Home

The long-awaited statue of pitcher Tom Seaver was unveiled by the New York Mets in a 40-minute ceremony at Citi Field.

With thousands of fans gathered around, cell phones held high and craning their necks to see, the late Hall of Famer’s wife and two daughters were front and center for the festivities.

Following an introduction from longtime Mets radio announcer Howie Rose and speeches by owner Steve Cohen and former slugger Mike Piazza, the blue curtain was pulled away to reveal a striking monument that stands 10 feet tall and 13 1/2 feet long. It depicts Seaver in the middle of his classic drop-and-drive delivery, baseball in his right hand.

“Hello, Tom,” said his emotional widow Nancy, choking back tears. “It’s so nice to have you here where you belong.”

The sculpture is by William Behrends, who also designed and created statues of Willie Mays in San Francisco and Tony Gwynn in San Diego.

The Mets, with a 9-5 victory over the Nationals, extended their NL East lead on the Braves to 3 ½ games. The Mets, who won five of six games on the road trip, have picked up a game on the Braves since the finale of their series in Atlanta. The Mets’ lead over the Braves on May 30 was 10 games.

“When you look at the schedule and everything, you hope you’re in it,” Braves manager Brian Snitker told Atlanta reporters. “Shoot, after you play 100-and-whatever games, this is where you want to be. You want to be in this position, where these games are big.”

The next five games won’t decide anything, but the Mets still have two trips to Atlanta remaining (including one within the final week of the season) that combined with these five could carry significant weight in determining who wins the division and who is reduced to playing in the wild-card round. The two division winners in each league with the best records will receive a bye in that first round.

The Mets received a loud hit from Daniel Vogelbach and strong pitching performance from Chris Bassitt in handling the gutted Nationals in their second game since they traded Juan Soto and Josh Bell to San Diego.

Vogelbach’s first homer in a Mets uniform — a grand slam in the fifth — broke the game open, burying the Nationals in a 6-0 hole. The lefty-hitting Vogelbach entered the day with a .483 on-base percentage in eight games since arriving in a trade with Pittsburgh for reliever Colin Holderman.

The day started with standouts from the past gathered in Monument Park, but as usual, the real star on Saturday afternoon was Aaron Judge, who powered the Yankees to their third straight win over the horrid Royals, 8-2, in The Bronx.

It was just another day for the slugger, who continued his record-setting pace with his MLB-leading 42nd homer of the season — and 200th of his career.

Only Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard reached the 200-homer milestone faster, getting there in 658 games, compared to Judge’s 671.

Asked the importance of the milestone, Judge said, “just so I can get past it. I feel like big numbers are tough to get past.”

The homer Saturday, Judge’s ninth in nine games, was a two-run laser to right off right-hander Jonathan Heasley, who, like the rest of the Royals, was overmatched.

It also put him on pace for 67 homers, which would break the franchise and American League mark of 61, set by Roger Maris in 1961.

Carlos Carrasco isn’t going to win any contests blowing away hitters, but the right-hander’s offspeed pitches and command — and most importantly, his health — have converged this season to give the Mets an invaluable rotation piece.

On Saturday he gave his team 7 shutout innings in a 4-0 victory over the Marlins. Carrasco extended his scoreless streak over his past three starts to 18 innings.

The win was No. 100 in Carrasco’s career, making the 35-year-old the eighth Venezuelan-born pitcher to reach the milestone. Carrasco last surrendered a run on July 9 against the Marlins at Citi Field.

“I have been doing this a long time and getting 100 wins means a lot,” said Carrasco, who is 100-82 over 13 major league seasons. “Even more of it, getting it with a special group like this, going out there every day to play hard for us. I couldn’t do it without them.”

Jeff McNeil homered in the third, and the team gave Carrasco breathing room in the eighth when Francisco Lindor and J.D. Davis each blasted a solo homer to give the Mets a 4-0 lead.

The Mets won their fifth straight and improved to 63-37, their most victories at the 100-game mark since 1986.

LeBron James is playing at a very high level, so the idea of him retiring in the near future is something most fans have not thought about. The four-time MVP hasn’t given it much thought, either.

LeBron just turned 37. After he recorded a triple-double with 32 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in a win over the Houston Rockets, he was asked if he has any idea how much longer he might play. He acknowledged that he is “on the other side of the hill” in his career, but James said he hasn’t thought much about retirement because he’s playing at such a high level.

“I’m still playing at such a high level, I haven’t given it too much thought,” James said. “But I’m in Year 19 and I’m not gonna do another 19. So I’m definitely not halfway in my career. I’m on the other side of the hill. So, we’ll see where the game takes me.”

