One year ago tonight, Julio Franco homered off Randy Johnson, right into that silly pool at Chase Field. One year ago tonight, we loved Julio Franco.

One year later, Julio Franco has hung the proverbial 'em up.

He didn't reach his goal of making it to 50 as a player. He fell about four months short. He […]

The Mets played like a champ today. Or, more accurately, looked like a load of big brown.

No offense to the horse that took a couple of minutes to do in Louisville what the Mets couldn't come close to achieving over three-and-a-half very long hours in Phoenix. Our nag stayed a nose behind for a few […]

Nah, it doesn't save Willie Randolph's job in my view — going one game over .500 since last May 30 isn't nearly enough for that, particularly when it comes on a night when Willie's reaction to a Met actually calling out a teammate for a poor effort was disappointment about it not being handled in-house. […]

Lying in the dark after the Mets got the bejesus beat out of them by the Pirates, I came — reluctantly — to a conclusion. Even started working up the post in my head. And then wavered. Memorial Day seemed like a better time to make the point. Even though I doubted anything would change […]

11: Wednesday, September 10 vs Nationals

Ladies and gentlemen, tonight our Countdown Like it Oughta Be takes us back to an event in the history of our nation and our city that was undeniably tragic. But it also reminds us of how we as a people can unite and lift ourselves up from rubble when brutality […]

I don't know. At a certain point it was so off-the-chart bad — it got funny. My central nervous system was telling me something.

—Aaron Altman, Broadcast News

Let's be clear that these things happen in the course of a season, no matter how good a club is. Teams lose badly sometimes. It can happen with no […]

Some nights we invoke Bob Murphy and offer a happy recap. Some nights we channel Gary Cohen when the big hit is outta here! Some nights we are thrilled to make like Howie Rose and put it in the books! Some nights we even have to agree with Fran Healy that Shea Stadium is rocking!

Tuesday […]

An out-of-town tryout used to be a staple of the theater. It was where producers ran their musicals up the flagpole to see what was saluted and what sagged in the breeze before fixing up the rough patches, packing up the trunks and transporting the whole shooting match to the Great White Way. Like those […]