You might recall that I had a few giveaways last season. I ran a contest back in October of last season. Same principle as the WFAN Super Bowl ticket contest where all you had to do was identify the three voices on the video to win a Mets 50th anniversary DVD set.

Amazingly, after six months, nobody won the damn thing.

So here it is, the first giveaway of 2013 ... which is also the last giveaway of 2012. Perhaps I made it too difficult, but I'm going to try it again. A reminder: We're giving away the Mets 50th Anniversary Collectors Set by A&E productions and MLB Entertainment. It contains ten DVD's which contain five of the greatest games in Mets history, rare films and special exclusives, plus an illustrated history (that means pictures.)

This thing is crazy good, and yet it is sitting in a warehouse waiting for you to win it. And frankly I'm flabbergasted.

Quick refresher on the rules: You must have a mailing address in the continental U.S. or Canada. Second, you have to submit your answer as a comment on the bottom of this blog post.

Now, here are the three voices you must identify to win the DVD set:

Now here's the thing to realize, there is already a whole round of guesses that were already made, and to see them, look here at when I tried to give this away the first time. There are some correct answers there, but nobody got all three. All three players are current or former Mets. Now I could give you an extra hint to make this easier, but I'm going to furiously hold on to my beliefs here. Frankly, I'm disappointed that nobody got all three answers correct. I look at the guesses and I think to myself: "are we trying?"

So start your guesses ... again. I want to have this wrapped up by Opening Day. First one with the three correct voices wins this beautiful DVD set, which will soothe your hurt at losing Johan Santana for the rest of his life. Past guesses here. Good luck!!!

"Doesn't seem to be anything to report on Thursday." -Me, on Thursday

I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the millions of clowns that I shot with that statement. Because before Thursday could even end, there was a little something to report. Johan Santana has re-torn the capsule in his throwing shoulder, and is most likely gone for 2013, which would mean we've seen the last of him as a New York Met.

Now ... there are two possibilities as to exactly when this tear occurred that everybody will jump on immediately. First theory is that the 593 pitches he threw during his no-hitter are to blame, which would mean that Yankee fans can taunt us with "heh heh heh hope your fake no-hitter was worth it." Bite me. That was ten months ago. That isn't it.

The second possibility is that this happened during Santana's "angry bullpen session" back at the beginning of the month. This was indirectly caused by the backstage sniping that anonymous Mets made at Santana's lack of pitching shape through the media. Well, I hope they're happy. Because the lack of institutional control in this organization may have led to this. And I'll go one further: Perhaps making it public that you're already thinking of which budget to put the guy's 2014 buyout clause in before the aroma of the last Shack Shake burger from the 2012 season has wafted away might not have been the best idea. We worry about how managers will react to being in their lame duck season, well guess what: Sandy Alderson basically made Santana a lame duck by saying that his buyout money was already budgeted. So no, I still don't blame Santana for being angry when the sniping about his pitching shape happened. And to me, it shines a light on the bigger problem of media leaks in this organization. It has to stop, especially now that it is too late to stop this, the worst possible outcome.

But now that the possibility is there that his angry bullpen session might have caused this, I kinda want to smack Johan upside the head and ask him what the hell he was thinking with that little tantrum? Forget having ruined any pennant hopes the Mets might have had for 2013 ... there are none. But for jeopardizing his own career. For what? Because of something stupid that somebody in a suit said? Really? Let me tell all of you a true story about tantrums: Not long ago I got rankled by something stupid. I know it was stupid because I don't even remember what it was. But I'll tell you what I remember: I remember taking the swivel chair and slamming it straight down into the ground. Do you know what happened? The wheels of the chair bounced straight up before the rest of the chair even left the ground, and one of the plastic wheels hit me in the left thigh, leaving me with a bruise the size of Delaware. That is an absolute true story. Guess what? The tantrums stopped.

(At least with chairs.)

Now I was lucky. That wheel might have bounced a little bit to the right. Then what? And how would I explain that? That's basically what Johan has done. He might have taken any chance of being traded to a pennant winner, and any chance at one last big contract and threw it away (and probably threw it away with his right arm, tearing that shoulder too.) He, perhaps, smacked himself in the nuts with a large dose of stupidity. And for what? Ask yourself if your little "I'll show them" bullpen tantrum was worth it. Was it? Was it worth the cost to you? Or the cost to the Mets now that they've lost whatever chance they had of dealing you for a prospect, which would have given you a shot at the playoffs?

