soupcan

Santana 2.75 Castro 2 Delgado 1.25 Heilman 1 AReyes .75 Reyes .75 Sanchez .75 Smith .75

Benjamin Grimm wrote: What do you do during the commercials? Turn off the TV? Change the channel? That's too much trouble for me; I'd have to keep reminding myself to turn back to the game two and a half minutes later. Picture-in-picture dude. Turn the PIP on and keep the Met game on the little screen, when you see the action coming back on 'swap' it out. Bam.

="John Cougar Lunchbucket"]I'm a little bit worried about Maine, hopefully the O makes this an easy day for him and he enjoys a nice break. He doesn't seem to be... ]The right-hander John Maine plans to start Thursday�s series finale against the Giants although he left his last start, a 9-4 victory Saturday over Philadelphia, with pain in his left elbow. �It�s my left arm, so I don�t care,� Maine said Wednesday, laughing. Maine said he might have hurt his arm while swinging a bat against the Phillies. He threw a side session Monday and he said he felt little pain in his left arm � but not enough that he would consider it a handicap. He had not swung a bat since Saturday. �If I�m out there, I�m not babying it,� he said. I also saw last night on one of the myriad of post-post-game shows that Jerry said that Castro will not play today.

Best thing about that link was the Ashley Dupree slide show - which wasn't that great anyway...

] July 10, 2008 Concussion Spurs Union to Request Guidelines By ALAN SCHWARZ The players union plans to approach Major League Baseball about developing formal leaguewide guidelines for managing concussions, a high-level union official said Wednesday. The official, Michael Weiner, the union�s general counsel, said the conversation would not explore whether Ryan Church, the Mets� right fielder who has been sidelined by postconcussion syndrome on and off for almost two months, was properly treated by the team�s medical personnel. But Weiner said Church�s case highlighted the challenge that concussions present, and how greater scrutiny of the injury could benefit players. �We will reach out to the commissioner�s office to discuss Ryan�s situation and any lessons we might draw from it,� Weiner said in a telephone interview. �It has raised attention to the dangers of this injury, and we want to see whether we�re doing all we can or should be doing here.� A baseball spokesman, Pat Courtney, said the commissioner�s office would be receptive to such discussions. Medical decisions remain the purview of individual clubs, but Courtney said team doctors discussed concussion treatment at last November�s general managers� meetings. Courtney said that �we will revisit the issue this winter,� and that mandatory neuropsychological testing for players �would have to be part of the discussion.� Church, who sustained his second concussion in three months on May 20, has been cleared to play three times by the Mets� medical staff, only to have postconcussion symptoms � like headaches, dizziness and exhaustion � return days later, forcing him to be benched again. In all, he has not played in 30 games since May 20. On Tuesday, he was placed on the disabled list for the second time. It is questionable whether he will return to play this season. Church was not at Shea Stadium on Wednesday night, when the Mets played San Francisco. By the end of this week, he is expected to see a different neurologist than those who have examined him � primarily at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, the team�s medical provider. Reached by phone, his agent, Jeff Borris, declined to identify that physician or comment on Church�s situation. Weiner said he expected his primary interest in speaking with M.L.B. would be not to allege misconduct with Church, but to explore leaguewide protocols for concussions. Two players, Mike Matheny and Corey Koskie, have had to retire in the last two years because of postconcussion syndrome, and Church�s situation has raised eyebrows. �There is a recognition that with concussions you can�t go by the subjective report of the player in the same way that you might a leg or elbow injury,� said Weiner, emphasizing that he was not referring to any specific player or team. �We would also want to discuss whether all clubs have access to appropriate specialists. We might want to jointly identify specialists in all the markets that teams could take advantage of.� The apparent joint league and union interest in discussing concussion management suggests that M.L.B. may soon follow other major sports leagues in developing formal guidelines. The N.F.L., which faced criticism last year from outside experts for its handling of player concussions, updated its protocols before the 2007 season. Players knocked unconscious were no longer allowed to return to games; a hot line allowed players to report if they were being coerced to play after a concussion; and neuropsychological testing both before a season and after a concussion were made mandatory for all teams. The N.H.L. made such testing mandatory 10 years ago, and requires teams to wait until a player is free of symptoms at rest and after exertion before he is allowed to return to the ice. The Mets began neuropsychological testing of players this spring training but did not test Church because of time restrictions � so doctors have no baseline performance to compare now. At Shea Stadium on Tuesday, General Manager Omar Minaya said he retained full confidence in the team�s medical staff. �We�ve gone through our medical people,� Minaya said. �They�re the experts. We�re not the experts.� As much as Church�s injury has hurt the Mets on the field, it may have hurt him in the wallet more. Church, 29, was batting .311 with 9 home runs and 32 runs batted in through the Mets� first 43 games when he sustained his May 20 concussion. Had he immediately been placed on the disabled list for a month and then played at his former level for the rest of the season, he could have doubled or tripled his current $2 million salary in arbitration. Because the collective bargaining agreement generally insulates teams and club officials from being held financially responsible for medical decisions, Church may not have a union-backed grievance as an option. He could bring a private lawsuit against one or more doctors who treated him. The former Red Sox infielder Marty Barrett sued Dr. Arthur Pappas, who worked for the team, and in 1995 Barrett won $1.7 million for lost wages when a United States District Court jury ruled that Pappas had withheld from Barrett information about the severity of a knee injury.

