The Final 9

It took almost seven hours for the Mets and Cardinals to complete their Saturday game, but they did with New York winning in 20 innings 2-1.

Former Major League Baseball star Dwight Gooden has been arrested and charged with driving under the influence of drugs and leaving the scene of an accident in northern New Jersey.

The Associated Press has learned the New York Mets and free agent slugger Jason Bay have reached a preliminary deal. The 31-year-old outfielder is expected to sign a four-year pact worth about $65 million.

NEW YORK — Citi Field will remain the name of the New York Mets' new ballpark following a government bailout the team believes will help the struggling bank survive its economic crisis.

Citigroup agreed in 2006 to pay the Mets US$400 million over 20 years for naming rights to the stadium, scheduled to open next year. Two New York City councilmen said last week that the $800 million ballpark's name should be changed to Citi/Taxpayer Field.

"The company is still an ongoing company and a vital company that is doing business around the globe," Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon said Tuesday. "The taxpayers are backstopping what's going on in the global economy. It's not really Citi's fault that they're in this problem. There are a lot of other banks in the same situation - with naming-rights deals, also."

After Citigroup's shares lost 60 per cent of their value within a week and dropped as low as $3.05, the government agreed last month to give the company a $20 billion cash injection - following an earlier $25 billion infusion. As part of the plan, the government agreed to assume possible losses on risky loans in exchange for $7 billion in preferred shares.

"We have a deal with Citi that is good for them, good for us. It's good business for us to have the partnership and the relationship," Wilpon said. "We think we can bring the right people to help them market their product so they can be a going concern, and that over time, the fans that we bring here will become Citi customers and that Citi will thrive and be able to pay the money back to the government."

Signage for Citi already is visible at the ballpark, which is adjacent to Shea Stadium, and more is to come.

New York Mets say Citi Field will remain name of new ballpark....

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Jerry Manuel is getting another chance to right the New York Mets.

After replacing Willie Randolph in June and falling just short of a playoff berth, Manuel was given a two-year contract Friday that includes a club option for 2011.

"Jerry did a very good job taking over the club midseason, and we believe that he is the right person to manage our team and lead us to the postseason," Mets general manager Omar Minaya said in a statement.

Manuel gets two-year deal to continue to manage Mets....

By Marty Noble / MLB.com

NEW YORK -- With a sense that their offseason renovations are likely to be involved, time-consuming and challenging, the Mets have embraced the concept of first things first and addressed the contract status of the person charged with making the numerous repairs. They have extended the contract of general manager Omar Minaya.
Before the term "lame duck" was heard, the club opted to add three years to the agreement Minaya signed Sept. 30, 2004, even though the Mets' three most recent seasons have ended in bitter disappointment. Minaya, who turns 50 next month, now is contracted through the 2012 season, and the club has options for the 2013 and 2014 seasons.

In a conference call with members of the media Thursday morning, Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon succinctly explained the impetus for the contract extension and the reason for the timing, saying "Omar's our guy," and "We felt he was the right person to run our baseball operations." He was quoted as having said "This contract extension reinforces our confidence in Omar's leadership in the short and longer term" in a statement the club released.

Wilpon added, "We obviously were not a very good team when Omar came aboard, and he's turned this thing around, and we think he deserves another chance to get us to where we want to be. ... We failed this year, and we want to get the redemption that we need and move forward."

Mets reward Minaya with extension....

By Barry M. Bloom

The days are dwindling to a precious few at Shea Stadium, and looming just beyond the center-field fence is the 2009 home of the Mets with its red-brick façade and Ebbets Field-like rotunda, nearing completion.
The Citi Field sign has been hung above the great Jackie Robinson Rotunda, along with other similar signage throughout the new ballpark.

"There's one that crowns the big scoreboard that looms over center field," said Richard Browne, the project manager of the ballpark construction site, during a telephone conversation on Thursday. "And when it's illuminated at night, you can see it for miles all over the place."

The new ballpark is about 85 percent complete with 80 percent of the dark green seats already installed. The rotunda may be an homage to the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, but the green seats pay tribute to the Polo Grounds, the home of the New York Giants until 1957 and where the Mets played their first two seasons in 1962 and 1963.

Citi Field nearing completion....

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

Shea Stadium was never a beautiful place. It lacked signature features like the Yankee Stadium frieze, the Green Monster of Fenway Park, the overhanging upper deck of Tiger Stadium or the ivy of Wrigley Field.

But it was part of the 1964 World’s Fair and it was home: the circular design; blue and orange exterior panels; movable seats that rotated on an underground track and that could turn it into a home for the Jets; and an outfield without bleachers that let home runs land in bullpens, slam off the scoreboard or surge into the flight pattern beyond its boundaries.

