The Mets submitted their opening day roster Sunday and where some people (like me) expected to see Tatis, Stokes and Hernandez they instead saw Clark, Smith and Pelfrey.

That's OK with me, particularly after fans digested a triple order of unpleasant news Friday in the snatching of effective-but-subuseful Ruben Gotay, another seeming cutworthy effort from infuriating suspect Mike Pelfrey and a news item detailing Fernando Tatis' being issued team luggage while Brady Clark twisted in the wind. Clark by the way not only got luggage but a new shirt to pack in it: He'll be wearing No. 44 when the season begins Monday in Miami. Although Clark had worn 15 in his first go-round with the Mets years back, he'd been wearing 93 this spring: The highest in camp among those with a prayer of making it.

Smith, whose ineffective spring and option situation made him an interesting choice over the similarly ineffective but less controllable fireballer Brian Stokes, is a surprise roster qualifier for the second straight year. Stokes was designated for assignment: No word where he alights next.

Those moves complete an all-time Met roster that today grows by six fiirst-time arrivals (Angel Pagan 16, Ryan Church 19, Brian Schneider 23, Raul Casanova 30, Matt Wise 38 and Johan Santana 57), as well as the debut of Clark (44) and Marlon Anderson (9) in new numbers.Howard Johnson returns to No. 20 for the coaching staff, along with new arrivals Dave Racaniello, Juan Lopez and Sandy Alomar Jr.

Glad you're back too!

 

Goodbye, Ruben Gotay.

 

Hello...?

Seen here is a video still from yet another regrettable moment in Mets uniform history as captured by the remarkable Paul C. Yes that's mercifully deposed announcer Fran Healy, along with Howie Rose, showing off their custom Mercury Mets jerseys during the schlocky promotion on July 27, 1999.

Paul sent this beaut along after reading in our interview published recently that Howie prefers No. 14 (reader Steve R. in the meantime recalled Howie telling the story of wearing No. 36 at a Met fantasy camp). So why 21? Just guessing here, but you may recall the whole turn-ahead-the-clock jersey fiasco was a marketing trainwreck hatched by the geniuses at realty company Century 21. The game, they wanted us to imagine, took place in the Year 2021 (wow! That far ahead?)

Until now the best photo we'd had of Mercury Mets attire came from Dave Murray, aka Mets Guy in Michigan, who this week declared Mets by the Numbers to be "the best book ever written." Aw... Thanks!

And speaking of the greatest blogger of all-time, joining Dave on the links column to the left is No No-Hitters, a site devoted to the New York Mets’ dubious streak of having never pitched a no hitter in franchise history. Personally I find no-hitters just random enough events to not-so-secretly hope this streak continues for another 46 years. I was relieved when Glavine choked one away in 2004. Glavine? In 2004? Go, Kit Pellow!

Still you gotta admire the obsessiveness and attention to detail that site exhibits

We should know for sure how things shake out soon, but thought I'd forward a few ideas on the bench in case they'd like to check with me first.

Raul Casanova, wearing No. 30, looks like he's going to start the year as the backup catcher to Brian Schneider. I don't mind this. Casanova’s not as bad hitter and he switch hits. Ramon Castro has missed large parts of the last two seasons with back injuries and will miss the start of this year. I like my scrubeenos more reliable than Castro’s been, and hope for the sake of competition, and for the sake of having a lousy hitter as our No. 1 catcher, that Casanova makes his case.

I thought when Olmedo Seanz was canned the righthanded-hitting reserve job would go to Jose Valentin, but he’s hurt and may retire. Instead the Mets appear to be wavering between veterans Brady Clark 93 and – surprise! – Fernando Tatis. With Angel Pagan likely to be the starter in left while Moises Alou heals, and Endy Chavez the all-around defensive replacement, it may very well be Tatis, whose outfield experience is weak but who could also serve as a 3rd base and 1st base reserve. Tatis seems to be have been given a better chance than I'd anticipated given a dignified uni number (17) and fact he's from early-90s Texas Ranger stock -- USDA Prime as Omar is concerned.

Marlon Anderson (2B, 1B, corner OF) and Damion Easley (the only emergency shortstop) are the collective veteran lefty-righty pinch hitting tamdem. Let’s hope they survive the season unscathed.

Also:
* Pat Jordan fulfills the fantasy of every journalist who ever dealt with a difficult subject by blasting Jose Canseco out of the park. What a shot!

