Cutnpaste: - Jason Isringhausen, Don Zimmer, Mets Attendance, Reese Havens, 1882 Mets

Jason Isringhausen — It was a rough season for Isringhausen, who had mixed results filling in as the team's closer in the second half. Once a bright prospect in the Mets organization, Izzy had his best years closing games for the Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals. But he returned to where it all started this summer and notched career save No. 300 in a Mets uniform. - http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ycn-9174449

Don Zimmer, Tampa Bay Rays -- Rays owner and longtime Mets fan Stuart Sternberg isn't cutting any checks to ex-Mets this postseason, but he is ponying up some dough to pay for the services of one on the bench. Zimmer's best days certainly happened elsewhere, from his playing days with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers as well as the Chicago Cubs to his managerial turns in Chicago, Boston, and elsewhere. Or maybe you just associate him as Joe Torre's old bench coach with the Yankees, the one who Pedro Martinez threw to the ground in self-defense from a charging bald bull. Zimmer's an original Met, though -- a dyed-in-the-wool 1962 vintage that played all of 14 games for the Amazin's that year before being dealt to the Cincinnati Reds in May. That should give him a pass in case Jonah Keri's The Extra 2% didn't woo you about the good things going down in Tampa these days. - http://www.amazinavenue.com/2011/9/30/2459916/a-mets-fans-guide-to-recognizing-your-saints-in-the-2011-mlb-playoffs

Mets attendance declined for a third straight season, with the team drawing a total announced crowd of 2,352,596 in 2011. That figure was the team's lowest in seven years, since Art Howe's final season as manager. The 8.1 percent decline this season comes on the heels of a 19.2 percent dropoff from the inaugural season at Citi Field to Year 2 in 2010. Attendance dropped 21.6 percent from 2008 at Shea Stadium to 2009 at smaller-capacity Citi Field. - http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/35658/mets-attendance-down-8-in-2011

9-22-11: - http://projectprospect.com/article/2011/09/22/2011-eastern-league-top-prospects - Reese Havens, 2B New York Mets - “He really stayed with his approach no matter how we pitched him. I had the opportunity from second base to see how he hit. He got in good counts. We started pitching him away more as the season went on and it’s like he changed his approach. He was fun to watch.” – Eastern League hitter

In the 1800s the game went huge, particularly in New York where journalists referred to it as the “national pastime”. Leagues were formed, stadiums were built, and players were paid to play the game. By the turn of the century baseball looked like the modern-day game, with owners, presidents, managers, and star players. Here are some photos of that era pulled from the Library of Congress Archives. - http://1x57.com/2011/10/02/historical-baseball-photos-1880-1915