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We're packing up and heading down to Charm City for the weekend to celebrate my birthday and wedding anniversary, and intend to catch Sunday's Mets-Orioles game at Camden Yards with family down there. If you happen to run into a clown wearing Mets road jersey No. 70, it might very well be me. In preparation, I contacted my friend Kevin in Maryland, whose writing projects include NumerOlogy, an mbtn-like review of Orioles history by uniform number (the url is giving my browser trouble right now, so I hesitate to pass it along until I know the problem is fixed); a site celebrating various Orioles baseball cards; and an ambitous collecting project known as The Great 1965 Topps Project. (The Johnny Lewis card shown here hails from that iconic set. If any of you can help Kevin complete his his '65 series via trade, please let him know at the site).

So Kevin knows his stuff, and though his team is having a rough go of it this year, he was a good sport in fielding the following series of questions which hopefully gets you up for the weekend series or at least hungry for steamed blue crabs with plenty of Old Bay (the seasoning, not the disappointing Met free agent). Take it away, Kevin!

MBTN:  Juan Samuel once entered in the middle of a Mets season and ruined it. How's he done for the O's so far?

Kevin: Ugh. Juan was our third base coach for the past few years, a job that he was quite suited for…as long as the primary goal of a third base coach is getting Melvin Mora thrown out at the plate by 20 feet. From what I’ve seen and read in the week since “Windmill” took over for Dave Trembley as interim manager, he’s making all of the same mistakes as his predecessor: bizarre hit-and-runs, a revolving door approach to the bullpen, batting Julio Lugo leadoff (as opposed to literally anyone else). If there’s a silver lining to the team’s continued failures, it’s that there’s little chance of Samuel being retained as manager. Speaking of ex-Mets though, I hear Bobby V is interviewing with the Orioles…

(ed note: This makes me happy for Bobby and sorry for myself, but is a lot better than his replacing Joe Girardi).

MBTN: Looks like R.A. Dickey will start Friday and Hisanori Takahashi goes Saturday. How do the O's hit knuckleballers and lefty junk throwers, respectively?

This one’s easy: they don’t hit knuckleballers, lefty junk throwers, righty junk throwers, ambidextrous pitchers, flamethrowers, sinkerballers, sidearmers, submariners, or even batting practice pitchers. The O’s have scored 193 runs in 58 games (3.3 per game). They’ve been shut out five times, scored a single run 13 times, two runs eight times, and three runs 10 times. Not exactly a formula for winning baseball.

MBTN: Why is Ty Wigginton your best player? Don't you have Markakis and Jones and Weiters and Tejada and Scott? 

Kevin: I’m a big fan of Wiggy, from his whimsical name to his hilarious physical appearance to the fact that he’s been the only guy on the team who has been productive for most of the year. As fun as it’s been watching Ty challenge for the league lead in homers, I wish he had a little help.

Most of the young guys have taken a step backwards for one reason or another. It seems like Nolan Reimold never fully recovered from offseason ankle surgery, and now he’s at Norfolk trying to figure things out. Adam Jones was never a patient hitter to begin with, and without any protection in the lineup opposing pitchers are happy to give him junk to swing through. I have the most faith in Wieters, who Trembley gave a pretty heavy workload in the early going. Samuel has pledged to give him more time off, and he’s working on shortening his swing for better results. On Tuesday he had his first three-hit game of the season, so he may be turning it around. As far as the vets, I'm afraid Tejada is getting old and missing his vitamin B-12 and Scott is the very definition of streaky. Markakis is still getting on base, but again pitchers aren't challenging him because the rest of the lineup stinks. Other than that, things are great.

MBTN: The Mets saw Matusz at least once this spring and couldn't touch him. Guthrie scares me too. Why don't these fellows have more wins?

Kevin: As impressive as Matusz has looked at times, he’s still a rookie. He’s had a couple rocky starts and he’s essentially learning on the job. But his chief failing is that he can’t drive in runs for himself. The same goes for Guthrie. After a nightmarish 2009 season, Guts is back to his familiar role as the de facto hard luck ace. Look at his last start against Boston, when he retired 16 batters in a row but let up two runs in the seventh inning. That was enough to pin him with the loss, along with another bullpen implosion. Are you sensing some themes?

