Former Diamondbacks third-base coach Chip Hale is being hired to fill that role for the Mets, sources said.
Sources say longtime scout Sandy Johnson has agreed to return to the Mets as VP of scouting to continue assisting embattled general manager Omar Minaya after suggesting for weeks he was likely to retire, and some Mets officials believe the unusual effort made to retain Johnson is another sign of diminishing faith in Minaya.
Manager Lou Piniella slumped in the dugout this weekend, exemplifying a talented Cubs team that has slumped far too often this season. Meanwhile, Mets manager Jerry Manuel provided a study in contrasts, standing erect in the opposing dugout, and generally not giving off the same sort of negative vibe. It must be a matter of style, and/or personality, since Manuel's Mets are is having a season just as horrific.
Leave aside the image of a shirtless executive challenging minor leaguers to fist fights, or a general manager accusing a good reporter of being out for a job running the farm system, or rumors that the team's owners will soon be seen on what's left of the Bowery shaking tin cups. What matters about the New York Mets is that, Sunday's sound 4-1 (RECAP | BOX) beating dealt to Chicago Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano notwithstanding, right now they're the kind of bad that drives people to drink. If they were a band, they'd be Creed; if they were a food, they'd be tripe soup; if they were a gesture, they'd be a lazy, lazy slouch. Few have seen their like.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Johan Santana needs surgery for bone chips in his left elbow and the star pitcher is out for the season, the latest blow to a New York Mets team battered by injuries.
The last three years, Major League Baseball has implemented a signing deadline, ending the interminable holdouts that often plagued baseball's draft process. The draft still has plenty of problems, but that's another story. This draft is essentially in the books now that Monday's deadline has passed, with two fourth-year pitchers -- indy leaguers Aaron Crow (Royals first-rounder) and Tanner Scheppers (Rangers supplemental first-rounder) still unsigned but not subject to the deadline.
It has always been the belief in this precinct that media types, generally speaking, are too quick to call for leaders -- coaches, general managers, athletic directors -- to be fired. We tend to disregard the real-life implications of losing one's job, not to mention forgetting how easily a five-game winning streak can turn someone from an idiot into a genius.
It was neither the time (3:45 p.m. MT, just before he was to start getting ready for a game against the Rockies) nor the place (the visiting manager's office at Coors Field) that he might have expected it, but Jeff Francoeur's once-heralded career with the Atlanta Braves came to an end Friday afternoon when he was called into the Bobby Cox's office and told, "We've made a trade and you'll never guess where: New York."
Call it the Summer of Accountability.
If you happened to be thumbing through the Newsday sports section on Thursday, you may have noticed an unusual box score: Mets 4, Cubs 0, in New York. Time of game: 2 hours, 2 minutes. Then you read the not-so-fine print: the game -- a Tom Seaver one-hitter -- was played 40 years ago, when the Mets were becoming the Miracle Mets, winners of the '69 World Series. Newsday is paying tribute to the team.
Former Diamondbacks third-base coach Chip Hale is being hired to fill that role for the Mets, sources said.
Sources say longtime scout Sandy Johnson has agreed to return to the Mets as VP of scouting to continue assisting embattled general manager Omar Minaya after suggesting for weeks he was likely to retire, and some Mets officials believe the unusual effort made to retain Johnson is another sign of diminishing faith in Minaya.
Manager Lou Piniella slumped in the dugout this weekend, exemplifying a talented Cubs team that has slumped far too often this season. Meanwhile, Mets manager Jerry Manuel provided a study in contrasts, standing erect in the opposing dugout, and generally not giving off the same sort of negative vibe. It must be a matter of style, and/or personality, since Manuel's Mets are is having a season just as horrific.
Leave aside the image of a shirtless executive challenging minor leaguers to fist fights, or a general manager accusing a good reporter of being out for a job running the farm system, or rumors that the team's owners will soon be seen on what's left of the Bowery shaking tin cups. What matters about the New York Mets is that, Sunday's sound 4-1 (RECAP | BOX) beating dealt to Chicago Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano notwithstanding, right now they're the kind of bad that drives people to drink. If they were a band, they'd be Creed; if they were a food, they'd be tripe soup; if they were a gesture, they'd be a lazy, lazy slouch. Few have seen their like.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Johan Santana needs surgery for bone chips in his left elbow and the star pitcher is out for the season, the latest blow to a New York Mets team battered by injuries.