* I’ll be appearing with co-author Matthew Silverman at a book signing Saturday April 5, 3 p.m., at the Barnes & Noble in Bayside Queens.

 

I was about to pontificate upon the chances of Steven Register retaining No. 61 or switching to something more dignified when word came he'd been waived by the Mets. Hopefully, the opportunity exists to work out a deal with Colorado that would allow the Mets to keep Register in the organization free of the onerous (for the Mets, at least) provisions of Rule 5.

This is good news, I believe, if you're a fan of Joe Smith, who like Register, seems groomed for a role I'll call GUPPY (GroUndball Pitcher, Perplexing deliverY -- alright, needs work). Smith however can be safely stashed at AAA so it's no lock he surfaces, at least not right away.

Similarly, looks as if suspicion over Duaner Sanchez' durability gives a shot to his hard-throwing nonroster counterpart, Brian Stokes, at least, to start the year. As for the No. 5 starter, I'm as disappointed as the next guy in Mike Pelfrey, maybe more, but I'd give him all the rope he needs. It's not like an injured Orlando Hernandez has a whole lot of upside any longer.

* In case you didn't see it, MLB.com's Marty Noble today ran his annual Port St. Lucie christening story, a sure sign Spring Training is coming to an end.

* Don't forget you're invited to the MBTN Launch Party at Stout NYC, April 6, 1pm.

 

Over the weekend at the NYC SABR meeting, spoke very briefly about the book, and even signed and sold a few.

The Casey Stengel chapter meeting retained its usual time-machine vibe: not so much retro as reminiscent. It’s full of guys who remember when the Dodgers and Giants were the local teams, speak with thick New York accents, and dress in sweats. As opposed to the scene at the national meeting, the presentations are decidedly low-tech and tend to focus more sharply on history than on cutting-edge analysis, although many members seem conversant in that language too. It would be great to see more young people get involved in this group, I’d be happy to tell you how.

A highlight for me was hearing some great authors speak. Michael Shapiro, whose THE LAST GOOD SEASON not only tells a suspenseful story of a great pennant race but dares to set the record straight on the Dodgers’ fateful move to California, was especially engaging and afterward signed a beaten-up copy of his book I’d remembered to take along. My brief talk was as part of a panel that included Tony Morante and Al Santasiere, who put together a handsome coffee table book on the history of Yankee Stadium; and Greg Spira, who co-edited MEET THE METS with my co-writer, Matthew Silverman, who was also there selling books. Morante, who has led tours through Yankee Stadium for nearly 30 years, wore a Yankees World Series ring the size of my wristwatch.

I also enjoyed schmoozing with attendees including Steve and Pedro from On the Sportlines; Michael Cesarano, who knows a few things about Mets uniforms; Andrew Schiff, author of a new biography of Henry Chadwick I brought home with me; and Dana Brand, who traded me his book, METS FAN, even-up for mine. I opened up Dana’s book on a bus ride to the in-laws immediately after the meeting, and almost felt like a thief.

More hobnobbing to come when Matt Silverman and I host a “launch party” for Mets by the Numbers Sunday April 6 at Stout NYC in Manhattan. The party is an informal get-together timed to coincide with the Mets-Braves game from Atlanta that afternoon. We’ll have copies on the book on-hand and available to sign. I'd love to meet some of the regular reader/contributors to the web site, hope you can come by.

If you're in New York this Saturday, don't forget to check out the SABR meeting, where I'll be doing a short presentation and then signing books with co-author Matt Silverman. There's a small admission fee, but its more than worth it to be involved. There's usually some stuff for collectors, plenty of baseball books (and writers) on hand, there's an impossible trivia contest and interesting presentations. And fewer pocket-protectors than you would think. 10 a.m. at the Mid-Mahattan Library at 5th Ave. & 40th.

Thanks to readers Kevin and John who informed me of some minor errors in the player profiles they'd come across (Benny Agbayani, Ron Taylor, Vince Coleman and a few others). The new format fortunately makes these things very easy to fix, so don't hesitate to inform me if something looks goofy. The majority of these "player views" by the way are nothing much to look at yet, but I'll be adding to them gradually. Some include photos and/or brief bios already.

Meanwhile in Metland, how about a round of applause for handsome young Fernando Martinez, who was reassigned to minor league camp but had little to be ashamed of, leaving behind a mark of .340/.373/.426, with four doubles and just seven whiffs in 47 spring training at-bats wearing No. 67. MBTN reader Kevin, yes, the same one looking up Vince Coleman, suggests turning speculation over what number F-Mart wears when/if he returns in the regular season into a game. This of course is a great idea.

