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Through 40 games, David Wright is hitting .399 with four home runs, 26 RBIs and a 1.099 OPS.

It is one of the best 40-game stretches in Mets history, though there are a few that surpass it. With the help of the Elias Sports Bureau and Mets historian Greg Prince, we remember a half-dozen of the other top 40s in Mets history:

Frank Thomas, 1962
The Mets were terrible but lovable in their early days, and thanks to playing in a Polo Ground ballpark where cheap home runs were commonplace, they had an immediate star with a hitter who tallied impressive numbers in his first 40 games of 1962.

Thomas hit .333 with 13 home runs and 31 RBIs in his inaugural 40 as a Met, setting a standard for others to follow.

Cleon Jones, 1969
Jones hit .378 with seven home runs, 32 RBIs, and 32 runs scored in his first 40 games. The start would launch Jones to set a Mets record with a .340 batting average, a mark that would last for multiple decades.

The year would end well for Jones as well. He would catch the final out of the World Series.

Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter, 1985
We list Hernandez and Carter together because they are forever linked by a championship in 1986. But a year earlier, the two closed the season with a pair of amazing runs.

Hernandez's final 40 games of 1985 were marked by a series of huge hits. He hit .354 and reached base 74 times via hit, walk or error as the Mets fell just shy of the NL East title.

The big moments included a game-winning, ninth-inning home run in San Francisco against the Giants and a walk-off hit on Sept.12 against the Cardinals that put the Mets in first place against their then archrivals.

Carter matched Hernandez for big hits and then some.

Over the 40 games he played from Aug. 23 to the next-to-last day of the regular season, he hit .325 with 15 home runs, 38 RBIs and a 1.048 OPS. He had 15 go-ahead RBIs in that stretch, four more than any other player in the majors over that time period.

Darryl Strawberry, 1990
Strawberry struggled to hit in the first 40 games of the 1990 season, and was hitting just .230 with five home runs coming into a May 26 matchup with the Padres.

A Strawberry eighth-inning home run against Calvin Schiraldi was the finishing touch for the Mets offense in an 11-0 win over the Padres and started arguably the best barrage in Mets history.

Over the 40-game stretch from May 26 to July 14, 1990, Strawberry hit .372, with 18 home runs and 42 RBIs. He had as many home runs in that stretch as he did strikeouts. No Met hit more in a 40-game span than this one.

John Olerud, 1998
On July 11, 1998, Olerud went 4-for-4 with a pair of home runs in an 8-4 win over the Expos. This would begin his most torrid 40-game stretch as a Met, one in which he hit .408 with 10 home runs, 29 RBIs and a 1.148 OPS.

Olerud would carry his hot streak all the way through to the end of the season, as the Mets fell one game shy of the NL wild card. He'd finish the season with a Mets-record .354 batting average.

Mike Piazza, 2000
Piazza seemingly had a bunch of of these 40-game bursts in each of his first four seasons with the Mets. You can take your pick from a couple that look alike.

We'll look at one from the NL pennant-winning 2000 season.

On April 14, 2000, Piazza went 5-for-6 with two home runs and four RBI in a 12-inning win in Pittsburgh.

That started a tear that lasted beyond 40 contests, but at the point at which we cut it off, Piazza had a .383 batting average, 12 doubles, 14 home runs, 33 RBIs and a 1.254 OPS.

The most memorable of his hits would be a game-winning home run against Padres reliever Trevor Hoffman, though two days after this stretch concluded, he’d hit a grand slam against Roger Clemens.

Scott Hairston is back in the lineup Saturday, a day after becoming the 10th Met to hit for the cycle. Terry Collins portrayed it as a reward for recent strong play at the plate.

Still, there was another major factor: Minus Jason Bay and Andres Torres, the outfield alternatives to Hairston for left field were Mike Baxter and Jordany Valdespin. And Collins does not intend to use Valdespin -- a novice -- in the outfield at spacious Coors Field. As it is, Lucas Duda is dealing with a major learning curve because of the high altitude in Denver, which causes the baseballs to carry more than at other ballparks.

Hairston is a .325 hitter with six homers and 15 RBIs in 83 career at-bats at Coors Field.

His production includes a dramatic hit in Game No. 163 of the 2007 season, in a play-in game between San Diego and Colorado. Hairston delivered a two-run homer in the top of the 13th against Jorge Julio, but Trevor Hoffman blew the save and the Rockies instead reached the postseason as the wild-card entrant. Colorado ultimately represented the NL in the World Series.

Torres is due to return Monday in Houston. He completed a rehab assignment Saturday with Triple-A Buffalo.

As for that list of 10 Mets cyclists, the lone one to require extra innings to achieve the feat was Keith Hernandez, in a 19-inning win on July 4, 1985 at Atlanta.

For the record, though, Hernandez notes he actually had achieved the cycle with a 12th-inning single.

And, Hernandez added, he really deserved to have achieved it in regulation. In his second at-bat, Hernandez recalled, he sent a liner to Dale Murphy in center field that the ump ruled a catch with a diving attempt. But Hernandez said the call was incorrect, and the ball was actually sitting behind Murphy.

David Wright went 3-for-5 with a homer in his return to the lineup with a fractured right pinkie, Jon Niese tossed 6 2/3 scoreless innings and the Mets blanked the Phillies, 5-0, Saturday at Citizens Bank Park. The Mets already have clinched the series win. They had been 1-7-1 in their past nine series at Philly. Mike Pelfrey opposes Cole Hamels this afternoon, with the Mets aiming for their first sweep in Philly since June 13-15, 2006.

Today is Jackie Robinson Day across MLB.

Sunday's news reports:

• Terry Collins said that on Friday he believed Wright almost definitely would land on the disabled list this weekend. The Mets even flew in Josh Satin to be prepared for that seeming eventuality. Yet Wright returned to the lineup and blasted his 16th homer at Citizens Bank Park, the most by any visitor at the stadium since it opened in 2004. Read more in Newsday.

• Read game recaps in the Times, Star-Ledger, Newsday, Post, Daily News and Record.

• Steven Marcus in Newsday inquires about why the Mets have retired only one player's number -- 41, for Tom Seaver. Casey Stengel's 37 and Gil Hodges' 14 as well as the universally recognized Robinson's 42 also are retired. The Mets placed Gary Carter's No. 8 on the outfield wall for this season -- appearing as it does on the patch on the Mets' uniforms.

"I think the general point of view is we don't want to get to the point where it's somewhat gratuitous and you've got dozens and dozens of people whose numbers are retired,'' Mets executive VP Dave Howard told Marcus. "Historically, from a Mets perspective, this is a very high honor. Certainly from a player standpoint, it's only been Tom Seaver. He's in a class by himself.''

Added Keith Hernandez to Marcus: "Too many teams are retiring too many numbers. They lose their import. So I'm in the camp that it should be something that is special, it shouldn't be marginalized. Who wouldn't want to have their number retired? But it's not something that I think about.''

One obvious number to consider is Mike Piazza's No. 31. Newsday's David Lennon tweeted earlier this year that the Mets are expected to retire Piazza's number after he is inducted into Cooperstown.

• Columnist John Harper in the Daily News discusses the ramifications of Wright's speedy return and Saturday's series-clinching win. Writes Harper:

Injuries are a delicate subject around the Mets, after all the problems they’ve had in recent years. In some cases they made matters worse by allowing the likes of Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and even Wright last season, with his broken back, to play hurt, so now they tend to proceed with extreme caution. That’s why it was a bit surprising, even for Collins, to hear him say on Wednesday that he had a “gut feeling” Wright would play with his broken finger here on Friday.

Even if it wasn’t the manager’s intent, that put a certain pressure on his star player. If Wright couldn’t play, he would look less than tough, at least in the eyes of many fans who took Collins’ gut feeling to heart. Perhaps that’s why Wright sounded a bit defensive when he couldn’t play on Friday, repeatedly saying he couldn’t “functionally” grip or swing a bat because of the swelling in his finger. But then it felt good enough on Saturday to try it, and in a way he made his manager look like a prophet with his big day that raised his batting average to .588.

