Another Comment Winter Olympics season coming to an end. Where does the time go?

In this final competition of the year, the judges found themselves uniquely captivated by one exchange. It began with these words by Viva Los Mets:

Ken Davidoff - the eternal Bankee fan. Arent you the same writer who guaranteed all year long last year that the Bankees would sign Cliff Lee? If the Mets have an 82-85 win record, what excuse will you come up with? 

No biggie. We've dealt with this before, and I'd like to think that I'm somewhat thick-skinned, despite possessing an ego the size of New Mexico.

But the responses were swift, diverse and hilarious, so much so that it felt like one of those insult competitions at a comedy club.

--The bronze goes to Sandy, who went right for the jugular:

Hey, instead of calling Ken out--probably because you're a loser yourself and 300 lbs.--why don't you do something constructive and try to educate us as to why the Mets are going to win 82-85 games in your enlightened way?

And if you can't do it - disappear!

--The silver goes to Islander505, who deftly integrated current events into his response:

Huh? Viva Los Mets, you need to brush up on the reading comprehension skills. Calling Ken Davidoff the "eternal Yankee fan" is akin to calling Al Gore a proponent of nuclear energy.

--And the gold goes to Bob Tufts, who flipped the original comment on its head:

The Mets will win 82-85 games in 2011 - if the season is extended to 200 games.

BTW, I wouldn't use a financial allusion to criticize the Yankees, considering how actual banks may own the Mets in 2012.

Thanks very much to everyone who takes the time to liven up our little community with jokes, insults, commentary and what have you. Even though we often go at each other in debates, we have each others' backs in the end.

At some point, I'll try to put together the medal standings for this year and perhaps even all-timne. Not this morning, though. I'm tired from my Florida travels. Maybe Richie G. will do the legwork for us? ;)

--Here's my column on Luis Castillo. One thought I referenced here on the blog yesterday, but didn't have room for in the actual column, was that Castillo said he has no regrets about re-signing with the Mets. "Of course he doesn't," you respond. "It's $25 million!"

Even yesterday, though, I noticed how comfortable Castillo is in the Mets' clubhouse, whether he was joking around with Jose Reyes or with the woman who cooks for the Mets in their Florida clubhouse.

He's a curious case in Mets history, and I stand by my contention that the Mets themselves deserve the lion's share of the blame for this. I was speaking with a Twins person about Castillo this week, and he said, "Look, we traded him because we thought he was getting old." And that was four years ago! 

The Twins did all right in that deal, too, getting an affordable young backup catcher in Drew Butera in return for a guy they were never going to re-sign, anyway.

--While I covered the non-playing Mets in Port St. Lucie, Jim Baumbach attended the Mets-Red Sox game in Fort Myers and wrote about Luis Hernandez and Jon Niese.

--In Tampa, where I am now, Anthony Rieber wrote about Rafael Soriano and his high-maintenance ways. Hey, if your $35-million setup man says he doesn't want to face AL East teams in spring training, that's a request you green-light without a second thought.

If he says he doesn't want to face AL East teams in the regular season...that would be a little trickier.

--Brett Gardner batted first and Derek Jeter second last night. Remember, one of the reasons the Yankees switched Jeter from second to first (and Johnny Damon from first to second) in 2009 was to try to keep Jeter from hitting into so many double plays.

Jeter's extreme groundball tendencies last year therefore would set off a red flag, but if Gardner can duplicate his .383 on-base percentage from last year, then this would be a risk worth taking.

--Joe Torre visited Steinbrenner Field and revealed that he'll attend the Yankees' Old-Timers Day June 26. It's amazing how quickly Torre and the Yankees moved through their feud. Of course, it was politically expedient for both sides to do so.

--I'll check in later today.

--UPDATE, 1:03 p.m.: You've probably seen by now that the Mets officially released Castillo. It's the right move from a baseball standpoint, and it's the right move in terms of fan goodwill. As we discussed yesterday, I think Brad Emaus gets the starting job

Good job by Jim Baumbach, who was the only reporter to get comments from Castillo.

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