Good morning, Mets fans!

The Mets begin their homestand today against the Arizona Diamondbacks and there will be a lot of fanfare and tribute throughout the day. Part of the celebration will be the unveiling of the Tom Seaver statue. Nancy Seaver, Tom’s widow, and his two daughters will be in attendance as part of the morning’s celebrations. Additionally, every team that takes the field this afternoon will honor Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier on this date in 1947, by wearing the number 42, in Dodger Blue.

On the field, the Mets will trot out Chris Bassitt, who will make his Citi Field debut as a Met, after only giving up three hits in six scoreless innings in the team’s 5-0 win against the Nationals last week. The Mets enter today’s game with a 5-2 record and are currently in first-place in the NL East. Stick with MMO for all upcoming news and coverage for today’s home opener!

Now onto the morning briefing!

Latest Mets News

Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News profiled Mets co-owner Alex Cohen and discusses her upbringing, a life changing illness, meeting Steve Cohen and more.

Anthony DiComo of MLB.com tweets that the Mets will dedicate the press box to longtime media relations director, Jay Horwitz. On Sunday, the team will hold a ceremony before the start of the scheduled game and will have Jay himself throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

In a reply to a tweet, Former Mets reliever Dennis Cook confirmed his attendance to Old Timer’s Day. Cook spent four years as a Met, from 1998 to 2001.

Mets prospect Ronny Mauricio exited yesterday’s Rumble Ponies game after taking a pitch off his left ankle in the ninth inning. He was able to walk off the field on his own power and was removed for precautionary reasons.

Latest MLB News

Jeff Passan of ESPN reports that the Pittsburgh Pirates have signed outfielder Bryan Reynolds to a two-year contract, avoiding arbitration. Reynolds is Super 2 eligible, which means he will not reach free agency until 2025.

Major League Baseball released a statement refuting an inaccurate report regarding run differential and that stat being used in the event of a tie. The league states that while a “game 163” will no longer need to be played in the event of a tie, run differential will not be used as a metric to decide said tie breaker.

Sportico released their full MLB valuations yesterday. The Yankees top the list at number one at a value of $7 billion.

In response to the Cleveland Guardians officially announcing the contract extension for Jose Ramirez, Ramirez himself took to Twitter and replied to the team’s official tweet with a video that has himself and his teammates and manager’s head superimposed over the characters from the movie “Wolf of Wall Street.”

Latest on MMO

Mathew Brownstein interviews hard throwing Mets prospect Colin Holderman, in an MMO Exclusive.

Tom Seaver: Memories of The Franchi-e and His Legacy, by Marshall Field.

On This Date in Mets History

1997: Major League Baseball honors Jackie Robinson, 50 years after breaking the color barrier. Taking place at Shea Stadium, during that evening’s Mets-Dodgers game, a ceremony took place during the fifth inning, where commissioner Bud Selig, President Bill Clinton and widow of Jackie Robinson, Rachel Robinson, spoke about the importance of the day as well as profiling Jackie’s achievements and his fight for equality.

Commissioner Selig would then declare that the number 42 would be retired league wide, only to have those who wore it before the decree be grandfathered. As for the game, the current occupants of National League baseball defeated Robinson’s old club 5-0 behind five shutout frames from Armando Reynoso and a four RBI day by Lance Johnson. Butch Huskey went one-for-four that evening, and holds the distinction to be the second to last Met to wear #42.

Birthdays: Daniel Zamora (29), Adeiny Hechavarria (33), Aaron Laffey (37), Ricky Otero (50), Jeromy Burnitz (53)

Let’s go Mets!