• Columnist Kevin Kernan in the Post writes that Wright's leadership is clear:

David Wright sent a message to his teammates yesterday: Play hard, play through pain, or go home.

• Mike Kerwick in the Record says Citi Field spectators should not boo Jason Bay. Writes Kerwick:

Here's my advice to Mets fans: Shackle your venom. And give the guy some space. Was it just a coincidence that Bay hit no homers in six games at Citi Field, then blasted one during his first at-bat in a visiting park? Possibly. On Friday night, he said the first week of games was not enough to cause his shoulders to slump. But he has also admitted he hears the boos. Bay is a decent person. And most decent people sag when exposed to this degree of enmity. I can't help but think the booing, on some subconscious level, penetrates his psyche.

• Bobby Parnell recorded the ensuing four outs after Niese departed, including covering the eighth inning for a second straight day. Between the Grapefruit League and regular season, Parnell has not allowed a run in 17 1/3 innings. Read more in the Record.

• Niese has carried a scoreless effort into the seventh inning in both of his outings. Read more in Newsday and the Post.

• In the court filings made late Friday regarding the settlement of the lawsuit against Fred Wilpon and family over Bernard Madoff accounts, one reason trustee Irving Picard cited for settling was the Mets owners' tight finances made getting more money via further litigation dicey. Writes Anthony M. Destefano in Newsday:

In federal court filings late Friday night, trustee Irving Picard said the "restrictive" cash flow, as well as the owners' obligations to banks that lent them money, contributed to doubts that further litigation against Fred Wilpon , Saul Katz and their partners in Sterling Equities would produce a bigger payout. "We have become satisfied that defendants' cash flow and lender covenants would not have enabled me to recover more for the [Madoff] customer fund in the foreseeable future by litigating to the point of judgment," Picard said in an affidavit. The settlement "is a practical and fair compromise" that avoided "a protracted and expensive trial and lengthy appeals," Picard explained in a statement.

Richard Sandomir in the Times also notes the trustee's language in expressing concern about collecting debt from the Wilpons.

• Domingo Tapia tossed seven scoreless innings as Savannah won via shutout for the second straight day. Read the full minor league recap here.

• On the club's 50th anniversary, there is an excerpt in the Daily News about the creation of the Mets from the book, "The Mets: A 50th Anniversary Celebration," written by Andy Martino and Anthony McCarron.

TRIVIA: Johan Santana and Niese started the Mets' two shutouts at Citizens Bank Park. Which Mets pitcher started the last shutout at Veterans Stadium, the home of the Phillies through 2003?

Saturday's answer: Jason Bay's homer Friday against Cliff Lee was the outfielder's 19th long ball as a Met.

The Mets will keep the spring-training complex closed Saturday and Sunday, although Sandy Alderson does plan to address reporters at 11 a.m. today. Pitchers and catchers officially report Monday, with Tuesday physicals and Wednesday the first formal workout.

Saturday's news reports:

• Johan Santana threw 25 pitches Friday, his first time throwing off a mound since late September/early October in Fort Myers, during the instructional league. Santana and manager Terry Collins labeled the mound work a success, although ESPN's Tim Kurkjian said Mets people expect getting even 100 to 125 innings from Santana this season "would be a bonus." Watch video of Santana discussing the session here. Read more in the Star-Ledger, Post, Times, Record, Daily News and Newsday.

Columnist Bob Klapisch in the Record outlines 12 MLB storylines for 2012, including Santana's comeback bid. Writes Klapisch:

Santana long ago earned the respect of his peers for his competitiveness and willingness to pitch through pain. But now the left-hander is being asked to perform a small miracle -- return to greatness after 2010 surgery to repair a torn anterior capsule in his left shoulder. Can he? The Mets are doomed to a last-place finish with or without a healthy Santana, so the question is no doubt moot. But his relative recovery -- say, 12-13 wins, 150 innings, no trips to the DL -- would be a rallying point for Mets fans who are starving for good news.

• Keith Hernandez fondly remembered former teammate Gary Carter again Friday, telling the Post regarding Kid's toughness as a player: “I always remember his knees being iced, every single day. He was in constant pain and discomfort. You had to be inspired by that.” Hernandez cried when he learned Carter had died. "I really didn't expect it to have that overwhelming emotional effect on me," he told Newsday. "It did. It's not just a former teammate that passed away." Read more on Hernandez's relationship with Carter in the Times.

Josh Thole played for Carter with the Gulf Coast Mets in 2005 and said Kid taught him and others "how to be a man.'' Said Thole: "I was 18 years old playing my first year and Gary really emphasized on treating us like men. It didn't matter if you were 16 coming from the Dominican or if you were 22 coming from college, everybody was treated the same way. And he was so passionate about winning. He was a competitor and he wanted to win every day." Read more in the Star-Ledger.

Philadelphia lawyer Jonathan Krause, who battled leukemia as a youth, writes in the Post about Carter's impact on him in batting the cancer.

The team reportedly has yet to decide how to honor Carter.

• Mark Herrmann remembers in Newsday Sunday being the 50th anniversary of the 1962 Mets reporting to St. Petersburg for spring training. Herrmann writes:

Then there was the first exhibition game, March 10 against the Cardinals at Al Lang Field. A 56-piece band performed. Commissioner Ford Frick gave a stirring speech. The Cardinals performed an 8-0 shellacking, sending many spectators to the exits early. One of them said, loudly, "Same old Mets." A day later, the Mets got their first exhibition win and their first home run, by Choo Choo Coleman, who had not learned for a month after the expansion draft that he was a Met because no one got around to telling him.

• The Daily News' spirited coverage of the clawback lawsuit by the trustee trying to recover funds for victims of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme continues Saturday under the headline: "Clawback suit built on shaky evidence." Fred Wilpon and family's attorneys reiterated their claims in filings late Thursday that the suit should be tossed by judge Jed S. Rakoff before it is scheduled to go to trial March 19. "The trustee offers no evidence to dispute the record presented by defendants, which demonstrates that, for good reason, defendants trusted Bernard L. Madoff until the day his fraud was disclosed and never for a moment thought that he or his brokerage, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, was engaged in a Ponzi scheme or fraud," the Wilpons' attorneys wrote in filings.

As for Noreen Harrington quitting her job after the Wilpons' fund proceeded with an investment with a Madoff fund over her concerns, which trustee Irving Picard asserts, the defense attorneys write: "She was aware that her accusations were utterly contrary to the facts known to Mr. [Saul] Katz for many years, and, when probed by Mr. Katz about her Madoff accusations, she offered no facts to support her opinion and told him she 'could be wrong.'"

TRIVIA: Who were the last Mets to hit 30 homers in a season?

(Friday's answer: Eddie Murray was the lone player inducted with Carter in the Hall of Fame class of 2003.)

Five days before Mets pitchers and catchers officially report on Monday, the Mets' spring-training complex already is abuzz with activity. Among the most prominent players already making appearances in Port St. Lucie: Johan Santana, David Wright, Ike Davis, Daniel Murphy, Lucas Duda, Josh Thole, Mike Nickeas, Dillon Gee and Bobby Parnell.

Wednesday's news reports:

• Fred Wilpon is on the ownership committee that is vetting prospective Los Angeles Dodgers owners, Ron Blum of the Associated Press reports. The committee chairman is Bill Bartholomay, former chairman of the Atlanta Braves. Other committee members include Baltimore Orioles chairman Peter Angelos, St. Louis Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt, Seattle Mariners chairman emeritus John Ellis, Detroit Tigers owner Mike Ilitch and Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner.

The Wilpon family has no intention of willingly selling the Mets, it has appeared, but obviously this affords them insights on deep-pocketed individuals should they ever need to relinquish the team. No more bailouts are expected from MLB if the Wilpons cannot meet their debt obligations, such as any potential inability to repay or rework their $40 million bridge loan with Bank of America.

