You’ll have to excuse the lack of posts this weekend. Usually I like to at least get one thing written, but I’m a bit busy with some other projects — most notably my ongoing attempt to smoke a 19-pound turkey — so here are some links to check out:

Anthony McCarron at the Daily News catches up with Mike Hessman, recent Met signee and the active Minor League home run leader. Good read.

Jane Jarvis, the Mets’ longtime organist, passed away this week. Barry Wittenstein wrote an awesome feature about her life a couple years ago.

The Mets signed Frank Catalanotto to a Minor League deal. Cool. His skills are clearly on the wane, but he’s always gotten on base at a reasonable clip, and he’s a nice hedge for Chris Carter as a lefty-hitting corner infielder/outfielder to stash in Triple-A.

Apparently cheerleaders also make the Pro Bowl.

It’s Mets for Me provides a pretty good counter to my John Smoltz argument. I’m really trying not to bring politics here, or to allow politics to get in the way of what I think would be a good baseball move, but this makes me want no part of Smoltz in New York.

Toby Wachter investigates the nature of the Mets’ brand.

“The Russians told us to soak our feet in buckets of vodka.”

I really, really hope Nick Markakis carries this beard into the season. That would make for such a hilarious and radical identity shift, from “pretty good young player on the Orioles” to “triumphant beard hero who puts Casey Blake to shame.”

I can’t find any evidence of it online, but I’m pretty sure when Cherokee Parks got tons and tons of tattoos, Timmy Hardaway said something along the lines of, “I guess he didn’t to just want be known as ‘bad’ anymore.”

Apparently the Mets are bringing back Fernando Tatis. I’m for it.

Toby Hyde investigates the surface-level similarities between Ike Davis and Ryan Braun. If Ike Davis hits anything like Ryan Braun has, the Mets are in luck.

The New York Times examines Taco Bell’s Drive-Thru Diet. I support the hilarity of the concept, but since I’m no fan of the items on the Fresco Menu, I can’t advocate it as a weight-loss plan. Call me when you figure out how I can lose weight via the Crunchwrap Supreme.

The Nets actually won a game. Look at how happy they are.

Finally, the Daily News ran this picture with a story about Toyota’s recent recall, and gave absolutely no explanation as to why this woman has a stuffed snowman buckled into the passenger seat of her car. I find that angle WAY more interesting than the safety recall, and this is from a guy who was strongly considering leasing a Corolla:

Jon Garland signed a one-year, $5.3 million deal with the Padres. The Mets have Fernando Nieve penciled in for the back of the rotation.

Sam Page gives Nieve a thorough examination at Amazin’ Avenue.

NASA hopes to return astronauts to the moon by 2020. 2020? We’ve already been to the moon. In 1969. Boring. Call me when Mars is in play.

I don’t throw the term “bureaucracy-choked morass” around liberally, but that’s certainly what this seems to describe.

The Mets opened minicamp yesterday, which means actual baseball stuff is happening. Eddie Kunz is notably trimmed-down and may just be in the best shape of his life (depending on his odds of making the team, I suppose), and Oliver Perez has the best beard of his life.

Marty Noble is baffled by the Gary Matthews Jr. deal.

Good lord, the Super Bowl is less than two weeks away and this is starting again. At this point, I hope Brett Favre retires and unretires one more time, so he will officially become the boy who cried retirement and no one ever takes anything he says seriously ever again.

This is an awesome story. Actually, just about everything involving Satchel Paige is awesome. Someone should make a Satchel Paige biopic and cast Dave Chappelle in the lead.

The Jets lost last night, as you probably know. Just too much Peyton Manning, and not nearly enough non-Darrelle Revis secondary. Brian Bassett has a nice post-mortem.

The upside? Brett Favre lost, too.

James Kannengieser votes no on Ryan Garko. I was weighing the merits of Garko against Fernando Tatis when news of the Gary Matthews Jr. megadeal broke and sent my miserable little life into flux, but basically Garko is better at hitting lefties and looking like Gaston, and Tatis is better at everything else. So if the Mets are exclusively looking for a right-handed platoon bat for Murphy, Garko fits. If they value defensive versatility — as they should — Tatis fits better.

Howie Rose appreciates your punk rock demos. Put me down for not seeing that one coming.

The Knicks lost by 50 points last night. Yikes.

The Jets show epic swagger. Maybe too much for my tastes. Seriously?

Cerrone says the Mets are up to something.

Patrick Sullivan absolutely destroys Murray Chass after Chass called him out on his blog. And if you’re in the mood, I recommend Duke Casanova’s similar ripjob of Chass’ work from back in March.

This does not bode well.

Gems all over the place in this long, excellent feature on Shonn Greene. First off, his siblings names are Shonreke, Shonray, Shontray, Shonnece and Shonte. Second, he attended the Milford Academy, where children should be neither seen nor heard.

I don’t know what it means that this offseason has brought Amazin’ Avenue into the realms of fan fiction, but I think it will end up being a good thing.

Joel Pineiro signed with the Angels, prompting mixed reactions from Mets fans. I wrote earlier this offseason that Pineiro was an intriguing target, and for two years and $16 million, probably would have been a good pickup. Now, we hope for Ben Sheets and cross our fingers that no one sells the farm for one year (and one option year) of Bronson Arroyo.

A little self-promotion because Twitter is atwitter with a discussion of clutchness this morning. Here’s something I wrote (and liked) about the subject in April.

As I suspected, the Mets did reportedly offer Bengie Molina more than $4.5 million. Ken Davidoff nails it, though: The disconnect between the team’s disappointment and the fanbase’s celebration over the Molina non-signing falls somewhere between pathetic and hilarious.

Vinny Testaverde thinks the Jets look like a Super Bowl team. I think Vinny Testaverde looks like one of my cousins.

Tommy Dee talks to Will Leitch about Spike Lee and the 90s Knicks. I haven’t seen the Reggie Miller doc yet, but I want to. I think about this a lot: Has any single player ever dominated an opposing franchise the way Reggie Miller did the Knicks?

Joe Janish runs down the catching options with Molina off the market. I’ll take Janish.

Sam Page lobbies for Eric Byrnes. I disagree. Byrnes is a nice defender, but my issue is mostly an irrational one: I find his style of play infuriating. It always looks like slows up a little bit on fly balls so he can dive when he doesn’t have to, just to put on a show. It’s obnoxious, and I don’t like it. I like a good showman, but not when it’s over-the-top like that.

Wouldn’t it be awesome to root for the Mariners? It’s so hard to believe that just a couple years ago they looked like one of baseball’s most hapless franchises.

To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, this has international incident written all over it.

Howard Megdal weighs in on Georgetown’s lack of depth.