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As the calendar creeps closer to March 26 and the start of another baseball season, the annual ritual begins. Not the first pitch ritual. Not the hot dog ritual. Not even the ritual of fans convincing themselves this is finally the year they won’t overreact to every April loss. No, the real ritual is the spring press conference where everyone tries to read tea leaves while the general manager calmly reminds us that baseball seasons are marathons, not sprints, even though the

By the time I pulled into the complex at Clover Park for my sixth and final day of covering Mets Spring Training, the place felt almost civilized. No 6:00 a.m. cattle call. No players stumbling in before sunrise for picture day obligations. The press room didn’t open until 9:45. The clubhouse doors welcomed us at 10. It felt like baseball had hit the snooze button. And honestly, after a week of controlled chaos, it was kind of perfect. The room itself was quiet. Not tense qui

Spring Training has a rhythm to it. The crack of the bat. The thud of a fastball into leather. The hum of golf carts. And apparently… the gentle click of chess pieces. Day 5 began in the clubhouse, and what jumped out immediately had nothing to do with radar guns or exit velocity. It was Sean Manaea holding court with Jonah Tong, teaching him chess as if he were channeling Bobby Fischer rather than former Mets pitcher Jack Fisher. Manaea wasn’t just explaining moves. He was e

By the time the Florida humidity announced itself before breakfast, Clover Park was already humming. Clover Park was already humming. Spring Training coverage Day 4 began early — locker room doors open at 8 a.m. — and if you’ve been around this game long enough you know that’s when the real stories tend to wander in, usually wearing spikes and carrying a cup of bad clubhouse coffee. I made the rounds, hopping from locker to locker — speed dating for reporters, where the goal

There’s a certain kind of player you notice when you wander through a spring training clubhouse long enough. Not the guy surrounded by cameras. Not the kid with a Top 100 ranking and a radar gun following him around like paparazzi. I’m talking about the player with miles on the odometer and stories tucked into the seams of his glove. The kind of guy whose résumé reads less like a stat sheet and more like a road atlas. That’s where you find Carl Edwards Jr. this spring. You re

There are certain moments in spring training when you stumble across a story you weren’t expecting. Maybe it’s a kid throwing 97 free and easy like he found it in the bottom of a Cracker Jack box, or maybe it’s just wandering past a locker when a glove catches your eye, covered in pop culture references that would make a film studies professor spill his latte.. That’s how I wound up talking pitching and psychological satire with Mets prospect Ryan Lambert, which is how you k

Day three in Port St. Lucie and by now you start noticing the things you miss when you first arrive — the small details, the subtle changes, the little hints that baseball continues to evolve even if the smell of sunscreen and pine tar still feels exactly the same. I’ve reached the midpoint of my six days here covering camp, and what stood out most today wasn’t a home run or a diving catch. It was intent. There’s a little more purpose to everything, from the way players stret

If Day 1 is about handshakes and fresh spikes in the clubhouse, Day 2 is where the tone starts to reveal itself. And the tone on this morning was set in the dugout. Steve Cohen met the media for 22 minutes, and if there was one word he kept circling back to, it was “excited.” But don’t confuse that with satisfied. “I feel like there’s a different energy here this year than last year,” Cohen said. “I don’t know what it is. It just feels really optimistic.” That optimism lives

There are very few two word phrases in the English language that, when spoken together, instantly bring a smile to your face. I do. Game 7. Spring Training. Opening Day. So yes, I am smiling.( You maybe able to see it in the picture above, but take my word for it) Everything worked out. The 6:45 a.m. flight from Islip to West Palm lifted off on time. Wheels down at 9:45. I was in the rental car by 10:05 and on the back fields by 11:15. Not bad for a February morning that bega

The day is almost upon us. Players can finally 'argue' balls and strikes without getting tossed and making a shameful appearance on every highlight show later that night. It's called the 'Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System' (ABS), and players will be able to use it during the entire 2026 season. They teased us last year during spring training, making us wait an entire season, while screaming all kinds of creative language at our televisions. But will this be a 'be careful

