The Final Score

Haven't been in the mood.

I have to admit I'm not sure about this whole blogging thing.

I mean, I know for a fact that thousands of different people click on this blog each week. But it seems like less than 10 are ever moved to comment. So at times it feels like all we're doing is having a conversation among 5 or 6 people.

I was so excited the other day when I saw 28 comments on one post! But when I read the comments I realized it was 7 comments each by four people.

Help me out, Final Score readers, loyal and otherwise: If you are out there, do me a favor and throw me a comment on this post. Even if it's just to say hi. It doesn't have to be on this topic. It doesn't have to be about sports.

Just let me know you're out there.

Newsday's baseball columnist Ken Davidoff did a pre-emptive debate with me about pitch counts today even though I was sleeping at the time.
I'm flattered, Ken.
Speaking of pitch counts, I'm honored to say I'll be covering Joba Chamberlain's next start Friday night in Houston. I'll be charting pitches like I have for the first two, but what I'm really interested is seeing Joba bat. He's such a big kid and looks pretty athletic.
I understand the Yankees are limiting him to one swing per at-bat, though. Once he gets to five swings -- that's it, he's out of the game, no matter what the score or inning.
Hey -- Joba must be protected at all costs!

Please comment on the following:

Should we keep Chicago Norm on full-time now that Baumbach is back?

Also, still waiting for someone to tell me what Spam tastes like.

Thanks.

Apparently the interview Andrew Marchand did with me about the thing I did 13 years ago was on ESPN 1050 during "The Michael Kay Show" today at about 4:20. I didn't hear it because I was in the Mets clubhouse at the time waiting to find out about Ryan Church's concussion.

Marchand also wrote a story about the interview. You can read it here and listen to the radio piece too if the audio link is working.

I just thought of another way to increase page views that's even better than trying to make the Final Score big in China:

Mentioning the (retired) pro wrestler Chyna.

It's a blog fact that if Jim, Chicago Norm and I mentioned pro wrestling more often -- or at all -- our page views would be through the roof. We have resisted such shennanigans.

Until now.

Last night at Shea I was interviewed by ESPN 1050's Andrew Marchand about something I did 13 years ago.

Veteran Rieber fans will easily figure out what Marchand wanted to talk to me about. Here's a hint: The L.A. Dodgers are coming to Shea on Thursday.

Marchand told me the interview might be aired on Wednesday or Thursday. Or it could end up on the cutting room floor and never air. I'll let you know when I find out.

Of far greater importance to the Final Score is the conversation I had with Marchand before the interview. I asked him if he could get his buddies at ESPN.com to link to the Final Score just once a month.

Like, Bill Simmons or Peter Gammons could write a line that says, "Hey, check out what the guys at the Final Score have to say about Willie Randolph's job security. Those guys are super terrific!"

Then we would get a million page views and beat Best every single month.

Marchand said he'd get back to me on that one. I don't think he even knows Bill Simmons or Peter Gammons. So I'm not counting on it.

Oh wow! If you read the item from me below about Mike Jarvis, I mention I'd like to do one of those ESPN countdown clocks for Baumbach's return. So then I click over to ESPN 1050's web site and they have a countdown clock...to the Belmont. So they have the technology that we lack.

Both apologized on Wednesday.

Here's Willie's.

Here's Simon's.

The one thing they don't have in common: Simon is (probably) not going to get fired before the end of the summer.

Interesting that Baumbach, who likes to fill us in on everything he did in high school, isn't sharing his vacation destination with the class.

Here's a hint:

and another:

and one more:

Any guesses?

Anthony is the seventh-most popular baby name, according to the Department of Compiling and Releasing Pointless Lists.

James is not in the top 10.

Our hard-working Neil Best announced this morning that he is taking the weekend off from blogging.

Neil practically invented newspaper blogging, so he's entitled to some time with the Besties. He also invented Velcro, but (little-known fact) forgot to patent it. D'oh!

Jim and I will be here blogging all weekend to serve your blog needs. We never take a day off. That's a promise.

Except for later this month when we are each taking a week of vacation. So we need page views now! Tell your friends.

Thanks to enthusiastic Final Score reader Tyler Kepner, who helped me find the answer to a question a reader posed a while back: What happened to the bullpen cars teams used to use in baseball?

Tyler told me of a web site, www.uniwatchblog.com and a man named Paul Lukas. Here's a link to a story Paul wrote about bullpen cars for ESPN.com.

