sure if he was high-dollar, but definitely a Name Player they were willing discard.

Orel just said Ryan Howard "may be the best young hitter in baseball". Psst, Bulldog ... other dugout.

SteveJRogers wrote: Mike Piazza, along with Todd Zeile to the Marlins for Bobby Bonilla, Jim Eisenreich, Charles Johnson, Gary Sheffield (Sheffield is the only name I would have given full credit for, the rest ESPECIALLY the next name would be bonus) and Manuel Barrios on May 14th 1998 So you'd require knowledge of the Dodgers-Marlins end of the deal, but not the Mets-Marlins end? Weirdness.

="Edgy DC"]Carlos Beltran successfully navigates asteroid fields all the time. In fact, the odds of him not successfully navigating one are approximately three thousand, seven hundred and twenty to one. Carlos Beltran used to bullseye womprats in his T-16 back home.

Reminds me of Googlism, but less random. Which, disappointingly, doesn't know about about Lastings yet.

BBTN leads off with in-progress Mets game (okay, maybe it's a Grimsley discussion). Krukker goes out of his way to say he likes how the Mets get contributions from role players (Endy). And how Castro can block the plate and handle the short hop "like most guys can't". And how this is all an example of how "good teams put the division away". Harold gives Ravvy the bizness, it seems, for being a big DW fan. Good times earnin' praise from the clown brigade. Not sure if that's a desirable goal, but it's nice to see.

Frayed Knot wrote: Not 'mongst the best 60-game starts I would suppose. Remember that was the year we started 27-28 before Phillips axed several of Bobby's coaches during a weekend series vs the MFY. We then won the Sunday game which started a run where we went 40-15. So I'm guessing the 60-game mark that year was no better than 32-28 FK's on the ball. It was 31-29: http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYM/1999_sched.shtml

In 2004, when I went to my first Shea game in 15+ years (the game of Ty's great throw that resulted in Juan Pierre spraining Mikey's wrist, BTW; The David would debut the next day), I bought a Kaz mousepad. (I wanted Jose; they were out.) But once I got home, I never took it out of the package. It's still sitting in a drawer in my desk. I feel kinda bad about that now.

Gwreck wrote: ="Elster88"]13 ...which is the season-high for games over .500. Of no less importance is that it's consecutive wins for the first time in more than a week -- since May 28/29, #3 @ Fish and #1 vs. D'Backs. Other meaningless streak numbers: --12 of our last 20, first time since St. Louis road series --13 of our last 22, first time since NYY --24 of our last 40, first time since Philly homestand

Crazy pitch counts here. Both Lowe & Dro are in the mid-60s after 3.

More from the summer collection at ... http://shop.mlb.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=2286292&source=NYMHP-300x90-summer_NYMHP-300x90-summer

Could be a debilitating largyngitis. Baseball content: Tommy's only surrendered 2 hits and a walk with 2 K's through 5. Edit: I should never say things.

Gwreck wrote: FWIW, a friend just called to discuss the games and they thought they said Laryngitis (rather than appendicitis) as the reason for Gary's absence. AP story says "Mets broadcaster Gary Cohen left the ballpark in an ambulance before the first game and was taken to a hospital. The team was awaiting word on his condition."

Elster88 wrote: The song is just "eh" "I can't escape this hell" / "It's not the real me" / "Help me through this nightmare"

Gwreck wrote: ="The Big O"]Page 3 flogged this somewhat a couple of years ago. Here's ESPN's portal with multiple angles: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page3/story?page=atbatsongs/index I don't know if "flogged" is exactly the right way to describe it. Woefully incomplete perhaps. Regardless, very few of those players are even with the club anymore...perhaps only Kaz is even using the same song (??) Sorry, I meant with respect to the whole "music & sports" coverage package. There are a lot of players missing on each team.

Page 3 flogged this somewhat a couple of years ago. Here's ESPN's portal with multiple angles: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page3/story?page=atbatsongs/index

Gwreck wrote: Well, they got Delgado to K. Doesn't Wright lead the team in walk-off hits this year? Surely he does -- he doubled to beat the Braves in the 14th, plus the single against the MFY ... and probably some other really obvious one I can't remember. I think Howie said that was Heilman's first gopher allowed this year.