The morning started with rumors of names mentioned in Senator George Mitchell's report to Major League Baseball, but not until this afternoon were any rumors substantiated. Stating in his report that “there is much about the illegal use of performance enhancing substances in baseball that I did not learn,” Mitchell proceeded to lay waste to the careers of many notable players, perhaps none more so than Roger Clemens. In the report Brian McNamee, Roger Clemens’......

The wedding date hasn’t been announced, but it seems like all the plans have been made. Alex Rodriguez is about to sign the richest contract in sports history- again. The framework of the deal is a 10 year/$275 million contract. In addition, A-Rod and the Yankees are working on a revenue sharing agreement if A-Rod breaks the home run record. One thing you won’t find in the contract is an opt-out clause, so this really......

For a team used to making miracles, conjuring up a disaster had an especially bitter taste. With a sloppily played 8-1 loss to Florida and the Phillies' 6-1 win against the Nationals, the Mets' season ended about a month too early. The loss capped an agonizing stretch of two and a half weeks in which the Mets played some of the worst teams in the National League and still played their worst baseball of......

Marlins 7, Mets 4: Who thought this bad dream would last this long? Needing a quality start from Oliver Perez to stop their bleeding, the Mets instead got a vintage -- as in 2005 -- effort in their fifth straight loss. Not even Byung-Hyun Kim could play the platelet to the Mets' open wound. The Marlins righty kept the Mets in check, and Oliver Perez lost control at the most critical points. Even David Wright,......

Mets 8 Nationals 4: Boy did they need this one. With the division lead down to 1-1/2 games, the Mets could not afford to get swept by Washington and they showed some fight Wednesday night, by getting a game they had to have. And, perhaps best of all, the Phillies lost in extra innings, putting the division lead back at 2-1/2 games. Moises Alou shook off an injury and provided three hits and a......

Yankees 8, Red Sox 7: Everything looked good for the Red Sox as they were playing last night's game. They were up 5.5 games on the Yankees and about to make it 6.5 when the top of the 8th came around and everything went south. Down by 5 runs, the Yankees scored 6 runs in the inning before making a single out. They started the scoring with back-to-back solo home runs by Jason Giambi......

There's one member of the Mets that is up for the Hall of Fame today. The Mascot Hall of Fame, that is. The round-headed ball of a mascot is trailing by about 5,500 votes in the race for popularity on the Mascot Hall of Fame website. He trails The Coyote, the mascot of the San Antonio Spurs. The Post pulls out all the stops to make sure Mr. Met is the top vote getter.......

Yankees 12, Mariners 3: Chien-Ming Wang doesn't deserve the American League Cy Young award, but he should get some lower votes. In a game the Yankees needed to win to keep their wild-card lead, Wang pitched 7 1/3 innings and kept the Mariners under wraps. That came as a welcome development after the Yankees learned that Roger Clemens will need a cortisone shot in his pitching elbow. Why was he out there Monday anyway? Horacio......

Mets 5 Dodgers 2: Omar has to be smiling about the Oliver Perez trade. Yes, Xavier Nady is a nice outfielder, but Perez is developing into something special. He showed this ability before, in 2004, but after that he was bad enough to get traded away by Pittsburgh. Now, he is averaging almost a strikeout an inning and is second on the Mets with 12 wins. Friday night, Perez pitched seven shutout innings and out-pitched......

Starting this morning and through Sunday, the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour is making its 2007 stop in New York City with the AVP Brooklyn Open. In it's 2nd year in NYC, the Brooklyn Open features over 150 beach volleyball players, a temporary 4,000-seat stadium, and 13 outer courts that will offer general admission seating (ticket info). Qualifying round play began today at 8 a.m. One of the teams this morning almost missed its 8......

Mets 5, Nationals 0 (5 innings): John Maine lasted five innings. Normally that wouldn't that be that good, but then the rains came, the game was called 90 minutes later and Maine had a complete-game one-hitter. Don't look past Maine's battery-mate, Ramon Castro, who went 2-for-2 with a home run and has looked great when he's seen the time. Would the Mets be a better team with him as the regular catcher and Paul......

Mets 6, Pirates 3: Tom Glavine picked up his 299th career win by taking advantage of a rare night of productivity from Paul Lo Duca. A start after wilting despite having a 6-0 lead before he threw a pitch, Glavine shut down the Pirates at Shea. Lo Duca entered the game with a .312 on-base percentage and a .357 slugging average, and, despite the Mets' laughable efforts to have him elected to the All-Star Game,......

Mets 1, As 0: It may have taken three weeks, but the Mets have finally won a series in June. In dramatic fashion last night, the Mets defeated the A's on a 9th inning double by David Wright. It was also the first time the Mets have won back-to-back games in 22 games. Both starting pitchers pitched magnificently, with Joe Blanton pitching 8 innings of scoreless ball for the A's and Orlando Hernandez going 7......

The first release numbers for All-Star Game balloting was released yesterday for the National League and four Mets are leading in the yearly popularity contest. Jose Reyes, David Wright, Paul Lo Duca, and Carlos Beltran lead at their respective positions, with Beltran as the leading vote-getter in the National League across all positions. Reyes and Wright made their first appearances at the "Midsummer Classic" last season, while Lo Duca is a four-time All Star and......