“We’ll see where my body takes me and my mind. As long as my mind stays fresh and my body stays with that, I can play the game. But, in the end, the game will tell you. Your body will tell you. Your mind will tell you.”

The true test may come in October, but for now, the Mets are kings of New York.

Starling Marte hit a walk-off single against Wandy Peralta in the ninth inning Wednesday, leading the Mets to a 3-2 victory and a two-game series sweep of the Yankees at Citi Field. The series marked the first time in history the Mets and Yankees both entered a regular-season Subway Series in sole possession of first place.

The winning rally began when Eduardo Escobar hit a leadoff double and moved to third on Tomás Nido’s sacrifice bunt. Following a Brandon Nimmo infield hit, Marte lined a single into left field to walk it off.

Max Scherzer gave the Mets seven scoreless innings on his 38th birthday, twice striking out Aaron Judge with two men on base (and joining Oakland’s Frankie Montas as the only pitchers to whiff Judge three times in a game this season). But after Scherzer departed, the Mets — with a short bullpen — turned to starting pitcher David Peterson, who allowed a game-tying homer to Gleyber Torres on his fifth pitch.

Seth Lugo entered from there and retired five of the six batters he faced, including Judge, who finished 0-for-5.

Ric Flair is a bachelor again.

The Nature Boy that he and his wife, Wendy Barlow are splitting up.

“After taking some time apart, Wendy and I have decided to go our separate ways,” Flair said. “ But I will love and cherish all of our memories together forever.”

Barlow and Flair, who married in 2018, originally met in 1993 when both were working in WCW. For a short time, she was his valet.

Flair, 72, has been married five times.

This past August, he sought his release from WWE and it was granted. The split seemed amicable, but then he accused the company of trying to erase his legacy.

Even though this Mets team is undeniably different from its recent predecessors, with more realistic postseason aspirations, the fog of past seasons can be difficult to disperse. So when the Yankees strutted into Citi Field on Tuesday and immediately hammered consecutive homers over the fence, the Bronx portion of a sold-out crowd made its confidence known.

It was loud and it was antagonistic, until the Mets did something they’ve done so infrequently over the decades-long run of this rivalry: They punched back.

Four of the first six Mets batters clubbed extra-base hits in the bottom of the first inning, including a solo homer from Starling Marte and a go-ahead two-run shot by Eduardo Escobar. The resulting lead held through the middle innings and onto the end game, when Edwin Díaz nailed down the final four outs of a 6-3 win over the Yankees.

“I’ve never played in a Major League playoff game before,” first baseman Pete Alonso said, “but if I had to guess, that’s what it would be like.”

After C.J. Mosely made the claim that it’s “playoffs or bust” for the Jets earlier in the offseason, wide receiver Braxton Berrios has come out echoing an even stronger sentiment.

It’s easy to understand why there is so much hype within New York’s  locker room. The Jets higher-ups have invested heavily into building a successful young core. The last two years the offense added Zach Wilson, Garrett Wilson, Elijah Moore, and Breece Hall on the offensive side through the draft. 

On the defensive side, they drafted Sauce Gardner and Jermaine Johnson. They have also brought in numerous free-agent acquisitions.

Braxton Berrios, who signed with the Jets for two years at $12 million this offseason, is all in on the youthful revival of the team.

“We have a lot to do,” Berrios said. “We have all the tools to be able to do that, absolutely.” 

The New York Mets bats awoke in an 8-5 victory over the Padres. The bonus for Buck Showalter’s crew was a Braves loss earlier in the day, allowing the Mets to extend their NL East lead to 1 ½ games. 

Alonso blasted a three-run homer as part of a sixth inning in which the Mets scored five times. In the seventh, Alonso just missed another homer — it went for an RBI double that completed his night of reaching base three times. The four RBIs gave Alonso 82 for the season, moving him one ahead of Aaron Judge for the MLB lead. 

“Our team is extremely good and we can win in a bunch of different ways. Tonight it was a great offensive and pitching job,” Alonso said.

Mets pitcher Carlos Carrasco delivered five shutout innings, but it wasn’t easy for him: he allowed eight base runners and threw 92 pitches. But the right-hander got the Padres to hit into double plays in the third and fourth innings after escaping a bases-loaded jam in the first. 

The choppy (but effective) outing gave Carrasco an 11-inning scoreless streak over his last two starts. Over his last four starts, Carrasco has pitched to a 1.21 ERA. This extended a team record to 14 straight games in which a Mets starting pitcher allowed two runs or fewer.