MET NOTES
JUPITER – For the first time this spring, Mike Cameron will do it for real.
Cameron, who’s spent most of camp recovering from offseason surgery on his left wrist, will play his first major-league spring game of the year today when the Mets face the Tigers.
Is he excited?
“A little bit,” Cameron said. “I’ve come a long way, a long way in a short time. It’s highly anticipated.”
Cameron is way ahead of schedule in his comeback and remains optimistic of being ready for Opening Day. Yesterday he got eight more at-bats in a minor-league intrasquad game, his one hit coming on a line-drive double down the left-field line. Cameron now has played three intrasquad or minor-league games, going 5-for-18 with a walk.
“He is so much ahead of a guy going through rehab,” manager Willie Randolph said. “He’s looking good.”
What didn’t go as well yesterday was Cameron’s play in right – his new position now that Carlos Beltran has bumped him out of center.
Cameron misplayed two balls, including one where he ran back, charged back in and had the ball drop in front of him.
“I just missed the ball,” he said. “It was a bad play.”
Cameron, whose last game in right came in 2000 (he played one game there that season), knows he will have to deal with the lights and a different angle in right.
Although he said he feels like he could play right field if the season were starting today, Cameron also said he wants to talk to the Cardinals’ Larry Walker, who’s won seven Gold Gloves in right.
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Mets had their 10-game unbeaten streak snapped last night, dropping a 3-2 decision to the Cardinals. Dae-Sung Koo took the loss, allowing the game-winning run in the eighth.
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Kazuo Matsui (upper back stiffness) said he felt “a lot better than [Tuesday],” but still missed his fourth straight game. Matsui practiced and hopes to play today. . . .
Union head Donald Fehr is scheduled to visit the Mets today for a players meeting. . . . Miguel Cairo and his wife, Nicole, have a new baby girl, Lauren Nicole, who was born Tuesday morning.
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Interesting sight on a back field yesterday morning at the Mets complex, where the entire front office was watching a young left-handed hitter take batting practice. After finishing BP, the kid met Fred Wilpon and Omar Minaya. Onlookers said the kid’s name is Fernando Martinez and that he is a 16-year-old Dominican right fielder. Minaya declined to comment on him.