Gothamist has seen Al Leiter play on many occasions. The worst performance that we might have witnessed though was when he joined Bruce Springsteen on stage at a performance at Shea Stadium. It was fitting then that before his final appearance on the pitcher's mound he warmed up to a song by The Boss. At Legends Field in Tampa yesterday, Leiter called it a career after 22 seasons in the Majors. Leiter started his career......

In a stunner, the United States actually lost a game in pool play during the World Baseball Classic. Yesterday, they lost to their friendly neighbors to the north, 8-6. If you're thinking to yourselves, "Canada? Who the hell do they have?" Gothamist can say that we're right there with you. The "big" names on Team Canada include: Erik Bedard, Paul Quantrill, Chris Reitsma, Corey Koskie, Jason Bay, and Matt Stairs. Canada all but conceded the......

Major League Baseball announced the 60-man US World Baseball Classic roster yesterday with several players on the Mets and Yankees named as possible team members. The US list includes Johnny Damon, Derek Jeter, Al Leiter, and Alex Rodriguez. The Mets have Paul Lo Duca, Billy Wagner and David Wright on the US players listed. While the 60-person list is a list of players that can play in the tournament, the eventual roster must be trimmed......

Baseball has a wacky transaction system. Yesterday the Yankees offered Bernie Williams arbitration, but only because they knew he would decline it. Why the apparent waste of time? Because without the offer, the Yankees would have lost negotiating rights to Bernie and if Bernie had accepted he would have been in line for a salary near ten million dollars for 2006. So, the Yankees and Bernie have until January 8th to make a deal. Even......

It was a season of lows and highs from an 11-19 start to 95 wins and a playoff spot the Yankees gave their fans a story with many twists and turns in 2005. There was the emergence of Robinson Cano and Chien-Ming Wang and the painful decline of Bernie Williams. In the end, the Yankees couldn’t keep the momentum they had built in September going and fell to the Angels in five games. The......

The Yankees used timely hitting and solid pitching to beat the Angels 3-2 Sunday night knotting their series at two games apiece. The decisive Game Five will be played tonight at 8pm. Shawn Chacon gave the Yankees six plus innings, allowing only two runs before yielding to Al Leiter in the seventh Despite Chacon’s solid outing, the Yankees trailed 2-1 when he left the game. In the bottom of the seventh Robinson Cano singled and......

That the Yankees have remained in the pennant race is a credit to their patchwork pitching, a staff that has gotten more meaningful contributions from its unheralded mid-season acquisitions than the high-paid additions from the off-season. Last night, it was career minor leaguer Aaron Small (5-0, 3.03) saving Mike Mussina in a 7-4 Yankee win in Seattle. Despite his persistent control problems, Al Leiter has given the Yankees more than they could have hoped. Shawn......

He walked off the Yankee Stadium mound on April 23rd with an injured shoulder and a 9.15ERA. At the time, most Yankees’ fans weren’t sorry to see him go. Fast-forward four months later and fans are glad Jaret Wright is back. Monday night he shut down the Blue Jays for seven innings leading the Yankees to a 7-0 victory. The Yankees took the lead in the second inning when they scored on an error by......

The Yankees may be taking this idea of developing their farm system a little too seriously. Forced to start Tim Redding and Darrell May in the past week, the Yankees turned to prospect, Al Leiter, to pitch Sunday night. Since leaving the Yankees sixteen years ago, Leiter had won 148 games and three World Series. Sunday night he stymied the Red Sox leading the Yankees to a 5-3 victory while striking out a season-high eight.......

Did you get shut out of the "secret" Beck show? Don't be sad, we did too, but there is plenty more to do this weekend. The weather will be nice, and at least your taxes are done, right. Right? ART: This weekend Exit Art will bring a performance spectacle to their 10th Ave and 36th St windows. Praying Project explores the necessity of spirituality in many people's lives. Friday through Sunday // 475 10th Ave......

After seven years as a New York Met, Al Leiter has left our fair city for a second stint with the Florida Marlins. Leiter signed a 1 year, $7 million contract with the team he pitched for in 1996 and won a World Series with in 1997. The Tom's River, NJ native, has always been a Mets fan, yet he left the team even after agreeing to an offer of 1 year, guaranteed $4 million......

Pedro Martinez may be coming to New York, but not to the Yankees, the team that first talked to him. The Mets are reported to have made a 3 year $38 million offer to the 33 year-old right hander. The offer tops one from the Red Sox for 2 years and $25.5 million. In mid-November, Martinez told George Steinbrenner that he wanted to be a Yankee, but now a Met? He would be leaving a......

The Mets announced the re-signing of Kris Benson yesterday as their busy off season continues. Benson was acquired by the Mets during the season when the Mets had hope of making the playoffs, but those quickly vanished. Throughout the season, he has said he would like to remain a Met, but no deal was reached until the off-season. Despite being a free agent, it was thought that the Benson would remain with the Mets anyway.......

If you can't get it right with two people making decisions, it's a great idea to add a third. Well, at least that's what the Mets are doing. The team is to announce today that Omar Minaya will be the new head of baseball operations, a position above that of General Manager Jim Duquette. With Minaya, Duquette, and COO Jeff Wilpon all leading the Mets, the question is, "who's in charge?" With Minaya's title, we'll......

With the Mets eliminated from the playoffs, the only role left was that of spoiler. That's exactly what they did this weekend, taking two of three from the Cubs who are trying to win the National League wild card. After losing the first game on Friday, the Mets won the final two games of the series. The first win was an extra inning win on Saturday and Sunday's win gave the Mets the series. On......

