Monday Morning — June 9th, 2003
After today's off day, the Mets hit the road and continue Interleague play with series in Texas against the Rangers and in Anaheim against the Angels.
Roster Notes - On Friday, Mike Stanton and Jay Bell were activated from the disabled list. In order to make room for them on the roster, Marco Scutaro and Pat Strange were sent to Norfolk. Also in Norfolk is Timo Perez, who is on the disabled list and who started a rehab assignment on Saturday.
Health Update - Mo Vaughn held a press conference on Tuesday to announce that he has decided to try to rehabilitate his arthritic left knee without surgery, in hopes that he'll be able to be activated from the disabled list before the end of the season. "If I can avoid surgery, that's what I'm going to do," said Vaughn.
Scott Strickland and Pedro Astacio are planning to see renowned surgeon Dr. Lewis Yocum to evaluate whether either or both of them require season-ending Tommy John surgery. Yocum performed that procedure on John Franco a year ago.
Tom Glavine left Thursday night's game in the second inning with an inflamed left elbow, and may miss his next scheduled start.
Kevin Podrome, the Mets ball boy who was hit in the eye with a foul ball on Friday night, received treatment and was back in the Mets clubhouse following the game.
Met Milestones - The first game of last Thursday's doubleheader was Art Howe's 2,000th game as a manager. In the nightcap, John Franco pitched in his 1,000th game.
In The Sun, But Not For Fun - Mike Piazza has gone to Florida to begin the process of rehabilitating his torn right groin muscle. He will be working out with a physical therapist from the University of Miami who also does work for the Florida Marlins.
In the meantime, Piazza's younger brother, Tommy, was chosen by the Dodgers in last week's amateur draft. Tommy, a catcher and first baseman, was chosen in the 26th round as the 781st overall draft.
Changing His Uniform - Prior to last Thursday's doubleheader, Tony Clark changed his uniform number from 00 to 52. The change is to honor his close friend Damian Easley, who wore 25 before he was recently released by the Devil Rays (Don Baylor wears 25 on the Mets, so Clark flipped the numbers). Another reason was that two and five add up to seven, which pleased Clark's wife.
But the biggest reason was, after speaking to a group of middle school students in Queens on Wednesday, Clark realized that 00 is Mr. Met's number, and Mr. Met is too huge of an icon to have to share!
Roberto's Crystal Ball - Prior to the game on June 1, Roberto Clemente, Jr., presented Roberto Alomar with a Steuben crystal piece to commemorate Alomar surpassing Roberto Clemente's record and becoming the all time leader in runs scored by a Puerto Rican player.
Still Selling Tickets - My son's local Cub Scouts pack is selling tickets at face value ($22 apiece) to the July 21 Mets/Philies game at Veterans Stadium, and the Phillies will issue a rebate to the Scouts based on the number of tickets sold. Further, if the pack sells enough tickets, the boys will get to participate in a flag ceremony on the field! Anyone interested in helping out my son's local Cub Scouts pack by purchasing tickets to a great game should contact me at s.chapman@kcmets.com.
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Unless otherwise stated, these stories have been extracted from reports on www.nydailynews.com, www.nypost.com, www.nytimes.com, www.njo.com, www.newsday.com, www.bergenrecord.com, AP , and www.mets.com reports.