“What struck me as a kid was it was so colorful and so enormous,” the Mets announcer Gary Cohen said. “The height and the size of it; nobody had seen anything like it. When you came up through the tunnels and into your seats, you saw into infinity.”

Stadium’s Appeal Lay in Futuristic Functionality....

By Marty Noble / MLB.com

NEW YORK -- The latest "Manny being Manny" episodes in Boston hardly increase the likelihood that the Mets' semi-vacant corner-outfield situation will be solved by a deal importing Manny Ramirez. Even if the Mets were armed with sufficient young talent to satisfy the Red Sox and acquire Ramirez -- even if they wanted to add to their payroll -- Ramirez's behavior might turn the Mets away.

"His bat would be a great addition," one Mets player said on Sunday. "He could help us win. And most of the time, If you're winning, nothing else really matters. But we've got something good going now. I'm not saying he'd screw it up, but you can't tell what he's going to do. ... He's not helping Boston right now."

Whether the Mets believe in such a better-safe-than-sorry manner remains an unknown. But the Mets appear to have neither the chips not the inclination to deal for Ramirez or any other high-profile corner outfielder.

"If there was a perfect fit out there, a guy who could help us now and next year who we didn't have to overpay for, we'd be pursuing it," one member of the Mets' hierarchy said over the weekend. "But there aren't any perfect fits, or even good fits."

Mets an unlikely destination for Manny....

NEW YORK (AP) — Mets owner Fred Wilpon is praising Willie Randolph's performance as manager but agreed with general manager Omar Minaya's decision to replace him last week.

"I think Willie did a good job. I think that the results the last say 14 months were not up to what we thought it had to be," Wilpon said. "What Omar finally decided was that he had to make that change."

Randolph was fired on June 17 with the Mets at 34-35. New York has gone 3-2 under new manager Jerry Manuel.

"Obviously, we've been playing well in the last few games," Wilpon said.

Wilpon said Minaya made the initial decision to fire Randolph on Sunday, after a doubleheader split against Texas. After speaking with ownership, Minaya made the final call Monday.

Mets owner Fred Wilpon: `Willie did a good job'....

NEW YORK — Willie Randolph said a "weird chill" went through him once he realized general manager Omar Minaya was about to oust him as manager of the New York Mets in a California hotel suite.

"'Omar, are you firing me?' I asked. He looked away for a minute and then met my eyes."

Randolph wrote a first-person account of his dismissal in Friday's Daily News, under the front-page headline "How They Fired Me!"

Randolph and Minaya spoke after the Mets defeated the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night. Randolph expected the conversation to be about the possible firing of pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto.

"Omar went on and on, looking very uncomfortable, this weird chill started to course through my body. I could feel myself going cold. He kept talking, almost stammering, and the chill got worse," Randolph wrote. "Suddenly, it occurred to me that maybe he was talking about me. Maybe I was the one about to get whacked."

Randolph said the two spoke two days before the flight to California and he was reassured. But the general manager finally acknowledged what he was going to do when they talked in the hotel.

"Yeah, I'm going to make a move," he said. "It's a hard decision, but I have to make it."

Former New York manager Willie Randolph writes about how Mets fired him....

By WILLIAM C. RHODEN

The five-hour long flight from Los Angeles to New York provides ample time for introspection. Especially if you’re Willie Randolph, now the former Mets manager.

Dismissed from his job after the Mets beat the Los Angeles Angels on Monday in Anaheim, Randolph arrived back home in New Jersey late Tuesday, his head still swimming from being told by Mets General Manager Omar Minaya that he was no longer the manager of the Mets.

In a telephone interview Tuesday night, Randolph said he remained stunned by the dismissal, which took place in Minaya’s hotel room. “I didn’t see this coming,” he said. “When I spoke to Omar the day before I knew there might be some changes, but I got the feeling I was safe.”

Randolph Implies He Was Misled

By BEN SHPIGEL

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Just 17 months ago, Willie Randolph received a new multi-million dollar contract, a reward for invigorating a franchise and guiding the Mets to their first division title in 18 years and close to a victory in the World Series.

He has since presided over one of the greatest collapses in baseball history, from which this year’s team has yet to recover.

Nearly three months into another disappointing season, the Mets announced early Tuesday morning that they had fired Randolph, the first African-American to manage in New York, after three and a half years as manager, and replaced him with the bench coach Jerry Manuel.

STORY....