Not to mention that the Mets might want to pursue the option of getting some of that money back if they can prove that Santana tore his shoulder while he deviated from the program? And if that comes to pass, it doesn't matter if the Mets get some of that money back or (most likely) not. But if that happens, then the fight could linger for months or even years. It would be ugliness that the Mets really don't need right now. They've made plenty for themselves.

All that said, the next to last game of the 2008 season will go down as not only the greatest game Johan Santana ever pitched as a Met, but one of my favorite memories of being at Shea Stadium. Was it all worth it to have Johan pitch one truly meaningful game as a Met, plus the first Mets no-hitter to boot? Of course it was worth the chance the Mets took. I miss when the Mets were able to take chances like that. And it isn't as if Nolan Ryan went the other way. Put it this way: If I had told you back in 2007 that the Mets could trade for Johan Santana, but we might need this Carlos Gomez kid in 2013 because we'll have no outfield, what would you have said? I gather most of you would have said to hell with 2013, Santana could win us a title now, this second. And you would have been right. 2008 didn't fall apart because of anything Santana did.

But boy, to look back and know that not only was 2008 the only year of Santana's time here that the Mets were even close to contending, and also this:

Interesting stat from @studi_metsimus: if Johan never throws another pitch, MIKE PELFREY will have more Met career wins than Johan Santana

— The Coop (@Coopz22) March 28, 2013

And with that, another chapter of Mets history which was designed to be great ends by leaving you disappointed. In fact, it just makes you want to cry. Or perhaps throw a tantrum.

Just don't do it off a mound.

Or with a chair.

Don't throw a chair off a mound.

...

Dammit.

Doesn't seem to be anything to report on Thursday, as the Nationals smoked the Mets 5-1 in Viera. Domingo Tapia started for the Mets, presumably because there's nobody else in the rotation who is healthy, and was smoked for four runs in two innings (all of them in the second), including back to back dingers by Adam LaRoche and Danny Espinosa. This will give Tapia some fun stories to tell the boys in the minors this season, and if he's not careful he might learn something too. Hey hey hey.

One random observation I want to make from Thursday: While I don't mind Bryce Harper ... up to this point he has never told Met fans to go home and put their Yankee gear on ... he's going to kill the Mets for the next 20 years. But more than that, it's apparent that we're going to have to hear endlessly about not only things he does well, but things that he will get credit for doing well when he was merely in the area. For example: Harper stole a base in the first inning when Anthony Recker threw the ball into right center field. Announcers made it seem like Harper forced Recker to make such a terrible throw. Willed him to do it, if you will.  In reality, anybody with halfway decent speed could have "willed" Recker to make that throw. And lets face it, nobody can "force" a major leaguer to make such a horrible throw that is born from a routine situation.

But ... "he's Bryce Harper!" So in addition to doing great things on a baseball field, he can move objects with his mind. And this is what we're going to have to hear for the next 20 years. Imagine having Derek Jeter in your division. That'll be our future. Instead of six times a year, we'll get Harper and all the unnecessary fawning that will come along with him 19 times a season. And this will be our lives now. I dig the guy, but something tells me that I should have a puke bucket ready.

(Editor's note: It must be noted that the Bryce Harper fawning wasn't the most egregious annoyance during Thursday's ESPN broadcast, between Rick Sutcliffe saying that Johan Santana hasn't had a win since his no-hitter ... he has three ... and Dave O'Brien speculating that nobody would pick the Mets for anything other than last place this year ... which would mean that the Miami Marlins have somehow been relegated to AAA, the NBA's Developmental League, or League One. Please bring that puke bucket stat.)

The Miami Heat lost on Wednesday to the Chicago Bulls by a score of 101-97. Their impressive 27 game winning streak has come to an end, and it ends as the second longest streak of all time.

The New York Mets streak of days without an injury ended today at 0 when Justin Turner strained his calf during the Mets' 6-2 victory over the Houston Astros. One wonders whether the Mets can go 27 straight days without an injury in 2013. I predict that they will ... but not until November. (December if Lucas Duda decides to revive his career as a furniture mover.)