MBTN: The Mets lose most of their games on the road by failing to score enough early then coughing up their slim lead in the 8th and 9th. Which Orioles relief pitcher(s) will come away with the win(s)?

I doubt that any Oriole reliever is stealing a win this weekend, but Will Ohman is as likely as anyone. He’s been a rare scrap-heap success for Andy MacPhail, a once-effective lefty specialist who was derailed by injury and had to make the club out of spring training on a minor league deal. He didn’t give up an earned run until Memorial Day weekend. Of course he’s appeared in roughly 90 games already this year, and hasn’t looked so good in the past week. Also keep an eye out for second-year pitcher David Hernandez. He was overmatched at times in the rotation, but he throws hard and has looked better since being moved to the back end of the bullpen.

MBTN: It's my birthday/anniversary weekend, and we're staying at the Hilton Garden on the Inner Harbor. Where do we:
a) watch World Cup games?
b) Get good steamed crabs?

Happy birthday and anniversary! For watching soccer, I know the Hilton has a nifty little bar called the Diamond Tavern. If you’re looking for a pub, there’s the James Joyce on President Street and Captain Larry’s on E. Fort Avenue. Both are within two miles of the ballpark. For crabs, LP Steamers (also on E. Fort) comes highly recommended.

(ed note: We have tentative plans for crabs at Obryki's)

MBTN: Was Lee Mazzilli a good manager? He was once a hero here but can't even get work as a broadcaster anymore.

To put it bluntly, no. The Birds have had their share of crummy managers (and crummy teams) over the past 13 years, but Mazzilli was the only one that I can remember who lost the support of the team. The front office supposedly hired him because he talked a good game, but rumor had it that he did zilch in the way of game preparation and wasn’t much of a communicator.

MBTN: What's the most frequently issued number in O's history?

It’s a three-way tie between 23 (think Chris Hoiles and Tippy Martinez), 37 (Stu Miller and a whole lot of nothin’), and 39 (Eddie Watt and more nothin’). By my count, each of those has been worn by 30 different guys.

Once again, I'd like to say, 'Thanks, Hon' to Kevin for sharing his knowledge of the enemy!

Hi, we're back with the new setup. I did this mainly because the latest upgrade of the content management system we use wouldn't support the old layout, but the upgrade also provided some small upgrades in capability that make the site better and easier to use. For one thing the lists of yearly numerical rosters now progress sequentially and not in that irritating 1, 11, 12. It also allowed me to bust out Superba Graphics' terrific alternate logo and provided an excuse to update the records, links, bios and archives through last year (they're much better organized, particularly the ancient history, though it's still a work in progress). Some of the comments on recent stories were cut-and-pasted into the new stories, but everything else is just how it used to be. Big thanks to David Moore at Crooked Number for all the web help.

Anyway while this work was going on I kind of  slowed down on on the posts right in the middle of what has to be the most interesting spring training, number-wise, we've had in a while. A lot of the numbers assigned back in February have gone back up for grabs (3, 22, 32, 36, 43) while guys wearing 76, 78, 79 and 94 have emerged as real threats to take jobs, if not right away then down the road. And more could arrive any minute.

Despite all appearances, I still think the Mets will ultimately send Jennry Mejia to the minors, but I'm not one of those pretend scouts threatening to riot if they don't. People tend to give way too much credit (or blame) to the manager; I think a man will become what he becomes no matter what his address is when he's 20. Would he keep No. 76? Unusual but so again is he, and the the temptation to subtly suggest he's one step beyond Francisco Rodriguez might be too powerful to resist.

Anyway, that's just one thing worth keeping an eye on as camp winds down. We'll rap about more soon!

A few quick notes before I head out of town to spend some time at the home of the band whose song is referenced in the title of today's post:

1) Several readers including David reminded me that I (and the mets.com roster I ripped off) left Jenrry Meija (I had to have spelled that name wrong) off the spring training roster where he should be noted to be wearing No. 76.