In the comments section below, please submit your guess as to what number will be issued to Fernando Martinez upon his regular-season debut with the Mets. Keep in mind this exercise may require you to further speculate as to the time (or year, even) at which he arrives so as far as I'm concerned all number guesses are valid. I'll try to keep track and offer a prize (how about a signed book?) to the winner.

Currently, you needn't be logged in to comment, but it may aid in tracking you down in the event you win. Politic all you want, but be a sportsman and enter just once.

Word also today that along with a few of the longer shots (Joselo Diaz, Nate Field, etc.) chubby veteran pinch-hitting hopeful Olmedo Seanz was assigned to minor league camp. Could a guy who wears No. 93 (Brady Clark) make the team? Just might. A trade could very well be in the works as well.

When Howie Rose was asked to write the foreword for Mets by the Numbers, he had little help from us since the book, by that point, had barely been written. So when he hit it out of the park on the first swing – I don’t think we had to change a single word and it was a perfect fit stylistically – it was at once a relief and then again, not all that surprising. That’s because Howie knows his stuff. We knew that, and if you listen to his broadcasts, you know that too. Howie approaches his assignment as the Mets' primary radio voice armed with knowledge of the tiny details gleaned, as he explains in the interview below, over a lifetime of fandom aligning nearly perfectly with the history of the team he covers. That he eventually read the book, and hasn’t disavowed his association with it yet, is as gratifying a recommendation as it has received yet.

Can you discuss how you became a Met fan?

The following events and appearances are scheduled around the release of the Mets by the Numbers book:

 

Wed., April 16, 6-8 p.m.: Bookends, Ridgewood, N.J.
Signing books with Matthew Silverman at a event that's simultaneously hosting Hall of Famer Gary Carter and his new book, Still a Kid at Heart; Former Booklyn Dodger George Suba, author of My Memories as a Brooklyn Dodger; and Dan Reilly, author of The Original Mr. Met Remembers. Details here.

 

Thurs., April 17, 7:30 p.m.: Baseball Authors Event at Word Books, Brooklyn
Appearing with Spike Vrusho, author of BENCHCLEARING: Baseball's Greatest Fights and Riots; and hosted by Caryn Rose of Metsgrrl, at my local indy bookstore here in Greenpoint (Franklin & Milton Streets). Beer and CrackerJacks to be served!

***

Past events

Sat., March 15, 2 p.m.: WFUV 90.7 Radio
Spent 10 minutes stammering through m y first ever live interview on FUV's legendary One-On-One radio program. You can stream the archive at their website (when available).

 

Wed., March 19, ~9:40 p.m.: SPORTSTALKNY Webcast

Sat., March 22, 10 a.m.: SABR Casey Stengel Chapter annual meeting, Mid-Manhattan Library

 

Sat., April 5, 3 p.m.: Book discussion and signing, Barnes & Noble, Bayside Queens
With co-writer Matthew Silverman. Mets-Braves starts at 4 -- great timing! 23-80 Bell Blvd. (at 26th Ave.) in the Bay Terrace Shopping Center

 

Sun., April 6, 1p.m.: Mets by the Numbers LAUNCH PARTY at Stout NYC
Come out for an informal, meet-and-greet with me, co-author Matthew Silverman, and other distinguished guests while we watch the Mets take on the Braves at Stout NYC, a terrific, spacious Irish sports bar on 33rd Street between 6th and 7th Aves in Manhattan. Buy a book, or get yours signed, or just have a beer!

 

The Mets on Thursday reassigned longshot reliever candidates Carlos Muniz and Willie Collazo to their minor league camp, and by doing so freed up numbers 32 and 36, respectively. Jason Vargas, who was assigned a different number this spring (39) than last year (43), also left to have surgery and is out for awhile, the Daily News said.

As you might not care to remember, Muniz and Collazo were among the desperate moves the Mets found themselves forced to make as a collective suck infected the bullpen last September and, along with unreliable starting pitching, too many guys getting picked off first base, lack of hustle, lack of focus, lack of brains, lack of courage, overconfidence, underconfidence, stupid decisions, and a few things that didn’t go our way, cost the Mets the division they probably should have won.