Also of note: The Mets sold Elvin Ramirez to the Angels. The irony here is that while most people think that the Mets have nobody on their roster, they still have to get rid of players on the 40 man roster to make room for the abundance of players that they "don't have". Now there is room for guys like Marlon Byrd and Scott Atchison, which means it won't be long before one of those guys bombs and we start pining for Elvin Ramirez. (And if you think I'm crazy, have you met Darren O' Day?)

Sadly, I'll never get the opportunity to use this:

The next obvious player to be gone from the 40 man roster is Reese Havens, and I doubt the Mets can get very much for him unless his body is sold to science. Or science fiction ... whoever pays more. If I was Reese, I'd hide in the swamp with the alligators until the team goes north.

Tuesday was a day that we celebrated equality.

Of course, the Mets took that to mean that all players have the equal right to be injured, and that no man shall be excluded from the disabled list on the basis of WHIP, average, or OPS.

Every Met on the roster is making a bid to be on the DL by Opening Day. Some will make it. Some will not. But all will prove that they have equal ability to make the list. In addition to Johan Santana being on the shelf until the next Pope is elected, David Wright and Daniel Murphy playing in minor league games, Shaun Marcum decided to double down on his cortisone shot he took in his shoulder and is now taking anti-inflammatories for his neck which might put him on the disabled list. Not to be outdone, Jenrry Mejia will be completely shut down for two weeks because he has elbow inflammation. And as if the Mets don't have enough starting pitchers hurt, pissed, both, or in Toronto, Jeremy Hefner got hit in the right elbow by a grounder from Carlos "Blame" Beltran on Tuesday. Luckily, Hefner has only a bruise. But you know the Met progression:

@metstradamus yeah generally there's a whole injury routine. Cramps to bone bruise to fracture to torn ligament just discovered in humans

— Ryan Keohane (@ryankobayashi) March 24, 2013

Hefner's injury, much like Matt den Dekker's injury, sent the Mets on a death spiral in their spring game, as minor leaguer Randy Fontanez (which is like Willie Montanez with an expletive) faced seven batters and somehow gave up 45 hits, including grand slams to Peter Kozma, Darrell Porter, Frankie Frisch and Gabby Street. Lucas Duda was a bright spot with his fifth home run of the spring tucked between three hits and four RBI. His hot streak seems to be staving off the push in favor of somebody with the range of a sedentary rock to replace him. This could only mean that Duda will be the first Met this season to have an injury report which includes the words "just discovered in humans". Because why can't Duda enjoy the disabled list like everybody else and enjoy the same equality as the rest of his teammates?

Split squads this late in the season only serve to double your chance of injuries. In the Mets' case, it's exponential. Matt den Dekker, a defensive whiz if there ever was one, broke his wrist Sunday while twirling around like a ballerina in a music box chasing a wind blown fly ball before landing on his wrist and breaking it. This weather related injury ends my dream of having den Dekker go north with the team, though I suspect he was starting the season in Las Vegas anyway. Still, this is a brutal injury which was the cherry on top of a horrid day.

In the den Dekker game, the Tigers beat the Mets 9-4 in a game which featured Matt Harvey looking good for an inning, and shaky for four. But Brandon Lyon stole the show by giving up five runs in the seventh on thirteen pitches (a stretch which included den Dekker's injury.) It's extremely difficult to give up five runs in 13 innings if you're a major league pitcher. I, for example, can walk three guys and give up a grand slam in 13 pitches and that would only be four runs.

Also, Lyon's defense didn't help him, as right before the den Dekker injury, Brandon Hicks completely Roger Dorn'd a ground ball at third base. Seeing him play defense this spring makes me think that Rawlings should file a restraining order against him. Thank goodness we'll probably never see him at third or anywhere else since he was outrighted after the game.

In the other game in which fortunately nobody was hurt, the Mets defeated the Cardinals 10-7, but only made their comeback when all the minor leaguers were in the game. Good for the minor leaguers ... Darrell Ceciliani hit a two run double to bring the Mets to within one run (Ceciliani was incognito wearing number 95), Jamie Hoffman hit a two run homer to give the Mets the lead, and Zach Lutz also hit a home run off of a guy named Mitch Harris. Harris had just come from the Navy to give up these home runs, which will somehow be interpreted as the Mets being uncaring and unpatriotic.

