Join us tonight at 9PM ET for PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL. Our guest will be Pulitzer Prize winner, Michael D’Antonio author of the book FOREVER BLUE: The True Story of Walter O’Malley, Baseball’s Most Controversial Owner, and the Dodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angeles (published by Riverhead Books/Penguin)

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OH BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Looks like Frank McCourt is looking to unload the Los Angeles Dodgers of Brooklyn as he can’t afford a baseball team and an ex-wife. Oh the possibilities here.

Could Freddy Skill Sets pull an O’Malley and head West to own his beloved Dodgers ? Think about it. Or how desperate is McCourt for some scratch that he would sell the DODGERS name to Freddy? Or just the trademark name Brooklyn Dodgers ?  Then he can get Jay Horowitz to legally change his name to Happy Felton

shout out to The Ropolitans for this pic

Sorry for no posts this morning but it’s been a busy day. So busy that I forget all about the David Wright sit down with the Sports Bloviator. I caught the tail end of the sit down as I traveled back from Brooklyn and I guess you could say it was typical David Wright. All positives and nothing controversial.

It looks like it’s a foregone conclusion that Bengi Molina will be the Mets #1 catcher this coming season. Again this looks to be another move where Omar was told to sit in the corner as the way the Mets have made Molina sit and stew is very un-Mets like. Same with Carlos Delgado who I think the Mets brain trust only went to Puerto Rico to see just to get away from freezing cold weather in NYC. Think about it, if the Mets were strictly an Omar Minaya Production, Molina, Delgado and Joel Piniero would be celebrating their multi year deals by now. Looks like those days are over.

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Art Rust Jr. who was sportstalk radio in this town back in the 1980’s. Rust hosted a three hour call in show on WABC and unlike WFAN he actually talked ALL sports. In fact I had called in to his show because a young Mark Messier came on to talk hockey and agreed to take calls from fans. Rust was a great baseball historian and a huge Highlander fan but his real passion was for The Sweet Science and he had all the big time boxers on his show.  R.I.P. Arthur George.

So the whole world of Metsdom is in an uproar due to the proclamation from the Drive Time Bloviator on WFAN that he has some major update about our favorite baseball team. So what could this major update be?

Well, I speculated on Twitter last night, that the team is in talks with Bombo Rivera to make a comeback and man left field. Rivera has Expo blood in him so that’s enticing to Omar.

Or it might be that Frank McCourt, the owner of the Los Angles Dodgers of Brooklyn, who is in a nasty divorce with Madame Jamie, needing cash will sell the name DODGERS to the Skill Sets who will finally get their wish to own the Dodgers.

Then again it could be that the Skill Sets have decided to have the team take a year off and cancel all plans to field a team in 2010. $iti Field will then be turned into a combination Chuck-E-Cheese/Catering hall to be rented out for birthdays, weddings and bar mitzvahs.

Who knows? Only the Pontiff Mike knows.

Wayne Coffey in today’s Daily News has a great two page story on Dwight Gooden and his road back into baseball and leading a life free of drugs and alcohol. Coffey zones in on Doc’ 1985 season which is one of the greatest pitching season in baseball history. I love that Coffey mentions that the Gooden phenomenon back then has not been matched in this city.  No player in any sport in this city can match what Gooden and the Mets did back then. I remember that any start Gooden made was a must see event and as hard as this is to believe where I lived in Brooklyn we did not have cable. So when any Gooden starts were not on Ch 9 the choice was either get to Shea or get to a bar that has one of those huge satellite dishes to watch his starts.

I’m glad that Doc is back in baseball as he is working for the Newark Bears but with this new found thinking of management bringing back players who actually have a winning pedigree with the Mets in coaching positions, you would think there would be a spot for Doc.

I know I’m late with this but kudos to Mike Silva and Joe DeMayo over at NYBD for breaking the story on the hiring of Wally Backman by the Mets to manage the Brooklyn Cyclones. Not only is great to have Wally back in the family but to manage Brooklyn makes it even sweeter.

By the way all of the folks who are attacking Mike and Frank Russo over his report that Carl Crawford has asked out of Tampa need to grow up. What, you think Crawford is going to retire a Ray?

To me the biggest question of the off season is still how much power does Omar Minaya have, Joel Sherman shines some light on the subject:

Rival executives and agents described a man not fully in charge of baseball operations regardless of what Mets ownership says. One NL official said that lag time between discussing business with Minaya and the time it took him to respond suggested he had to run the information through a committee.

An agent said, “You might not like what Omar had done in the past, but he was always aggressive and decisive. He looked old, beaten and without a plan this time.”

Executives and agents said they thought Minaya has yet to be told a true budget by ownership, and that is leading to the belief that the Mets do not want to spend big. A second agent said, “The Mets are not a destination spot right now, especially if you are a hitter. You would be going to a questionable team playing in a huge park. So if you’re Jason Bay, why would you leave the Red Sox for the Mets unless you were blown away (financially), or if you were Matt Holliday, why would you leave St. Louis for the Mets unless you were blown away?”

