Honestly, Bob Raissman. Not to sound like an SNY homer, but does anyone expect Keith Hernandez to be less than ridiculously candid, ever?

Pat Andriola of the Hardball Times stops by Amazin’ Avenue to drop some Perpetual Pedro love. Feliciano’s long been one of my favorite Mets, and he’s pretty hilarious to cover. One time, after he got out the Phillies’ big lefties in order on six pitches or something, I asked him about it, and he was so remarkably matter-of-fact. I was trying to wean a decent quote out of him, and he was just all, “yeah, I get lefties out, that’s my job.”

I think it’s time we stopped calling futuristic things “space age.” We’ve been going to space for like 50 years, and now we can’t even get to the Moon, apparently. I don’t know what the next frontier is, but we clearly botched the whole space thing. Maybe it should be “deep-sea age.” I bet there’s some awesome stuff going on in the deep-sea that we have no idea about yet.

Frank Thomas retired. I saw him walking around the Hall of Fame in 1992 when I was there for Tom Seaver’s induction ceremony and the White Sox were playing the Mets in the Hall of Fame game. I didn’t consider then that he’d be enshrined himself one day.

John Harper got to catch Johan Santana yesterday. Color me jealous.

The Mets have not contacted Gary Sheffield this winter. It makes sense, since they don’t need him, but maybe it’d be nice if they just called to check in and say hello, you know? Just to see how he’s doing, maybe try to meet up for coffee or something.

Here are some pictures of carnivorous plants.

Stupid UConn couldn’t pull out a win over stupid Syracuse at the stupid Carrier Dome last night, thanks mostly to the stupid Big East refs.

MLB is apparently considering fingerprinting Dominican kids to stop age fraud. I get it, and I recognize the league is trying to protect itself, but this all sounds way, way too Big Brotherish for me.

Apparently Brian Cashman sat down with Derek Jeter after the 2007 season and told him his defense was unacceptable. Spoiler alert: It was. How Jeter has managed to improve at his age is beyond me, but the stats — even if they’re not quite a big enough sample — show he has, and kudos to Cashman for handling it so delicately.

Who let Method Man design the Olympic torch?’

Buy a hockey jersey, help Haiti.

Toby Hyde continues his Top 41 countdown of Mets prospects with No. 40, lefty Roy Merritt. Merritt’s warmup music is the following:

Apparently the Mets are chopping down the centerfield wall at Citi Field from 16 feet to 8 feet, but I think that’s an overstatement. I’m pretty sure only the little cutaway in front of the apple is 16 feet, and the rest of the center-field wall was 10′ 10″. Still, it will at least make the whole thing slightly more uniform, which is nice for aesthetic purposes.

The Mets brought Mookie Wilson and Bob Melvin into the fold yesterday.

Here is more than you probably ever thought you’d read about the dark Filipino karaoke underworld. Fascinating.

Johnny Damon is now totally ingratiating himself to just about anyone who’ll give him the time of day.

I’d guess anytime between now and Mardi Gras next week would be a good time to visit New Orleans. I got a great tip for Big Easy traveling once: Pace yourself. Stay above the buzz line, but never get all-out drunk. That way you avoid the crashes, and maximize your time seeing all the awesome things there are to see.

Barry Bonds can’t play baseball, probably won’t make the Hall of Fame on his first ballot, and can’t even get chicken and waffles in peace.

Joel Sherman asks some questions about the Mets’ offseason.

“For a dinosaur scientist, this is like the birth of color TV.”

This plan for proposed experiments at a National Baseball Laboratory is cool, and I have an addition: a team full of cloned Mark McGwires.

Here’s a joint review I wrote with Zoe Rice of the Lost season premiere at the Perpetual Post. Some of the language is NSFW.

I know a lot of smart Knicks fans who will defend Donnie Walsh for the Jordan Hill pick, but man, it sure seems like they missed a good one in Brandon Jennings, especially considering his oft-awesome hair.

This is all the excuse I need to post this:

I’m certainly not here to hate on breaded and fried pork, but I don’t know how anyone could even begin to compare the cuisine of Indianapolis with the cuisine of New Orleans. Non-starter.

WAR, huh? What is it good for? Predicting the Mets to suck.

Hey look, it’s Anthony Tao. Last time I saw this guy, I was trying to hire him to write for SNY.tv, and he was all, “I’d love to, but I’m moving to China.” Guess he did. Awesome story on Stephon Marbury, some language NSFW.

Does the coin toss matter?

You ever have it where you don’t really give someone or something much thought for several years, and then it randomly comes up multiple times in the course of a week for a variety of reasons? I’m having that with John Starks right now.

Rich Aurilia wants to play in New York. That’s gotta be burning Brian Sabean up.

How this article can fail to mention Prince is beyond me. I know it’s not “list of most awesome Super Bowl halftime shows, in order,” but all discussions of Super Bowl halftime shows should start and end with Prince. Prince rules.

Darryl Strawberry says the Mets need more pitching, the loss of Carlos Beltran will sting, and that he would have used steroids if they were more available when he played. Darryl Strawberry is an honest man.

Criticism of Stephon Marbury’s debut in China: He was too unselfish.

“If bees did that, I’d fall off my chair.”

Jose Reyes is running healthy, to the sweet sounds of cheesy stock-music metal. He’s also striking a tractor tire with a sledgehammer, which is massively important.

The snowman lady from the Daily News last week is back, but for some reason the online story doesn’t include the same picture as the print edition. Luckily, my phone has a camera. This one gives an explanation, though: It’s “her lucky snowman.” Note that this is not even the same car — she’s taken her snowman to the new car she got as a result of the original Daily News piece. Actually, now I kind of feel bad making fun of her. Well, whatever. Here it is:

Joel Sherman writes about phonetic phenom Jack Zduriencik, the one that got away in the Mets’ front office.

After reading just about the saddest scene imaginable in Joe Posnanski’s the Soul of Baseball, it’s really good to hear about Willie Mays smiling.

Apparently Pitt is heading to the Big 10. Should make the college hoops season a lot less difficult.

Johnny Damon sounds a little bit desperate.

Melvin Mora is joining the Rockies.