Writes Blum:

Bartholomay said the committee will investigate "very deep" into not just the lead individuals of the groups, but also the proposed limited partners and corporations that plan to invest. The process was agreed to by Major League Baseball and Dodgers owner Frank McCourt in a deal filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. MLB agreed to process up to 10 bidders. Normally, Bartholomay's committee processes only the finalist to purchase a franchise. "Let's face it, when you have the United States government involved, it takes a different profile," he said.

Meanwhile, Ken Rosenthal assesses the Wilpons' long-term viability.

• GM Sandy Alderson -- of Twitter fame (@MetsGM) -- appeared on WFAN on Tuesday afternoon (listen here).

Alderson noted the Mets had no high-profile offseason acquisitions except for in the bullpen, which added Frank Francisco and Jon Rauch, but he maintained the team has the potential to be better than 2011, when the Mets went 77-85. He acknowledged the payroll decline is more precipitous than he expected, but also spun the $52 million freefall as being not as catastrophic when you consider Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo's contracts were on the books as dead weight last year since they were released in spring training. "I didn't come here to operate the Oakland A's, and I don't expect to have to do that on a long-term basis," Alderson said. He quickly added: "And am not doing that currently."

According to Alderson, Santana is scheduled to return to the mound Friday. Santana took a winter hiatus from mound work to have a semi-typical type of offseason and allow his body to recuperate after rehabbing a year from Sept. 14, 2010 surgery to repair a torn anterior capsule in his left shoulder. "It's going to be hard for us to fully predict what's going to happen once he gets on the mound, throws his bullpen, throws his first two or three innings in a game," the GM said. "But as we stand here today, we expect him to be ready to go [for the season]."

Of course, Santana already pitched in minor league games last year. The biggest question is whether he can sustain a pitching workload that would require him to get on the mound in a game every fifth or sixth day. And that won't be known until Grapefruit League games, or even into the regular season.

Meanwhile, Alderson also acknowledged in his radio interview that there is very little actual competition for starting position-player roles. Pressed about whether even Justin Turner might give Murphy a battle at second base, Alderson stood by his original comment that things are straightforward. According to Terry Collins, the projected lineup likely is: Andres Torres cf, Murphy 2b, Wright 3b, Davis 1b, Jason Bay lf, Duda rf, Thole c, Ruben Tejada ss.

Alderson does not dismiss Murphy or Tejada getting the leadoff nod instead, if only because the Mets might as well try to maximize on-base percentage if they don't have a speedster atop the order. Torres had a .343 OBP in 2010 vs. .312 in 2011. "You can't be the leadoff guy with a .310 on-base percentage," Alderson said. Still, the GM acknowledged Murphy is "not the first choice" to bat No. 1.

As for Turner, Alderson correctly noted that even if he's not a true second-base challenger to Murphy for Opeing Day, last year Turner ultimately emerged as a regular at second base. That came after a progression of people planned for the position, including Rule 5 pick Brad Emaus, had issues that disqualified them.

Regardless, Alderson projected Torres as a defensive upgrade over Angel Pagan, but noted there's a big discrepancy in Torres' offensive production between 2010 and 2011.

"Subject to health in Johan's case," Alderson said, the rotation is similarly pretty much set with Santana, R.A. Dickey, Jon Niese, Mike Pelfrey and Gee. Alderson noted the depth behind those five is thin, because the prospect quartet of Zack Wheeler, Matt Harvey, Jeurys Familia and Jenrry Mejia (who had May 2011 Tommy John surgery) is not ready for early season contributions. (Alderson called those four critical for 2013 and 2014.) The GM cited Chris Schwinden and Miguel Batista as the rotation safety net. The Mets also claimed Jeremy Hefner off waivers and signed Garrett Olson during the offseason.

Alderson added that he expects a lot of back-end-of-the-rotation-type pitchers to become available late in spring training. That's because the new collective-bargaining agreement requires teams to pay major league-experienced players who came to camp as free agents on minor league contracts a $100,000 lump sum if they continue on with that organization into the season but don't make the Opening Day roster. Those players also have the right to opt out June 1. To avoid the lump-sum payment, the player must be released five days before Opening Day. Alderson predicted lefty-hitting backup outfielders will become available before Opening Day for the same reason and the Mets won't necessarily have to rely on Mike Baxter or Adam Loewen for that role. The Mets watched Kosuke Fukudome sign with the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday.

Overall, Alderson acknowledged 22 to 23 roster spots are pretty much set, barring injury. That lefty-hitting outfield bench spot as well as the final spot in the bullpen behind Francisco, Rauch, Tim Byrdak, ex-Giant Ramon Ramirez, Manny Acosta and Parnell would be the obvious competitive roles. Alderson also was not ready to anoint Nickeas as the backup catcher, even though that is the likely direction.

Read more coverage of Alderson's radio interview in articles from Peter Botte in the Daily News as well as in the Times.

• Former major league catcher Bob Geren, now the Mets' bench coach, will work with Thole. Meanwhile, Murphy is getting his tutorial at second base from new third base coach Tim Teufel, which included work Tuesday in Port St. Lucie, according to Andrew Keh in the Times. (You may recall Keith Hernandez gave Murphy a tutorial at first base under similar circumstances a couple of years ago when Murphy was learning first base.) One Teufel tip is for Murphy to start plays a couple of feet closer to second base, Keh writes, which should provide more time to make the play and then get out of the way around the bag. Murphy's last two seasons have ended with MCL injuries suffered on opponents' slides into second base. "Dan is a good offensive player who's got some things to work on defensively, and that's kind of where I was, too," Teufel told Keh while reflecting on his own career. "I wasn't the best double play-turner, but I worked on it, and I became efficient, and that's what we want out of Dan."

Alderson, in his radio interview, said Murphy will wear a brace on the right knee, which he injured in 2010, but not on the left knee he injured last season. Read more on Murphy and Teufel in Newsday.

• Josh Lewin officially has been named Howie Rose's radio partner for the 2012 season. Lewin replaces Wayne Hagin, whose contract was not renewed. Lewin, 43, most recently called Texas Rangers games on TV from 2002-2010. He can be found on Twitter at @joshlewinstuff. Lewin tweeted that he will continue to call San Diego Chargers games next NFL season. Lewin grew up a Mets fan in Rochester, according to Ken Belson in the Times. Read more in Newsday.

• Santana joked Tuesday to Andy McCullough in the Star-Ledger that Friday's upcoming session off a mound, his first of 2012, should be on pay-per-view. Collins told Dan Martin in the Post that the upcoming session will only be at 75 to 80 percent.

• The Mets plan to have five bobblehead days this season -- tied to this being the 50th anniversary of the team's inaugural season in 1962. The ex-Mets included: Tom Seaver on April 22 vs. San Francisco, Rusty Staub on May 26 vs. San Diego, Hernandez on June 17 vs. Cincinnati, Edgardo Alfonzo on July 21 vs. Los Angeles and Mike Piazza on Aug. 25 vs. Houston.

David Lennon of Newsday tweeted that the Mets will wait to retire Piazza's No. 31 until he is selected to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, by the way. Lennon also predicted Piazza will get in on the first ballot, and that the plaque will include a Mets cap. (I'm not sure Piazza will be voted in Year 1 -- he needs 75 percent of ballots submitted -- but I agree the Hall very likely will put him in as a Met.)

• Duda told the Post he got a lot out of a conversation with the fellow Southern Cal alum Seaver late last season. "He told me to not worry about doing too much and to take a deep breath, basically," Duda told the newspaper. Said hitting coach Dave Hudgens about Duda: "He has to try and tone down his movement at the plate. He gets so geared up and tries to do too much. But he reminds me of [Jason] Giambi a little bit. He uses the whole field and has good discipline that will get better."

• Davis maintains his left ankle, which he injured May 10 in Denver, is OK. "I feel normal," he told the Star-Ledger. "If it was still bothering me, I'd be nervous. But I'm good to go. If I play horrible, it’s not my ankle's fault. It's just because I'm not very good." Collins told McCullough he will give Davis extra at-bats, potentially as a DH, in Grapefruit League games because he has been away from seeing live pitching for so long.

