Brad

One of my least favorite people in baseball and to think he worked for the Mets as head of player development in the 60s!

The Mets pitchers were actually running out of gas and towards the end of the season, deGrom didn't look that good; at one game I attended he got lit up pretty good. The Mets responded by skipping him a turn. They did the same with Harvey and Syndergaard. Skipping them made all the difference in the world. I don't know if the Cubs did that with Arietta. Or veteran experience? I can't believe they were swept. Would have never expected it. A big factor was that the Cubs never got a lead. They were always playing from behind and catchup the whole series. I didn't expect it but the Mets basically rolled over them.

I think the only thing this Cubs team is missing is more starting pitching. After Arietta and Lester, they are not that good. They're not even as good as the Mets fifth and sixth starters. Also Schwarber needs some work in the instructional league or offseason work on his fielding; he just didn't look good out there. Other than that, they look pretty darn good. I think the series turned when the Mets beat Arietta. I didn't expect that and was a little shocked. The number of innings he pitched this year were probably too much. You can say that this experience will help the Cubs next year -- and it should -- but as we have seen you can never guarantee you'll be back. See the Nationals experience, for example.

Reading David Halberstam's Teammates about four players on the Red Sox (Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky and Bobby Doerr). Nice baseball book but more a book about four men.

That's the original Mr. Met! The original mascot and the best! Same to you Scott. I'd like to see both teams finish it up today. They're the two best teams and it should be a lot of fun, when they both get there; we don't want to jinx them.

He sounds like an ass. I've been lucky to get some of the Bee Hives over the years and can't wait to get this. Need to get on the stick!

I think MLB and Fox would be happy in that they will have one of the major markets in the WS, be it the Mets or the Cubs. However, we still have one game to go; to a man, the Mets aren't looking past the Cubs and say today is a must win game. If the Mets get in, the ratings here will be huge, not that they aren't already. Unlike past years, Yankee fans are rooting for the Mets. Met stuff is everywhere and basically that's all people want to talk about. Hard to fathom but it will be even bigger and I think that the story of the young arms and Daniel Murphy will be a great ratings draw, not to mention the Royals heading back to the WS and the comeback kids, etc. I hope the Mets (as well as KC) can wrap it up today so they can save Harvey for the opener, to be followed by deGrom and Thor (Syndergaard). As good as this pitching has been, and I've never seen anything like it, it even gets better next year when Zach Wheeler returns.

Wonder if the Blue Jays wished they could do over the Dickey trade. They could have had Syndergaard pitching for them today. Sandy Alderson fleeced them.

For me it has, but that's because my team has been in the wilderness for a long time so come what may it's been a great run.

??? Was that meant for me? I never thought I'd see the day when the Royals were the only one of the remaining four Championship Series teams to have the most recent success. Three short years ago none of the four teams remaining even had winning records. The Mets at 74-88 had the best record. That same year the Cubs lost 101 games! The turnaround started in 2013 when Harvey burst on the scene. Obviously a few of the players here now were here then (Murphy, Wright, Niese).

Bring on the Cubbies!

Astros and Rangers fans (and players, etc.) will remember this one. So close to moving on. Cardinals can say, "oh, well, we'll be back next year." Don't know if it's worse to lose like Astros did or just be blown out. Neither feels too good. Mets and Dodgers fans are starting to have sweaty palms (2.5 hours to go as we speak).

That article doesn't completely convince me, not to mention its four years old. I notice they talk about the new Yankee Stadium and it's soulless. Unlike old YS it has no personality. At at any rate new ownership has renovated or is renovating the place. Regarding last night's game, I'm not terribly optimistic about tomorrow. Bats have been generally quiet for a couple of weeks, Monday being a major exception. deGrom will need to be close to perfect to win. They may need to bring in Syndergaard at some point, with him and Colon being a bridge to Familia. No one else in that pen is trustworthy.