The last three years, Major League Baseball has implemented a signing deadline, ending the interminable holdouts that often plagued baseball's draft process. The draft still has plenty of problems, but that's another story. This draft is essentially in the books now that Monday's deadline has passed, with two fourth-year pitchers -- indy leaguers Aaron Crow (Royals first-rounder) and Tanner Scheppers (Rangers supplemental first-rounder) still unsigned but not subject to the deadline.
It has always been the belief in this precinct that media types, generally speaking, are too quick to call for leaders -- coaches, general managers, athletic directors -- to be fired. We tend to disregard the real-life implications of losing one's job, not to mention forgetting how easily a five-game winning streak can turn someone from an idiot into a genius.
It was neither the time (3:45 p.m. MT, just before he was to start getting ready for a game against the Rockies) nor the place (the visiting manager's office at Coors Field) that he might have expected it, but Jeff Francoeur's once-heralded career with the Atlanta Braves came to an end Friday afternoon when he was called into the Bobby Cox's office and told, "We've made a trade and you'll never guess where: New York."
Call it the Summer of Accountability.
If you happened to be thumbing through the Newsday sports section on Thursday, you may have noticed an unusual box score: Mets 4, Cubs 0, in New York. Time of game: 2 hours, 2 minutes. Then you read the not-so-fine print: the game -- a Tom Seaver one-hitter -- was played 40 years ago, when the Mets were becoming the Miracle Mets, winners of the '69 World Series. Newsday is paying tribute to the team.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- New York Mets reliever J.J. Putz will have surgery to remove a bone spur and pieces of bone from the back of his right elbow and is expected to miss 10 to 12 weeks.
The Mets announced Thursday night that shortstop Jose Reyes has a small tear in his right hamstring tendon. The team is not estimating when Reyes might return, but early reports are suggesting he'll be out until July.
Mets people insist that center field star Carlos Beltran and starting pitcher John Maine do not have swine flu or any of several symptoms of the virus in the wake of a swine flu scare involving another member of the Mets' traveling party.
The New York Mets avoided a tricky situation Friday night when they traded backup catcher Ramon Castro and cash to the Chicago White Sox for pitcher Lance Broadway.
The New York Mets acquired outfielder Emil Brown from the Padres and will designate him for assignment to the Buffalo Bisons, the Mets announced today. Brown will be on the Bisons' roster for their matchup against the Durham Bulls tonight.
This weekend, when the Mets visit the Red Sox and the Yankees host the Phillies, Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium will feature four teams with payrolls totaling $574 million. Allowing for inflation, this is as much as the 10 highest payrolls in baseball in 1997, the year of the first regular-season games between the National and American leagues.
Ever play baseball? At any level? I mean even Little League, even T-ball? Then you can answer this question: What's the safest and surest way to catch a fly ball?
George Steinbrenner, the most famous owner of the free agency era, was at the new Yankee Stadium on Opening Day. When he was introduced, his daughter Jenny, sitting next to him, gently raised his right arm so that he could wave to the crowd. His roar may be gone, but the old lion was able to see his palace open. I watched Steinbrenner choking back emotion on the scoreboard TV from the concourse behind home plate. Next to me, a Yankee fan in a Paul O'Neill jersey had a homemade sign hanging from a string around his neck. It read: "The House that LOOT Built."
It was shaping up to be a glorious weekend of baseball for the Mets. Temperatures soared, and the Mets welcomed an opponent -- the lowly Nationals -- that was even more appetizing than anything purveyed at the Shake Shack in Citi Field. This was supposed to be the weekend in which the Mets, who entered as the losers of four straight games, would finally kick their 2009 season into gear.
We are now 230-odd years into the American experiment and one thing is clear -- like the Roman Empire before us, we love our games!
Mets higher-ups were accepting compliments Monday night for their stunning new ballyard, Citi Field, which has nothing in common with the former, dreary, dumpy ol' Shea Stadium aside from its location near the intersection of the Grand Central Parkway and Roosevelt Avenue. "It's a ballpark, not a stadium,'' Mets COO Jeff Wilpon said of the new digs.
Monday's 2009 Major League Baseball home opener for the New York Mets at their new ballpark promises to reignite controversy -- and not just over the team's suspect pitching.
Two opening-day Mets tickets, part of a season ticket package formerly owned by convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff's company, fetched $7,500 in an eBay auction Sunday morning.
The Boston Red Sox had Babe Ruth; the Chicago White Sox had 1919; the Chicago Cubs have their goat. Every properly cursed franchise needs some hate symbol to stand in for everything that's haunted them. And perhaps the New York Mets have it now, with the disgraced financier Bernie Madoff's prime tickets to Citi Field up for sale on eBay. Someone ought to buy them and burn them.
