Rainy Issues

Tom Glavine gets his wish.

We have yet another rainout, pushing Game 5 back to Tuesday evening, and letting Glavine go on normal rest not only tomorrow, but if the Mets get that far...normal rest for Game 2 of the World Series.

So let's discuss some things, shall we?

The Philadelphia Phillies used this off day to make a move to ensure that their team will be more ready for battle in 2007.

They hired Art Howe.

No no no no no...don't laugh. This is a shrewd move by the Phightin' Phils...after all, they're going to need somebody to be that calming influence on the bench when Ryan Howard becomes filled with self doubt after the Phillies fans turn on him after grounding to the left side with a runner on second base on a night where he had already hit four home runs. Who's going to be on the bench to let Howard know that everything is going to be all right as long as he battles?

Who's going to provide the pre-game brownies?

And who's going to be there during that inevitable day where Charlie Manuel, Davy Lopes, Jimy Williams, Pat Gillick, Chase Utley, Greg Luzinski, Harry Kalas, Pete Rose, Donovan McNabb, and Bernie Parent all get ejected for arguing balls and strikes? They'll need that excess managerial savvy that only Art Howe can provide...because who else would know to play the infield in while down by seven, to prevent that all important eight run lead?

Of course, someone is going to have to wake him up first.

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Oddly enough, Art Howe gets hired the same day his Oakland successor, Ken Macha, gets the boot. Howe was quoted as saying that it was a shame, because Macha really battled.

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Speaking of battling, turns out that Albert Pujols, who strained an oblique earlier this season, has been battling a bum hamstring. Tony La Russa hopes that it doesn't affect So Taguchi's power stroke.

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"The Mets, let's face it, aren't going to win any pitchers' duels. That would require them to have pitchers who actually can shut a team down." -Sports Illustrated's John Donovan

Um, was Mr. Donovan notating the weekly minutes of a Sons of Satoru Komiyama Society convention during Game 1?

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The crack staff really did it this time.

They have uncovered some photos of some old...old...old Met baseball, from when I was not yet a year young. I thought it would be fun to use this unscheduled off day to share them with you:

This is how you know it's an old game...the upper deck seats are like that "sea green" color from your old box of Crayola crayons.

If you look closely at the scoreboard (the old scoreboard, I may add), you'll see that the Pirates come to town on September 24th, 25th, and 26th. Using that, along with the linescore, as a clue, the crack staff has deduced that this is from a game against the Dodgers on August 29th, 1971 (thanks to the good folks at Retrosheet). Tug McGraw got the victory on a walk-off single by Tommie Agee (and correcting my earlier mistake, you can read about it at Mets Walkoffs). Not a bad bit of detective work considering these pictures were taken with an instamatic camera. You know how else you know this game is old? Check out the trivia question on the scoreboard above, and see the answer below (hint, click the picture itself):

Active pitcher...Hoyt Wilhelm.

I'm old.