At Gillette Stadium, Jesse Cole proved that sometimes the best way to save baseball is to stop worrying so much about baseball I have been going to baseball games for a very long time. Long enough to remember when going to the ballpark meant keeping score with a pencil, arguing about whether the manager should have left the starter in, complaining about the price of a hot dog and wondering why the team couldn't simply bunt more. I have seen good baseball games, bad baseball g

There was a word that kept popping up around the Mets on Monday, even when nobody was actually saying it. Earned. Not given. Not handed out because there happens to be an empty chair. Not awarded because somebody in the front office needs to see what a kid can do before the season ends. Earned. And listening to Mets manager Andy Green and president of baseball operations David Stearns speak Monday, that philosophy came through loud and clear. It started with Green, who was as

The carnage is complete -- we think -- as Luke Weaver, Clay Holmes and Tyrone Taylor joined A.J. Minter, Huascar Brazoban, Luke Raley and Freddy Peralta in exiting Flushing for assumedly greener pastures. Weaver is heading to Pittsburgh, Holmes and Taylor to the Chicago's north side and the friendly confines (for Taylor, at least) of Wrigley Field (with Brazoban heading to the south side and the White Sox). In return, the Mets get two minor league infielders: shortstop Sammy

We all saw this coming, but that doesn't make it any easier to stomach. The dismantling of the Mets' bullpen -- perhaps their lone strength in this dismal season -- continued this morning, as Huascar Brazoban and Brooks Raley followed A.J. Minter out the bullpen door. Brazoban went to the White Sox, who gave the Mets two so-so prospects (and I guess they insisted no backsies on Luis Robert Jr.). Interesting, given that only two years ago, the Chisox broke the Mets' record for

It's no surprise that the Mets unloaded Freddy Peralta today, sending him to the Tampa Bay Rays for three prospects. Peralta was awful for the Mets, a starter who ran up pitch counts so quickly that he frequently didn't make it into the fifth inning, let alone out of it. Peralta's final Mets stat line is plain ugly: An ERA of 4.99, a run and a quarter greater than his lifetime record, a .788 OPS against, 17 homers and 31 doubles in 22 starts. It's easy to say that this was

The first domino has officially fallen. With the trade deadline looming and a season that never came close to meeting expectations, the Mets and David Stearns have begun what promises to be a busy few days by sending veteran left-handed reliever A.J. Minter to the Minnesota Twins in exchange for infield prospects Bruin Agbayani and Billy Amick. For a team that entered spring training believing it could contend for a World Series, Thursday night's move served as the clearest a

It’s been a while since this former journalism major sat at the keyboard and started to write. A lifetime, and a career change has put some real time on the calendar. But the urging of a good friend, aware of my background in sports and journalism, and the events of a special weekend have spurred the urge, and so here we go. The man behind the Kiner’s Korner website, Mark Rosenman, is one of my best friends. Even though I am a huge Yankee fan, I am first and foremost a VER

I've made the drive to Shea Stadium and Citi Field more times than I could possibly count. I've made that drive as a kid sitting beside my dad, as a teenager with friends, as a lifelong Mets fan, with my wife and children, as an author, and now as someone fortunate enough to cover the team I've loved for most of my life. Every great ballpark has a journey. For some fans, it's walking through the streets and bars of Chicago's Wrigleyville toward Wrigley Field. For others, it's

Cooperstown -- As America’s Pastime, baseball would seem to have an obligation to join in the festivities (such as they are) marking America’s semiquincentenial (that’s a 250th birthday, for those of you scoring at home), and during last weekend’s Cooperstown festivities, the National Baseball Hall of Fame rose to the occasion by honoring a former ballplayer who 50 years ago took time out from his center field position to play a game of Capture the Flag. Rick M

On Sunday in Cooperstown, Carlos Beltrán officially became baseball royalty. The Hall of Fame plaque will forever tell the story in bronze. But for those watching from the crowd—or from a clubhouse hundreds of miles away—it represented something much larger. It represented Puerto Rico. When I spoke one-on-one with Francisco Lindor one day after Beltrán's emotional induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Mets superstar wasn't thinking about statistics or milesto

