MET NOTES
SAN DIEGO – Major League Baseball asked the Mets to consider playing Monday in San Francisco. To a man, Mets players voted down the idea.
As if a San Diego to Los Angeles to Atlanta road trip wasn’t grueling enough, someone in the commissioner’s office asked the club to make up last Thursday’s game – called off because of the blackout – on the only off day of a 10-day road trip.
The Mets would have been the home team at Pac-Bell Park and, according to assistant player representative Vance Wilson, would have received the gate receipts from the game. Naturally, that wasn’t persuasive, and player reps did a straw poll among teammates that quickly nixed the idea. Players have a right to vote against such schedule changes if they would play a certain number of days in a row.
“Off days are important,” said Wilson, who calculated the Mets would have had to work 30 straight days without one if they had gone along with the idea.
Another Met was even more succinct. “That would be [messed] up,” he said.
In the event the Giants need to play the game, the Mets will travel to San Francisco on the Monday following the regular season. A Bruce Springsteen concert is scheduled for Shea that evening.
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Mets recalled Jeff Duncan from Triple-A Norfolk yesterday in order to fill Cliff Floyd‘s vacancy. Duncan hit .267 with one double, two homers and four RBIs in four games with Norfolk.
With Floyd on the way to season-ending Achilles surgery on Aug. 29 in Baltimore, it’s likely Duncan will play center field everyday against righties, and Timo Perez will move to left. That was the alignment last night.
“I’d like to give him as much playing time as possible,” Art Howe said. “At the same time, we certainly want to win as many games as possible.
“Hopefully he’s doing well and we can accomplish both goals.”
Duncan hit .263 in 30 games with the Mets in his first two stints. He was only optioned six days before his recall, and normally players must wait 10 days. But since a player, Floyd, went on the DL, that rule is waived.
Tony Clark, who has exclusively played first base in his career, continued working with outfield coach Gary Pettis in an effort to acclimate himself to the outfield. With 16 homers, Clark has a power bat that the Mets will desperately need now that Floyd is making preparations for 2004.