Analysis: Minaya's rule a reign of error  —  Manager Willie Randolph (l.) has felt the heat this season, but GM Omar Minaya added injury-prone players ...  You are watching the painfully slow demise of The New Mets, the vision Omar Minaya articulated four years ago but built as a house of cards.

Rocket's game got boost from Viagra  —  Roger Clemens, whose claims he never took steroids are under federal investigation, has apparently discovered the benefits of another performance-enhancing drug sweeping the sports world - Viagra.  —  Clemens stashed the clearly marked …

600 Words for Junior  —  There was a mark in a parking lot of a Kroger near where I lived.  The mark looked like an “X.”  That, a friend told me, is the spot where Ken Griffey Jr.'s longest high school home run landed.  —  I looked around the parking lot.  There wasn't a baseball field anywhere.

Interview - Tim Marchman - New York Sun  —  Whether it's music or television, novels or art, newspapers or alternative media, you have your favorites.  It's a subjective matter, of course; one man's trash is another man's treasure.  Somewhere, there's still a fan of Ugly Kid Joe and Urkel.

Leyland: Pudge, Inge to split catching job  —  Manager Jim Leyland didn't say anything about Pudge Rodriguez for the long term.  He didn't say he has lost his status as the Tigers' primary catcher.  —  But addressing at least the short term, Leyland said Monday that beginning now …

Time running out on Cleveland Indians  —  Detroit — If manager Eric Wedge and his 25 players haven't synchronized their watches, they should.  The time to determine what kind of team they are is upon them.  —  They have a little more than a month to convince General Manager Mark Shapiro …

Sun-Times colleagues go after Jay Mariotti  —  Columnist Jay Mariotti seems to pride himself on making enemies.  He has been called a “pissant” by Jerry Reinsdorf, a “hiney bird” by Hawk Harrelson and much worse by Ozzie Guillen.  —  A recent poll by the irreverent Deadspin.com Web site tabulated …

BAD ‘FIRST’ IMPRESSION  —  Ed Montague is officially removed from the Yankees' Christmas card list.  —  The veteran umpire yesterday was in the middle of a second eighth-inning controversy in four days at the Stadium, calling out Melky Cabrera at first base on a sacrifice bunt, despite Cabrera beating the throw.

Luck May Explain the Angels' Success  —  The Los Angeles Angels' best player, Vladimir Guerrero, has struggled all season.  John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar, both Cy Young-caliber pitchers last year, started the season on the disabled list and have already missed more than three months on the DL combined.

Focus, patience keys to comeback  —  Clint Hurdle sets the tone: Big improvements will come by winning one series at a time.  —  The Denver Post  —  Major-leaguers hate big-picture questions.  —  Ask one and you're likely to get an analogy like this, courtesy of Rockies manager Clint Hurdle: “It's that old saying.

A Venerable Sports Paper Plays Catch-Up  —  WHEN Sporting News first hit the presses in 1886, there was no World Series, no National Football League, and no Cracker Jack, much less the Internet, mobile score updates or jeering sports bloggers.  In its heyday — the 1950s and '60s …

America's Real Best Ballpark Food  —  We're talkin' ballpark food for this week's Who Cooked It Better, inspired by the New York Times' Travel Section.  Food writer Peter Meehan had the enviable assignment of traveling to all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums and sampling their many edible offerings.

How fatigue affects a pitcher's fastball  —  How pitchers tire is one of the great unknowns left in baseball.  Ideally, you could measure fatigue by ERA inning by inning, but the problem is not only does fatigue factor in, but so do adjustments by hitters who have now seen the pitcher multiple times.