There are certain sites and sounds in spring training that signal baseball is officially alive again, the pop of a fastball in a catcher’s mitt, the sound of a fungo bat, and the unmistakable cadence of a manager standing at a podium explaining, in calm baseball speak, why everything is both encouraging and cautiously monitored. On Friday, Carlos Mendoza stepped into that role, delivering a wide-ranging briefing that touched on pitching health, roster development, defensive p

There are a handful of rites of spring that never change. The sun comes up over the back fields, someone insists this is the best shape of their life, and reporters ask a newly arrived star how it feels to be somewhere new. On Thursday afternoon, that star was Bo Bichette the Mets’ freshly imported infielder with the family pedigree and an All-Star résumé, and now, a new glove destined for third base. And if you were expecting grand pronouncements, chest-thumping or a Power

If you’re anything like me and my wife insists there is no one like me (I’m still not sure if she meant that as a compliment), you can remember exactly when and where you bought your very first pack of baseball cards. Just reading this probably has your sense of smell kicking into gear right now. (Is that… that smell?) That unmistakable aroma of cardboard, ink, and gum, or what passed for gum in the 1960s, especially when you peeled back that last card in the pack, hoping for

There are days early in camp when the biggest story is which reliever showed up with a new haircut, and then there are days when the president of baseball operations steps to the microphone and casually drops enough news to make everyone in the room reach for their phones at the same time to post to Twitter. Tuesday was firmly in the latter category. David Stearns opened his media availability with what could best be described as a one-two punch: one that caused Mets fans to

Full Disclosure: I have been a big fan of Ken Davidoff for a long, long time. He was a frequent guest on my SportsTalkNY radio show, over the years I’ve always enjoyed spending time with him in the press box where conversations range from pitch sequencing to the identity of the mystery meat that’s been sitting under a heat lamp since Dave Kingman last played for the Mets. So when 101 Lessons From the Dugout, the book he co-authored with nationally renowned pediatrician and

Some transactions exist purely to help a Triple-A roster survive the dog days. Others exist to give a manager a spring training body who can play short, second, third, and probably sell peanuts if needed. And then there are the rare ones that exist almost entirely to poke the baseball gods in the ribs and say, remember 1969? The Mets’ minor-league agreement with Grae Kessinger, complete with a non-roster invitation to spring training, fits squarely into that last category. On

By now, Mets fans have learned a new daily routine for January: breakfast, walk the dogm check email, Zoom press conference, repeat. This month has featured so many introductory media availabilities that it’s starting to feel less like Hot Stove season and more like baseball speed dating . Today’s installment brought us the newest face in that familiar little Zoom rectangle — Freddy Peralta — and if the Mets were hoping to introduce someone who sounds unfazed by bright lights

There was a time when Craig Kimbrel entered a baseball game and opposing hitters immediately started thinking about their families. They wondered if they had said I love you enough. They wondered if this was how it ended. That Craig Kimbrel was a menace. A right armed horror movie with a bent over stance, a fastball that hissed, and a breaking ball that vanished like socks in a dryer. He piled up saves the way the Mets used to pile up injuries. Four hundred and forty of them.

Mets fans, let’s take the blue-and-orange tinted glasses off for a minute. Vidal Bruján is not the next José Reyes, hell he isn't even the next Pablo Reyes. He’s not a secret All-Star hiding in plain sight. He’s not about to steal 60 bases and force the Mets to install a speed limit at Citi Field. So who is Vidal Bruján ? If your reaction to the question, “Is that a new member of the Queens Crew — congratulations, you’re normal. He’s basically baseball’s version of the guy w

There are two truths in life: The sun rises in the east. Mets fandom much like today's political climate is a house divided, with the dividing line usually running straight through Thanksgiving dinner. I know this because I run KinersKorner.com, a digital family room where Mets fans gather daily to agree on one thing that everyone else is wrong. Which brings us to David Stearns. Let me preface this by saying I have been a believer in David Stearns’ long-term vision for this