It’s been a great week for the connective tissue of the Metsosphere. Faith and Fear gets to hang [1] with Mike’s Mets [2] on Tuesday and then dines al fresco with Mets Guy in Michigan [3] in Manhattan on Saturday.
The world hasn’t witnessed this great a concentration of creative Mets energy since Metstradamus [4] blogged alone.
Dave Murray and I have been baseball soulmates all our lives even if we never met until last evening. The beauty of blogging strikes again. We were born within 16 months of one another and grew up within maybe 12 miles of one another and rooted for the same team and discovered we once attended the same Rangers-White Sox game [5], but who would have known all that without this thing of ours? It’s a beautiful thing. That plus the education conference his paper sent him to cover at Columbia.
He couldn’t make it to Shea so I brought a little Shea to where he was staying on the Upper West Side. We found a bar with a few outdoor tables and attracted a stream of well-wishers drawn to my DELGADO 21 t-shirt and — here’s a scoop — my brand new, custom-made replica 1976 Mets Bicentennial cap [6]. One patron asked if the Mets were home next week, he wanted to exchange some tickets. A passerby who’s retiring from the Transit Authority wanted to tell us he’s from the same town — Aguadilla, Puerto Rico — as Carlos D. Another pedestrian gave us a little song and dance about the Mets…literally. I gave him a buck for his troubles. (Eating outdoors? Bring singles.) Dave told me he was having trouble finding suitable Mets knickknacks to bring home to Michigan. I sense his next trip here will find a more firmly grounded Mets town.
Check local retailers late next month, if you know what I mean.
Another night, another blogger reveals himself as a first-rate human being, another Phillies loss lops magic matters to 5. How lucky can a Met fan get?
5.01: The State That’s Shaped Like a Mitt. In honor of the Mets Guy From Michigan, how about 5 Michiganders who became Mets? 1) Rick Down: Somebody thank him for whatever it is he’s done this year. 2) Mickey Weston: Dave’s his virtual biographer [7]. 3) Rodney McCray: Even walls fall down. 4) Jim Gosger: ’69…’73…23 Skidoo!; 5) Keith Miller: His best position turned out to be agent.
5.02: It Shouldn’t Have Gotten This Far. David Wright’s No. 5 will be retired if there is justice in this world (didn’t say there was). Diamond Dave should be wearing any one of dozens of fabulous numbers right now, however, because 5 should have been retired for the David who didn’t mind being known as Davey [8]. Other than winning half the franchise’s world championships, guiding them from nothing to everything and attaining more victories than anybody in the same job, Johnson wasn’t much of a manager.
5.03: Star Watch. Back to the current and ultimate No. 5. According to the übercomprehensive Ultimate Mets Database [9], David Wright is No. 41 on the all-time Met hit list. He is also the No. 41 [10] of everyday Met players.
5.04: As Long as We’re Blogging Great Met Bloggers. You have to dig anybody [11] who claims No. 5, Mike Phillips, as his favorite childhood Met. And I do.
5.05: He’s Not Great at Math Either. Paul Simon promised to share 50 ways to leave your lover. I count only 5 specific options to get yourself free: 1) Just slip out the back (Jack). 2) Make a new plan (Stan). 3) You don’t need to be coy (Roy). 4) Just hop on the bus (Gus). 5) Drop off the key (Lee). To be honest, I think Roy got shortchanged on advice.