In his weekly piece on baseball history for The Hardball Times, Richard Barbieri gives a brief rundown of the history of Shea Stadium, which will inevitably be overshadowed by Yankee Stadium as both venues complete their service runs in 2008.
Meanwhile, the top baseball story at ESPN.com this morning links to a [...]

OF Reed Johnson was released Sunday by the Toronto Blue Jays, according to ESPN.com.
Johnson, 31, hit .238 in 79 games last season, limited by injury. He batted .319 in a breakout 2006, and is carrying a .289 average through 38 at-bats this spring.
A right-handed batter, Johnson was competing for Toronto’s starting left field spot.
…a right-handed [...]

…i was able to speak with RHP Kevin Mulvey, one of the four Mets prospects traded last week for Johan Santana, on friday evening after word got out that the Mets and santana had reached a new contract…
Mulvey, the Mets top pick in the 2006 draft, went 11-10 with a 3.32 ERA and 110 strikeouts [...]

According to MLB.com’s Marty Noble, the Mets and RHP Jorge Sosa settled their salary arbitration case Saturday with a $2 million contract.
Sosa, 30, had sought $2.75 million, while the Mets had offered $1.7 million. He was 9-8 with a 4.47 ERA in 112 innings pitched last season.

Jayson Stark of ESPN.com is reporting that the Mets and Johan Santana likely won’t reach a deal before tomorrow morning at the earliest.
Stark describes the chances of the deal falling through as “remote,” but nonetheless possible.
…in other words, you can go to bed if you were planning to stay up for some late-breaking news…

According to Joe Christensen of the Minnesota Star Tribune, the Twins have told the Mets they can have Johan Santana if they add OF Fernando Martinez to their current offer of OF Carlos Gomez and RHPs Deolis Guerra, Kevin Mulvey and Phil Humber.
Christensen writes that while the Yankees and Red Sox [...]

According to The Associated Press, the Mets reacquired OF Angel Pagan from the Cubs on Saturday in exchange for two minor leaguers: OF Corey Coles and RHP Ryan Meyers.
Pagan, 26, has a .255 batting average and nine home runs in 318 career major league at-bats.
He was originally drafted by the Mets in 1999 [...]

According to a team press release, manager Mako Oliveras and pitching coach Ricky Bones have agreed to return to the Double-A Binghamton Mets for the 2008 season.
Luis Natera, who spent last season with Single-A St. Lucie, will replace Nelson Silverio as Binghamton’s hitting coach.
The B-Mets finished last in the Eastern League Northern [...]

Nate Silver of Baseball Prospectus, in this case writing for Sports Illustrated, and Todd Behrendt of Fox Sports both ranked the greatest collapses in baseball history in the wake of the 2007 Mets.
Silver put the 2007 Mets at No. 5 and the 2004 Yankees at No. 7.
Behrent tied the 2007 Mets and the 1964 Phillies [...]

…what makes this situation that much worse is that it’s Philadelphia which is benefiting…
…not Florida, which has been harmless except for 1997 and 2003, not Washington, the loser of the division that, a couple weeks ago, you might have even called lovable, and not Atlanta, which could never go all the way when [...]

At his blog for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday, Braves beat writer David O’Brien looked at the ways the Mets are a championship-caliber team and the Braves aren’t, writing:
“David Wright is making a run at the MVP by putting his team on his back, not quite as ferociously as Chipper Jones did with the Braves [...]