As if the Mets weren't bad enough, it almost seems like they are trying to be worse. The Mets are now one solitary game away from a tie for last in the NL East. The way the Expos have been playing, expect the Mets to have sole possession of the cellar title after Thursday. And if they aren't quite there yet, they still have three games in Atlanta and three more at home to wrap......

In a move that surprised no one, the Mets have decided to fire Art Howe as the manager of the Mets. The surprising thing is Howe has decided stay with the Mets through the end of the season. Howe cited the fact that he's never quit on anything, "I'm not a quitter. I've never walked away from anything in my life." In almost two years with the Mets, Howe is 129-177, which when compared to......

With the return of Mike Piazza to the Mets, there was something to finally be happy about. The Mets still lost the game 6-4 (box score) despite home runs by Piazza, David Wright, and Jason Phillips. Not only did Mike Piazza and the rest of the offense do well, but Al Leiter pitched well too. The shortcoming was the bullpen. Leiter pitched six innings allowing three runs on six hits, but picked up a no......

Hope that they don't get swept. With three of the four games against the Padres, the Mets have managed to lose three in a row, but thy can prevent a sweep this afternoon as they play one more game against the suddenly hot Padres. Memo to teams in the hunt for the playoffs - if you're playing the Mets, you have a good chance of picking up a few games. The Mets have now lost......

Oh those lovable Amazins...working off of their sweep of the Brewers, the Mets went into St. Louis and recieved their second weekend sweep in a row. It probably would have been three in a row if a game against the Braves wasn't rained out two weeks ago. Now, we here at Gothamist aren't exactly Miss Cleo, but we did say that the Mets would probably get swept. Mets fans were thinking that too, no? At......

The Mets offense had a banner day yesterday. Mike Cameron hit two home runs and Eric Valent hit for the cycle in the 10-1 victory for the Mets (box score). With the victory, the Mets "earned" a split with the last place Montreal Expos. Valent, filling in for Cliff Floyd in left field, went 4-4 with an infield single in the 2nd, a double in the 3rd, a home run in the 5th, and......

In the box score of Sunday's Phillies-Mets game, there is a benign Cameron-Matsui-Zeile notation for a double play. The actual play where Mike Cameron made a spectacular play in the outfield and doubled up Todd Pratt was really much bigger. In the top of the 5th inning, there was no score and Pratt was on first. Doug Glanville hit a ball towards right-center field and Cameron was more than 40 yards away. It appears......

After 87 games, the Mets are at 44-43, barely over .500, but in a position few expected. They are in fourth place (that was expected), but are only 2 games out of first place in the NL East. Sure, their division isn't playing that well, but with the Phillies, Braves, Marlins and Mets all in the hunt for the pennant, it looks like the rest of the season will be exciting. So far, the......

At the start of the season, Mets owner Fred Wilpon was hoping to play "meaningful games" and after 87 games, Wilpon can say the Mets have played several meaningful games and it looks like they will play more to come. The Mets are currently in 4th place in the NL East, but trail the first place Phillies by only two games. With Atlanta, the former juggernaut of the division, and Florida, the reigning World Series......

It looks like the Richard Hidalgo trade is working out really well for the Mets. Since joining the Mets, he is hitting .348 with 15 RBI and 8 home runs in his 17 games as a Met. Someone get us a fire extinguisher! Hidalgo's hot streak could be attributed to some changes that he and hitting coach Don Baylor have made. Baylor corrected Hidalgo's shoulder, making sure it he didn't open up his body too......

Call Gothamist crazy, but is anything ever easy for the Mets? In last night's game against the Reds, they were up 6-0 with 2 outs in the 8th inning and promptly gave up 5 runs to the Reds. Lucky for the Mets, they got an insurance run in the 9th because Adam Dunn hit a solo home run with two-outs in the home half of the 9th. The Mets won the game 7-6 (box score)......

Going into the Subway Series on Friday night, the Mets were 12-24 against the Yankees and lost all six games last season. Friday night's game was delayed by rain, pushing the start of the series to Saturday afternoon in a match-up between Al Leiter and Brad Halsey. Surprisingly, the Mets actually won, 9-3 (box score). Saturday's victory came on a virtual offensive explosion by the Mets. In the fourth inning, the Mets had 6 runs,......

In what has become a yearly tradition, the Mets and Yankees start the first of six games in their interleague series tonight. In last seven years, the Yankees hold a 24-12 advantage in the Subway Series including a six game sweep of the Mets last season. Derek Jeter sums up the Series succinctly, "Yes, it's great for the city. No, it's not like it was during (the World Series) in 2000. No, it's not that......

On the eve of interleague play, the Mets stand at .500 after defeating the Florida Marlins yesterday 5-2 (box score). The game ended a 12-game, 13 day period where the Mets played the NL East leading Marlins and the 2nd place Phillies. While a team obviously wants to do better than .500 against their rivals, for Mets Manager Art Howe, he was happy to go .500, "We wanted to finish at least 6-6 in these......

Out in Arizona, the Mets lost an ugly game to the Diamondbacks, 12-8 (box score), where they gave up two leads and five home runs, including three to Luis Gonzalez. The "Amazins'" newly called up pitcher James Baldwin gave up 6 runs by the 3rd inning and reliever Dan Wheeler gave up 6 more runs in 1 1/3 innings of work. The Mets had their chances, actually providing two leads to Baldwin and tallying 17......