I too had hoped for a return by John Olerud, to rid us of the bitter taste of his exile/departure for Seattle and his brief, appalling tenure in the raiment of the Beast. It's amazing how many big moments I remember being bound up with him. I was in L.A. during the Curt Schilling game, [...]

On Wright batting eighth: Yeah, it’s insidious and insulting and makes one suspicious that Randolph and Down were sent here as spies from the north — and don’t they know that David Wright, after 69 big-league games, established himself as The Future/The Blossoming Present? For Cameron? That’s a Howe motive if it’s true (still think [...]

David Wright is going to hit eighth, and after some false starts, I've found a reason to be mad about it.

At first I figured stats would make an effective weapon, so I went out and did some furious Googling for the latest sabermetrical thinking on optimal batting orders. It's an interesting subject, though frustrating if you're in [...]

Greatest Mets Twenty through Eleven, coming very soon, were ten good reasons to root for the Mets. But since you went deep Monday, I thought I’d reach back for the first ten reasons I became who I became.

1) Peanuts was the most popular thing going. Circa 1968, my sister, eleven then, had a bunch of [...]

A week to go, good lord. At least there's some bits of news: Scott Strickland, Scott Stewart, Orber Moreno, Jae Seo and Jeff Keppinger took that long walk. Supposedly that has us down to 37 guys.

David Wright hit eighth. That seems insane to me: Beyond the fact that Wright can flat-out rake, to use [...]

Hope you had a happy Elster Sunday and that your boy got to every egg within his limited range.

Cripes, the real thing is a week away and panic is simmering in this

corner of Metsopotamia. Pedro's lower back. DeJean's right calf.

Cameron's nodding, if that, familiarity with his new position.

Zambrano's refusal to make the Kazmir trade palatable. [...]

What on earth do you have against Bruce Chen of all lapsed Mets? He's like three teams from being Todd Zeile.I first read about Rotisserie Baseball in Inside Sports circa 1981. It sounded delightful for the first couple of pages until it was explained that you could have guys on “your” team who might face [...]

The tragedy of Bonds is he didn't need the cream or the clear. He was

no Jason Giambi — a perfectly nice doubles hitter with a good eye

before he swole himself up into a slugger — but an organic,

all-natural Hall of Famer. Pending further evidence, I don't believe

Bonds was on the juice in the early 1990s, [...]

With XM Radio, you can listen to every home team broadcast of every game this year including a bunch from spring training. Wednesday night, with the Mets and Cards on the FAN from Jupiter, I checked XM and they were carrying the St. Louis broadcast about a minute delayed.

So first I heard Gary Cohen enthusiastically [...]

Well, I'm in midseason form — somehow I thought the season started

next week. Along with the time change. This extended winter is

destroying my brain.

Quick question: When you hear “partially herniated disk,” do you think,

“Well, that's no big deal”? Me neither. Not with Trachsel on the shelf.

Not with the ghost of Edgardo Alfonzo hovering over both [...]