My good friend Ed McNamara, who does a great job covering horse racing for Newsday, always talks about "the thing I learned today."

Well, the thing I learned today was you can shorten "whatever!" to "whatev!"

Roger Rubin of the Daily News says the fact I just learned this today means I'm old. To which I say:

"Whatev!"

Q: Anthony what are the chances that Delgado wont finish the season in a Mets uniform? I believe he will not. However I dont know who will replace him (please dont say Easley or Anderson) Thanks.
John, Farmingdale

A: Chances he won't finish the season as a Met are zero. The Mets aren't going to release a player who makes $16 mil. It's just not in their blood.

Could they trade for his replacement and bench him? I guess, but how would that work exactly? As big a problem as Delgado may be, the Mets have to keep their chips -- if they have any -- for pitching.

They really don't have any good options to replace him...unlike the Yankees, who have plenty of good options to replace Giambi. But you didn't ask about that.

Thanks to everyone for sending in the questions. There were a lot of good ones, but I chose the top 11 because...well, i just got tired after 11. See you next time.

Q: The way Ross Gload is hitting against the yankees, do you see him as a player they may want to trade for?
Al C., Woodstock, NY

A: Al, Long Island's own Ross Gload does hit well against the Yankees. But as long as Jason Giambi is healthy, they really can't pick up any more first baseman types.

Q: Is there any situation where we can trust Heilman? I'm not sure he can protect a 15 run lead.
Lou B., Valatie, NY

A: I don't think that's a real question. That's more like a statement. Heilman has been bad. Got it.

Q: Both new york teams are thin on pitching and until this situation is amended neither one is going anywhere. They may have started slowly but the detroit tigers are the team to beat this year. My question is why have the yankees or mets not signed freddy garcia?
Michael M., Afton, NY

A: I like what Michael did there. He started with two statements, then went on to his question. Quick, clean and efficient.

Freddy Garcia may very well sign with one of the NY teams. He's not ready yet, though. Still rehabbing the shoulder.

Q: What is the reason they got rid of the cars that used to transport the relievers in from the bullpen?
Jordan, East Meadow

A: Price of gas?

I don't know, but that's a great question. Anyone out there know? You have stumped the band.

Q: Are Dennis Cook & Aaron Cook related?
Thanks, Julian S

A: Not to my knowledge. Baseball-reference.com usually includes family affiliations on its player pages, and they don't have anything for the Cooks.

For example, for Mariano Rivera they say "cousin of Ruben Rivera."

Q: How long do you think Willie will last as the Mets Manager. He seems to be missing the beat as the leader of the club, what your opinion?
Zak, Manville, NJ

A: Zak. I like that name, though I prefer the spelling Z-A-C-H. I've always had this fantasy about having twins and naming them Zach and Zoey. Don't know why.

Willie will last at least the rest of this season. If the Mets miss the playoffs, he's done. If they get to the World Series, he's safe. Anything in between, I'm not too sure.

Q: When do you think yankees are going to fire Cashman? He got a full authority after the 2005 season and he is still not producing? Where are the CY Young pitchers he drafted and where is the can't-miss type of players he drafted? He is the worst Gm in the majors. Period. For the Yankees to win, they have to get rid of Cashman.
Flushing

A: Competence is all relative. For example, the person who sent this e-mail put down "Flushing" as his or her name instead of his or her name. So I don't know what his or her name is. I'm assuming "Flushing" is where the person lives. It's not really cool as a name.

Cashman isn't the worst GM in the majors. I think, Flushing, if you're waiting for him to get fired, you will have a long wait. He doesn't have a contract for next season, so....check back in October.

Q: Farnsworth [stinks], pure and simple..when are they going to do something about him?
Frank, Winter Garden, Fla.

A: Frank used a word that is stronger than stinks but isn't really all that bad. But Newsday's policy is not to use that word in the newspaper unless there's a really good reason. What is our policy on using the word on a blog? I'm not sure.

Farnsworth's contract is up after this season. That's when.

Q: When will the Yankees offer Chien-Ming Wang a contract extension? Don't you think he has proved that he is one of the best pitches in the majors right now? If the Yankees keep waiting, they will just end up paying a lot more.
Tommy, Houston
A: Tommy, have you seen what the ticket prices are going to be at the new Yankee Stadium? Whenever the Yankees get around to paying Wang, don't worry. They'll be able to afford it.