TRIVIA: Since the Mets' inception in 1962, which Canadian-born player has appeared in the most major league games with the team? (Give it a shot answering in the comments section. Answer coming tomorrow.)

Over the last three weeks, Mark Simon has reminisced here about the 1986 postseason. The 1986 Mets won the World Series in an exhilarating fashion. Here's a look at Game 7 of the 1986 World Series, a game played 25 years ago today.

Every person I’ve spoken to about attending Game 7 of the World Series said that there was a sense of inevitability in Shea Stadium that the Mets would prevail over the Red Sox in the decisive final game.

As the late sportswriter for the New York Daily News, Vic Ziegel, wrote in making his prediction for the series, “Life is Easy, the World Series is hard.”

Game 7 was indeed hard for the Mets, but in the end, they would come out on top. Let’s review it from start to finish.

Game 7, Shea Stadium: Mets 8, Red Sox 5
With rain having postponed the contest by a day, the Mets were able to start Ron Darling on his regular four days rest, but Red Sox manager John McNamara changed his starter from Oil Can Boyd, who got clobbered in Game 3, to Bruce Hurst, who won both Games 1 and 5. Hurst would be starting on three days rest.

After a scoreless first inning, it was Darling who looked tired.

In the second inning, Darling got ahead 1-2 on Red Sox rightfielder Dwight Evans, then had two pitches just miss and two more get fouled off, one barely, before Evans hit a mammoth home run to left center field.

Darling got ahead of Gedman, 1-2, then was forced to wait through a three-minute delay after fans knocked over some temporary stands down the right field line.

When play resumed, Gedman hit the next pitch to right center field. Right fielder Darryl Strawberry jumped, got the ball in his glove, than watched the momentum of his elbow hitting the fence jar the ball loose and over the wall for a home run.

The Red Sox tacked on another run to go up 3-0 on a walk to Dave Henderson, a sacrifice by Hurst and a smoked one-hop single by Wade Boggs past diving shortstop Rafael Santana.

From the second through fifth innings, the Mets bats slumbered, starting with when cleanup hitter Gary Carter failed in his try for a bunt hit. Hurst faced 13 batters and retired 12 of them, averaging 12 pitches per frame to get closer to victory.

The Mets needed a jolt and got it, first from Kevin Mitchell, who threw Jim Rice out attempting to get a leadoff double in the third inning, and then from Sid Fernandez, who came on in relief of Darling with a man on second and two outs in the fourth inning.

After walking Boggs, Fernandez got the leading hitter in the series, Marty Barrett, to fly to right, than retired the next six hitters over two innings of relief.

Hurst had retired 11 in a row by the time Lee Mazzilli pinch hit with one out in the sixth. A midseason pickup after the release of George Foster, Mazzilli reached out and pulled a single in the shortstop-third base hole. Then, Mookie Wilson hit a line drive that whizzed past Boggs for a hit. Wilson almost got picked off first by the catcher, Gedman with Tim Teufel up (Wilson jarred his shoulder against Buckner’s knee and there was an intriguing moment where Buckner checked to make sure Wilson was ok).

Teufel walked on a 3-1 pitch to load the bases for Hernandez, who was 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position to this point in the series. After taking a nasty curveball for a strike, Hernandez lashed a fastball up and away into left center for a hit that scored both Mazzilli and Wilson and made it a 3-2 game.

Carter than poked a fly ball to shallow right that Evans smothered, but couldn’t catch, and though Hernandez got thrown out at second base, Backman, pinch-running scored to tie the game, 3-3. Rice’s diving catch of Strawberry’s fly to left ended the inning, but the teams were now even through six innings.

Reliever Roger McDowell made quick work of the Red Sox in the top of the seventh, throwing seven straight strikes to retire the side in order.

McNamara called for Calvin Schiraldi to relief Hurst, a gamble considering that Schiraldi blew the save in the eighth inning, then couldn’t finish the Mets off in the 10th inning of Game 6.

Schiraldi went to a 2-1 count on Ray Knight, the hitter he was a strike away from retiring to end Game 6, then threw a belt-high fastball that Knight crushed over the fence in left center for a go-ahead homer. Vin Scully noted it was the first home run hit by the home team in the whole series. It also meant that this was the first time all postseason that the Mets would be pitching with a lead at home.

It was a lead that got extended when Schiraldi gave up a hit to pinch-hitter Lenny Dykstra, wild pitched him to second base on an errant pitchout attempt, then gave up an opposite field shot down the first base line to shortstop Rafael Santana that Buckner couldn’t reach. A successful two-strike sacrifice by McDowell chased Schiraldi for reliever Joe Sambito, who walked two and gave up a sacrifice fly to Hernandez.

The Mets led 6-3 heading to the eighth, but now it was the Red Sox turn to come back, as police on horseback settled in the bullpen to defend against overzealous fan celebration.

Buckner and Rice each singled, and Evans doubled them both in with a shot into right center field. That necessitated a pitching change, with Jesse Orosco replacing McDowell. Orosco got Gedman to softly line to Backman at second base, struck out Dave Henderson swinging on a curveball, and got pinch-hitter Don Baylor to ground to shortstop, with Santana perfectly positioned to make the play.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Mets padded their 6-5 lead against Game 4 starter Al Nipper when Strawberry homered to right on an 0-2 hanger (his stroll around the bases was timed at nearly 30 seconds). Then later in the inning, Orosco, with men on first and second and the situation clearly calling for a bunt, chopped a single up the middle to make it 8-5.

There was one last moment of levity when Wilson got clipped on the knee by a pitch as me made the same move to avoid the ball that he successfully did in Game 6. Then came the business of finishing the season.

Orosco did that without issue, getting Ed Romero to pop to Hernandez, who made a basket catch near home plate, and Boggs to ground to second before striking out Barrett on a high, outside fastball to end the game.

It was a long, hard journey through 13 games in the postseason, but in the end the Mets were both lucky and good. And they were champions.

Turning Point
NBC gave its Player of the Game honors to Fernandez for his shutout work in relief.

Only five relievers have retired at least seven batters without allowing a hit in a World Series winner-take-all-game. None have done so since Fernandez.

What They Wrote
“Arrogant, yes.Rally caps, encores, high fives and hugs. The New York Mets did everything but wave pompons during the 1986 baseball season and it's easy to see how they became the most disliked team in baseball.But surely, by now, you can also see why they were the best.”
-- Rick Talley, Los Angeles Daily News

Article 59- There was a mist hovering over Shea Stadium last night, a mist into which the upper deck disappeared.It suggested that this game for the World Series championship was being played in an ether not of this world - a heavenly and, yes, fitting backdrop to the conclusion of what may be the greatest three weeks baseball has ever witnessed.
John McGill, Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader

“People across the country said the New York Mets were arrogant, uppity, boastful. But Satchel Paige used to say that if you can do it, it ain't braggin'. The mighty Mets, winners of 108 games in the regular season, won the 83rd World Series last night because they had the most important quality of champions: resilience.”
- Barry Lorge, San Diego Union

“Somewhere between first base and heaven, Ray Knight took flight, his feet carried by wings of joy, and a kid's backyard dreams - a Georgia kid's dreams learned at his father's knee, the dreams carried from the Iowa bush leagues to the Big Apple.”
-- Dave Kindred, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Quote of the Day
“This is what we've been striving for all year. We're there.”
-- Gary Carter

"These last three weeks explain why this is the great American pastime."
--Mookie Wilson

“We were one pitch away from winning the world championship (Saturday). We're the second-best team in baseball. We had a hell of a year."
-- Bill Buckner

For Further Reading
There is a treasure trove to be found on the Mets if you simply type 1986 Mets into Google, YouTube, or EBay. Among the highlights, full coverage of the Mets trip to the White House to be honored by President Ronald Reagan, the 1986 team highlight video, and jersey and fan apparel from that era. If you’re a 1986 Mets fan, it’s worth checking out.

