Perfect. Perfect bookends to a perfect year. Waking up on July 4, 2008 to read that Jose Reyes reportedly engaged in a “heated” confrontation with Keith Hernandez on board the Mets' flight a few nights earlier from New York to St. Louis — Keith didn't like the way Jose reacted to his throwing error during […]

Well, that one might be shown as a future episode of Phillies Classics.

The rain didn't really show up (I had visions of Gavin Floyd, Xavier Nady and Aaron Rowand), but neither did the Mets' bats. Johan Santana showed up all right, pitching a dazzling game … with the exception of that sixth inning. For all […]

ST. LOUIS (FAFIF) — Mike Pelfrey credited the latest in a string of strong performances Thursday night to the guidance he's received from an individual Mets fan.

“Greg's been on my ass all year,” Pelfrey revealed. “He's been pushing me to pitch better for quite a while. It finally started to sink in. I should just […]

In a game that you lead 7-5 in the eighth but lose 8-7 in the ninth, you've got to have quite the silver-lining detector to come away from it feeling anything but utterly defeated. And yet…

• Yes, that was a horrible way to surrender a night that had been taken back so emphatically, from down […]

Following the Mets' 7-4 win over the Cardinals Tuesday night, the Redbird players shrugged it off. It was just one game, manager Tony La Russa told them, we'll get 'em tomorrow. Most of them scattered to their homes, but one was invited for a drink at Mike Shannon's, just across the street from Busch Stadium. […]

When Tony Armas steps to the mound as scheduled tonight at Busch Stadium, — if the roster posted on mets.com is to be believed — he will become the first Mets pitcher to start a game wearing No. 44 since Jason Isringhausen did so at the last Busch Stadium on June 19, 1999.

Isringhausen was pounded […]

What became of the crisp Mets who defeated the Yankees Sunday in front of a packed, broiling house that included both Faith and Fear in Flushing chroniclers and their wives? (Emily and I were out in the bleachers, where I got to jump up and scream at Carlos Delgado's drive while the rest of the […]

2: Saturday, September 27 vs. Marlins

As the Countdown Like It Oughta Be reaches its penultimate milepost, there is not a soul in Shea Stadium who isn't prepared for its unveiling in the middle of the fifth inning. Much to Aramark's dismay it is momentarily killing hot dog and beer sales, but tradition is tradition […]

When a modern contrivance becomes a grand tradition, mister, you're growin' old. So it is with the Subway Series, quite obviously a cynical money-making scheme — hatched in the aftermath of a bad-for-business labor dispute, designed as a no-brainer crowd-pleaser, schemed to lure in those who couldn't be bothered with a regulation N.L. or A.L. […]