New York Minute

More Evidence of Howe laid back Artie is:

Right in the middle of yesterday's intrasquad game, there he was behind home plate, chatting it up with Sigourney Weaver while poor rookie Aaron Heilman was sweating it out, trying to get some pitches over the plate. John Franco presented Weaver with one of those hideous LSD-induced orange Spring Training jerseys with her name on it. Oddly enough, no one on the Mets seemed to think having her stand behind home plate in the middle of a game was distracting. I can't help but wonder what kind of distraction it would have been if Anna Kournikova instead of Sigourney Weaver had been standing behind home plate.

The good news yesterday was that the Mets took the intrasquad game in a convincing 6-4 victory.

While I'm happy that Jeremy Burnitz slammed the Mets' first competitive homer of the spring in the second inning yesterday, I can't help but wonder what sort of dangerous omen this is for Pedro Astacio's development that it was his fastball that Burnitz sent flying off into the distance. Burnitz also hit a double yesterday and drove in three runs. Sigourney Weaver hit a grand slam and drew three intentional walks.

Here's some good debate material for Mets followers: who is the more dangerously incompetent fielder at his position: Roger Cedeño in center field or Ty Wigginton fending off ground balls in the hot corner?

They say Fat Mo lost 20 pounds and is down to 258 pounds. Dunno who is doing the calculus for the Mets here but last time I looked, it takes more than 20 to get to 258 from 300 plus. It's never a good size when your weight is higher than your batting average.

Lastly, thanks to The Great Satan Quarterly for turning me on to Fire Steve Phillips.com, a wonderful website dedicated to the serious business of helping bring Steve Phillips' time as New York Mets general manager to an end immediately.


*****

Yao Ming makes his MSG debut tonight against the Knicks. I only wish Marcus Camby would be around for it. If you remember, Camby is the guy who has those Chinese symbols tattoo'd on his arm. Once or twice, he tried to explain, in very ambiguous terms, what the symbols mean but frankly, I always had the impression he had no idea what they meant and was just bluffing. I'd have liked to have seen Yao Ming give us the "real" definition. It's probably some ancient Chinese proverb that means "Sometimes a good crutch is often better than a bad foot."