Stats To Remember
1- The Mets rally from three runs down tied the second-biggest comeback in a winner-take-all World Series game, matching that of the 1960 Pirates (against the Yankees) and the 1975 Reds (against the Red Sox). The 1925 Pirates had the biggest rally, coming back from a 4-0 deficit to beat the Washington Senators, 9-7.

2-- Ray Knight is the only player in postseason history to get the game-winning RBI in both the clinching game of the LCS and the World Series, with both coming in the seventh inning of the game or later. He had the go-ahead hit in the 16th inning of Game 6 of the NLCS against the Astros.

3-- Jesse Orosco is the last pitcher to get an RBI in the eighth inning or later of a postseason game. He is the only relief pitcher to get an RBI that late in Game 7 of a postseason series. Orosco would not get another hit for the rest of his career, which didn’t end until 2003.

Over the next three weeks, Mark Simon will reminisce here about the 1986 postseason, which ended in a Mets championship. Here's a capsule look at Game 2 of the 1986 NLCS, played on this date, 25 years ago

Game 2: Mets 5, Astros 1

Trailing by a game after losing Game 1 to Mike Scott, the Mets rebounded to beat a former Met, but it wasn't as easy as the final score indicated.

Nolan Ryan retired the first 10 Mets hitters before the team broke through for two runs in the fourth inning on a Gary Carter RBI double and Darryl Strawberry sacrifice fly, and three runs in the fifth inning (an RBI single by Wally Backman and a two-run triple from Keith Hernandez).

Winning pitcher Bob Ojeda (who was 18-5 in the regular season) escaped trouble repeatedly. The Astros had at least one baserunner in every inning from the second through the seventh, but only managed one run. Ojeda pitched a complete-game 10-hitter to even the series at a game apiece.

Turning Point

With the game scoreless and the Astros threatening with runners on first and third and one out in the bottom of the second inning, Alan Ashby hit a chopper that Ojeda fielded on the run in front of home plate. He then tagged oncoming baserunner Kevin Bass to prevent the Astros from scoring first.

Media reports the following day also cited Len Dykstra’s recovery from being knocked down by a Ryan pitch. Dykstra followed the brushback with a single that started a three-run rally.

What They Wrote

"The New York Mets finally found a pitch they could hit last night. In defiance of logic, legend and the Houston Astros, that pitch was Nolan Ryan's fastball."
-- Bruce Jenkins, San Francisco Chronicle

Quote of the Day

"I've never had that come up before tonight. It's usually easy to throw it to your catcher in that situation. But I saw him [Bass] out of the corner of my eye and decided the best option was just to go for him."
-- Ojeda in the Houston Chronicle, describing the play at the plate

Further Reading

Earlier this year, the blog "Amazin' Avenue" named Ojeda the 50 greatest Mets of all time, referring to him as the best pitcher the Mets had in their best season. Learn more about him here.

Stats To Remember

• Allowing 10 hits and one run, as Ojeda did, is very unusual, particularly in a postseason game. In fact, Ojeda is the last pitcher to allow at least 10 hits in a playoff game, while allowing one run or fewer. Eight pitchers did it before him, most notably Hall of Famers Waite Hoyt and Don Drysdale.

• Combining the regular season and postseason, Hernandez was 7-for-18 against Ryan in 1986. In all of the other seasons of his career, Hernandez was 4-for-32 against Ryan.

• Dykstra, Backman and Hernandez each had multi-hit games in the first-through-third spots in the batting order. That trio did that three times in the regular season, including twice in the last six weeks of the season.

Vote: Pick the ESPN New York Hall of Fame class »

In honor of ESPN New York's inaugural Hall of Fame ballot, here are my top five Mets:

1. Tom Seaver
Seaver was an integral part of the Mets' turnaround from lovable losers to World Series champions in 1969. Seaver won a club-record 198 games and three Cy Young Awards in his 12-season run. His nickname, "The Franchise," says all that needs to be said of his value to the team. No pitcher is close to Seaver in any of the major statistical categories in the Mets' record books, even though his last season with the club was a quarter-century ago.

2. Mike Piazza
Piazza was the superstar the Mets needed during their glorious run of success in the late 1990s and early part of the 2000s. His prowess at the plate (220 home runs, .915 OPS) and clutch hitting made him among the most memorable players in New York sports during that time. Piazza cemented his legacy in this city with the decisive home run in the first baseball game played in New York after the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001.

3. Darryl Strawberry
The Mets have never had a hitter with the gargantuan power that 6-foot-6 wonder Darryl Strawberry generated to the tune of a club-record 252 home runs and 733 RBIs from 1983 to 1990. Fans stayed in their seats or were glued to the TV when Strawberry came to bat, because you never knew how far or how hard he would hit the ball. If you were to list the most notable home runs in Mets history, Strawberry's name would appear multiple times both for significance in moment and distance.

4. Keith Hernandez
Hernandez was perhaps the smartest baseball player in Mets history. He had an uncanny knack for both the big hit and the big defensive play. Obtained in 1983 from the Cardinals, Hernandez was among the initial building blocks for the success the team would enjoy throughout the rest of the decade. Hernandez won six Gold Gloves as a Met and finished in the top eight in the NL MVP voting three consecutive seasons, 1984 to 1986.

5. Dwight Gooden
The Mets have never had a more electrifying pitcher on the mound than Gooden, who won 157 games in 11 seasons with the team from 1984 to 1994. Gooden had the greatest season by a pitcher in Mets history, winning 24 games with a 1.53 ERA in 1985. Though his career was plagued by substance-abuse issues, the sum of Gooden's performance early in his career was among the most dominant in New York sports.

Each Thursday, Mark Simon will commemorate the Mets' 50th season with stories and notes related to the history of the team.

If you’re a Mets fan who is feeling down about the team’s current losing ways, this would seem like a good time to celebrate the most dominant period of winning in club history.

We’ve just passed the 25th anniversary of the beginning of that run, an 18-1 stretch by the 1986 club that started with a streak of 11 wins in a row. A club record reached three other times, the 11-game streak was rudely interrupted by defeat, and was then followed by seven more victories.

Manager Davey Johnson promised that team would dominate. It took until the season’s sixth game for the Mets to establish they would do so loudly and proudly.

The Mets opened the season 2-3 entering their game against the Phillies on April 18, but by May 10, they were 20-4 and on their way to an NL East romp.

How good is an 18-1 run? Only three teams have had one in the regular season since the 1986 Mets (the 1991 Twins, the 2002 Athletics and the 2006 Twins; the 2007 Rockies had a run that included postseason games). Those Mets are the last NL team to have such a streak. The only other NL team with one in the Divisional Era (since 1969) is the 1977 Phillies.

The Mets' top four starters -- Dwight Gooden, Bob Ojeda, Ron Darling and Sid Fernandez -- were unhittable during this stretch, combining to go 15-0 with a 1.74 ERA.

The Mets' offense was led by Wally Backman, who hit .432 in 10 games, platooning with Tim Teufel, Keith Hernandez, who had a .440 on-base percentage, and Darryl Strawberry, who had six home runs, averaged an RBI per game, and had six game-winning RBIs. Gary Carter went through a brief slump, but also chipped in three game-winning RBIs.

Third baseman Ray Knight also came up with a couple of game-winning RBIs, and had a big home run in an eventual walk-off win against the Pirates.

“What I remember about that streak was the grind-it-out type of team we became,” said Darling, now a Mets TV analyst, who started the win streak by beating future Hall of Famer Steve Carlton and the Phillies. ”Seven innings plus of real fine pitching. A late rally. Roger [McDowell] and Jesse [Orosco] being impeccable. It wasn’t like we were blowing guys out 10-2 all year. The games were very close. I remember saying ‘This is the way we’re going to be all year.'”

The Mets won seven one-run games during this run. The most significant of these were two in St. Louis as part of a four-game sweep of the defending NL champion Cardinals.

Third baseman Howard Johnson tied the series opener with a two-run ninth-inning home run off Todd Worrell and the Mets won in the 10th on a George Foster hit. Two days later they’d win 4-3, with reliever McDowell getting a key force out at third base on a bunt, and Backman snaring Terry Pendleton’s groundball with a diving stop, turning a possible game-tying hit into a game-ending double play.