There is nothing quite like Hall of Fame Weekend in Cooperstown. For a few days, baseball is frozen in time. The legends. The stories. The reminder of why we fell in love with this game in the first place. Then you leave Cooperstown, head back toward reality, and for me that reality means a trip to Citi Field tonight — covering a Mets team facing one of the most important weeks of its recent history. Because while Cooperstown celebrates the players and moments that built base

There are baseball games. There are baseball events. And then there is Hall of Fame Weekend in Cooperstown. If you have never experienced it, imagine taking the Baseball Hall of Fame, emptying out its Plaque Gallery, putting the contents into pick up trucks and then telling them to drive very slowly down Main Street while thousands of baseball fans scream. That, more or less, is the Parade of Legends. And if you think I’m exaggerating, consider this: Cooperstown is a village

I've been around baseball for a long time. Long enough to have filled notebooks instead of Notes apps. Long enough to have interviewed Hall of Famers, All-Stars, rookies, managers and enough relievers to populate an entire stadium. And through all those years, one thing has never changed. I still love walking into a ballpark. I still get that little rush walking through the tunnel and seeing the field for the first time. I still enjoy clubhouse conversations. I still apprecia

Before Joe Buck and longtime Cleveland baseball writer Paul Hoynes officially received their Hall of Fame honors this weekend, the newest members of baseball's media fraternity sat together one final time in front of reporters for a candid conversation that was less about awards and more about the journey. For Buck, recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence, and Hoynes, honored with the BBWAA Career Excellence Award, the press conference offered a glimp

Cooperstown -- Tomorrow is coronation day for Carlos Beltran, who will enter the Hall of Fame wearing a Mets cap, making him, according to Hall statistics, one of three Mets so enshrined. But in touring the Hall’s museum this weekend, you have to wonder how committed the Hall is to preserving Beltran’s memory as a Metrpolitan. An exhibit at the museum highighting the three inductees – Jeff Kent and Andruw Jones are the other two – has a brief (roughly one minute) video int

For 64 seasons, the Mets have chased pitching. Sometimes they developed it. Tom Seaver. Dwight Gooden. Jacob deGrom. More often, they went shopping for it. The shopping list has produced Hall of Famers, Cy Young Award winners, World Series heroes and established aces. On paper, many of those acquisitions looked like the missing piece. Some arrived with baseball cards that belonged in Cooperstown. Unfortunately, by the time several of those pitchers unpacked their bags in Quee

Before we dimmed the lights for our latest Kiner's Korner Long Island Ralph Kiner Chapter of SABR Movie Night, I posed a simple question to the audience. "How many of you remember where you were when Mark Fidrych burst onto the baseball scene in 1976?" Nearly every hand went up. That's baseball. One magical summer. One unforgettable player. One memory that somehow survives for half a century. As Mets fans, we understand baseball's unlikely love stories. Before 2012, R.A. Dick

There are Hall of Famers who seem destined for Cooperstown before they are old enough to legally drive. They are the kids whose bedroom walls are covered with baseball posters, whose fathers throw them batting practice every night until their arms fall off, and whose entire existence appears to be a carefully scripted journey toward a bronze plaque in upstate New York. Jeff Kent was not that kid. The future Hall of Famer who will be inducted into Cooperstown as part of the Cl

Every Mets fan has three voices permanently living somewhere inside their head. One reminds us that it's "a beautiful day for a ballgame." Another tells us it's time for the Happy Recap. The third somehow manages to interview a player who just hit two home runs...and wind up talking about his wife's cooking. Those voices belonged to Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner. For more than three decades they didn't simply broadcast Mets baseball. They narrated our summers. Th

Long before Kelsie Whitmore became the first overall pick in the inaugural Women's Pro Baseball League Draft, before she was pitching in front of packed Major League ballparks as a member of the Savannah Bananas, and before millions of social media followers came to know her name, she was simply chasing a dream that many believed was impossible. On Wednesday night at Citi Field, the Amazin' Mets Foundation recognized that journey, naming Whitmore the recipient of its 2026 Leg