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If Your Birthday is January 2nd...

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  ...you share it with David Cone . He is among that select circle -- alongside Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden -- to have starred for both the Yankees and Mets. His 1999 perfect game is one of many highlights from his 17-year career that also included a pair of 20-win seasons and two National League strikeout titles. Pretty impressive for a Kansas City native whose hometown Royals clearly didn't realize his potential when they traded him to the Mets in 1987 after just 11 major league appearances. These days, "Coney" is a Yankees TV commentator and studio analyst and also works for ESPN.  My images are from the 2014 BAT Dinner in Manhattan and  the 2013 Old Timers Day in the Bronx. Just a passing thought: is David Cone Kansas City's second greatest baseball gift to New York?  (Trailing only Casey Stengel.) Fernando Tatis Jr.   is the rare son of a former big leaguer to outshine his parent.  ( His namesake father made history, when, as a Cardinal, he hit...
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From my Field to Yours...

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 Pete Alonso and DJ LeMahieu team up to wish you a happy, healthy and calm 2026.
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Wayback: Future Mets 2015

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With the year winding down, join me for one more trip back in time.  It's July 20th, 2015 , as the AA Binghamton Mets (they became the Rumble Ponies two years later) visit the New Britain Rock Cats (now the Hartford Yard Goats).  Three of the Mets top prospects took the field that night: a trio that soon made their big league debuts and have gone onto long, productive careers.  For starters, here's starting pitcher Seth Lugo .  Now a key member of the Royals rotation, after mostly relieving in Flushing, he's getting ready for his 11th big league season. Batting third that night for Binghamton, left fielder Michael Conforto .  Just a year after being the Mets 1st round draft pick -- and four nights before making his big league debut -- he's hitting over .310.  Never quite reaching the heights the organization hoped for, Conforto left for the Giants as a 2023 free agent and now owns a World Series ring as a member of the '25 champion Dodgers. (Below:)  T...
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If Your Birthday is December 26th....

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  ...you share it with Chris Chambliss .  The 1970s Yankee first baseman became a franchise icon with his walk-off home run in the 1976 ALCS that gave them their first pennant in a dozen years.   This image is from Old Timers Day in 2010, just days after the passing of George Steinbrenner. Also in the day-after-Christmas birthday circle: Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith .  A statue depicting his acrobatic style, is located just outside Busch Stadium. A 15-time All Star and 13 time Gold Glove winner, Smith was a perfect catalyst on Whitey Herzog's speed, contact and defense-first clubs that won three pennants, including the 1982 World Series. A player with far more speed than power -- reflected by having more than twice as many career stolen bases as home runs -- he crafted a magical Cardinal moment:  a walk-off home run that won Game Five of the 1985 NLDS.  The play was immortalized by Jack Buck's "Go crazy, folks!" call.  A first-ballot Hall of...
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The Mets-odus Continues

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Just days after Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz left as free agents and Brandon Nimmo was traded to the Rangers, another longtime Met has called the movers.  The news broke Monday that Jeff McNeil is heading to the A's (along with cash to pay down his salary) for pitching prospect Yordan Rodriguez .   A versatile performer who's switched between 2nd base and the outfield, McNeil reached his peak in 2022, when he won the National League batting title.   Also joining the exodus from the organization is a lesser known but still valuable member:  Reid Brignac , the former big leaguer whose four year tenure as Binghamton Rumble Ponies manager was capped by winning the 2025 Eastern League championship, is heading to the Rays.  He'll be a coach for Tampa Bay's AAA farm club, the Durham Bulls.  It's a homecoming for Brignac, who played parts of five seasons for the Rays, but a loss for the Mets, many of whose best prospects were mentored by Brignac on their path ...
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If Your Birthday is December 19th...

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...you share it with Ian Kennedy .  A starting putcher who transitioned effectively to tbe bullpen mid-career, this Southern California native first came up with the Yankees  before moving on to the Diamondbacks, Padres, Royals, Phillies, Royals and Rangers.  His best work came in Arizona, where he won 21 for the 2011 NL West champs.  I caught him in action a decade later on the most recent Phils team to miss the playoffs.  Among pitchers born on this date, Kennedy worked in the fourth-most games (497). Aaron Loup   stands second (with 591), trailing only Mike Fetters (whom I never photographed)...  The lefthanded Loup worked exclusively in relief during a 12 season career that stretched from Toronto to Anaheim and included 2021 in New York, where he went 6-0 as a Mets reliever.  
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Wayback: Citi Field's Neighbors

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On the concourse connecting Citi Field's upper deck in right field to the Coca Cola Corner, stop for a moment.  Take note of what's in the distance: to the left, two legacy structures from the 1964 World's Fair in Flushing Meadow Park -- the Unisphere and the New York State Pavilion's observation towers.   Farther to the right is Arthur Ashe Stadium -- the tennis venue that replaced Louis Armstrong Stadium.   Things have changed since I snapped this view in 2010.  The tennis stadium added a retractable roof in 2016 to protect fans after several years of storms disrupted the US Open.  
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