Collazo we’ll remember for the goof of spelling his name improperly on the back of his jersey. Muniz, who spent most of the year in AA, debuted in that nightmarish 10-9 loss to the Nationals mopping up for Mr. I’m-Not-Devastated, and the seemingly innocent single run Muniz loomed large when the Mets’ 6-run rally in the ninth didn’t tie the game but left them one run short. Of all the disastrous Mets games last year, and there were plenty to choose from, that one probably burned me the most.

When the Mets play the White Sox in the annual Civil Rights Game exhibition March 29 in Memphis, they will wear special uniforms to commemorate the event. According to a news item today on Paul Lukas's Uniwatch blog, they will look like the jersey pictured here (which, he reminds us, looked like the jerseys last year, when the Indians and Cardinals met).

As chronicled by Paul for the founding event a year ago, MLB officials explained the jerseys were "inspired by the simplicity of the Negro Leagues uniforms," but its tough to figure out their style decisions all the same.

Good to see the Mets participating this season at any rate. I mean, it's not Mercury Mets.

 

Funnier stuff for sure is detailed on Brooklyn Met Fan, where an associate down in St. Lucie whose t-shirts proclaiming CHOOSE LIFE... um, I mean, GO BIG PELF have caused a minor sensation with some members of the Mets.

 

 

Continued from Part 1.

In part 2 of my exclusive, explosive conversation with Greg Prince of Faith & Fear in Flushing, Greg discusses some of his blog's greatest hits while I vainly try and determine how he does it.

What are your feelings on the Mets uniform?
They’ve given us a lot more to think about over the years. haven't they? I suppose I get used to all of them after a while. When they first showed up in 1998 in all this black and orange, I thought they looked like Orioles and needed to get back to emphasizing the blue. Plus it was obviously a craven attempt to make a buck. But, y'know what? Last April, the first time they put the black unis on for the first time, I viewed them as a throwback to the '99 and 2000 teams. Now when I see the Mets in black, it gives me a warm feeling -- nostalgia, I guess, for the Bobby Valentine era when they wore them more frequently. I guess that's the power of the baseball uniform in general.

That said, if they had to do only one uniform I guess I would hope they'd accurately recreate the 1969 jersey, perhaps without the 100th anniversary patch. But I’ve gotten used to the idea they wear different ones. It bothers other people way more than it bothers me.

Have you got a favorite uniform number?
I always wanted to wear 41 on my back – no matter what an insult it may have been to Tom Seaver – because he was my first hero. I’ve always been fond of 24, since it never fails to amaze me that Willie Mays was a Met. Today I like 7 for Jose Reyes and I continue to hold a candle for 26 on account of Rico Brogna. It seems like if I like the player, I like the number.

Now and again when I need to fall asleep, instead of counting sheep I count uniform numbers: 1 for Mookie, 2 for Valentine, 3 for Harrelson. I always like to see who jumps to mind first. What’s funny is that whenever I get to 44, Bob Myrick comes up. I've never been able to think of anyone else. And this was when Jason Isringhausen was hot stuff, when Jay Payton was here, right up to Lastings Milledge. 44 is Bob Myrick, and I barely remember Bob Myrick as a ballplayer. Just as 44 on the Mets.

Tell me about The Greg Commandments.
It’s just a bunch of things that had been stewing around in my mind as Mets fan. I’m not big on telling people they have to do this or do that, or to use one of those phrases I hate, “you gotta respect that,” but when it comes to the Mets I found a code of conduct, a way to comport yourself in the world as a Met fan and get the most of the Met experience. Things like not going too nuts when you lose or overboard when you win, and don’t be one of those people who likes both New York teams. Some of it was to help the reader enjoy their experience and some was just picky stuff on my part.

Was it something that came quickly or did you work on it a long time?
I’d actually been working on a list of things like that years earlier. And I found it one day after we started the blog, I stewed it in my head. It was the beginning of the second half of ’05, it just seemed like a good time to put it out there. That post helped put us on the map a little. We weren’t all that well-known before then. It was some thing I got emails about for a long time.

What other events helped put you on the map?
One of the things that drew people to us is we were able to do a lot on Mike Piazza’s last year. Jason wrote a great post about the 10 greatest home runs Piazza had hit as a Met and I had written something that got good response.

I had been to the ballet, of all things, a few weeks before, and it so happened there was a ballet dancer, the male primary dancer, named Jock Soto. And two women sitting behind me were going on and on about how it was Jock Soto’s last year in the ballet and how awful it was going to be to have to replace him. Can you imagine the New York City Ballet without Jock Soto? That kind of thing. And I’m sitting there just riveted to this conversation, thinking, this is exactly what I’m thinking about Mike Piazza. He’s our Jock Soto; and Jock Soto is their Mike Piazza. I wrote something about that and it turned out Jock Soto’s mother read it. She was very excited, saying they compared my son to a big baseball player.

