Move over Bensonhurst Bomber! #jackiegleasonsucks

Matt Harvey challenged Jon Rauch to a fight last season, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports.

Harvey was taking a nap when Rauch doused him with ice water, shocking him awake and also ruining Harvey’s phone.

“He bounded up and challenged Rauch to a fight. Right there. Right then. He gave up 7 inches, about 75 pounds and a gallon or so of bad ink. It didn’t matter that he was a rookie. Harvey would not be a joke. He would not be a ...

I’m predicting about 30 home runs during the remainder of 2013 and 50 next year.

Wheeler - Wreck Of Ole Eighty Six

In an attempt to illuminate Tuesday night during Zack Wheeler’s major league debut, SNY announcer Gary Cohen explained that the last time a pair of under-25 pitchers started both ends of a doubleheader, then went on to win at least 75 games each for that team, was when Dwight Gooden and Sid Fernandez accomplished the treat in 1986. Set the bar at 100 games, and the last duo dates back to 1969.

And collectively, I assume, Mets fans pleaded with Gary Cohen ...

You killed them. You killed the Mets. You killed everything. You’re a monster.

Bob Costas is often evangelical at odd times. His recent ill-timed (if not illogical) remarks about gun control felt like something reserved for the Huffington Post — not the goal post — where he was broadcasting a football game. Now his increasingly throaty, theatrical bent led him to say that the Mets’ celebration after Sunday’s victory was a sign of the “end of Western Civilization.”

But this time ...

About 90 minutes after the Mets gave up two runs on a can’t-anybody-here-play-this-game fifth-inning play in which they made two errors and nearly made a third, the Mets actually thought they had a chance. The Cubs still had three outs to get. They got one.

Nieuwenhuis, batting .097 at the time and already having gone 0-for-2 with a walk, nailed his first homer of the season by drilling an 0-1 fastball from Chicago reliever Carlos Marmol off the facing of the upper deck in right field. It was ...

The ladies of CougarLife.com were eager to help Mr. Wright reach third base — until things went all wrong.

The web site’s lineup of “sexy older professional women” was romanced by a Mets official to help land star infielder David Wright a starting spot in the upcoming All-Star Game at Citi Field.

The hunky third baseman was recently voted the most desirable major leaguer by the site’s members — leading the marketing executive to propose an outpouring of cougar love for Wright. ...

The Mets have optioned Ike Davis, Robert Carson, and Mike Baxter to Triple-A Las Vegas, quite possibly the biggest in-season shakeup of the team’s roster since Sandy Alderson took over as general manager.

Davis is, of course, the biggest name of the three, as he’s been with the Mets since he was recalled from the minors early in the 2010 season. For the second straight year, though, he’s struggled mightily at the plate. In 207 plate appearances this year, he hit just .161/.242/.258, one of the ...

The other day from Harold Reynolds…“Every time I look up…Rick Ankiel is getting a hit for the Mets!”

After Rick Ankiel went hitless in four at-bats and struck out three times in Saturday’s 20-inning game off the bench, upping his futility streak to 2-for-his-last-35, the Mets designated the outfielder for assignment and will promote Kirk Nieuwenhuis from Triple-A Las Vegas.

Nieuwenhuis has eight homers in 16 games with the 51s since May 22, although overall he is hitting only .232 with 40 ...

As another famous Wally once said…“Look, don’t get sloppy on me. I might just slug you one.”

Wally Backman no longer is a reclamation project or the subject of a baseball rubbernecking endeavor. As manager of the Las Vegas 51s, baseball’s most challenging Triple-A affiliate, he’s an accomplished baseball man in his fourth year back as a Mets employee.

He has won back his full resume.

“I think I’ve served my time,” Backman told The Post yesterday, before his club took on Tacoma at ...

Megdal’s latest…

So now consider the real winter ahead for the New York Mets owners. They have less than a year to either find a way to pay J.P. Morgan Chase $320 million, or convince the bank to give them more time. And they’ll have to do so with more than just a Fred Wilpon press conference sunnily declaring his money problems a thing of the past. If the bank believes, unlike Standard and Poor’s, that the Mets are on the cusp of profitability, or that a forced sale now will produce less ...

For the second straight night, a Mets pitcher fighting for his job made a strong case, but this time the struggling offense delivered for him.

Dillon Gee made a strong case to keep his spot in the rotation and the Mets jumped on some shaky pitching as they beat the Nationals 10-1 Wednesday night.

Cracking open a Bay window on a nice June evening.

It’s June 3, and Jason Bay is starting again tonight for the Mariners. He brings in just a .231 batting average, but his on-base percentage is more than a hundred points higher than that, and his slugging percentage is right there with Michael Morse’s and Kyle Seager’s. Through the first third of the season, Bay’s been a contributor, and a year ago he was a pile of crap. He cost the Mariners little to bring in, his placement on the ...

After the Mets’ first two victories, I received an e-mail from a good friend, Peter Kurz, who lives in Israel, where he has become the secretary general of the Israel Association of Baseball. Decades ago, Kurz and I played catch at the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Riverside Park in Manhattan, my imagined Tom Seaver to his imagined Jerry Grote.

“To all those Yankee fans who are crying this morning into their cereal,” Kurz e-mailed, “and to all those Met fans who are now on ...