2) I neglected to mention this website recently passed its 11th birthday on Feb. 22. That's in part because I made such a wreck of the 10th birthday bash, neglecting to make it all the way down the 'top 10' countdown as promised. Shameful. But I haven't stopped doing this. Shortly after I return next week, the website will be freshly updated with a new look & feel I'd been working on for the last month with the crack team at Crooked Number. The changes -- necessitated mainly by an upgrade of the operating system that would make the current look go kablooey -- may look plain at first, but is much more powerful beneath the hood and is only a start.

3) I first got this question a few years ago, and didn't know what to say then or now: What will the Bat Boys be wearing in 2010? As I recall the history, Met bat boys went numberless until 1986 (maybe 85?) and have in most years worn the figure of the year -- except in 1999 when they skipped ahead to 00 so as not to mess with Turk Wendell's mojo. Despite the second-straight curious spring training issue to Andy Green, it seems as if No. 10 will be available this year, but I'm thinking maybe 00 might be better. I've never been a fan of the 'BB' designation some teams use and I'd hate to see it here. Thoughts?

4) I'm again happy to have been asked to contribute an article for the 2010 Maple Street Press Mets Annual, which is arriving on area newsstands now. My contribution -- a look at 2009's injuries and their place in team history, got a terrific boost from longtime MBTN contributor Jason E., whose comprehensive history of the Mets disabled list made it all work. Did you know who the all-time leader for separate trips to the disabled list is? What body part has been injured most often? Who was the first Met ever to go on the DL? Then pick this thing up now. Also, there's good articles.

5) We're scheduling another Amazin' Tuesday March 23 at Two Boots Tavern on the Lower East Side. Deets to come.

Quick note to inform everyone we're still here, wearing our Phillie Phanatic Underoos and puzzling over the perceived lack of conviction among Met fans for rooting interests this World Series. We had some computer issues, busy work schedules and sickness, but will have new Met related stuff up soon.

Hey Met fans: Root for the Phillies. The way I see it, the Phils beat the Mets, they may as well beat everyone. And they're the only team this postseason -- certainly the first to face the Yankees -- that hasn't gone around playing the kind of embarrassing baseball we've already seen too much of this year. So if you're still on the fence, don't let rhe media trick you into buying Mets-Phillies as an overwrought drama in the vein of Red Sox-Yankees: Support your league, take what consolation you can in acknowledging the Mets fell to a terrific team, and hope the Phillies get their Phil this time around (if ever) and subsequently begin the the kind of sad death-spiral that all multichampionship teams eventually encounter.

Keith Olbermann appears to have received our information on near-Met Wilbur Huckle. In his latest post, Keith quotes the article we posted and reveals that the roster obtained by his photographer friend includes Huckle's name written in pencil and identified as wearing No. 24 -- a jersey that would have been available in September of 1963. He also follows up with details of the New Breed's push for Huckle's presidential candidacy in 1964. A shout-out for MBTN and Jason? Nope.

Reader Edward in the meantime reminds us that Darryl Strawberry and a pitcher -- he cannot recall who -- were similarly invited to spend time with the 1982 Mets at season's end.

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Keith's blog has been added to the "Good at Baseball" links to the left. To the Mets links, I've added those of beat writers Adam Rubin of the Daily News and David Lennon of Newsday -- two guys who work incredibly hard so that other bloggers have links to aggregate every day. The print press is getting killed and the Internet is a great thing but to me there's nothing like getting my hands all inky with the Snooze every morning. At 50 cents a day it's an ideal commute killer and a bargain too. Read the papers.

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The Mets appear to have shut down their online survey on their uniforms -- hopefully not before you, like me, submitted a few dozen responses. Don't think I've come across anyone who's a big fan of the black anymore but I sense the hatred among the prototypes in the survey was strongest for the vest which, I'm just gonna say, I don't think is so bad provided you're resigned to the inevitability of an alternate, which I am.

