Bullets With Butterfly Wings

Mounting a furious late-innings rally to finish the book (writing one, not reading one), so please forgive if I can offer you only bullets for a bit.

• Want to hear someone ramble on about Doug Flynn and related topics for twenty or so minutes? Please visit Mike Silva's NY Baseball Digest and start listening just past the 62:00 mark.

• Want to hate the Phillies (the only serious Met archrival, it occurs to me, to ever beat us out of a playoff spot and then win the World Series; I'm not counting the '97 Marlins, though I will always count '97) a little less? Probably not, but you might after reading Doug Glanville's piece on the Phillie Phamily in the Times.

• Nothing to do with baseball per se in this Op-Ed piece, but you'll love Matt Mendolsohn's line about radio if you've ever gathered around one with strangers to catch a pitch or more from Murph or Gary or Howie.

• Speaking of one of those fellas, the Gary, Keith and Ron cabal is in a good mood these days and is offering a nice discount if you'd like to purchase some of their excellent items and contribute to the community-minded works supported by their Pitch In For a Good Cause Foundation. Use the coupon code BLOGGER by November 28 and receive 10% off your next order.

• MiarcleMets.net is dead, long live BlueandOrange.net, Chris Wilcox's always thought-provoking blog. It's got a new name but remains the same good read it's always been. Check out his piece on best offensive seasons by Mets catchers for one example of why he's terrific under any name.

• Thanks to Metstradamus for Scribbling us up. We'll pass the love along shortly.

• Belated Happy Fiftieth to my main man Mike Steffanos, who shares a birth date with Keith Hernandez and Mickey Mantle and, to my way of thinking, belongs in exactly that kind of company.

• Finally, in the cheapest anniversary gesture I could come up with, Happy No. 17 to my darling wife, who married me on this date in 1991 and still hasn't figured out that the joke is on her. (Don't tell her, OK?)