soupcan

1) All-Star Game Winning Team: NATIONAL 2) All-Star Game MVP: H. RAMIREZ 3) Winning Pitcher: E. VOLQUEZ 4) Losing Pitcher: F. RODRIGUEZ 5) Gets the first hit: JETER 6) Scores the first run: JETER 7) Makes the first error: A. RODRIGUEZ 8) Hits the first Home Run: C. JONES 9) RHE linescore NL & AL: NL: 7 / 11 / 0 AL: 5 / 9 / 1 10) David Wright's box score line AB-R-H-RBI: 2-1-1-0 11) Wagner's box score line: IP-H-R-ER-BB-K-HR: 1-1-0-0-1-1-0

I wouldn't hold it against any layperson if they didn't know that Joe Neikro was dead. A guy whose job it is to talk sports all day, everyday, however, should know that.

It gets better... Now they have Ed Kranepool on: Kranepool: "I wore #21 when I came up but Warren Spahn wanted it so I gave it to him. This was before guys got money or Rolexes for giving up their numbers to other players, so he just took it. Benigno: "So did Spahn pay you or give you something for the number...?"

="themetfairy"] Awesome!

Forget the fact sheet, it was Joe Neikro. It was news among the sports broadcasting set when he died. It was less than two years ago. I knew it, you knew it. How does this idiot - who is in the business - not know it?

Listening to Evan Roberts & Joe Benigno on WFAN interviewing Phil Neikro via telephone: Joe Benigno: "So Phil, how's your brother Joe doing?" Phil Neikro: "He, uh, had an aneuyrism about a year and half ago and he's passed away" Joe Benigno: "Oh. Uh. I didn't know that. Sorry." As he's asking the question, I'm thinking - what a dumbass.

Yawn.

Modell's has a few kiosks set up in Grand Central hawking All-Star memorabilia (hats, shirts, etc..). While I am loathe to buy anything that has even the most subtle Yankee signage on it, I did buy a pair of wrist bands to send to my boy at camp. I was stunned, STUNNED, to find that the wristbands were only $6.00. I was expecting $10-$15 at least.

What will be on the channel?

] AMAZIN' PLANS By JOEL SHERMAN July 15, 2008 -- THE METS are more seriously considering promoting from within (Fernando Martinez for the outfield, Jon Niese for the rotation, Bobby Parnell or Eddie Kunz if a bullpen arm is needed) then making a trade between now and the July 31 deadline, Omar Minaya told The Post yesterday. Minaya faces three major obstacles to reaching outside the organization for improvements: 1) The organization is cautiously optimistic Ryan Church will soon return, making a righty-hitting left fielder to replace out-for-the-season Moises Alou the main priority. Minaya has been unable to identify a player significantly better than a Fernando Tatis/Endy Chavez platoon to make it worthwhile to sacrifice prospect chips. 2) The Mets are finding the asking prices for relievers they have interest in, such as Colorado's Brian Fuentes, to be too steep. 3) To reach the level of contender, the Mets have expended a lot of prospect artillery the past three years, and Minaya recognizes he must protect the farm system and let it rebuild. "We can't keep doing four-for-one deals," Minaya said. So what does this all mean? Because the Mets are more fixated on a righty-hitting outfielder, they have substantially cooled on Seattle's Raul Ibanez, although the organization's top executives like him a great deal. Because they are unwilling to give up a big-time package, Colorado's Matt Holliday can be scratched off the list, and, unless the prices fall substantially, so can Pittsburgh's Xavier Nady. An NL executive said he believes Minaya's historic aggression will lead him to make some kind of trade before the deadline to augment the surging Mets. And Minaya confirmed that he is very active looking for opportunities. It is possible he is just playing the propaganda game when he says he is comfortable going with internal options, hoping that lowers prices. But he insists he is sincere. There already are two players on the 25-man roster Minaya thinks far more of than most of the rest of baseball. He said he believes Nick Evans is going to grow into a .280-plus hitter who produces 20 homers and 80 RBIs annually. Minaya also said, "I like Carlos Muniz a lot. I think he is going to grow in a nice seventh- or eighth-inning guy. I like Muniz as much as I liked Chad Cordero (when Minaya was Expos GM) in the first round." Minaya also said the Mets' top two high-level players, Martinez and Niese, could be in play in August. He said that at the time of the trade for Johan Santana, he was thrilled he was able to keep Martinez, Niese and Mike Pelfrey out of the deal because he believed they would be building-block players for the team moving forward. Left-handed Niese (5-7, 3.09 ERA) drew scouts from about 10 teams to his start Saturday and Martinez drew raves from scouts at the Futures Game on Sunday. The general scouting consensus, however, remains that both players need more minor league seasoning. However, the Mets are an aggressive organization when it comes to promotion, and that is no different here. Of Niese, Minaya said, "He might be pitching for us this year in August." Of Martinez, Minaya said, "He might be better than anybody we could get in a trade. This kid is legit." Martinez, however, is a lefty hitter, is 19 years old, and has had another injury-interrupted season in which he has batted .294 at Double-A. Thats big talk about Evans and Muniz. If even a pom-pom waving Met fan like me can see that Omar is blowing smoke up my ass, I'm guessing a major league GM can see it too. "Hey, you don't want Neise and Fartinez, you want Evans and Muniz, youknowwhatI'm sayin'?" Good luck with that one Omar.