But you know what I really hate and they didn't even ask about? Those two-tone helmets. My, they're awful.

Anyway, I'd give a week's pay to be the guy to summarize the survey findings for Jeff.

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We weren't even finished with the press events around the Mets by the Numbers book last spring when my co-writer Matt Silverman was at work on two new projects. One was Cubs by the Numbers (I know, right?) done with the same editor at Skyhorse and with Kasey Ignarski who'd been tracking Cubs numbers for at least as long as I'd been doing Mets numbers here (also Al Yellon, at the Bleed Cubbie Blue blog). If you happen to have a friend who's a Cubs fan, consider buying them this as a gift.

The other project was a daring diary style book with none other than Keith Hernandez which Matthew was doing via phone interviews and transcribed notes all summer long, never knowing how the narrative would turn out. It became Shea Goodbye, recently published by Triumph.

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I've added Ramon Martinez to the list of Mets who've worn three numbers as published on the Jeff McKnight page. Now can we get rid of the guy already?

After Oliver Perez stunk up the joint again and his teammates responded with play every bit as lazy and uninspired, the Mets made reliever Casey Fossum pay. The lefty, whose work week included three mop-up jobs -- two for Perez -- was designated for assigment Sunday with Buffalo lefty Ken Takahashi recalled to take his place.

Takahashi makes an interesting choice. He's a high-kicking, curve-throwing 40-year-old lefthander from Japan's Hiroshima club who reportedly drew free agent interest from several teams this winter (including the Mets) but signed a minor-league deal with the Blue Jays, only to be released as spring training broke and scooped up by the Mets.Though trained as a starter, he's been doing effective short and long relief for the Bisons, and so might come in handy if he's not too worn out by the time Perez' turn in the rotation comes around again. But I dunno. He looks awful slow in the the video here.

No word yet on Takahashi's uniform with the Mets. He's been wearing 33 with Buffalo which belongs here to John Maine and wore 22 with Hiroshima (currently JJ Putz' number). If like me you sense a pattern here, 11 is out (Ramon Castro); 44 is theoretically waiting for Tim Redding, and 55 is on the back of coach Randy Niemann (thanks for the updates below). 66? Doubtful. Maybe he'll turn up in 30 or 36.

Buffalo by the way eventually re-signed Nelson Figueroa, no doubt humbled by the waters he tested.

Takahashi, should he appear, would be the 859th Met of all-time (thanks to MBTN reader Gordon for the below update):

We left off 2008 with 848 - Bobby Parnell

849 would have been Al Reyes but he did not play

2009: 849 - Sean Green 4/6

850 - JJ Putz 4/6

851 - Jeremy Reed 4/6

852 - Francisco Rodriguez 4/6

853 - Alex Cora 4/9

854 - Darren O'Day 4/9

855 - Garry Sheffield 4/9

856 - Livan Hernandez 4/11

857 - Omir Santos 4/17

858 - Casey Fossum 4/21

Although recent roster cuts bled the organization of lefties including veterans Ron Villone and Valerio de los Santos, the team hasn't stopped searching for Portside depth. On Monday, word came they signed Japanaese veteran Ken Takahashi to a minor league contract. Takahashi, who was recently released after an unsuccesful audition with the Blue Jays, is expected to report to Class AAA Buffalo. YouTube video out there shows him pitching for his former Hiroshima team wearing No. 22, now on the back of JJ Putz.

Elsewhere, looks like Rule 5 sidewinder Darren O'Day may sweat out the final bullpen slot, with Elmer Dessens and Fernando Nieve his competitors.

Very busy with travel recently, but I plan to resume with the Top 10 countdown after we get through Opening Day: We'll try to have the new rosters set, new player pages added, etc., later this week.

Available this week at area newsstands is the Maple Street Press Mets Annual, to which I contributed a couple of articles including a bio of skipper Jerry Manuel that was a lot of fun to research and write. I had to attack this peice without knowing whether I'd get any help from the Mets in terms of an interview, and that uncertainty forced me to get off my butt and actually commit some journalism, for which I'm thankful. Among the people I spoke to was Jerry's high-school baseball coach, Guy Anderson, who if you can believe this, is still coaching at Rancho Cordova High in Sacramento and couldn't have been any more accommodating. I also got some valuable insight from the editor of the White Sox Interactive web site, who didn't pull any punches when it came to the fan's take on what went wrong during "The Tinkerererer's" tenure there.

