Deflection

Some brilliant spin from the Mets camp. Fans still bewildered about the Mets play of late have completely been distracted with the thought of a new $600 million dollar stadium.

"There's no question that the Mets desperately need a new stadium," Selig said. "With all respect to Shea, all one has to do is walk through it to realize that. Having said all that, this is very important. It's a great day for the Mets. It is incredible."

There will not a retractable roof, and I like the idea of not having a retractable roof for a few reasons. For one, there really are not that many rainouts necessitating the much higher price tag. The other teams that do have the retractable roofs have their own reasons for having them, and while they are nice, the Mets really do not need one. Also, it allows the stadium to be more open. If there was a retractable roof, it would not be as open air as one without a roof needing high sides all around to surround the field to accommodate the retractable roof and it's tracks.

Fred Wilpon will be covering the entire cost of the construction with the city kicking in for the infrastructure just like in the Yankee deal. Now the Mets will finally have a home when they hopefully start a sting of winnings seasons and perhaps even a mini-dynasty. They have the resources to be competitive and burgeoning starting pitching in the minors to lead the charge. This is a great day for the Mets and it should make all the people who are opposed to use public funding for the stadium happy as well. Sure the city will kick in a lot of money towards infrastructure, but this deal is more than fair.

After a weekend of bad baseball in which the Mets could have easily been swept, this is something to brighten up the week a bit.

* * *

The walking wounded.

Cameron and the Mets have other physical maladies. On Saturday night, Cameron told The Post that his right knee felt "almost like a bowling ball" and Doug Mientkiewicz admitted after Saturday's game that "Cammie's hanging on by a thread."

Minor update:

• Hagerstown beat Lexington 10-9. Ambiorix Concepcion continues his awakening with a 2 for 5 performance with two runs scored, a triple, a homerun, and two RBIs. Matt Durkin went 4.1 innings with one hit allowed, two earned runs, two walks, one homerun, and five RBIs.
  
• Jupiter beat St. Lucie 6-5. Lastings Milledge went 3 for 5 with three runs scored and two doubles. Caleb Stewart went 3 for 3 with two runs scored, one double, one homerun, and two RBIs. Also, I was away on Saturday and Sunday and for those of you who missed it, Phil Humber had his best pro game going seven innings, giving up four hits, no earned runs, no walks, and struck out five. Shawn Bowman also continued to hit going 2 for 4 with two homers and three RBIs.
  
• Binghamton beat New Hampshire and Chase Lambin went 3 for 3 with one run scored, one double, and one homerun.