MookieTheCat

Congratulations mass transit riders, Phillies and Yankees clips right where you can't shut them off and can't leave: the subway. Mark my words: this will lead to at least one delay for train v. Mets fan an heroism. And you have TBS to blame. The final revenge of Atlanta?

28,790. Were they counting people? Was the head of the production census for the Soviet Union in charge of this? Were 27,000 people in line for Shake Shack at any one time? Since we have a lot of math fans here, can anyone give a reason why this figure was what it was? I'm stumped.

I want to think of something snarky to say, but this is pretty sad if you read it. UPDATE: ESPN just reported that K-Rod sent 56 text messages. So perhaps the quotes here were just a small sample or perhaps it was the pattern that caused his (I assume ex) girlfriend to report him.

When you Betts on Dickey, the Great Southerner, you get a Good Time Feeling.

Today it's at 32: Nats wins and Mets losses. I tried to find the old Daily News image of Davey Johnson pulling the rabbit out of a hat but with no luck. For how you calculate magic numbers, see this.

This is an article not on the Mets, or the Yankees, or the Cardinals (more on that in a moment), but about Blll Gallo. For full disclosure, I am usually mystified by Gallo's cartoons and I find them bizarrely anachronistic at times. What caught me about this article--which is a defense by Gallo against charges of favoritism by both Mets and Yankees fans--is that the man has been a Cards fan since, get this, 1934. Since Dizzy Dean, for crying out loud. I think this article is a good read for those interested in journalism and those who want a role model for what it means to be a fan, through the good and the bad.

Mr. Warthen is apparently not a big fan of ending sentences with prepositions. Which is why he explains his pitching strategy as "correctly utilizing pitchers is something up with which I will not put." This quote also gives a glimpse of the manner of education preferred by ole Dan.

Living where I do in south Florida, hurricanes are naturally on your mind this time of year. With one headed up the Eastern Seaboard, I thought I'd share the Red Cross hurricane preparedness page with everyone who lives in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. The key part is to have a plan and supplies. One thing that I didn't see on this page but that we make sure of this time of year is to fill your tank with gas often, so that you never have less than a half tank at your disposal.

"As a general manager, everybody does that," [Minaya] says. "I come from a scouting mentality. I'm not afraid to make mistakes. There are people who make decisions, and there are people who are afraid to make decisions." Hat tip to Craig Calcaterra for a good article on another Minaya gem in the USA Today article.

"Wilpon was surrounded by reporters. Manuel said hello to his boss, and Wilpon said, 'They want us to have a closed-door meeting for an hour.'" No Jeff, just for the 30 seconds it takes.

This morning I was thinking about last month's community projection for Carlos Beltran. I went back to see how we all did now that we have passed the midpoint of his shortened season, based on results to date. Result: turrible. After 156 ABs his slash line is .217/.333/.326. We predicted, collectively, .275/.355/.455. From what I can see the halftime winner of said predictive contest was David Wrong, Jason K, Jeff Franc0-fer, who guessed .253/.303/.391. In an incredibly sad turn of events, this now-apparently optimistic guess was based on Frenchy's then slash line. There is little I can add to that observation.

This is a law review article that I remembered while looking for the last fanshot I posted. I edited an article for the author years ago, and remember discussing this with him on one of those phone calls editors have when you're pretty sick of the prospect of reviewing typos any longer. It is an analysis of the use of baseball metaphors in the law. Off-topic, but fascinating if you're into this sort of thing. I direct this specifically to the historians in our midst, and anyone who wants to feel like baseball matters in these dark times.

With all the talk about morality clauses recently, I did a little research and was able to come up with this law review article on morality clauses in entertainment in general, and sports in particular. Pay particular attention to footnote 55, which gives a link to the MLB CBA and its morality clause, found on page 217 of the CBA. If you're a nerd like me, there is a some very interesting history and legal analysis in the law review article. I hope you enjoy it (tip: when reading law review articles, do not ignore the footnotes, as much of the content is found there).

This paragraph is one of the better I've read recently: Privately, some baseball officials from other teams say the Mets are "somewhat delusional," as one puts it, in evaluations of players. "There is a disconnect in what they think of their club and what other teams think of their club," the official adds. "They don't pay attention to detail. What do they believe in?"