I don’t usually pay any mind to the baseball draft, not since waiting unsuccessfully for the Mets’ No. 1 pick of 1995 to turn Shea Stadium into Jaroncyk Park. But this headline from mlb.com surely got my attention:

Thanks to Mike Pelfrey’s gutty seven innings, Duaner Sanchez’s perfect eighth, Carlos Beltran’s unleashed power, Fernando Tatis’ clutch timing and Billy Wagner’s one-two-three ninth, I was able to record in The Log its 200th regular-season home win. After four consecutive losses, I was beginning to think it would never happen. But I always think that. I probably […]

Dozens of advertisements urged on the Mets en route to their championship in the 1969 World Series program, but only one looked like a notice placed by a proud parent in the Playbill for a high school production of Bye Bye Birdie (which, come to think of it, was the unofficial theme of that Fall Classic). […]

It’s not quite the Home Run Apple, but the Keyspan sign has been a component of the outfield vista for a decade. At least it was until the Mets began their latest homestand with a vertical National Grid banner taking its very tall place. Sponsors come and go, signs change frequently, but I had gotten kind […]

Mike Piazza has officially retired from baseball. Number 31 should now do the same at Shea Stadium and Citi Field. No time like the very near future. (Shoot, we’ll even print up new shirts to reflect a righteous reality.)

There were some fine players in Mets uniforms between 1998 and 2005, but did any Met embody his era quite like Mike Piazza stood for his? I shudder to think how those schedules would have unfolded without him.

We knew he could hit. He sure could catch, too. When I think of Mike Piazza, certainly the home runs come to mind, but I also remember the hustle, exemplified by the grab he made at the Cardinal dugout in the 2000 playoffs. I liked, too, the way he chugged down the line on ground balls, […]

Whether on a blog or in the bleachers, always a pleasure to be part of this tandem. Happy birthday to my chronicling partner who, at 39, still rightfully refuses to take on disagreeable identities in Wiffle Ball games with his kid. Now that’s what I call a role model.

Sorry there’s no game today, but at least […]

There is no situation in which a Mets game, a Mets jacket and a dense sandwich won’t make me feel at home. This tableau was captured after the Dean Friedman show in Piermont and amid some serious chewing. We’re waiting for the bus back to the city; the bus schedule has an improv feel to it […]

Barely on the other side of the Hudson, deep in the bosom of the picturesque town of Piermont, N.Y., I achieved a brief state of nirvana, landing in the presence of Dean Friedman, who had just played a rare U.S. show — broadcast via satellite on BBC Scotland, no less — at the locally legendary Turning Point. Dean’s […]