Jim Baumbach

The Mets sure do seem as if they want to fire Willie Randolph. The silence from upper management in recent days all but confirms that. If they weren't going to, wouldn't you think they'd tell Randolph that, to make this all go away? Instead we're left to believe this waiting game means this: they're trying to figure out the logistics: When will they do? How will they do? Where will they do it?

General manager Omar Minaya has never fired a manager, as pointed out today by colleague Ken Davidoff. Thus, there's no track record there to go by.

Fear not, Mets, we're here to help. We've gone through the last two decades of your history and looked up the details behind the firings of your past six managers. Hopefully these reminders will spark you to make a decision - one way or the other - because this waiting game is silly and is good for no one.

STORY....

By BEN SHPIGEL

Willie Randolph hardly knew him when he added Jerry Manuel to his coaching staff in 2004, before his first season as manager. If Randolph were to be fired, though, Manuel would be asked to take over. Manuel would love to manage in the major leagues again, but this is not how he wants to get that chance.

“It’s difficult because of my relationship with Willie,” said Manuel, the team’s bench coach, who managed the Chicago White Sox from 1998 to 2003. “Everyone goes through it at some point in their career. We all handle it differently and draw on different things to keep us going. I think he’s doing O.K.”

The Mets’ game Saturday night against the Texas Rangers was rained out and rescheduled as part of a doubleheader Sunday, giving the team’s owners and General Manager Omar Minaya two opportunities to evaluate Randolph’s status. The first game Sunday is to begin at 1:10 p.m., with John Maine facing Kevin Millwood; Pedro Martínez is to oppose Kason Gabbard in the second game, starting about 30 minutes after the end of the opener.

STORY....

By CHARLES V. BAGLI

More than two years ago, the Bloomberg administration came up with an aggressively creative way to use tax-exempt bonds to finance two of the most expensive stadiums in the world, one for the Yankees in the Bronx and another for the Mets in Queens.

The Internal Revenue Service initially approved the use of the bonds for the ballparks, but quickly issued a proposal in 2006 to tighten the rules governing the use of tax-exempt bonds so that it would be more difficult, and perhaps impossible, for this kind of financing to be used again by profitable, private enterprises like professional sports teams.

Now state and city officials say the proposed rules are jeopardizing what is planned to be the city’s next big sports palace: the $950 million Barclays Center, an 18,000-seat basketball arena for the Nets that is the centerpiece of the huge residential and commercial complex in Brooklyn known as Atlantic Yards. The project’s developer, Forest City Ratner, says it plans to break ground on the arena this fall and has long expected to use tax-exempt financing to reduce its borrowing costs by tens of millions of dollars.

Barclays Center is expected to be the most expensive arena in the world, and the lack of tax-exempt financing would substantially increase its cost. The $4 billion Atlantic Yards project already faces delays because of litigation, a sluggish economy, the lack of commercial tenants and the reluctance of lenders to finance large real estate developments.

FULL ARTICLE....

DENVER -- With his boss in town for some crisis management and a statement of support, Mets manager Willie Randolph may be having trouble distinguishing the fire from frying pan.
It was not immediately evident to Randolph on Saturday whether he should see general manager Omar Minaya's presence as the show of support Minaya claimed it to be or the prelude to an ominous overture.

"I thought I saw him in the back, sharpening his machete, so I don't know if that makes me feel too good," Randolph joked before the middle game of a three-game set with the Rockies. "He saw me coming, and he kind of slipped it in his back pocket. I don't know if that makes me feel any better."

And although Minaya's statements to the media during Friday night's extra-innings loss to Colorado presented an image of a unified front among the Mets brass, Randolph said that Minaya had not expressed those sentiments to him in person, with their conversations limited to "just chit chat like we usually do."

STORY....

ESPN.com news services

After losing out on a clear home run ball Sunday for the second time this season, the New York Mets might become the newest proponents of Major League Baseball instituting instant replay.

In Sunday's Subway Series finale, a Carlos Delgado fly ball down the left field line was ruled a three-run home run for the Mets by third base umpire Mike Reilly. After Yankees captain Derek Jeter argued, home plate umpire Bob Davidson overruled Reilly and called the ball foul.

Davidson readily admitted his mistake to reporters after the game.

"I (expletive) it up. I'm the one who thought it was a (expletive) foul ball. I saw it on the replay. I'm the one who (expletive) it up so you can put that in your paper," Davidson said. "Bolts and nuts, I (expletive) up. You've just got to move on. No one feels worse about it than I do."

The home run did not end up factoring in the outcome of the game as the Mets routed the Yankees 11-2.

ARTICLE....