Here Comes a Regular…or Two.

Their job is done, their time has come.

It’s time for the Yankees Replacements to be replaced. Even Lyle Overbay, who has played tremendously in a fill-in role for Mark Teixeira at first base, understands this cold fact of baseball life.

The Replacements have run their course, and last night’s 9-4 stomping by the Mets at Yankee Stadium was more proof. The Mets have won all three Subway Series games. It was the Yankees’ fourth straight loss.

Teixeira ...

So what do the Mets have in Duda, both today and in the future?  Why has Duda been given carte blanche to play every day when other players are a single bad performance away from being glued to the bench by Collins?

Ooh, I know—a free nightly nine-inning rendition of “Rosie O’Donnell on Ice” in left field.

~ Munson Family/Spahn Ranch ~

The Mets insist there was no funny business going on when they raised ticket prices for players’ family members ahead of the Subway Series.

The New York Post reported this week that the Yankees were “angered” when their families had to dole out $250 per seat at Citi Field after relatives of the Atlanta Braves were charged $80 apiece for their weekend series at the Mets’ home ballpark.

“The tickets are the same as Mets family members and priced the same ...

Only, at the end of this night, Rivera would make history of an entirely different kind. He’d appeared in 1,071 regular-season games and saved a record 626 of them, but in his 19 seasons in the bigs, Rivera had never blown a save without recording a single out until he faced that hallowed Mets Murderers Row of Daniel Murphy, David Wright and Lucas Duda.

“It was a great game,” Rivera would say at his locker, “until I got into the game.”

Hey, there are over 8,000 Laughter Clubs worldwide…what’s another one?

And for all of that effort, passion and resilience, it would be nice to think that ownership had their backs.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. Jeff Wilpon showed up at Citi Field Tuesday night, made a rare public appearance and promptly gave up on the season during a pregame ceremony for Rivera, who threw out the first ball, and eventually the last.

“Wish we could see you in the World Series,” Jeff Wilpon ...

The series over the years has been a lopsided one. The Yankees won five out of six games last year and entered Monday’s game holding a 54-36 overall advantage. The two teams were on divergent paths entering the series, as well. The Yankees, fielding a lineup below their normal standard, started the day holding share of first place in their division. The Mets, in fourth place and spiraling, have been desperate for wins.

The crowd at Citi Field was larger and more boisterous than for ...

The Harper! Harper! Harper! Harper!...SHUT UP!

At this point the Ike Davis saga is little more than a symbolic sideshow. Yes, he should be in the minors by now, if only to throw a life preserver to a drowning hitter, but with each passing day, the debate matters less and less as the Mets sink into oblivion.

Suffice to say the Mets are as bad as the weather lately, and, of course, only one of the two is guaranteed to get better in the weeks ahead. Remember when Sandy Alderson insisted during ...

IKEA: Join our free loyalty program!

Despite growing calls for his demotion, Davis won’t be sent down to Triple-A before Friday’s series opener against the Braves, according to the New York Daily News.

“Maybe after the weekend,” a source told the paper.

It’s been a frustrating season for Davis, batting .147 with nine RBIs after getting off to a miserable start last year, too.

“I know I’m going to play better, especially hitting-wise. I can’t do any worse,” he said. “If ...

Roster of Rubbish? I know some people were down on who joined Armisen on stage…but this is ridiculous!

And Collins’ team isn’t winning. So you should understand why he might be losing it. He turns 64 later this month. He was run out of Houston and Anaheim. There is no next managing job. This is more than his last best chance. It is just plain his last chance to prove he is a good major league manager.

...For if you know whether Collins is a good manager or bad manager based on his Mets ...

...and Wally dug the Mets out of the basement.

Backman is known to be a great motivator and teacher. He won’t wave a magic wand and make this 4-A squad a contender, but I guarantee the players will maximize their potential- whatever that may be. He can manage a bullpen, and certainly will run a clean clubhouse. He will demand respect and a winning attitude.  The Mets may not win under Backman, at least not right away, but they will compete. This is not what I can say has been the case 100% ...

The Valdespin: Misdirection and diversion.

On Friday night, with the Mets down a sizable margin to Pittsburgh, Valdespin admired his ninth-inning home run. We all knew what was coming Saturday: the outfielder was sent up as a pinch-hitter and promptly got drilled by Pirates pitcher Bryan Morris.

Valdespin was greeted to crickets in the dugout, and the hit-by-pitch wasn’t met with retaliation. Some fans and media personalities – including WFAN radio’s Mike Francesa – got all over the ...

And had an increase in workload of more than 766 tries in the previous seasons!

Most Wins with Mets, 1983-2013 Draft Picks

1. Bobby Jones: 74-56
2. Mike Pelfrey: 50-54
3. Rick Aguilera: 37-27
4. Jon Niese: 37-36
5. Dillon Gee: 23-19
6. Aaron Heilman: 22-23
7. Jason Isringhausen: 21-24
8. Bobby Parnell: 17-19
9. Pete Schourek: 16-24
10. Jeff Innis: 10-20
11. Joe Smith: 9-5
12. Matt Harvey: 7-5
12. Dave Telgheder: 7-5

Now you get an idea of how rare it is for Harvey, a 2010 first-round pick, ...