But starter Aaron Laffey, the guy who was sent down to the minors after the game to stretch out so that he can replace Johan Santana (or someone of equal value since Jeremy Hefner is already replacing Santana ... damn you idiot blogger), was tagged pretty good by the Cardinals in three innings for six hits and four runs. And he did all this while wearing number 47 which brought back horrible memories of Tom Glavine. 

Let's hope for the sake of all our collective sanity that Laffey stretches himself out in a manner befitting a major league baseball player. Because I fear that if we have to see Laffey start for an extended period of time that we could be staring down the barrel of the Miami Marlins. Let's put it this way: You know what I thought when I saw Aaron Laffey pitch on Sunday? I thought "I miss Pat Misch." What does this tell you?

Now why is Fred Sanford having a heart attack today?

Could it be because Lucas Duda had another two hits, and only one of them was one of his patented ground singles through a shift as he actually blasted a home run in a 3-1 win over the Nationals? Could that new stance actually be working? Might Duda give Terry Collins pause as to whether to move Jordany Valdespin to left field full time?

Or could it be Keith Hernandez's admission during Saturday's broadcast that he actually has a twitter account that he never uses? The one guy all Mets fans want to have a twitter account, and he has one? That he doesn't use???  What a tease.

He says we'll never find his account. Contrare. We'll find you, Keith. The process of elimination has already started:

@civilwarbuff17

— Metstradamus (@Metstradamus) March 23, 2013

@tootsiepop4ever

— Ed Leyro (@Studi_Metsimus) March 23, 2013

@forallyoukidsoutthere17

— Metstradamus (@Metstradamus) March 23, 2013

@ilovehighlighters17 #KeithHernandezTwitterHandle #mets

— Susan Heit (@susanh121) March 23, 2013

@whatwasithinkingsigningWithCleveland?

— Metstradamus (@Metstradamus) March 23, 2013

@metstradamus @notatweester17?

— Rich Sparago (@Metfanrich) March 23, 2013

@thatbeardisweird17 #KeithHernandezTwitterHandle

— Mark Ethe (@TooGooden16) March 23, 2013

@nicetradewhitey17

— Metstradamus (@Metstradamus) March 23, 2013

@rockhead17

— Mark Ethe (@TooGooden16) March 23, 2013

@whyisnt17retired17

— Metstradamus (@Metstradamus) March 23, 2013

@itoldoroscotothrowthecurve17

— Rich Sparago (@Metfanrich) March 23, 2013

@mrkoostolemynumber #KeithHernandezTwitterHandle

— TRAIDCY (@EpideMets) March 23, 2013

@longdrivefromsagharbor17

— Metstradamus (@Metstradamus) March 23, 2013

@nicegameprettyboy17

— Ed Leyro (@Studi_Metsimus) March 23, 2013

I guess we all must settle for the twitter consolation prize: Dillon Gee.

The Mets were defeated today by the Cardinals by a score of 3-2, though this game probably had more quantifiable positive developments than yesterday's 7-5 victory. Lucas Duda had not only a couple of hits, but a couple of hits off of Adam Wainwright. Matt Den Dekker laced a 2 run triple ... also off of Wainwright. And Jeremy Hefner wasn't awful today (although he threw a lot of balls for somebody who was touted as a strike thrower all spring, but hey ... we'll overlook that.)

The real "drama" if you will, came near the end of the game when the SNY crew announced that Terry Collins would have a special announcement after the game. Now this could have been anything from another fight in the family room to a new flavor of dipping sauce for the Box Frites stand. But we all knew what was coming, more or less. What we didn't see coming, and probably what we should have seen coming, was the total dumpster fire that the press conference coverage was. You could obviously tell that SNY is about as used to covering spring training post game press conferences as I am watching them. And obviously nobody told Collins that this one would be live, as the first words out of his mouth that were audible on television was part of an off the cuff conversation with a reporter:

"I can't see shit."

There's your special announcement, folks. Good night everybody!

Then when somebody asked about the special announcement right off the hop, we got this:

"How did you know about the special announcement?"

Well, it was only blasted in red letters at the bottom of the screen, so it didn't take a genius.

Then sometime in the middle of the announcements they cut back to the field and nobody spoke for fifteen seconds, so you knew that they weren't used to this. It was all quite hilarious and I'm glad I was witness to it.