I have a question for you: Why would a fan of a team with virtually unlimited resources in a sport with no salary cap care about the team overpaying a player?

Hi. Time to empty out the ol' baseball mailbag. You can send me a question at anthony.rieber@newsday.com.

Q: Will Joe ever get Giambi to start hitting the ball to left.? The shift is killing him, but he still tries to pull everything.
Bill, Tucson, Ariz.

A: Never. Giambi's not going to change his approach now. That's why there's a shift.

Last night I watched the Hitchcock murder thriller "Strangers On a Train" on PBS. I wasn't planning to watch it, but it was on and I had nothing to do.

Before you start thinking there goes Rieber on another non-sports tangent, let me point out that sports is a significant part of the movie. The main character is a famous tennis player who actually plays a match in the film at Forest Hills -- the future site of the U.S. Open.

Interestingly, in the book the movie was based on, the same character was not a tennis player, but an architect. Why was the change made? I don't know. Maybe someone out there does?

And right after the match the tennis player / main character goes to old Penn Station, the beautiful gateway that was stupidly torn down in 1964 to, in part, make room for Madison Square Garden. The film was released in 1951.

Having been born in 1967, I never saw the old Penn Station in person but I've seen it in photographs. Having seen it again for a few seconds on film, I just have to ask: What were you people thinking when you tore it down?

Of course, I am old enough to remember when Grand Central Station's roof was so filthy you couldn't see the amazing ceiling art. Thank goodness they cleaned that up.

Are we going to feel this way 20 years after they tear Yankee Stadium down? Probably not since it's the pre-1976 Yankee Stadium people really wax poetic about.

Anyway, the movie was good, not great (kind of like Mike Mussina -- another sports tie-in!). Robert Ebert called it one of the top 100 films of all-time once, but I don't see it. The end of the plot turns on a police officer firing his gun when no police officer would -- into a crowd after a fleeing unarmed man. At least I hope no police officer would do that.

It's a B+ movie. Like most Hitchcock flicks, it has suspense and some very funny moments. He really had a terrific droll sense of humor.

Wikipedia says IMBD says the movie is supposed to be remade this year, but I couldn't find any info about that.

Neil Best has probably seen it. I know Jim hasn't. Neil, I don't think you've ever commented on our blog the way we have on yours, but I'd be interested to know what you thought of this movie. Thanks.

He wrote a column for Newsday today about sports and the media and used a word I have never seen before. He wrote:

"When is the sports yakosphere going to learn its lesson about making assumptions regarding injuries?"

Yakosphere. Love it.

Here's the rest of the column.

Anthony just called me on his way to Yankee Stadium and told me about this wacky story that he saw on Sportscenter this morning.

It's about how a Western Oregon softball player tore her Achilles on her first-ever home run trot - which alone is a pretty good story, because how does that happen? (She missed first base and injured herself going back for the bag.)

The home run would have just gone down in the record books as a single, but two of her opponents decided to carry her around the bases so it would still officially count as a home run.

Google tells me this story has received national attention. So I guess I've been too focused on my Mets assignments the last two days to see it. But, anyway, here's the original story from the Statesman Journal (which is also where I got the photo).

The ratings are out.

The first month of the new Final Score, with Anthony and Jim, was up 400 percent from the previous month.

Wow.

We're not going to get into totals because we're still sucking wind when it comes to the big blogs like the Yankees or Mets or Best or Glauber.

We just want to thank everyone who has given us a look and decided they liked what they saw. And thanks to Mike and Mike in the office for giving us good play on the sports home page when we did something they deemed worthy.

And thanks to our Newsday blog bretheren for linking to us or allowing us to link from their blogs. We invite you to check them all out; they're good people and part of why working at Newsday, despite continuing uncertainty in our industry, doesn't suck too much.

We're talking about Glauber and Davidoff and Lennon and O'Brien and Hahn and Zipay and especially Best, the blogfather.

And thanks to commenters Brooks and Chicago Norm and Tyler Kepner and Jim A. from the Yankees blog and Mushinghead and the guy who never saw "Animal House" and the Islander fan who's obsession with Baumbach seems to be waning lately (good) and Otter and Boone.

I'm trying to come up with a slogan for TFS. Here's what I have so far:

"The Final Score. Miss a day and you'll miss a lot . . . of crap."