Also at the time, we got a celebrity email from one of the team’s announcers, who’d actually read us, in response my saying I’d turned down the TV and listened to the radio when Gary and Howie were working together. He basically wanted to know what was wrong with them. That was one of several things we had going on in about a two-week period in July of ’05 when it just seemed like we achieved critical mass. We went from being a voice in the wilderness to something people knew about. If there was some way of calculating the percentage of all Met fans who know any bloggers beyond Metsblog, it’s probably infinitesimal. But among people who know computers can lead them to information and insight on your favorite team we established a foothold.

What particular things have you enjoyed accomplishing?
There are times where you think you’ve written something amazing and you get only two comments. I wrote about the 20^th anniversary of the Terry Pendeleton game and everything that went wrong in the 1987 pennant race and I braced for a great reaction, but there was one comment. It felt lonely. It’s tough to write flashbacks in the middle of pennant race.

The definitive post for me was the day they announced the new ballpark. I didn’t know they were even doing it that day but I flipped on SNY and there they were in the Diamond Club showing off the drawings and the model for the first time and how great it’s going to be, and it struck me – isn’t this so odd they’re doing this inside Shea Stadium? They’re going to obliterate Shea Stadium. And it crossed my mind it must be a bad day to be Shea Stadium. It was one of those things that just took off. Fortunately I work at home and had the flexibility to put everything else aside and write it right then.

It started as a straightforward piece where I was just going to state my opinions and instead I started write it as a conversation between a ballpark that had no idea it was going to be replaced – a loyal employee but a little slow on the uptake – and Fred Wilpon giving him his notice. It takes him a while to get it and then he’s very disturbed by it. Shea finally stands up to him, and is speaking for me toward the end.

That was also a touchstone in how I view Shea and how I write about it. Because until then, I was ready to throw Shea away. I’d been to 30 ballparks and wanted our own Camden Yards in my lifetime. I recall writing something on opening day ’05 how they had all winter and couldn’t get the escalators to work. Jason was thrilled because for years he was like “Where’s the detonator?” But I’d come over to the dark side.

Then I realized, this was it. It was a stadium we’d grown up with and grown older in. I did a 180. I was like those superdelegates changing from Hilary to Obama. I went from “Let’s get the new ballpark in here!” to “How dare you?”

I worry about turning into a caricature of myself. I don’t want to be a good-old-days blogger. I don’t want to dwell on the idea of “Wasn’t it great when Jane Jarvis played the organ and Karl Erhardt held up the signs and box seats were $4.50 and Tommie Agee led off every game with a home run?” I want the 2008 season to start. But defender-of-Shea-to-the-end has become a sort of calling card for me. And Jason is laying low on the point because he knows I’m sensitive to it. I can feel him rolling his eyes.

It brought out in our readers a lot of the same feelings. They’d bought that line that it was time for Shea to go. I think they saw someone saying what they had been suppressing: Hold on a second. I like this place too. It’s all going to amount to nothing because Shea is going away but this wasn’t a movement like STOP CITI FIELD. This is not like the Tiger Stadium Fan Club grasping hands around the ballpark. Nobody is doing that Shea.

What’s distinguished about the site is your ability to bring your own personal self into it whether you’re talking about meeting your wife or your mother dying and things that, I imagine, would be difficult to write about and send to an unknown audience. Do you struggle with that at all?
Not that much. In June of ‘05 when the Mets played their first series with Oakland since the World Series of ‘73 I had this reaction to it I wasn’t expecting. I put it on the TV and it suddenly brought me back to 1973 and specifically, a suppressed memory that I’d had a fight with my mother who told me, you can’t watch the last two games of the 1973 World Series.

Yeow.
I mean, come on! How often do the Mets get into the World Series? I hadn’t thought of that much. But I think today maybe one of the reasons I indulge myself as a fan is because I didn’t indulge enough as a child. Anyway, I had just begun to write a simple expository post of how this had reminded me of the 1973 World Series, blah blah blah, and it became one of those dialogs, me talking to a psychiatrist, and I recall bringing up really intense feelings I’d had about my mother, why the hell wouldn’t you let me watch the godamn world series? I was angry writing it!