“I do remember that was such a critical series in April in St. Louis,” said Hernandez, now part of a three-man booth with Darling and Gary Cohen on SNY. “They had beaten us out in 1985. To go in and sweep them, that set the tone for the whole year.'”

The only blemish during the streak was a 7-2 loss to the Braves. Nemesis Zane Smith struck out 12 on a day in which the Braves hit four home runs off Mets pitchers. The next day, the Mets were back, jumping out to an 8-2 lead on the Reds and hanging on for an 8-7 win, as Orosco closed after some struggles by McDowell.

They would win the next six after that, including two exciting clashes in an NLCS preview against the Astros. By the time they were finished, they were five games up on the Expos. It might as well have been 25 games. No one would come close to catching them the rest of the way.

“I remember that first streak we were saying to ourselves: ‘Finally! This what I’m talking about. This is how good we’re going to be,’” Darling said.

Five Things You May Not Have Known About the Mets' 18-1 Run in 1986

1. The MVP of that run may have been Gooden, who went 4-0 with an 0.51 ERA, three complete games and an eight-inning effort in four starts.

Many remember that Gooden was 24-4 with a 1.53 ERA in 1985. He actually started the 1986 season even better than that -- 5-0 with a 1.04 ERA in his first six starts. The best of those was a two-hit shutout of the Astros on May 6, as the Mets beat Bob Knepper, 4-0.

2. The Mets went through almost all of the streak without center fielder Mookie Wilson, who had suffered an eye injury when he was hit by a ball during a rundown drill in spring training. He didn’t make his season debut until May 10. With Wilson out, rookie Kevin Mitchell split time in center field and the leadoff spot with Lenny Dykstra and hit .314 with five RBIs and six runs scored in 10 games. Wilson would play a much more integral role later in the year.

3. Orosco pitched 10 1/3 innings during that stretch and didn’t allow a run. In fact, Orosco opened the season by allowing no runs, six hits, and only two of nine inherited runners to score in his first 16 1/3 innings.

4. The Mets have had three other win streaks of 11 games -- in 1969, 1972 and 1990. They’ve never had another 18-1 run, with the closest they’ve come being a 17-2 stretch in 1990.

5. The Mets' chances of going 19-1 ended in bizarre fashion with a 3-2 loss to the Reds. Cincinnati scored in unusual fashion, netting three runs on a bases-loaded, two-out, full-count single by player-manager Pete Rose. They would be the last RBIs of Rose’s career against the Mets.

ESPN The Magazine's Doug Mittler contributed

Terry Collins had this unintentionally naive line after the Phillies drubbed the Mets, 11-0, Thursday in regards to today's home opener. "We'll finally have some people cheering us instead of booing us," the manager said. R.A. Dickey draws the home opener as the Mets face the Washington Nationals. Read the series preview here.

On to Friday's news reports:

• Francisco Rodriguez said he is unconcerned about the reception he will receive from spectators at Citi Field. Rodriguez pitched once at the ballpark after the August incident with his girlfriend's father, then revealed he had a torn thumb ligament and was placed on the disqualified list and underwent surgery.

"Honestly, I’m not going to expect people to throw me flowers and love me, because I don’t," Rodriguez tells the Record's Steve Popper. "Honestly I don’t. The only way I can change that is getting the job done. That’s what matters. I get my job done all the negativity is going to go away by itself. I hope they see and realize that I’ve been making a lot of changes in my life based on that, trying to get once again the love. It’s been difficult for me because I try to get stability once again in my personal life and at work. It’s a process that’s going to take time, but I just want them to be patient and don’t give up on me yet."

"I obviously have no control over what 40,000 people are gonna do," Rodriguez tells the Post's Dan Martin. "The only thing I can do is pitch. If I do that and I do it well, I think everything will be fine." ... K-Rod also speaks with Newsday about the topic.

• Dickey says he feels honored that the Mets adjusted their five-man rotation and held Chris Capuano out until Saturday in order to ensure the knuckleballer gets the start in the home opener. Read more reaction from Dickey in the Times, Post and Daily News.

• Read game stories from Thursday's drubbing in the Times, Newsday, Daily News, Post, and Record.

• Post columnist Mike Vaccaro offers this take after listening to Collins praise his team for rallying from a seven-run deficit against Joe Blanton on Wednesday:

If that sounds furiously familiar, another Pollyanna manager peering through rose-tinted lenses, don't worry: Terry Collins is not Jerry Manuel, something that was evident within days of his taking over the team and within minutes of his first spring-training workout. Asked before the game if he was more impressed by the 7-0 deficit the Mets erased Wednesday night or more aggrieved they wound up losing the game anyway, Collins was quick to prove he gets it in a way Manuel never did, or could. "You like the fight to come back," Collins said. "But the final score is the final score."

• Newsday's Neil Best does a Q&A with Ron Darling, Keith Hernandez and Bob Ojeda on the 2011 Mets. A sample:

Q: All three of you have been more optimistic than most about the 2011 Mets. Why?

Ojeda: "I think what all of us saw in spring training was a sense of non-entitlement, is the best way I can describe it. It was a sense of, we have work to do. Terry Collins turned out to be an excellent choice. Here is a guy who is very thankful to be back in the game. He set a tone that everybody is important to this ballclub. They've bought it and believe it."

Hernandez: "If everybody performs up to their potential in that lineup, this team is going to score runs, and it's a good defensive team. It's about the pitching. That's where the question marks lie. I said all spring David Wright had completely gotten back to his old self with the bat. He's gotten rid of that uppercut and he's swinging level."

• The Daily News reports Mets owners have narrowed the groups of minority bidders to eight, and hope to raise between $150 million and $200 million to pay off the MLB loan and steady operations.

• Daily News columnist John Harper notes the bloom certainly came off the rose with Wednesday and Thursday's performances by Mike Pelfrey and Jon Niese. Writes Harper:

Just in case the Mets were getting any crazy ideas about who's who in the NL East, the Phillies smacked them around the last two days as routinely as they brush their teeth. You didn't really expect some kind of sea change just because Terry Collins' crew roughed up Cole Hamels in the series opener, did you? Not that surrendering 21 runs the last two days kills all of the good vibe the Mets had created with their 3-1 start, as they return to New York for the home opener Friday at Citi Field against the Nationals.

BIRTHDAYS: Hall of Famer Gary Carter turns 57. ... Timo Perez turns 36. ... Former top pick Eddie Kunz, who was traded to the San Diego Padres during the final week of spring training for first baseman Allan Dykstra, turns 25.

R.A. Dickey opposes Javier Vazquez in the rubber game in Miami. The Mets will then fly to New York. A day later, they will bus to Philadelphia in advance of Tuesday's series opener at Citizens Bank Park.

Sunday's news reports:

• Dickey tells the Times' David Waldstein he plans to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in January, when he will fly to Tanzania. The expedition also should include former Twins teammate Kevin Slowey, bullpen catcher Dave Racaniello and Mets physical therapist John Zajac. Dickey's contract prevents rock-climbing, but Kilimanjaro supposedly is more of a gradual ascent. Writes Waldstein:

Ever since Dickey read “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” by Ernest Hemingway as an 11th grader in Tennessee, the snow-capped mountain on the border of Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa has captivated him. Now, with his recent success as a pitcher, he has the means and visibility to take on this latest challenge. The story by Hemingway, which depicts the agony of a failed writer suffering from gangrene as he and his wife await help at the foot of Kilimanjaro, is at the core of Dickey’s interest in the mountain. But he was also intrigued by documentaries about Mount Everest and the feature film “K2,” about climbing the second-highest peak in the world.

• Newsday's David Lennon focuses his game recap on David Wright. Writes Lennon:

For better or worse, the fortunes of David Wright and the Mets are intertwined. There is no separating the two, even as the names change around him. Jose Reyes has one foot out the door. Carlos Beltran is playing on two bad knees. Jason Bay is on the disabled list. That leaves Wright with the Mets mostly on his shoulders, and last night at Sun Life Stadium, he proved capable of leading them to a tumultuous 6-4 victory over the Marlins in 10 innings.