If this info is right then the Skill Sets fucked up again by not firing Omar and not giving the job to either John Rico or going out and hiring a younger more aggressive GM. This is what bugs the living shit out of me with Jeffey Skill Sets, all along he states that Minaya has “full autonomy “ over the baseball ops but according to Sherman’s sources he has to run his moves though a committee so in effect you’ve cut Omar’s balls off. Great move Jeffey, you little shit.

Rumor has it, that Freddie Skill Sets has been begging The Used Car Salesman to order the Trolly Dodgers to play their home World Series games at $iti Field.

There are still plentyof seats on the Daniel Murphy bandwaggon for all of you who jumpped off after his rough start.

Lastings Millidges is hitting .325/.374/.442 since he joined the Pirates. I’m just sayin’. Why do get the feeling the Pirates will see a post seaon before the Mets.

Big Pelf was fantastic yesterday and watching him pitch like that verifies why I love the big lug. What drives me nuts though is his next start he could tank just as easily and that’s is the madness that is Mike Pelfrey.

How can the Mets bring Carlos Beltran back now? Who is going to lead Brooklyn to a NY-PENN League championship?

Maybe John Maine can start the first game for Brooklyn against Mahoning Valley instead of against Philly?

If you put Corey Sullivan’s brain with Angel Pagan’s ability you’d have a solid ML player. Pagan has talent but on the baseball field he’s dumber than a sack of rocks.

I see where SNY is going to add a couple of gimmicks to their game telecasts next week. One game there will be a silent inning where Gary, Keith and Ron will not speak for a full inning. Another game, SNY will let Gary stay home and allow Ron and Keith handle the play by play. Now that should be fun.  What would be even better is having bloggers do commentary during a game like a Mystery Theatre 3000 sceanrio, that would bring the network an Emmy.  

Enjoy you Labor Day

Friday nights at camp has always been about celebrating the accomplishments of the boys and the camaraderie of the troop and the Leaders. The Scout Leaders chip in and buy pizza and soda for the scouts and we also buy for the staff who helps us make our week run smooth.

So myself and leader went and got 14 pizza’s and a couple of cases of soda. After filling our bellies, my son and I take a walk up to the medic to get the dressing on his injured finger changed. As we come out of the medic office we see two of our leaders running up with one of our Scouts holding a blood soaked hand. The young man sliced his finger sawing wood for the evening camp fire and had to go to the hospital to get 6 stitches. As they leave, the rest of the troop and four other leaders are headed to the field for the closing ceremonies so my son and I join in.

As we join the formation the site commissioner grabs my arm and tells me that a bear has just gone through our site. It seems the remaining troop did not police the area before leaving and a full pepperoni pizza was left on a table.

When one of the site guides was walking through the back of our site, he spotted the bear. From his account, the bear walked past the site and suddenly stopped and lifted up his head, pointing his snout toward the sky and it seems the scent of the pizza appealed to him. The bear hopped up on the table and grabbed the box and proceeded to enjoy a slice (no word on if he used proper Brooklyn pizza etiquette by folding the slice in half) While this went on, the site guide radioed the Park Ranger who was tracking the bear and alerted him to the bear’s whereabouts. The Ranger has a gun with rubber bullets and he then shot the bear in the ass causing the bear to yelp and run off toward the lake.

So for the rest of the evening we kept the camp well lit and cleaned the camp like it was a hospital emergency room. But I didn’t go to sleep until about 3AM when my relief took so I could get 3 hours sleep until it was time to get up and break camp.

As great as it is to have a bear story it’s even better that I packed and extra pair of underwear. They came in handy.

Oh yeah about the deal, The whole “Francoeur is a great defensive player” and now the spin from Flushing is we are going to turn this team into a pitching and defense first kind of squad to fit $iti Field is admirable but the fact is this was a deal for two guys neither team wanted around anymore. But I’m fine with Frenchy even though is numbers have decreased each season since his rookie year and he is a very good right fielder with a plus arm. Church never “wowed” me but he was done in by bad medical advice and a manager who had not faith in him so I wish him luck and good health in Atlanta. Another plus for Francoeur is his nickname “Frenchy”

It’s all here in his post. Great job by Gooden and an outstanding job by BMF.

Looks like Good Ollie has made his 2009 debut tonight so far it’s 2-1 Mets after 5 hopefully Good Ollie can last until the 7th so the firm of Putz & Rodriguez can close this one out.

Long day today as my kids are still home on Easter break so we had to hit the city for the day of theatre lunch and shopping so I’m beat and broke ( a bad combination ) so after reading my e-mails I’m ready for baseball and hockey for the evening.

Back in the A.M