Rockin' Doc wrote: Sign more Reyes'. What he said.

These boys from San Fran are looking pretty lifeless I must say.

How is gonna sue the Mets? They didn't just decide he was okay, they have a training staff a doctor was consulted.

Fman - you and Gary are having a mind meld.

J. Reyes plates A. Reyes. 5-0.

Gary talking about Evans and Nixon's 6's. Yeah, he doesn't lurk.

Our Heinous Reyes is not heinous at all! 4-0 good guys!

BTW - Phils / Cards 2-2 bottom 7.

metsguyinmichigan wrote: hey, just getting here. Did they say why Santana didn't come back? I'm guessing it was because of the rain? I don't think they said yet. My guess is that wasn't Johan's call.

You're totally right and I actually thought about that yesterday when he hit that ding-dong. You know though, that K in '06 was so devastating that I still see it everytime he goes down looking.

And while I'm here - Gary, Keith, Ron - regarding the lower number of complete games, pitches, innings etc. - Pitchers make LOTS of money these days, the people that pay them would rather they last longer. That's pretty much it.

TransMonk wrote: Every time Carlos B. takes a called third strike it takes me back to that rainy night in 2006. Swing the damn bat, man. So fucking true. ="themetfairy"]Just throw some fucking strikes Johan! The language! And you're a mom!

It will be parking but I believe the Mets have said that they will paint the bases and basepaths of where the infield was/is. Can't wait to recreate Mookie/Buckner with my kids while dodging minivans!