There were some from our limited audience had a good response to that, it was a hill to get over. Because up until then, I was going for a tone, thinking, this is what a blog is supposed to sound like. It took me a few months to write the way I wanted to write. I don’t know if anyone who reads that could tell but I can.

But as for writing the personal stuff, it just seemed very natural to go there. The 1990 flashback was an interesting one for me to write because that was the year my mother died. It was an area I’d never really explored before. In my mind, it was a stressful year. But at the moment where somebody else would have said, “Oh, I can’t follow the Mets,” I’d followed them more closely than I’d had since 1986. They deepened for me. They were my anchor.

I wrote something a few weeks ago about the one game I went to with my father, who’s not a baseball fan. My parents sort of fell into them when they were good, from 1985 to 89, but after my mother died, they just fell away from him. It was like, I don’t do that any more. And it took me some time to realize it. The point was, thank god there’s football because without it my father and I wouldn’t have much to talk about. But going to a game with him as a terrible experience. The comments you get from that tend to be incidental. If I wrote a foul ball landed near me a reader might write, “Hey, I once caught a foul ball.’ Maybe we’re intruding here. Maybe we shouldn’t be reading this on a baseball blog.

But that’s not hard for you to reveal to people?
Not really. If I can use an incongruous word here, I’m brave enough to do it since I know my father and my sister don’t read it. My father’s like, “What’s a blog?”

"I saw the future of rock n' roll and his name is Bruce Springsteen."

In the fall of 2000, I'd become a recipient of periodic emails penned by Greg Prince that to me were instantly recognizable as the best stuff anyone had ever written about the Mets. I'd first Met Greg a year earlier after he'd invited me, sight unseen, to be his guest at a Mets game after he'd enthusiastically discovered an embryonic version of "Mets by the Numbers." I was thrilled when he and Jason Fry launched Faith & Fear in Flushing in 2005,and turned those emails into a near-daily experience for "Met fans who like to read." In Part I of a recent conversation I had with Greg, he talks about a few things that in my opinion, make his writing the best in baseball blogdom: Total recall, passion and dedication.

 

Tell me about the prehistory of Faith & Fear. What events led to its birth?
Basically it grew out of a decade of back-and-forth emails between me and Jason. We met on an AOL board in 1994. We had just gotten AOL in my office then, and I had used it for work. One day I was looking around and realized, Oh my god, there’s stuff on baseball here. There’s stuff on the Mets! And that’s where I found the Mets board.

So we caught the Mets down in Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday, but despite having a great opportunity to chronicle strange and unusual uni numbers, I really didn't. Sorry about that.

Part of it was that in addition to watching the Mets, I was watching my one-year-old climb the stadium steps and call out the row letters. Part of it was the realization that these weren't even the Mets but parts of their A, AA and AAA rosters. Of the "regulars," only Marlon Anderson (wearing No. 9); Ramon Castro and Jorge Sosa played, and those guys were through after 6 innings.

The names were as foreign as the numbers, which didn't help me retain any of it. I mean, I can tell you I saw Nick Evans, Gregory Veloz, Ezequil Carerra, Mike Carp, Ruben Tejeda, Gustavo Molina, Nate Field and Joselo Diaz. I can also tell you I saw Nos. 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, and 97. Just tough to connect the two. Diaz was 74. Field was 66. Willie Collazo was 36, like last year. The thing that caught my attention was Ken Oberkfell, the AAA manager coaching 3rd base in this game, wearing No. 0. So we've got some speculative stuff to chew on in the event Willie gets fired.

Oh, and we won by the way, 4-1 over the Orioles. 

The official release date for the Mets by the Numbers book came Saturday. As clearly illustrated at left, it's better and more important than Freakonomics. No really, that's a short stack of signed copies you can find, while they last, at the Customer Service desk at the Forest Hills Barnes & Noble, 70-00 Austin St. Thanks Pat! Regular, unscribbled-in copies should be in the sports section upstairs.

We're at work planning a few events around the book release including a launch party and signing appearances in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan (so far) which we'll inform you of as they're scheduled. If you'd like to schedule an appearance in your hood, please let me know.

Co-writer Matt Silverman is currently spreading the gospel down in Port St. Lucie; I'm heading to Fort Lauderdale first thing Tuesday where I'll see the Mets play the O's Saturday, but mainly just taking a short break. We'll be back Sunday with more dynamite celebrity interviews. In the meantime, I'm happy to pass along this link from my friend Greg of Faith & Fear in Flushing, who makes a pretty strong argument for why you should buy this book, and why you shouldn't hire me.