Now to the actual announcements: First off, Jon Niese was officially named the Opening Day starter. Well, duh. With Johan Santana's angry mound session putting him out of action until July of 2017, there was really only one obvious direction to go in, and that was Niese. So good for him.

The second announcement was also not a huge surprise as David Wright was officially named the captain of the Mets, the fourth captain in team history. Nothing really changes with this, as Wright will continue to do the same things he's always done. This is merely ceremonial, as captains in baseball don't get to argue with the umpires about where the faceoffs will be and why Lucas Duda consistently gets two minutes for roughing when there's nobody within miles of him in left field. What concerned me about this was whether Wright being officially named captain would discourage anybody else in the room from taking a natural leadership role if it comes organically. But I'm not going to stress on a small negative much like people shouldn't make a huge deal out of some big positive they think will happen because of this. Because David Wright's leadership isn't going to get any better ... it's already at a high level. What's important is that Wright appreciates the honor and sees it for what it is:

"To be viewed in this light -- both by ownership, by [GM Sandy Alderson] and the front office, by the coaching staff and most importantly the players -- means a great deal to me. A dream come true, to say the least. Something I'm very, very proud about. I think that the responsibilities are kind of the same as what I've always tried to do. I'm not a real 'rah rah,' yell and scream kind of guy ... I think it's more lead by example. I'm going to take the responsibility seriously and with a great deal of pride."

The best part of all of this is that if it didn't happen, you'd have certain media scribes speculating on if Wright wasn't officially named captain because he hid his injury at the World Baseball Classic, which would have made me jump into a bathtub full of acid.

For those expecting Wright to wear a "C" on his shoulder as Keith Hernandez did, you'll be surprised to learn that there will be no "C" on Wright's jersey:

"Part of it is my personality. I don’t necessarily like to stick out too much. I think the uniform is uniform for a reason."

And a uniform with a "C" on it would have been sold for $300 at the team store and on the Mets website. So Wright deserves a ton of credit for not giving fans who already have a Wright jersey a difficult decision on whether to get a brand new one with a "C". The wallets of your fans thank you, David.

Though Wright does reserve the option to tattoo a big C on his face a la Mike Tyson.

This is what I get for coming up with a wise-ass line like "Gee's next start may come Wednesday against Houston, which would be fine because there's nobody in that lineup you'd need to wish a flat tire upon." Well somebody forgot to cut Carlos Pena's tires, and Dillon Gee got smacked around for the second straight outing as the Mets beat the Astros 7-5.

Gee apparently found himself in the final two innings of his four inning outing after some excellent analysis by his pitching coach:

"Dan (Warthen) got on him about making better pitches and he did a much better job in the last inning." -Terry Collins

Yup, the intricacies of being a major league pitching coach. Make better pitches. He gets paid for that, you know.

Well let's hope Gee's last two innings are the norm and not the exception, because Shaun Marcum has an impinged shoulder. (Which is medical for "damn his shoulder is f***ed up.") He got the J.J. Putz Special: the cortisone shot:

"He said it is something he gets every spring. He wanted to get it cleaned up now." -Terry

Yes. And then there will be absolutely no issues going forward, because cortisone cures everything. I don't want to make you panic, but today's starter against the Cardinals is Bruce Berenyi.

Editor's note: I googled pictures of Bruce Berenyi for this very joke. And was sufficiently freaked out by the slight to moderate resemblance between Bruce Berenyi with a beard and Mike Pelfrey:

I feel like I just got sent through the wormhole from Fringe.

@jay_horwitzpr how quickly we forget

— R.A. Dickey (@RADickey43) March 20, 2013

This is why tweeting at seven in the morning is never a good idea. Poor Jay. But hey, they say you don't become a true tweeter until you make a gaffe like this. And to his credit, he responded and apologized on twitter to all those people who mercilessly attacked him for what was nothing more than an honest mistake made by somebody who probably just woke up. So welcome to twitter Jay. You only have 5,773 ridiculous tweets to go before you catch Jose Canseco, so get to work.

Oh well. Now that this is in the past, we can worry about important things like whether the last Met to ever wear number 5 will start on Opening Day.

(Or as Jay Horwitz calls him, John Olerud.)