Baseball fans bundled up against the cold are sometimes the worst people to ask to write about baseball. Sure, we need it the most, but we can't see past the breath in front of our face to get to why this thing we call Spring Training — with its repetitive profiles in the papers, its […]

The Hall of Fame is making something forever wrong at least a little bit right by inducting 16 deserving men and one deserving woman this summer. Their election was announced today after the Hall was good enough and smart enough to convene an expert committee to figure out which players, executives and owners (like Mrs. […]

To elaborate on a great metaphor offered by one of our esteemed commentators a few days back, the commercials are finally over and the house lights are going down. It isn't time for the movie, not quite yet, but the previews are about to start. And thank goodness. Yes yes, I know where the receptacles […]

Jose Parra is going to have Tommy John surgery to repair damaged ligaments in his pitching elbow.

I know, no big deal: Despite having a fairly inoffensive cup of coffee for us back in '04, it wasn't likely Parra was going to find a spot on our club this year. And it's not like he's Philip […]

Toe? Toe? How are you, toe?

¿Cómo está, dedo?

It's hard to think of anything else, what with one tiny fraction of a pitcher playing the biggest role imaginable in a Met spring training since Doc Gooden's nose inhaled a repeat in 1987. This whole thing is beginning to sound like Trachsel's back a year ago and […]

Wednesday's Featured Met About Whom All Must Write was Carlos Beltran, with a side of Bret Boone. (Thursday's will be Carlos Delgado, which ranks as the single least-far-out-on-a-limb prediction I'll make all year.) Meanwhile, the first week has provided another old story in a new bottle: Willie being Willie.

The first-day ritual for every player returning […]

Julio Franco, who reported to camp with the 2006 Mets yesterday, is so old that when he heard the Mets would open against Washington, he dreaded the thought of facing Walter Johnson.

Julio Franco is so old that when he learned the Mets would be going to RFK, he said, “Count me out, I'm sticking with […]

A while back I earmarked this three-day weekend for taking the boy down to Virginia to see his grandparents. I noted it would be the first weekend of spring training, hesitated briefly, then booked the trip. Because, honestly, the first few days of every spring training are exactly alike, down to the beat writers mysteriously […]

The rites of spring are in full swing, everybody kind of having the same story, all our hopes being raised by the same scant evidence, all our lives being ruled by one particular toe.

I'm not going to worry about Pedro's little piggy. Can't do it. It's too big a stumbling block to our well-being. We […]