On January 18, 1985 Tim Leary was quietly traded by the New York Mets to the Kansas City Royals. Leary was selected out of UCLA in the first-round (second overall) by the Mets in the June 1979 Draft. Less than two years later, at age 22, Leary made his major league debut. It lasted seven batters. Life would have been better if no one said the phrase – ever — but it’s too late now. [...]

Updated by John Delcos on 3/6 at 9:15 AM Ike Davis was on the WBC reserve list but wasn’t asked when Mark Teixeira was injured. Teammate David Wright was keeping him posted. “I got a text from David,” Davis said. “He said (WBC manager) Joe Torre asked about me. I’m glad they thought of me.” When asked if Wright put in a good word for him, Davis said: “He said he did … but I didn’t make the team.” Davis said he would [...]

Things just keep getting worse and not better on the Johan Santana front. Andy Martino spoke to more than one team source and the consensus seems to be that Johan Santana will not be ready by Opening Day which totally wipes out Santana’s assertion that “he knows what he’s doing” and everything is okay. “I know the deal, spring training is for training okay!”. The Mets’ private expectations for Johan Santana’s April 1 availability are even [...]

Updated 10:30 PM From ESPN NY, more comments from Joe Torre. “I apologize. He is right that I shouldn’t have said that, and I don’t think I did. Somebody asked me if I would take a call from Fred Wilpon. I have known Fred Wilpon forever. I won’t be managing the Mets, and I thought I made that clear yesterday. It was about taking a call as opposed to looking for a job. I went to [...]

The Joe Torre angle isn’t going away. [tweeted]http://twitter.com/Ian_OConnor/status/25060381787[/tweeted] Additionally, Joe Torre was a guest on WFAN on Monday, and really sounded like someone who wanted to manage in New York again, “I have not had contact with anybody,” Torre said when specifically asked about the idea of him managing the Mets. “I am curious. When the season is over, I hope the phone will be ringing.” Looks like the media will fuel this fire as long as [...]

I can’t believe what I’m hearing this morning, that the Mets aren’t interested in Joe Torre. Yeah, maybe I can. And, unbelievably, there are some who believe he doesn’t have the right personality for the Mets. They probably are right. Torre has a winning personality and the Mets are a fall-short organization. I’ll bottom line it for you: Joe Torre is a Hall of Fame manager who can only help the Mets. He’s been through [...]

According to Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times, Joe Torre will be stepping down as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers at the end of the season, and be replaced by hitting coach Don Mattingly. There’s a possibility that Torre could remain with the Dodgers in some other capacity, but someone I spoke to with knowledge of the situation told me that Torre is very close to announcing his retirement from baseball and spending more time with [...]