Two New York City Council members want Citigroup to show its thanks for a federal bailout by sharing the naming rights to the new ballpark.

The struggling bank is slated to pay $400 million over the next 20 years to name the stadium Citi Field.

The bank made the commitment years ago, when it was flush with [...]

Luis Alicea was hired today to replace Ken Oberkfell as first-base coach.

Alicea spent the past two seasons as first-base coach of the
Red Sox after managing Class A Lowell of the New York-Penn League in 2004-05 and Class A Greenville of the South Atlantic League the following year. He spent 13 seasons in the major [...]

David Wright won his second straight Silver Slugger award. He set career highs with 33 home runs, 124 RBI and 115 runs scored last year, captured his second consecutive Silver Slugger Award.
 
“It’s a very prestigious award and I am proud to win it, considering the people who vote for the award,” he said. “This honor [...]

Pete Abraham is covering for us at the GM meetings in California. Oliver Perez was one of the topics of conversation yesterday. Omar Minaya didn’t sound hopeful of getting anything done before Nov. 14 when the exclusive-rights period comes to an end, nor should he with Scott Boras as the agent. Boras held court and [...]

The Mets made it official today, exercising Carlos Delgado’s $12 million option for next year.

Be honest: Who thought last June that Delgado would be back. His bat seemed dead and he looked older than his 36 years. But then he hit .308 with 27 homers and 80 RBI in 84 games from June 27 on. [...]

The Post has the Mets ready to chase Derek Lowe for the rotation and Brian Fuentes to close. Lowe is 35, but there will be stiff competition coming off a 14-win season with the Dodgers. Fuentes is 33, and here are the lefty’s save numbers the last four years with the Rockies: 31 in [...]

Fernando Tatis made a nice contribution to the cause before his season-ending shoulder injury in September, and his fellow players noticed. Tatis was just named as the NL’s top comeback player in a vote by his peers that was done in September. This is one of the 2008 Players Choice Awards, and it was announced [...]

The Mets have just re-upped with WFAN, signing a multiyear extension. Here’s the press release the team sent out:

America’s Sports Talk Radio Leader to Broadcast Mets Under Long-term Agreement

FLUSHING, N.Y., October 20, 2008 – The New York Mets and Sports Radio 66 WFAN, the most listened to sports station in America, today announced an extension [...]

There’s a must-read column by Rick Carpiniello in The Journal News and at www.lohud.com today on all the items taken out of Shea the last two weeks that had been sold or will be sold. Strangely nobody wanted the foul poles to put up in their backyard so they’re being cut into pieces for sale. [...]

So we’re here to take a break from Arizona Fall League updates and report that Carlos Beltran put the Mets’ latest forgettable September behind him and got married to Jessica Beltran—again. It was a joint ceremony at a Caesars Palace hotel penthouse in Vegas this weekend along with Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, according to [...]

Today in The Journal News and at LoHud.com, there’s a story recapping last night’s Dodgers-Phillies game complete with the two sides throwing way inside and Manny erupting during the bench-clearing incident. Shane Victorino thinks it’s over, but stay tuned tonight. L.A. needs to win to make it even at 2-2, and Joe Torre is bringing [...]

In today’s Journal News and at LoHud.com, Sam Borden has a column suggesting the Mets (and the Yankees) take a pass on Manny Ramirez despite his Hall of Fame bat, that his attitude isn’t worth it, nor is a long-term, big-ticket deal at his age.

Maybe the money would be better spent on pitching, CC or [...]

So who had Rays-Red Sox and Dodgers-Phillies as the final four in the office pool (at the beginning of the season)? Do you think Joe Torre wouldn’t love to see his Dodgers advance and take out the Red Sox or the Rays in the World Series and show the Yankees what they missed? Personally, I’d [...]

Just wondering, but with the way the Dodgers swept away the Cubs, do you think the Mets also would have beaten Chicago if they had made the playoffs? That would’ve been the matchup if the Mets had the wild card.

I don’t think there would have been a sweep because nothing would have been easy with [...]

One of the main points Jerry Manuel stressed in his conference call with us this afternoon is that the offensive philosophy here has to change, that guys have to stop worrying about their stats and start thinking more about situational hitting. He said this is going to be a big emphasis in his first spring [...]