New York Mets Baseball Team

Two years later, Carlos Beltran's eyes widen and his smile broadens at the reminder of his last postseason experience. Fresh to the Houston Astros after being traded from Kansas City and headed for free agency, he batted .435 with eight home runs, 14 runs batted in and six steals in 12 games, against Atlanta and St. Louis. After coming within a win of carrying the Astros to their first World Series, Beltran nearly returned to Houston.

Dan Haren can spoil a manager, a coaching staff, 24 teammates and an entire fan base with his efficiency, effectiveness and reliability, which is why games such as Saturday night's, when the right-hander could have used a mulligan, seem so odd, so out of place. Haren was rocked for six earned runs and seven hits in four innings of the Angels' 6-1 interleague loss to the New York Mets at Citi Field, by far his worst start of the season. Mets right-hander Mike Pelfrey (4-5) threw his third career complete game, a 123-pitch effort in which he gave up one run, five hits, struck out five and walked none.

First, Carl Everett and umpire Ron Kulpa argued about whether the Boston Red Sox star's foot was crossing the inside line of the batter's box. Then, Everett crossed a different kind of line. Everett bumped and head-butted Kulpa after being ejected in the second inning Saturday as the Red Sox beat the New York Mets, 6-4, capping a testy three-game series. "He freaked out, or lost his cool, whatever you want to call it," the Mets' Mike Piazza said.

Manny Ramirez, you're not in San Diego anymore. Or are you? The Dodgers' left fielder sparked some boos Tuesday night during an abbreviated appearance, but he mostly generated indifference from a Citi Field crowd that displayed something resembling SoCal cool. The heckling was especially mild among those seated behind Ramirez in left field during the 4 1/2 innings he played before being ejected for scattering his bat, helmet and arm guard on the field after a called third strike.

Pine tar was liberally smudged on the heel of Jay Howell's glove, and after its detection and Howell's ejection in the eighth inning Saturday, confusion and disbelief were pasted on the faces of the Dodger players. Here were the Dodgers, holding a 4-3 lead over the New York Mets in Game 3 of the National League championship series, with their top reliever summoned to nail down a victory that would have given them the lead in the series.

Tim Belcher, made to feel like a not-ready-for-prime-time starting pitcher, wanted to be relieved of, not by, the bullpen. He was tired of watching from the dugout as his games were turned over to Dodger relief pitchers in the late innings. He was angry. He was confused. But he was also a rookie. So what could he do? Well, said Rick Dempsey, Belcher's buddy and a veteran of 20 major league seasons, your choices are two--brood, or do something about it. Belcher chose to do something.

Basking in the warmth and security of a pennant Wednesday night, the newly crowned National League champion Dodgers finally could say what they had been suppressing throughout the National League championship series--that the New York Mets are, by far, the better team. Yet, the Dodgers did not consider the Mets unbeatable. They did not think that they had no chance, that they would just politely defer to the Mets' regular-season dominance, as most everyone on both coasts had assumed.

They rarely do things easily, these over-achieving Dodgers. The National League pennant still is within reach, but it will take a seventh game against the New York Mets, who aren't known to go quietly. That much was obvious Tuesday night, as the Mets' 5-1 victory over the Dodgers in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series was a startling reality check for a Dodger team seemingly still savoring two emotional triumphs on the other coast.

That long stretch of freeway connecting Pacific Palisades to Tijuana presents diverse sights and landscapes for a driver's viewing pleasure during a long trip. But Dodger pitcher Tim Leary, who made this commute at least once a week last winter in an old pickup truck, was not in it simply for the aesthetic experience. With a pregnant wife to support, college classes for which to study and a foundering baseball career to revive, Leary merely drove.

Adversity, it seems, becomes the Dodgers. You can take away their best relief pitcher, inform them of all the things going against them and read them derisive comments from opponents, and all it does is fuel their resolve.

Bud Selig stepped to a podium at Angel Stadium a few weeks ago, calling the Angels "a model for all our other franchises." Jerry Manuel, the new manager of the New York Mets, stepped to a podium at Angel Stadium on Tuesday. He did not call his team a model for anything, except failure. In describing the Mets' collapse last fall, he used two delightfully blunt words: "catastrophic demise." Omar Minaya, the general manager of the Mets, preceded Manuel to the podium.

The Dodgers visit New York this weekend, but ESPN's Joe Morgan doesn't expect the Mets to roll out the red carpet for Joe Torre's return to the city where he won four World Series championships. Morgan will be in the broadcast booth with announcer Jon Miller for ESPN's 5 p.m. "Sunday Night Baseball" telecast of the final game of a four-game series between the Mets and the Dodgers.

The New York Mets got Jeff Conine from the Cincinnati Reds for two minor leaguers Monday, adding a 41-year-old player who has two World Series rings and knows how to contribute off the bench. Conine can play first base or outfield and is a solid pinch-hitter; he led the Reds with nine hits in that role. Conine is batting .265 overall with six home runs and 32 runs batted in.

Given a few more innings to correct the work of seven months, and then to justify what they thought of themselves, the St. Louis Cardinals gave Game 7 of the National League Championship Series to Jeff Suppan. It had worked before, circumstance and necessity held in his right arm, a place in the World Series his to deliver, or not. Suppan does not think that large, not even standing later amid sprays of celebration, teammates hopping in circles, the New York Mets behind them all.

David Eckstein stood in a small cove between the visitors' clubhouse and visitors' dugout at Shea Stadium on Wednesday afternoon, a space wide enough to swing a bat and that's about all. He pulled batting gloves over his hands, the right one with a nearly imperceptible wince. He'd bruised those fingers the night before, when a Guillermo Mota fastball rode in on his top hand on a squeeze attempt. He gripped a bat that had been propped on his thigh, drew it back and swung, easy at first.

The St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets have gone to Game 7, the National League Championship Series strung as far as it can go and as unpredictable as it can be, the Detroit Tigers still out there. Waiting. When Mets closer Billy Wagner composed himself and got the final out -- David Eckstein batting as the potential tying run, blue-and-orange-draped fans wrung to their last nerve ending -- the Mets were 4-2 winners Wednesday night at Shea Stadium.

Motivation can come from unusual sources, but Wednesday night the Dodgers needed to look no farther than their clubhouse walls, which were decorated with the published prose of New York Mets pitcher and budding sportswriter David Cone.

He always felt like the tough one, the lucky one. Once, when he was 13, New York Mets pitcher Bob Ojeda was turning his minibike around in the middle of a wilderness bridge that spanned a dry creekbed in Northern California. He had been doing it the same way for months--speeding to the end of the bridge, spinning around, and speeding back home. Only this time, when he was halfway through his turn, the bike's throttle stuck. The bike flew over the edge, and down went Ojeda and the bike.

Albert Pujols had his corroboration, Jeff Weaver had himself another sturdy start, Tony La Russa enlightened the playoff audience again and the St. Louis Cardinals are one victory -- in New York -- away from their second World Series appearance in three years. The 83-win Cardinals, the pitching-thin Cardinals, the overmatched Cardinals lead the National League Championship Series, three games to two, after their taut, 4-2 win over the New York Mets on Tuesday night at Busch Stadium.

New York Mets third base coach Manny Acta, at 37, has managed in the minor leagues, in the Dominican Republic and in the World Baseball Classic. He has interviewed with the Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks (twice) when jobs opened there. And, now, with vacancies in Texas, San Francisco, Washington, Oakland and -- since closed -- Chicago and Florida, Acta can hardly catch a break.