Neither the Cubs nor Cardinals are among my favorite teams; Cub fans still whine about 1969. However, I know that they will draw big ratings and be America's darlings. Mike Shannon? One of the worst broadcasters and biggest homers around. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. I've never been to Wrigley but places like that and Fenway are our cathedrals. Duke, a great CF and part of the trio of great CFers (along with Mays and Mantle) when NY was the center of the baseball universe. Saw him play at the old Polo Grounds.

It's the end of civilization as we know it!

Via Netflix, "Death in Paradise," a British detective show with a stuffy British cop set in the Caribbean. It's formulaic but I've enjoyed it.

If the Cubs were in the WS, that would draw significant ratings, probably more than any other city, just because they haven't been in the WS since the 1940s or won anything since 1905 or whatever date it is.

Scott nailed it about football taking care of its own. Could there be a Green Bay -- the ultimate small market team -- in baseball. No way. I'm sure that baseball is worried about what might happen from the stands tonight, which is why Utley was suspended, and I'm sure his appeal will be quickly rejected. As it is, it will be a tense atmosphere tonight.

Good call on the witness protection. If you meant business, make it three. Just an attempt to avoid a controversy at Citifield. On on the lighter side, How the Dead Helped Me Understand the Mets, http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/magazine/how-the-grateful-dead-helped-me-understand-the-mets.html?_r=1

Utley has been suspended for games 3 and 4. That will mollify some but I'm sure the players still won't be completely satisfied.

Never knew that Wynton did the Burke's Law theme. Great show for that time, of course.

Rita takes the cake! Hard to top that one.

On Jim's HR question logic would seem to dictate that since he didn't touch 3rd (provided the appeal is upheld), he is out but is awarded a 2B On Neal's point, from what I have heard today, once the ump called Utley out he had no obligation to touch 2nd so he was safe on the reversal. As I understand it, interference would only work on a routine DP where you can use the neighborhood play. As this was far from routine, the neighborhood play couldn't be invoked so interference was out. I don't know if this is an alternative but I wonder if Utley could have been called safe at 2nd but Kendrick out at 1st because of Utley's slide. I don't really know. I think it's fortunate that there is a rest day between yesterday's and tomorrow's game as it may afford everybody to think more rationally and focus on playing game 3, not to say that Mets players won't try to take out Kendrick or Seager if given the opportunity. I like Howie from watching him with the Angels so I hope he doesn't get hurt; even my wife, who watches precious little baseball, knows who he is and likes him. Other than Kendrick and Turner, the other Dodgers are not really hitting the ball.

If it was late or with an intent to injure. Torre may just decide that he wants to defuse an obvious inflammatory situation and let the teams sort it out when they meet in the regular season, or for whatever team Utley is playing for at the time, assuming he hasn't retired. I would think the Dodgers wouldn't object too strongly if some sort of suspension took place. It might be better for all concerned. If this had happened in the 1940s, it would have been written off as one of those things.

It was like a perfect storm for the Mets: Murphy didn't make a good flip to Tejada, he was in a vulnerable position and Utley, no matter what, is coming in hard He's a dirty player. However, it couldn't be a double play because Tejada didn't get the one out. Just a bad situation. The Mets should have retaliated when things got out of hand. There would have been a brawl but it would have settled matters until putting it off until next week. Yes, I'm sure there will be a warning. However, if Utley makes an appearance all bets are off and it could be ugly. I wouldn't be surprised if Torre suspended him for two games. There will be retaliation of some kind, most likely on the base paths. As bad as the situation was, it was still 2-2 but the Mets bullpen, particularly in the 7th, has been notoriously ineffective this season. Addison Reed was supposed to be the answer but he proved ineffective last night. In retrospect I suppose he should have brought in Robles but that's a second guess. However, I hope he goes to Robles in the 7th the next time. For sure Robles would have hit someone. He nearly incited a brawl at Philadelphia last week and got himself a three game suspension.