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...

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......

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......

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......

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,......

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...

Mark Prior took the blame Sunday, but there were plenty of culprits in the Cubs' 9-3 loss to the Houston Astros. After winning the opener of the series Friday and moving two games over .500 for the first time this season, the Cubs dropped the final two—...

The 2003 salaries for the 827 major league baseball players on opening day rosters and disabled lists. Figures were obtained by The Associated Press from management and player sources and include salaries and pro-rated shares of signing bonuses and...