Bad news is your late afternoon has been ruined by raintime in the Rockies [1]. Good news is your previously pre-emptively ruined entire Thursday has been rescheduled as worthwhile, as the Mets will take on Coloradoans (be wary — they’re very well-schooled) tomorrow at 3 o’clock.
To fill the yawning gap from now until then, you can…
• Wish the best for Ike’s calf, David’s neck, Jason Bay’s who-knows-what and all the pitchers who aren’t able to pitch at this time. Stop getting hurt, Mets.
• Make sure your DVR is set for Mets Yearbook: 1970 [2], 6:30 tonight on SNY.
• Remember the legendary Daily News sports cartoonist and columnist Bill Gallo [3], who has passed away at age 88 by reading this wonderful profil [4]e by Nathaniel Vinton from just a couple of weeks ago. Basement Bertha wasn’t fashionable, but she did love her Mets. Joe Petruccio, not surprisingly, pays a lovely tribute here [5].
• Buy your Pepsi Porch tickets for Mets Brain Tumor Awareness Night, Saturday May 28 versus the Phillies, and be sure to buy them here [6]. When you do, you’ll be supporting a worthy organization [7].
• Consider what a fine and consistent voice Howie Rose has provided Mets baseball for nearly a quarter-century, whether as host of Mets Extra, play-by-player on SportsChannel/Fox Sports Net or lead man on WFAN’s broadcasts. Radio has become mostly a reason to bash Wayne Hagin — and he is bashable — but I think we overlook how Metsian a conversationalist we have in Howie when all we do is bitch about the other guy. He also gets eclipsed by the Gary, Keith & Ron [8] electricity a little more than he deserves, but I’d feel lost without Howie in the car, Howie by the bed, Howie while I’m brushing my teeth.
• Put TV and radio into unique perspective by checking out Bob Wolff’s Complete Guide to Sportscasting [9], a book by the dean of sportscasters. It’s a lot of fun and includes a chapter focusing on how radio announcers for losing baseball teams can still be entertaining. I’ll leave it to your imagination what losing team he picks as his prime example.
[10]Beautiful and beautifully written.
• Give yourself the present of 50 Met years with Matthew Silverman’s The New York Mets: The Complete Illustrated History [11]. Mentioned it before [12], I’m mentioning it again. It’s an incredible tour of an incredible franchise. As good a looking book as you can imagine, yet the pictures only hold a candle to the writing, which is informed, intelligent and inviting. Buy one for you, buy another for a Mets fan you care about.
• Veer outside the Mets realm and consider The Cambridge Companion to Baseball [13]. Very weighty title, but pretty accessible material on all the stuff you’ve kind of wondered about all your life.
• Come back to the Mets for Howard Megdal’s just-released Taking the Field: A Fan’s Quest to Run the Team He Loves [14]. The cover is orange and blue, so if you didn’t know from Howard (and you should [15]), you would be able to infer the identity of the team in question. You may recall Megdal’s candidacy for Mets GM [16] last summer; the grand campaign and the ideas behind it are presented within. I’ve thus far mostly skipped around various chapters (which is how I tend to engage books when I first receive them), but it’s next on my reading list (though I don’t really have a list) and I’ll share my thoughts on it at a later date. But I’m really happy to see it come to fruition.
• Relive 33/66 great Mets wins through The Happiest Recap archives [17]. If you’ve somehow scrolled right past this twice-weekly salute to the best games by Game Number in Mets history, get the lowdown on what it’s all about here [18].
• Follow me on Twitter @greg_prince [19]. Follow Jason on Twitter @jasoncfry [20]. Don’t follow Josh Thole, however. He doesn’t care for it [21] anymore.
• Say “hi” to people you might not otherwise greet and get some things done, but be back at your Met readiness 3:10 Thursday. It’s supposed to stop raining and they’re supposed to play ball.