The trustee charged with liquidating the assets of the company owned by convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff is selling two of the company's Opening Day New York Mets baseball tickets on eBay.
The trustee tasked with liquidating the assets of convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff's company filed a motion with New York bankruptcy court Tuesday seeking to sell two New York Mets season tickets owned by the company.
Gary Sheffield has agreed to sign with the New York Mets, SI.com has learned. The agreement is pending a physical on Saturday.
We're just two days from the first official pitch of the 2009 season, so what better time is there to unveil a special 2009 preview edition of Diamond Digits? This week we're looking at how big-name hurlers fare in their first seasons in pinstripes, relievers who go out with a bang and sluggers who had power from dawn to dusk in their careers.
JUPITER, Fla. -- While the Dodgers may be the most likely landing spot for Cooperstown-bound pitcher Pedro Martinez, the Mets can't quite be ruled out yet. And though one Mets person said a significant gap remains between Pedro's asking price and the Mets' target figure (probably $5 million vs. about $2 million), an NL executive said over the weekend, "I wouldn't be shocked (if the Mets get him) ... Omar loves him."
1) For a team that spit up two straight September leads, the Mets are running a loose, confident camp -- at least until Johan Santana's elbow started barking. The imprint is from manager Jerry Manuel, who projects a slightly more relaxed approach, at least as far as the image he portrays through the media, than did Willie Randolph, his predecessor. It also helps morale to have relievers J.J. Putz and Frankie Rodriguez bringing flat-out filthy stuff to the mound.
The government forced Citigroup to cancel its order for a brand new $50 million corporate jet. Now, two Congressmen are hoping that the Obama administration will convince the beleaguered bank to scrap its naming rights deal with the New York Mets.
LAS VEGAS -- Rather than the beautiful five-star Bellagio hotel, perhaps the just-concluded baseball Winter Meetings should have been held a few blocks south on Las Vegas Boulevard at the not-nearly-as-luxurious Big Apple-themed New York, New York.
The hoopla of a massive three-way trade that had enlivened the winter meetings just hours before their conclusion was just dying down when the Mariners' new general manager, Jack Zduriencik, looked at an old acquaintance and grinned. "How about that for a first trade?" he said. "This one might be hard to top."
Here's the thing about the New York Mets: For all of the focus on their bullpen, which was definitely a reason for their late-season collapses in 2007 and 2008, that is both the most easily explained and the most reparable problem that they have. In both years the late-season loss of their best reliever -- their only full-inning strikeout guy -- created a domino effect that could not be patched internally. Had Billy Wagner stayed completely healthy in both seasons, it is probable that the Mets would be coming off of three straight post-season appearances.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Omar Minaya is staying as general manager of the New York Mets. Jerry Manuel is likely to remain as manager. Players, however, could be on the move.
NEW YORK -- In the Mets' clubhouse of inveterate last-minute losers, there was disappointment but not quite the abject depression of a year ago. Reality likely set in long before the time of their actual elimination in Game 162.
NEW YORK -- Most of the crowd of 56,059 that packed Shea Stadium for what turned out to be the final time were still standing and cheering over an hour after the game, and the Mets' season, came to a disappointing and all-too familiar end. Of course, they weren't mourning the loss by the 2008 Mets, but celebrating the players who had starred at Shea over the course of its 45 seasons.
We've all seen this before. Mets fans, especially, have seen this before. And if there's one thing certain on this final day of a season that's been filled with anything but certainty, it is this:
We all have issues. Some of us, clearly, have more than others. But before I get started on everybody's problems -- especially those challenge-challenged sad sacks from New York, the Mets -- here's where we stand with the postseason contenders before what could be a long, wet final regular-season weekend:
Five thoughts on the Mets' listless 6-1 loss to the Marlins while wondering if the New York scribes in this surprisingly half-empty press box will be recycling last year's obituary.
Caleb Peiffer of Baseball Prospectus breaks down tonight's key games:
The ball had not yet stopped rolling in shallow right field, and Jose Reyes had not yet finished scampering home with a broad smile and the winning run, but already the Mets' sigh of relief could be heard from Queens to Milwaukee. The Mets' electric 7-6 win over the Cubs gave their rain-soaked fans a happy ending to a dreary evening that threatened to turn downright depressing had they not been able to steal a win against a less than imposing Cubs lineup.
