John Franco

TV SPORTS Women's College Basketball-Michigan at Purdue, 5:30 p.m. (Big 10 Network); Penn State at Northwestern, 7:30 p.m. (Big 10 Network); Idaho at Nevada, 10 p.m. (ESPNU) Men's College Basketball-Xavier at Cincinnati, 6 p.m. (ESPN2); Villanova at...

Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven became Hall of Famers on Wednesday, the two-time World Series champions easily elected after narrow misses last season. Sluggers Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGwire, Jeff Bagwell and Juan Gonzalez came nowhere close. Hall...

Billy Wagner earned his 400th career save, Brian McCann gave Atlanta the lead with a fourth-inning homer and the Braves ended a three-game skid by beating the Detroit Tigers 3-1 on Friday night. McCann's 100th career homer was one of the few mistakes...

John Franco was still pitching for the Mets in 2002 when Keith Hernandez got himself in hot water with the players by saying they had "no heart" and "quit" on the season. Mike Piazza fired back at Hernandez then by......

It wasn't a major-league baseball game. It wasn't even a major-league baseball exhibition game. But Sunday will go down in history as the day Citi Field opened to paying customers as St. John's faced Georgetown in a college baseball game. The Mets' new...

What should we read into the assignments of Sweeney, Fields, Owens, Gonzalez et al. to Winter Ball? Didn't Jerry Owens tear it up in Venezuela last year before unexpectedly leaving? Has he been demoted in only being sent to the AZL? Also, any plans for...

I never had spent much time around Mets CEO Fred Wilpon until Wednesday, when he held court for 30 minutes with a handful of sports media/business writers at SNY's studios. It was impossible not to be impressed by the guy,......

The Mets officially welcomed back John Franco to the organization this morning. The long-time closer, and the team's last captain, will be used in an advisory role with the Mets. Franco will be in uniform from March 8-15, working with......

Due to space limitations in this morning's newspaper, a couple of items had to be trimmed from your daily Mets coverage. So in addition to this story on Bobby Parnell, who is working on a splitter with J.J. Putz, and......

John Franco ends his stint as a guest instructor. Nick Evans is impressing the flip-floppy Jerry Manuel. John Maine feels better each time out and other notes. The team is off today, back in action tomorrow with Johan Santana pitching......

Cal Ripken's first major-league hit came against Dennis Lamp of the Chicago White Sox on Aug. 16, 1981. His last hit came against Frank Castillo of the Boston Red Sox in Game 1 of a doubleheader on Oct. 5, 2001. Ripken finished his career with 3,184...

Home runs 500 Sammy Sosa could make it with his first swing. Rafael Palmeiro is on deck, while Fred McGriff and Ken Griffey Jr. are well within range. Sosa heads into Opening Day at Shea Stadium with 499 home runs, followed by Palmeiro at 490, McGriff at...