• Post columnist Mike Vaccaro also looks at Wright's role, noting: It isn't easy being the face of a franchise that's the butt of so much derision.

• Andy McCullough of the Star-Ledger notes Francisco Rodriguez threw a lot of curveballs when the pitch called for a fastball during his blown save Saturday. “Surprising?” pitching coach Dan Warthen tells McCullough. “It was, a little bit. But I’m not worried.”

• Read other game recaps in the Record, Post and Daily News.

• Lennon notes how a simple decision like pinch-hitting for Francisco Rodriguez after his blown save and using Blaine Boyer in the 10th inning has ramifications as far as K-Rods $17.5 million vesting option for 2012 that is based on games finished.

• The Post's Steve Serby does a Q&A with the '86 Mets in broadcasting -- Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling and Bob Ojeda.

Q: Terry Collins? Ojeda: He let his players know, “I’m the firewall between you and the GM. I’m the firewall between you and a lot of the ire of the fans if that’s gonna come our way.” He went out of his way to talk to each and every guy. . . . Terry’s door is open and his mind is open and his thought process is open. He’s invested in each guy. It would make me feel like, “This manager’s got my back.” . . . I’m a Terry Collins fan. He just seems very legitimate to me. It’s not an act. “Here’s what I think, here’s what I feel, you deal with it.” I like that.

• Newsday takes a look at Brad Emaus winning the second-base job. "He's not going to be Orlando Hudson when it comes to range," infield coach Chip Hale tells the newspaper. "He's average. But he turns a double play as well as anybody."

• Newsday columnist Ken Davidoff offers this about Saturday's win: Technically, the Mets endured only a two-game losing streak; they lost the final game of 2010 and the 2011 opener. But the organization endured so much pain in that time span -- and that's even counting the hiring of general manager Sandy Alderson on the positive side of the ledger -- that it might as well have been a 200-game slide.

• The Times has the relevant exchange between Yankees GM Brian Cashman and Warthen about Pedro Feliciano's overuse/abuse:

“He was abused,” Cashman said. “It’s a thin market when you’re looking for lefties, and he’s one of the better ones out there. But you don’t typically go after a guy who’s been used like that. The use pattern was abusive.” Dan Warthen, the Mets’ pitching coach, had a simple question when he learned of Cashman’s remarks: “They didn’t know that when they signed him?”

• Daily News columnist Filip Bondy writes the joke's on the Yankees in signing Feliciano, and for a change the Mets come out looking good at the expense of their crosstown rivals.

• As for Feliciano's actual injury, it's behind his left shoulder. "The concern is based on the MRI," Cashman said, according to the Post's Brian Costello. "The [Mets'] use pattern was abusive, but the MRI itself shows what he's got. That leads us to believe all of this is resolvable and it's not a major issue. It's just a timing issue."

• Carlos Beltran is due to sit Sunday. Terry Collins explains, via the Daily News: "What I want to do is, when I put him out there I want to make sure he can give me what I saw [Friday] night. I don't want to put him in a situation where he has trouble going after a ball because his knees were bothering him, or overdo it so that I lose him for a month. If I lose him for a couple of days, I'll buy that. I can handle that. But I want to make sure I pace myself to the point where I know that on a given day he's out there four days a week ... or five days a week. The one thing I don't want to do is push the envelope too early."

• Wright gave Collins two cigars to celebrate his first managerial victory since 1999, according to the Post's Mike Puma. That reminds me of the story of Willie Randolph having to wait until Game No. 6 for his first victory as Mets manager and to smoke a cigar he had to carry out each day for nearly a week. You may recall Pedro Martinez's gem on Opening Day in 2005 was spoiled when Braden Looper allowed two homers in the ninth. The Mets came back to Shea Stadium 1-5, and only because Beltran had a late two-run homer off John Smoltz and Pedro had a gem in a 2-1 win in the opening trip's finale.

BIRTHDAYS: Catcher/outfielder Hawk Taylor, who played four season for the Mets in the 1960s, was born on this date in 1939.

There is a little ledge above my bedroom window, on which rests various pieces of sports paraphernalia.

On one end is a Starting Lineup figurine of John Olerud. On the other end is one of Keith Hernandez.

I bring this up because our Stats & Information Group is conducting its own Hall of Fame balloting.

Our rules are the same as those for the Baseball Writers' Association of America, with one exception --you’re allowed to write in candidates no longer eligible for consideration by the actual voters. And on my ballot, I’ve included both Olerud and Hernandez.

My vote is based partly on the eye test (which also allows me to vote for Jack Morris and Dale Murphy) and partly on the stat test (why I’ve also checked off Bert Blyleven and Tim Raines). I’ll admit to being biased. Hernandez and Olerud are my father’s two favorite Mets, so I’ve been subject to many lengthy discussions in which their virtues were extolled.

I vote for both rather than just one because the two are baseball’s version of identical twins. Thus, if I think one is worthy, the other is as well.

Bill James devised a similarity score metric that allows you to compare players. Olerud rates as Hernandez’s 10th-most similar player. Hernandez is Olerud’s seventh-best comparison. But in my view, they’re even closer than that. Consider the following:

Hernandez was the son of a minor league player.
So was Olerud.

Hernandez hit .296 in 17 major league seasons.
Olerud hit .295 in 17 major league seasons.

Hernandez walked a lot (11.2 percent of the time)
Olerud walked a lot (12.6 percent of the time)

Hernandez finished his career with a 128 OPS+
Olerud finished his career with a 128 OPS+
both had an OPS 14 percent better than league average
(thanks to the commenter who pointed out that it's 14 percent better, and not 28 ... 128-100, then divide by two)

Hernandez age 24 to 33 :.305 BA, 134 OPS+
Olerud age 24 to 33: .307 BA, 136 OPS+

Sabermetrician Sean Smith devised a defensive rating for players, Total Zone Runs, which uses play-by-play data from Retrosheet and accounts for nearly 60 years worth of games. I’m not going to pretend I fully grasp it, nor am I going to extol it as an end-all, be-all stat, but a look at the numbers gives me some basis for legitimacy. The players I’d think should rate near the top and bottom rate near the top and bottom.

Hernandez rates first among first basemen in Total Zone Runs.
Olerud ranks third among first basemen in Total Zone Runs.

In regards to their Hall of Fame candidacies, I am fully understanding of those who say that these were a pair of very good players, but ones not worthy of the game’s top honor.

If you feel that way, I would encourage you to read the work of Chris Dial and Jack Moore, each of whom has done an impressive job in making the case for their legitimacy. A quick summary would be that both Hernandez and Olerud were great hitters and elite defenders compared to their peers, and each were integral parts of championship teams.

I want to add one more piece of analysis to their arguments.

A statistical measure, Leverage Index, measures the importance of every plate appearance relative to how much it can impact the outcome of a game.

The most important plate appearances would be in situations such as a tied or one-run game with men on base in the mid-to-late-innings. Those are categorized as high-leverage situations. The least important ones would be in blowouts, with no one on base. Those are low-leverage situations (there is also a category for in-between: medium leverage).

Using their Mets careers as examples, Hernandez’s two-run single that cut the Red Sox lead from 3-0 to 3-2 in the sixth inning of Game 7 of the World Series, came in a high-leverage-situation.

Olerud’s two-run go-ahead single against Braves reliever John Rocker in the eighth inning of Game 4 of the 1999 NLCS, also came in a high-leverage situation.

Hernandez reached base 40.1 percent of the time for his career in such plate appearances, including on-base percentages of .422, .486, and .445 from 1984 to 1986, three pretty significant years in Mets history.

Olerud reached base 40.7 percent of the time and had an on-base percentage of .395 or better in all three of his season with the Mets (all of which were playoff-contending teams).

Both of those rate as exceptional marks in the context of their eras (Hernandez slightly moreso, because most of his career came outside the steroid era and his primary ballparks favored pitchers).