The road to the National League playoffs this year runs straight into Lou Piniella's firmly set and stubble-covered jaw and takes an immediate turn north, right into his churning frontal lobe. As we saw against the Mets this week, and as we'll find out this weekend against the Brewers, whatever tricked-up or tricked-down lineup that the Cubs' manager throws out there, whatever pitching rotation he settles on, whatever he decides to do with his bullpen will have a direct bearing on how the wild card, and maybe even the NL East race, shakes out.
Probable Starters: Gavin Floyd (194 2/3 IP, 4.67 RA, 1.24 WHIP, 133 K) vs. Kevin Slowey (156 2/3, 3.91, 1.14, 120)
With teams closing in on postseason spots left and right, a gathering East Coast storm threatening to throw baseball's final regular-season weekend into a schedule-maker's Armageddon and a familiar season-ending emotion now in full bloom -- that's good, old-fashioned desperation in the air -- here are four storylines to watch on Thursday night:
NEW YORK -- At least 25-30 scouts, almost all from contending National League teams, are here this week tailing the Cubs and Mets, and while their reports are kept secret, there's one thing almost all of them agree on: They want to see the Mets in the playoffs because they see them as a potential postseason pushover.
NEW YORK -- There have been times this season when Johan Santana comes out of a game looking as though he has been asked to give up his first-born child. For no one knows better than the ultra-confident Santana that as long as he is on the mound, the ball, and the Mets' playoff hopes, are in very good hands. But when those things are entrusted to almost any other pitcher, especially the bullpen that has blown a mind-boggling 10 leads he has handed them, the Mets' chances are as confidence-inspiring these days as Wall Street.
Nothing tears the heart out of a team like a bullpen that can't hold a lead. And so it is that the Mets, a pretty good group of players otherwise, are crawling toward the finish line without a discernible beat in their collective chest.
Somebody in this National League dogpile is going to be accused of choking away a trip to the postseason. That's just the way it's going to be. When you look so good for such long stretches of the season, and so pathetically terrible in others, that's how it has to be.
At one time, not so long ago, the Brewers were everybody's National League darling. CC Sabathia was the final piece to the puzzle, or so it seemed, the big, stabilizing force on the pitching staff that would carry the Brew Crew into the postseason on the strength of his indestructible left arm. The Brewers went 20-7 in August (was that just last month?) as Sabathia was touted as a possible Cy Young candidate. The Crew took a large lead in the NL wild-card race. Milwaukee seemed poised to waltz into the playoffs for the first time since 1982.
The whole concept of a team getting all fired up to play the role of "spoiler" is probably a little overdone. I'd like to think that professional ballplayers, all of them pulling down nice, healthy paychecks, are going to play hard in September whether it's against somebody angling for a playoff spot or somebody just trying to get this whole thing over with.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Billy Wagner is out for the rest of this season and likely all of next.
Like death, like taxes, like the fact that Rudy Giuliani's next speech will be largely self-congratulatory, a late season collapse by the Mets has come to be viewed as something of a certainty among New Yorkers. Even as the Mets surged under new manager Jerry Manuel, from one game under .500 (34-35) when he replaced Willie Randolph on June 17 to 18 games over .500 (79-61) through Thursday -- and from 6.5 games back in the NL East standings to three games in front -- they were never spoken of as the juggernaut that those numbers suggested they had become. In other cities, with other teams, the refrain might have been, "Can't wait 'til October!" In New York, with the Mets, it was, "Just wait 'til September."
The Mets could collapse again. They could take another huge lead into the second half of September and totally gag it away, placing another division title on another silver platter and handing it directly to the Phillies. Everybody knows it's possible.
I don't think of myself as a sickly person. I've probably not missed three days of work in my entire life, and in some box in a spare room of my parents' home I should have a couple of perfect attendance certificates from school*, and the only nights I ever spent in a hospital were those nights after my two daughters were born.
NEW YORK -- The Mets are seeking a corner outfielder as the July 31 trade deadline approaches, and Mets GM Omar Minaya has long been an admirer of embattled Red Sox star Manny Ramirez. But even the Mets are saying "no'' to Ramirez now.
This could be a season-defining week in the still-undecided National League East. Right now, the Phillies are staggering. The Mets are playing their best ball of the year. The Marlins are sticking around. The Braves, the one-time king of the division, are ... I don't know. What the heck are the Braves doing?
After spending nearly two weeks honeymooning on the world's most isolated archipelago, we return to Diamond Digits to catch up on the best numbers from the end of the first half of the year and the midseason classic festivities.