I'm DVR-ing it for my 11-year-old who is at sleep-away camp. I'll probably watch it because of that, but if I wasn't doing that I'd most likely flip back and forth. In general I do not dig the All-Star break. I need Met games during the summer and while I can deal with the occasional off-day and rain-out, this 3 day break is just a big pain-in-the-ass.

Valadius wrote: Pat Zachry, 1978. Not allowed to answer that question if you weren't alive at the time.

AG/DC wrote: You know, when Joel Youngblood made the All-Star Team in 1981, he couldn't play because he was hurt. In fact, it was pretty clear that he was out long-term when he was selected. He was replaced, but nobody felt an obligation to do it with Dave Kingman or Mookie Wilson or Hubie Brooks or Neil Allen. 'Blood showed up and tipped his cap and, other than that, my 14-year-old self had to accept that our lone All star bert was stillborn. You've reminded me of Mazz in '79 at the Kingdome. Honerun and 2 rbi (bases loaded walk off Guidry if I recall correctly). Wuz robbed of the MVP.

No - but they have one for the New York Giants.

Pelfrey - 4.50 Beltran - 2 Delgado - 1 Evans - 1 Reyes - .75 Smith - .25 Easley - .25 Castro - .25

'Fartinez' playing at 'ShittyField' is going to make Val's head explode.

Valadius wrote: What are they going to do with these things after the All-Star Game? I'm guessing they'll auction them off for absurd amounts of money.

AG/DC wrote: It's not like me to care that much, but it's a little disconcertingly kitschy treatment of Lady Liberty, is it not? Agreed.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I don't go around carrying a camera like you tourists however. Time to upgrade from your rotary phone. Many cell phones have cameras these days...

If anybody's interested this might be fun. Go find a statue in the City, snap a pic and post it here. see how many of these we can get. These two are in lower Manhattan near my office. Got 'em this morning...

My 9 year-old wants to see this but neither he nor I know anything about Hellboy. Is it necessary to see the first one before checking this out?

- does his in-game strategy differ from Willie and, if so, how? I'm no expert on the X's and O's of baseball, my knowledge is limited to that of a long time fan whose watched a lot of baseball. I'll say though that I have noticed the Mets seemingly are playing more for the multiple run inning as opposed to scratching for just one run. - Are starters being used differently? Longer leash / quicker hook? seems to me that the starters are being given a longer leash. That could be a coinceidence dovetailing with the fact that are pitching better, but allowing Pelfrey to finish that 8th inning last night, didn't seem like something Willie was really thrilled to do. Not that Willie didn't do it, it just seems that Jerry gives the starters more 'ownership' of the game if that makes sense. - Are there really more strictly defined roles for the relievers or is that just talk so far? Other than Wagner, I don't see the roles as being definied at all. I've seen Heilman, Smith Sanchez and Feliciano in the 8th. I think Heilman is the defacto 8th inning guy but Jerry has shown that he likes the hot hand. - How about the lineups - any trends or tendencies changed since the change? Again - hot hands play. - Big ball vs small ball Willie talked about 'stepping on the neck', but Jerry seems to really pursue that. A theme of the winning streak is piling on the late runs. Willie tended to sit back and try to protect the lead. Jerry appears to be more aggresive. Lots of extra bases taken. I keep thinking back to the Angel series and how the Halos played with reckless abandon. I think I'm seeing more of that in these Mets. - Are the players hustling more and/or playing smarter? I think they are 'hustling' whatever that means, but playing smarter? I've seen Reyes not play so smart, I've seen Beltran make at least 2 questionable throws. Is that playing dumb or playing aggresive?

But if the guy/team come out of the slump and goes on to be productive then that person was right. You may have pooh-poohed them during the slump saying they were being blinded by loyalty, but the ultimate positive result says that you were the one not being realistic.

="SteveJRogers"]And Edgy does tend to be one of those "cheer loudly and proudly even when the team is horrid" types that likes to prove how "right" they were when things turn around. But if/when the team does turn it around doesn't that mean that person was right?

AG/DC wrote: Anybody who had given up on Easley and would've been fine to release him this year, get your hands up. Way up so we can see 'em. I guess there were some but I don't know why. He had some big hits last year and was really productive until that ugly ankle injury.