I’m fully aware that the window of opportunity has closed on Hernandez, who never got even 11 percent of the vote in his nine years on the ballot, and he wasn’t included in the recent Veterans Committee consideration list (in which the closest player to getting elected was a Hernandez contemporary, shortstop Dave Concepcion).

That same window is likely to close quickly on Olerud given that this year’s candidate field is crowded with worthy potential inductees. Some voters are having a hard time limiting their choices to just 10 and the likelihood is that Olerud won’t get the five percent necessary to be on next year’s ballot.

But they’re assured of at least one vote in our Hall of Fame voting. My window of opportunity is forever open to both of them.

Could Jeff Francoeur someday make the all-time list of Braves-killers in Mets history?

Maybe the home run to win Tuesday's game (the first-ever ninth-inning home run by a Met to beat the Braves in Atlanta/Milwaukee) was the start of something big.

For now, it's the first jump-out-of-the-chair moment the Mets have had in a few weeks, and a good starting point with which to continue our two-part mini-series.

Tuesday, we looked at the top 10 Mets-killers in Braves history (Chipper Jones/Hank Aaron at the very top). Today, we turn the tables and look at Mets who have hit the Braves in a Chipper-esque fashion.

1st- Mike Piazza -- When I think of Piazza's time as a Met against the Braves, I think of three swings.

The first was a rocket to right field against John Smoltz to tie Game 6 of the 1999 NLCS (we'll skip the ending and just remember this part).

The second was a line drive bullet down the left field line, capping a comeback from an 8-1 eighth-inning deficit on June 30, 2000.

The third was the home run off Steve Karsay, to win the first game back after the September 11 tragedy, a monstrous shot that rose and rose until it cleared well over the centerfield fence.

Those three swings defined Piazza's Mets tenure against the Braves better than any numbers can. To borrow a few icons from other sports, Piazza rose to the occasion like Joe Namath, Walt Frazier, and Mark Messier when it came to big-game, big-time performance.

2nd- Tommie Agee -- The most recent Mets Hall of Fame inductee prior to the quartet honored Sunday would probably make the "Braves-Killers" Hall of Fame as well.

In 1968, Agee didn't hit well vs anyone except the Braves, posting a .393 batting average against them in his first year as a Met. He'd hit .364 with an 1.156 OPS in 1969, follow that up with a huge postseason (.357 with two homers), than crush the Braves for a .347 batting average/1.060 OPS in 1970.

Agee's success came from knowing how to hit the knuckleball. He had one stretch in which he went 12-for-20 against Braves ace knuckleballer Phil Niekro.

3rd- Carlos Beltran -- Beltran bombed home run after home run to beat the Braves in the 2004 NLDS and that carried over into the next season, when he beat John Smoltz's 15-strikeout effort in a classic pitching duel with Pedro Martinez, with a home run that gave then-manager Willie Randolph his first win.
In all, Beltran has a .310 batting average and 15 home runs for his Mets career against the Braves. His nine homers and 19 RBI in 12 games in 2006 are the most by a Met against the Braves in a single season.

4th- Len Dykstra -- Dykstra would foreshadow his status for getting big hits against the Braves during his Mets career. His .338 batting average is the best by a Met against the Braves, for those with at least 150 plate appearances against them. He hit .475 against them in a 40 at-bat stretch in 1986.

Even after leaving the Mets, Dykstra's status against the Braves grew. It's one thing Phillies fans and Mets fans can agree upon, with the knowledge that Dykstra won a playoff game for the 1993 Phillies, beating the Braves with a late home run.
T-5th- Keith Hernandez/Gary Carter/Darryl Strawberry -- We'll let the heart of the order share a spot, just as they share the mark for most RBI in a game by a Met against the Braves, with seven.

Hernandez gets top billing since he also hit for the cycle in that wacky 19-inning game on July 4, 1985, and his .423 on-base percentage for the Mets against the Braves is a team-best.

Strawberry hit 25 home runs against the Braves, second-most only to Piazza. Carter hit a solid .284 with eight home runs in 44 games behind the plate.

8th- Carlos Delgado -- Delgado makes the list as an RBI force with 39 in 51 games as a Met against the Braves.

His most memorable moment against Atlanta was a bit on the odd side -- a 5-for-5 effort on August 21, 2008, with the fifth hit being a walk-off after Omar Infante misplayed his fly ball in left (It was payback for Infante, who had teased some fans in the stands after making a nice catch earlier).

9th- Robin Ventura -- No, we didn't forget about Ventura and the walk-off grand slam single in the 15th inning of the epic Game 5 of the 1999 NLCS (honorable mention to Shawon Dunston, whose marathon-at-bat base hit leading off that inning is this blogger's favorite Met moment), or his two-homer day on Opening Day, 2001 that sparked an extra-inning Mets win.

Problem is, he did little else, hitting just .204 against the Braves as a Met in regular season play (and 3-for-25 in that NLCS). But who needs any more than the two moments listed above?
10- Steve Henderson -- This Mets fan-favorite of the late 70s/early 80s set the tone for his success against the Braves by beating them with a walk-off home run on June 21, 1977, six days after being traded to the Mets as part of the deal for Tom Seaver.

Henderson is just a hair before my time as a Mets fan, but I think I'd have liked him based on his penchant for big hits (my boss at ESPN, and my fellow bloggers have a few good memories of those).

He'd knock in 12 runs in nine games against the Braves that season. As a Met, he hit .321 with six home runs and five game-winning RBI for teams that didn't win too often.

Honorable mentions: Tim Bogar, Rico Brogna, Donn Clendenon, Shawn Green, Lee Mazzilli, Art Shamsky, Rusty Staub, David Wright.

Mark Simon is a researcher for Baseball Tonight. Follow him on Twitter at @msimonespn

Darryl Strawberry will never get the call to Cooperstown, so he’ll have to settle for the Hall of Fame in Queens.

And he’s OK with that.

Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, former manager Davey Johnson and former general manager Frank Cashen will be inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. in a pregame ceremony prior to the Mets-Diamondbacks game.

“Of course everybody has their opinions about where we should be. They say, ‘You should be in Cooperstown in the Hall of Fame,’ ” Strawberry said on Saturday night. “Well, guess what? We’re going in the Mets Hall of Fame and that’s the most important thing and that’s all I really care about.

“That’s Cooperstown for me, because when I put on the Mets uniform, I believed in winning. Doc Gooden believed in winning. Davey Johnson believed in winning. Frank Cashen believed in winning. And that’s what we did.”

The Mets were criticized by fans and media when Citi Field opened in 2009 because the park offered little to recognize the great teams in franchise history. They’ve done well to remedy that this season. And the team’s 2010 Hall of Fame class is another step in the right direction.

Cashen was the architect behind the 1986 championship team, bringing in Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling, Sid Fernandez and Bobby Ojeda in via trade and drafting Strawberry and Gooden. Johnson managed the Mets to the 1986 World Series title and his 595 wins are the most in franchise history.

Strawberry, a seven-time All-Star with the Mets, is the team's all-time leader in home runs (252), RBI (733) and runs (662).

Gooden won the NL Rookie of the Year award in 1984 and the CY Young award a year later. He led the league in wins (24), ERA (1.53) and strikeouts (268). Gooden ranks second in franchise history in wins (157) and strikeouts (1,875).

“I’m still just overwhelmed at the whole thing. All I can think about being a kid in Tampa… (I) never even imagined going into a team’s Hall of Fame, it never crossed my mind,” Gooden said on Saturday. “And now to actually to be here, to accomplish the things I have. It’s overwhelming.”

CASHEN ON THE BOSS: Cashen built successful Mets teams in the mid to late 1980s. At the same time, across town in the Bronx, George Steinbrenner's Yankees were floundering. So Cashen said on Saturday that he took great pride in dominating the NL and New York City in the late 1980s. He said he was "sad" when Steinbrenner died earlier this month. But, he made sure to point out that The Boss was a "competitor first, friend second."

"He was sort of a half-a--ed friend of mine. But I was sorry," Cashen said when asked about his reaction to Steinbrenner's death. "He was good to compete against."