Of all possible feats in the wonderful world of modern sports, being a lovable loser dwells right next door to impossible. This thought occurred to me in the wake of manager Willie Randolph's ejection into the old can-eroo this week by the New York Mets.
Where to begin? With the front office that managed to make the move almost everyone wanted -- firing manager Willie Randolph -- in a way that repulsed even Randolph's strongest detractors? With Randolph himself, who fiddled while the New York Mets' season burned down to nothing last September, then so mis-read the room this season that he injected race into the discussion and willingly compared himself to the most reviled man in New York sports, Isiah Thomas? With the medical staff, which allowed twice-concussed outfielder Ryan Church to fly back and forth across the country and pinch-hit several times before finally figuring out he should be on the disabled list?
We all knew -- all of us who were paying the least bit of attention, anyway -- that Kosuke Fukudome was not going to be your run-of-the-mill rookie. With a .317 average, a .442 on-base percentage, several clutch hits and a cult following already among Cubs' fans, he hasn't disappointed. The same can be said for Reds' phenom Johnny Cueto, who opened eyes in the spring and has 29 strikeouts in 26 1/3 innings. The kid can chuck it.
Also in the Daily Scoop... • A key reason for the Tigers terrible start. • A top prospect gets busted for HGH. • A former goat is forgiven.
Sick and tired of hearing about the Yankees and Mets? So are we, which is why TIME.com presents the 10 storylines to watch this season that don't involve Beantown or the Big Apple
After the worst week of the worst month in the history of the New York Mets, assistant general manager John Ricco decided it was time for some group therapy. The 39-year-old Ricco is one of those young baseball executives trained to read contracts and prepare arbitration cases. But he also took enough psychology classes at Villanova to know about the different ways people cope with loss.
The New York Mets and Johan Santana's agent are making progress on a multi-year contract that's likely to guarantee him about $150 million, according to people familiar with the talks. With Friday's 5 p.m. ET deadline approaching, the sides are believed to be more than $20 million apart, but high-ranking baseball people believe the deal is all but certain to get done.
The long-running Johan Santana sweepstakes, which may be coming to a conclusion within days, appear now to be a two-team race between the Mets and Red Sox. While this derby has taken several twists and turns and has been difficult to predict, the Twins appear to be in more regular contact with the Mets in recent days, which could be an indication that they are leading as the finish line approaches.
With the Red Sox still trying to match names with the Twins, other teams -- including the Mets -- are trying to jump into the Johan Santana sweepstakes, SI.com has learned.
Kazuo Matsui has worn a World Series ring before.
Q. What do Billy Graham and the Mets have in common?
Also in this column: • Mets hang on to Randolph • Andruw Jones gone, Teixeira staying? • More news and notes
I'd say it's not just the heat, it's the humility, but that would be misleading. Very misleading. Frankly, I'm stunned at the lack of flak fired by friends who recall my pronouncement in May:
The New York Mets just finished the worst collapse in baseball history. How should sports fans deal with disaster?
By all rights, by every sacred baseball cliché ever uttered by a single-minded manager or regurgitated by a lockstep player, the Phillies should not be the National League East champions. They shouldn't be winning much at all.
NEW YORK -- When the end mercifully came, when the greatest late-September collapse in baseball history was complete, all Willie Randolph could do was stand alone -- his arms at his side, straight as pipes -- and say nothing.
The New York Mets lost more than a playoff spot, their pride and probably some of their fan base this past week. The franchise lost millions of dollars, while the players themselves lost at least $20,000 apiece, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.
What we have here, in this final weekend of the season, is seven National League teams scratching for four postseason positions in five different series of three games each.
The most amazing part about the amazing freefall of the team New Yorkers like to call the Amazins is not how swiftly it has come -- though, you have to admit, this has been one stomach-in-the-throat drop for the Mets. And it's not that it happened in the first place. The Mets, if you've seen them at all this year, have never seemed inclined to run off with the National League East title, as they did last season.
Mets assistant general manager Tony Bernazard and Blue Jays director of player personnel Tony LaCava have interviewed for the open Pirates GM job, SI.com has learned.
The Mets aren't exactly turning heads or buckling knees around the rest of the National League. Heck, even the Mets aren't all that impressed with the Mets.
As regular-season weeks go, this has been one that's going to be hard to beat. And as non-September regular-season weeks go, the one we just witnessed may go down as the all-time champ.
The ARAMARK Team Shea Stadium, Flushing, N.Y.
Editor's note: We asked SI.com writers to share their memories from the best game they've ever seen. Here are their stories:
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