In the end the Mets were able to come through with some responses to my questions via email but the background work, as it often turns out to be, provided the best insights, were the most fun to pursue and ultimately make up the vast majority of the story.

Anyhow, please don't pick this book up just for that: There's quite a bit more good stuff in there including stats and analysis, a look at the minor leagues and draft, a look at the past (1969 and my favorite year, 1984) and the future at the new ballyard. Really, it's a nice way to start looking forward to the season.

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You may have seen the list of links to the left has been reorganized recently, and I'd like to call attention to a few of the new arrivals. I stumbled onto Centerfield Maz one afternoon recently and felt right at home reading a blog that discusses the drama of Cesar Cedeno and the first album from KISS in addition to Mets history.

Alex G., who in addition to starting a flattering Facebook Group that I'm declaring to be the official Facebook home of Mets by the Numbers, has also launched a new Mets blog, Bleeding Orange and Blue. Busting the other links into categories has also allowed me to add good stuff like Ron Kaplan's Baseball Books and Mark Weinstein's Bluenatic that didn't really fit into the old architecture.Yeah, this is a minor innovation but I like it.

I think if I knew when I started this site that it would be the among the longest surviving in Metdom I mighta turned it into a Cerronesque cash cow if only I'd been less discerning about linking out (and maybe a little less lazy). On the other hand there has to be value in leading you not into bad writing. It's all approved for your reading pleasure.

Yes, so happy birthday to Mets by the Numbers. It officially turned 10 last Sunday but wanted to kick things off once I had this alternacommemerative logo, thanks to Superba Graphics. It goes without saying they ought to be doing the same for the Mets. While 10 years ain't much, it's a lifetime on the Internet and as Mets sites go, I'm pretty sure there are only a few survivors any more ancient than this old bat. The Ultimate Mets Database debuted at around the same time as this site did, since I recall coming across it only while finishing up the back half of the site (it wasn't around while I initially researched and wrote the 10s and 20s or that would have gone faster).Mets Online continues in a somewhat altereted fashion -- the owner/editor and url are different -- but was definitely here before this one.

This site has changed some too. It used to be charmingly free of design and functionality but I have to say it was a bear to manage and led to way too many mistakes, and so a few years back I decided I had to kill it so it could live again. The new architecture isn't perfect yet but it works, and there's no limit to what can be bolted onto it. And while you may not see it everyday there's a little bit being added all the time (photos, player bios, etc), and it's reassuring from this end to know there's never going to be a time where there's absolutely nothing to add.

I'm not much for birthdays but to celebrate this anniversary, I thought I'd present some of the revived content in list form and count down 10 Top Tens, starting with the Top Ten 10s, on Sunday. Stay tuned for that. And thanks!

An interesting note from our nation's capital: When the Nationals signed Adam Dunn, they gave him his customary uni No. 44. To make room, selfless ex-Met Lastings Milledge has volunteered to switch ... to No. 85. It's his birth year.

Elsewhere in X-Met land, Aaron Heilman is wearing No. 47 with the Cubs and Joe Smith is  38 in Cleveland. Endy Chavez remains in No. 10 in Seattle and Scott Schoeneweis is still wearing No. 60, only in Arizona.I'd update you on Damian Easley but the poor guy hasn't found work yet. And Matt Wise has retired.

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Elsewhere, reader Charlie let me in on the fact that the revamped database had neglected to include the small handful of Mets who appeared on the roster but not in a game (Jerry Moses, Mac Suzuki, et al) but they're baked in there now. He also threw out a name I hadn't known was a Met before, Steve Simpson who according to Charlie appeared on the September active roster with the 1974 Mets but didn't appear in a game. Can anyone out there confirm this or offer more info?