Mets 6 Cardinals 1: Yes, baseball followed all the other sports and sold out for the highest dollar, ruining the best tradition in sports, Opening Day, but at least they put a New York team into “Opening Night” this year. It doesn’t make up for the NLCS, but the Mets got 2007 off to a great start, pummeling Chris Carpenter and getting a great start from Tom Glavine. Paul LoDuca had 3 RBI’s and......

Windows of opportunity in baseball often come in small sizes. After coming within a run of the National League pennant last season, the Mets hope their chance hasn't run out yet. Make no mistake, the Mets remain a force to be reckoned with and could end up finishing with a better result than they did last season. But they shouldn't expect the regular-season cakewalk they had last season, and they can't hope to be......

Not everyone was forunate enough to score Game 7 tickets, or didn't want to spend 4x the ticket price for them. Instead we are here with friends live blogging the Cardnials vs Mets! The Cardinals' Jeff Suppan is a better pitcher, but we don't think he'll have the night he had during Game 3. Oliver Perez has a lot to prove, but manager Willie Randolph will pull him and throw everyone in the bullpen......

Paul Lo Duca, Shawn Green and Guillermo Mota all hurt their former team and led the Mets to a 9-5 win over Los Angeles as the Mets swept the National League Division Series. Lo Duca had two RBIs, Green had three hits, and Mota threw two innings of scoreless relief. The win gives the Mets three off-days before they host the winner of the St. Louis-San Diego matchup in the NL Championship Series on......

Although they may come to miss Orlando Hernandez -- likely out for the postseason -- in the future, the Mets made do without their starting in Wednesday's 6-5 win over the Dodgers. They took a 1-0 lead in the three-of-five series. Carlos Delgado's four hits -- including the go-ahed single in the seventh inning -- led the offensive barrage. For all the talk about rotations in this series, bullpens will also play a large......

It's not enough that David Wright is the new sex symbol for New York's baseball teams, now four other Mets get in on the action. Well, sort of. The July 17th issue of Sports Illustrated (on newsstands now) has the five members of the New York Metropolitans on the cover with the title, "Welcome To Rip City, The Adventures of Captain Red Ass And the Intrepid Mets." Of course, with that whole Sports Illustrated......

Last week, in his first career start, Brian Bannister saw his effort go to waste as the Mets bullpen blew his win against the Washington Nationals at Shea Stadium. Yesterday afternoon, Bannister was in cruise control against the Nationals as the Mets spoiled the Nationals home opener, 7-1. Bannister pitched seven impressive innings and allowed only three hits - one of which was Alfonso Soriano's solo home run in the 7th. The most impressive aspect......

While the Mets as a team have never been very successful against the Flounders Marlins, it didn't matter much yesterday because all they needed was David Wright in the 3-2 win. Wright was drove in all three Mets runs including the 9th inning game winning run. Tom Glavine had another solid outing, lasting 6 innings and allowing 5 hits and 2 runs while striking out 5. Willis got his 2nd no-decision in the young season,......

By all accounts, the Mets had a good day yesterday. They unveiled their new stadium plans and picked up a 10-5 win against the Washington Nationals. Pedro Martinez made his first start of the season and was less than stellar. While Martinez won the game, he allowed 4 hits, 5 runs (4 earned), and 5 walks. While he did strike out six, Pedro hit three Nationals hitters, including hitting Jose Guillen twice. In the 5th......

Opening day is a good day for things to roll your way. In yesterday's 3-2 victory over the Washington Nationals, the Mets had great day with help from some new members and a lucky break. Tom Glavine started the season off on a good note, working six solid innings allowing six hits and one run. Xavier Nady, who should have Xavier McDaniel's old nickname, and Paul Lo Duca both had notable days at the plate,......

Spring is almost here! Pitchers and catchers started reporting to camps in Florida today. In Port St. Lucie the Mets are welcoming new faces Billy Wagner, Carlos Delgado and Paul Lo Duca, as well as several others. In Tampa, the Yankees have several new pitchers, Kyle Farnsworth, Octavio Dotel, Mike Myers and Ron Villone joining their staff. Spring training will be different this year as the World Baseball Classic will take away many of 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......

If the ceremonies at the end of the season and the trade for Paul Lo Duca didn't make it clear enough, it's now official. The Mets will not be re-signing Mike Piazza (at least until May 1st) as they declined to offer salary arbitration, effectively ending his eight-year stint with the team. The 37 year-old Hall of Fame bound catcher hit only .251 with 19 home runs and 62 RBI last season. The .251 average......

With plenty of time left before the holidays and the start of next year's baseball season, Omar Minaya has checked off his major tasks for the off-season. First baseman, done. Closer, signed. Catcher, officially finished yesterday when the Mets traded for Paul Lo Duca from the Marlins as Florida continued their fire sale. Minaya acquired Lo Duca from the Marlins for 21 year-old pitching prospect Gaby Hernandez and another minor league player to be named......

It was a good and busy weekend at the Stadium for the Yankees. the Yankees managed to take three out of four games from Baltimore and increase their lead over the Red Sox to 9.5 games. The big trade that everyone wanted to see (Randy Johnson coming to the big Apple) did not happen, but Cashman was able to unload the inconsistent Jose Contreras for the steady Esteban Loaiza. On Friday night, Kevin Brown......