Maybe Jim or our regulars can come up with something better.

And guess who posted the monumental comment?

Anthony Rieber.

D'oh!

So I suppose we should then celebrate comment No. 501 in the blog's short history, and that one was posted by an already legendary FS commenter: Brooks Simpson.

To commemorate his post, I'm going to give a shoutout to the chapter Brooks wrote in Randy Roberts' book "Pittsburgh Sports: Stories from the Steel City. It is titled, "How a New Yorker Came to Love the Penguins."

Good timing, eh?

Here's the link Brooks gave us to the book.

On the debate below, I used a throwaway line from "Animal House"

"Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor"

Some anonymous commenter called me an idiot for saying the Rangers could still win the series (fine), but then corrected me and told me the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Eagle-eyed Final Score readers noticed that anonymous wasn't kidding -- he or she really thought I thought the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.

Dude, or Dudette:

You are the first sports fan I've ever met who has never seen "Animal House." Rent yourself a copy. Also, "Caddyshack."

I just hope as a hockey fan you have seen "Slap Shot" -- I shudder to think you have not.

Other lines from "Animal House" that the commenter isn't aware of:

-- The time has come for someone to put his foot down. And that foot is me.
-- Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.
-- Leaving! What a good idea.
-- May I have ten thousand marbles, please?
-- Face it, Kent. You threw up *on* Dean Wormer.
-- As of this moment, they're on DOUBLE SECRET PROBATION!
-- Do you mind if we dance with your dates?

Ashley Force.

She became the first woman to win a Funny Car event Sunday by beating her "legendary" father, Phil Force.

Frank Force?

All right, it's John Force.

Great name. Here's the story if you're interested.

From Joe Girardi:
"I knew Joba was rested and available, but I decided to go with Farnsworth in the eighth anyway."

From Willie Randolph:
"I'm really, really excited about the chance to discuss the latest update on Moises Alou with the media. You guys need anything else?"

From an NFL general manager:
"The player we wanted wasn't available, so we picked a guy we're not really sure about. It was a pick-a-name-out-a-hat kind of thing. Truth is, we didn't spend all that much time preparing. The draft kind of snuck up on us."

So I was in the Mets' clubhouse this morning, doing what I am paid to do: watching the movie "Meatballs" on the TV with a lot of my fellow writers and one Met (Scott Schoeneweis).

"Meatballs" came out in 1979, when I was 11. It is one of my favorite all-time flicks, but I haven't seen in it many, many years. I had forgotten how amazingly good it is.

You can see the early seeds of Bill Murray's genius, seeds that would later come to full bloom in the all-time classic "Caddyshack"

Imagine one of Rembrandt's early works. That's "Meatballs" -- "Caddyshack" is the masterpiece.

Trivia question: When Murray's character is talking to a softball batter who is about to go up to the plate in a big spot, he says (I'm paraphrasing), "I don't want to put any pressure on you, but there's a scout from the [MAJOR LEAGUE TEAM] in the stands."

Name the team. Davidoff, some help here?

At least that's the position of this article from www.ohio.com about Larry and his son Paul, owners of the Cleveland Indians.

Do you think Larry and Paul rub it in to Charles and Jimmy at the family dinners? Charles and Jimmy can point to the relative success of the Rangers, but having the Knicks on your resume is a pretty big booger.

...But that doesn't mean you shouldn't enjoy it as a spectator sport.

Our sister paper, the Orlando Sentinel, has a brand new NASCAR blog called "NASCAR Nuts and Bolts" -- check it out if you're interested in cars going around in an endless circle and sometimes crashing into each other.

Of course, if Newsday is sold to Rupert Murdoch and the Sentinel stops being our sister paper (would it be our ex-sister paper?), then I will have to disable the link. Instead, I will link to the Sydney Daily Telegraph's rugby blog or the Times of London's cricket blog. I think Murdoch owns those papers and they are fine examples of journalistic excellence.

I really appreciate the good folks at Newsday.com putting "Ask Anthony" teezers on the end of a lot of our baseball stories. I get a lot of good baseball questions from readers, some of which I answer directly in a return e-mail and others of which I save to answer here. A few I delete immediately because they are incomprehensible garbage.

Also Jim and I have done two "Ask Anthony" videos. We might do another this weekend and if we do it will go up here on Monday. We haven't talked about it yet. Hey, Jim, want to do a video on Su