This article and accompanying pictures were in the New York Times in May... ]May 11, 2008 Tiger Stadium Faces Partial Demolition Amid Opposition By JOE LAPOINTE DETROIT � After the Tigers played on opening day, a pickup truck full of guys drove across Woodward Avenue from Comerica Park on the near East Side to old Tiger Stadium on the near West Side, a mile or so away. They entered the abandoned stadium through a large locked door by using an attachment to the front of their vehicle as a battering ram. They crashed the gate and took an unguided tour until approached by a security guard. �My guard said, �What are you guys doing?� � said Fred Rottach, who supervises the place for the city. �They jumped back in the truck and drove away.� This is extreme behavior even for touchy-feely fans whose affection for the ballpark is well known. Before the Tigers left in 1999, a booster club sponsored two group hugs in which devotees linked arms and gave the stadium a squeeze. Since then, various plans for redevelopment have come and gone. The stadium sits empty. Late last year, the city auctioned mementos like grandstand seats, a dugout urinal, Al Kaline�s locker and the fence in front of the right-center-field light tower, hit by a Reggie Jackson home run in the 1971 All-Star Game. Last month, the city tentatively awarded a partial demolition contract for the stadium, which opened in 1912 as Navin Field. An opposition group, the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy, has until June 1 to raise $369,000 to try to save part of Tiger Stadium, even temporarily. The group includes Ernie Harwell, the retired Tigers radio broadcaster. If that goal is reached, Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said he would seek greater financing in the 2009 federal budget to preserve the oldest part of the structure around the infield and redevelop the playing field for amateur teams. �The field is sort of sacred ground,� Levin said in a telephone interview. Levin, who grew up in Detroit, said he attended the 1945 World Series in the ballpark, then known as Briggs Stadium, after Hank Greenberg returned from World War II to help clinch the pennant. The grounds around Michigan and Trumbull need a commercial development plan, Levin said, to coincide with a historical renovation, even if only the stadium�s corner footprint is saved. Jeff Wattrick, a spokesman for the conservancy, said three �civic-minded philanthropic groups� had discussed contributing money to stave off a full demolition that may begin in weeks. But he said he could not reveal their names because he did not want to spread false optimism. �So many different plans have come and gone,� he said. �We sensed a real fatigue.� Wattrick said the Tigers had not expressed much interest in the effort. A team spokesman, Rob Matwick, said he wished the group well but added little else. �We do not have an active role,� he said. Complicating everyone�s calculations is the deal the Detroit Economic Development Corporation made with the two demolition companies that have promised to tear down Tiger Stadium for the scrap steel, copper, aluminum, brass and nickel they can salvage. It would take less than a year to demolish, said Waymon Guillebeaux, a vice president of the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation. But it would be even faster and cheaper, he said, to tear the place down without preserving even a corner. So the demolition companies have promised to pay the city $300,000 if they do not have to preserve the corner piece, Guillebeaux said. But they want an answer by June 1, he said. The companies � MCM Management Corporation of Bloomfield Hills and the Farrow Group of Detroit � did not respond to a request for comment. Guillebeaux said that his group was cooperating with the preservationists, but that the economic downturn discouraged such plans. Detroit has been hit harder than many cities. �To try to raise money to just hold on to a portion of an old stadium might not be easy,� he said, adding that developers would be more interested if the site were cleared. The stadium�s outfield is thick and green but much shaggier than a major league field. Dandelions speckle it with yellow. A short, skinny tree protrudes from the concrete in the lower deck where the box seats used to be. What was once the pitcher�s mound is now round and flat. The lower deck and parts of the upper deck have almost no seats. Rottach, the city�s overseer of the property and a native East Sider, walked across the field and recalled the 1968 Tigers winning a World Series game there and all the championship football games between the city�s public and Catholic leagues. He also turned a measured eye to the present and said that remaining structural pieces are valuable. They are from the first half of the 20th century. �The steel is the highest of the high grades,� he said. �Steel was cheap then.� Adding that all metal prices had �gone through the roof,� Rottach said the demolition would be a green project with about 85 percent of the materials recycled. Under sun and blue sky, he walked beneath the upper deck in right field, which hangs over the warning track and once turned apparent flyouts into home runs. One spectator impressed by this architectural feature in the 1960s was Jeff Wilpon, the chief operating officer of the Mets. He used to visit Detroit to see his grandfather, who would take him to baseball games in the summer and to Lions games on Thanksgiving. So Wilpon insisted that the new Mets stadium have a similar overhang in right field. �You�re in fair territory,� Wilpon said of those seats. �We copied that a little bit.� Whatever the stadium�s fate, the neighbors are eager for something to happen because the area is not dormant. The land lies near a casino hotel, a recent arrival. Nearby residential neighborhoods include a new subdivision with streets named after Motown artists like Marvin Gaye and Martha Reeves and a revived 19th-century neighborhood called Corktown, once populated by Irish immigrants. Timothy J. McKay, executive director of the Greater Corktown Development Corporation, said he supported the preservation attempt but added that the conservancy would have to entice investors. �We want to see some changes,� he said. Knowledge of history is a critical part of healing an inner city, McKay said. He added: �This is an old city. But history here is discounted by a lot of people.� What used to be the pitcher�s mound is now round and flat amid the weeds. Tiger Stadium, which opened in 1912 as Navin Field, may be nearing its final days. Last year, the city of Detroit tentatively awarded a partial demolition contract for the stadium. The structure has been empty since 1999 when the Detroit Tigers moved to Comerica Park, about a mile away. Dandelions grow in the outfield, which is thick, green and much shaggier than a major league field. Late last year, the city auctioned mementos like grandstand seats, a dugout urinal, Al Kaline's locker and the fence in front of the right-center-field light tower, hit by a Reggie Jackson home run in the 1971 All-Star Game. There are almost no seats left in the lower decks and parts of the upper deck. The remaining structural pieces are valuable. The steel, from the first half of the 20th century, is of the highest grade. Two demolition companies have promised to tear the stadium down in exchange for the scrap steel, copper, aluminum, brass and nickel they can salvage. Demolition would take less than a year, but would happen even faster and cheaper without preserving any corner of it. About 85 percent of the materials would be recycled, making the demolition a green project. But fans have a strong attachment to the stadium. Before the Tigers left, a booster club sponsored two group hugs in which devotees linked arms and gave it a squeeze. The Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy, a group opposed to the demolition, has until June 1 to raise $369,000 to try to save part of the stadium. If the money can be raised, Senator Carl Levin said he would seek federal funding to preserve the oldest part of the structure around the infield and redevelop the playing field for amateur teams. While the stadium is dormant, the area surrounding it is not. Whatever the stadium's fate, neighbors are eager for something to happen.

Nice picture that accompanied that food article in The New York Times

Wait - I meant 4,000!

Nolan Ryan's 3,000th strikeout victim?

Nice catch.

metirish wrote: How much if any are Mets management culpable in this , seems it was mis-handled from the start, sad for Church and I hope he can make a full recovery. I'm not counting on him for this season. I'll cut them some slack. It's not like they were hiding the x-rays from anyone and putting Church out there knowing he wasn't ready. Everything I've read tells me they were following the (bad) advice they were given. I'm optimistic - in a positive way - that Church will be back in two weeks and pick up where he left off.

About 3-4 years ago a friend of mine who was a commercial photographer ('portraits a specialty'), was looking to get out of that business and into the food service/restaurant industry. On a lark he emailed Danny Meyer to ask him what advice, if any, he could offer. Meyer emailed him back and suggested they meet over lunch at The Gramercy Tavern (one of his restaurants). They met, had lunch and spoke for about two hours. According to my friend, the guy could not have been nicer and more encouraging. My friend has since gone on to become a sommelier and is working on opening a wine and cheese shop in the Catskills where he now lives. I just thought that for a busy, successful guy like Meyer to take time out of his day like that to chat with someone he didn't know who was just looking for some guidance was great.