• As baseball takes it's yearly break to play a somewhat meaningless game, there was so much mutual respect between Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez that we almost think that Barry and A-Rod should get a room. With Bonds on the verge of Hank Aaron’s record of 755 career home runs, Bonds said that when Rodriguez breaks his in the future, he'll be there. “And when you do, you don’t have to worry about calling me. I’ll call you. If you want me there, I’ll be there. I’ll be there in a heartbeat.” Bonds, who is 42, is only four homers away from tying Aaron and Rodriguez is at 494 career home runs at the age of 31. What did A-Rod say about Barry? “I love Barry. I’m one of his biggest fans. If you think about his work on the field over the last 20 years, it’s been second to none, maybe Babe Ruth or the all-time greats."
• Speaking of A-Rod, Shaun Powell thinks that it's no longer a question of whether Rodriguez is good enough for the Yankees next year, but a question whether the Yankees are good enough for A-Rod. Rodriguez can opt-out of the final years of his contract, making him a free agent next year. Powell's reasoning? The Yankees are no longer contenders, but a team that's headed in the wrong direction. A team that has less of a chance to win a title than the Indians, Tigers, or Brewers.
• Down in the Minor Leagues, Lastings Milledge is on the mend from his strained ligaments and could return the the bigs after the All-Star break. Milledge is lighting it up with AA Binghamton, hitting .435, with three home runs, a double, a triple and eight RBI. L Millz, who last made news when rapping, is heading to the Cyclones to keep playing through the All-Star break. Milledge's recovery couldn't come sooner for the Mets, who have three outfielders on the DL.

In the 9th inning, with former Mets closer Armando Benitez on the mound, David Wright stepped to the plate with bases loaded and one out. Any long-time Mets fan knows what comes next. Not because of what Wright can do, but of the torture that Benitez put fans through while he was with the Mets. Wright hit a two-run double, giving the Mets the go ahead runs. Oh Armando, how we missed you so. more ›

In an early gift from the Easter Bunny (in the form of Jesse Chan-Norris), Gothamist received a picture of the other giant inflatable baseball cap yesterday. The Yankee cap is on 6th Avenue and the Mets cap is near the Queensborough Bridge on the Manhattan side. Is anybody else wondering what kind of insurance coverage they need for these huge caps? And we kind of think our photoshop job looks better than the end result. more ›

Don't look now, but the Mets have the best...we're just not going to finish that sentence. The Mets are riding high after a sweep of the Washington Nationals and are on a six game winning streak. Yesterday, in Victor Zambrano's first start of the season, the Mets cruised to victory again, defeating the Nationals 13-4. In the win, the Mets managed to hit four home runs, including three in the first inning by Carlos Beltran, David Wright, and Cliff Floyd. Carlos Delgado added his home run in the fifth inning. The last time the Mets hit three home runs in the first inning was in 1999. The Mets tagged Nationals starter Livan Hernandez for 11 hits and 8 runs in six innings. Zambrano, who allowed 6 hits and 3 runs in five innings, wasn't magnificent in his debut, but with the offense the Mets displayed yesterday, he didn't have to be - unfortunate for our DC brethren who has a team sitting at 2-8 on the season. more ›

The sweep helps the Mets stay close in the NL Wild Card race. They are 3 games behind Houston and trailing three other NL East teams as well. The Wild Card may be the only hope for the Mets as they trail the Braves by 6.5 games, which isn't an insurmountable lead, but the Mets haven't had much success at beating the Braves. more ›

Luckily for Zambrano and the Mets, who would have dropped below .500 with a loss, they were able to tie the game in the 7th inning and again in the 9th to force extra innings. The tying run in the 9th came on a solo home run from Mike Cameron who was the subject of many of the trade rumors before Sunday. more ›

What now? The Yankees started the season 11-19, recovered by winning 16 out of 18 and have now dropped eight of nine with a 4-3 loss to the Brewers on Monday. Stop the ride Gothamist wants to get off. more ›

The Yankees came into the weekend riding a hot streak and left it as fodder for their critics. As they won ten straight and fifteen out of seventeen, critics pointed to the quality of their opposition. After losing two out of three to the Red Sox and being humiliated 17-1 by them on Saturday, the Yankees will have to listen to those grumbles for the next month. more ›

While he didn't make his season debut yesterday, it certainly seems like Mike Piazza has been missing all season. Entering yesterday's game Piazza was hitting below the Mendoza Line, but that all changed with a 4-5 performance. One of Piazza's hits was a 3-run home run in the 8th inning, which gave the Mets a healthy cushion they would later need. more ›

At least the Mets can say they were swept by the best team in baseball over the weekend. In yesterday's 6-2 loss (box score), there was little that went the right way of the Metropolitans. Kazuo Matsui experienced back spasms that might send him to the DL, David Wright played poorly in the field, and Vance Wilson left the game after being hit in the head with a bat. But wait, there's more. The Mets are now a whopping 11 games out of first and they can say they are in a race for last place in the NL East. After all, they are only 8 games in front of the last place Expos. more ›

">Newsday reports that his 6 RBi is the most by a Met rookie since Jeremy Burnitz (the Met turned Brewer turned Met) had 11 in a game against the Expos. Naturally, Wright had an error in the game, because if he didn't, he wouldn't be on the Mets. more ›

The Mets are 8 games out of first and 8.5 games out of last. They are slightly closer to the wild card than they are to first place. With the trades the Mets made last week, there is still some hope for improvement, but we're wondering if there are any Met fans out there that aren't thinking of next year already. more ›

Yesterday, Bob Murphy, the longtime voice of the Mets passed away at the age of 79. Murphy was with the Mets since their inaugural season in 1962, missing only two years while he was in Baltimore, and retired last year after more than 6000 games with the organization. more ›

The All-Star game is tonight at 8 on Fox. Lest you think that this game is as meaningless as the All-Star games of other sports, the two leagues are playing for home field in the World Series. Whether or not home field should come down to some players that may not care, or if home field actually matters in the World Series at all, is open to debate. more ›

Three years ago, Danny Almonte was playing in the Little League World Series and was later discovered to be above the 12 year-old age limit. Almonte is now a 17 year-old sophomore and is 5'11" and 150 lbs with a 87 m.p.h. fastball. more ›

Gothamist loves covering food, but this is really bizarre: What to make of the so-called "Sausage incident" in major league baseball? The Milwauke Brewers sevening inning stretch entertainment involves a four sausage race inside Miller Park. Huh? Yes, a hot dog, a bratwurst, a Polish sausage and an Italian sausage race each other to the delight of baseball fans. But during a game between the Brewers and Pittsburgh Pirates, the Pirates first baseman Randall Simon "half" swung his bat at the Italian sausage, who fell and took the hot dog with her. Simon was arrested (but charges were later dropped to disorderly conduct), the Brewers were outraged, and the Italian sausage felt the whole thing was overblown and that Simon didn't mean any harm. Gothamist can only say that it's a good thing that (a) NY doesn't have such an insane activity (though you never know what Steinbrenner will do...wait, we do have Mr. Met) because (b) New Yorkers would have spilled onto the field, demanding to know what Simon had against Italians and then (c) the tabloids would never stop talking about it. more ›