On the Beat  —  Ruminations and Meditations  —  Rickey Henderson holds two of the greatest records in baseball history, and on Monday he became a first-ballot Hall of Famer.  Henderson and Jim Rice were elected by the 10-year members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, and they'll be inducted on July 26 in Cooperstown.

Mets Lose Lowe to Braves, but Have Backup Plan  —  The news that Derek Lowe decided to sign with Atlanta hardly fazed or surprise the Mets.  They had been preparing for this for nearly a week, after the Braves felt compelled to act boldly when John Smoltz left for the Red Sox, and they have a backup plan.

Cora close to deal with Mets  —  Former Red Sox infielder Alex Cora is close to finalizing a one-year, $2 million deal with the New York Mets.  The 33-year-old Cora played with Boston from July 7, 2005 — when he was traded from Cleveland for infielder Ramon Vazquez — through last season.

Prior, Burke agree with Padres  —  The San Diego Padres have agreed to terms with pitcher Mark Prior and second baseman Chris Burke on minor league deals and have invited each to spring training.  —  If Prior pitches in the major leagues, he'll earn $1 million, and Burke …

Yankees Try New Strategy to Market Premium Seats  —  The Yankees have hired a division of a prominent Manhattan residential real estate brokerage, Prudential Douglas Elliman, to help sell some of their prime real estate: unsold premium seats and luxury boxes at the new Yankee Stadium.

Scully pulls up his own chair  —  Dodgers announcer watches a replay of his broadcast of Larsen's World Series perfect game and offers a review.  —  Vin Scully recently watched the MLB Network replay of the perfect game pitched by Don Larsen for the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1956 World Series.

Tigers ink sidearmer Ni to Minors deal  —  Taiwanese reliever to pitch in World Baseball Classic, big league camp  —  For the second straight year, the Tigers have plucked a prospect out of Taiwan.  —  The Tigers announced Tuesday that they have signed left-handed reliever Fu-Te Ni …

Orioles to introduce Uehara today  —  Pickup of Japanese import creates swell of media interest  —  The Orioles will unveil their first Japanese import, right-handed pitcher Koji Uehara, at a news conference today at Camden Yards that is expected to be one of the most well attended in team history.

Grand jury may target Miguel Tejada  —  Roger Clemens is not the only All-Star who should be nervous about admitted steroid supplier Kirk Radomski's appearance before a federal grand jury Wednesday.  —  When Radomski appears before the grand jury examining evidence that Clemens used steroids …

Can Jason Varitek Escape His Predicament?  —  Had Jason Varitek (and agent Scott Boras) accepted salary arbitration, and with it a guarantee of more than $10 million for the 2009 season, none of this would have been an issue.  But the Red Sox captain (and his agent) declined the offer …

MLB Network to air Caribbean Series  —  Baseball channel will broadcast live from Mexico in February  —  MLB Network is heading to Mexicali, Mexico, to broadcast the annual Caribbean World Series from Feb. 2-7.  —  The 12-game tournament will mark the first time the fledgling Network will broadcast live games.

O's: Getting to first base and more  —  Orioles beat writer Jeff Zrebiec was nice enough to spoon-feed me a couple of things today, so I'll pass them along to you.  The Orioles remain interested in Ty Wigginton (right) as a possible option at first base, but he apparently is holding …

Michael Young's likely move is to third base, not a new team … Longtime Rangers star Michael Young doesn't want to move to third base.  But at this point that seems to be a more likely option for him than moving to another team.  With five years and $62 million remaining on his contract …

Transcript of John Smoltz press conference  —  Here is the transcript (courtesy the crack Red Sox PR staff) from the John Smoltz/Theo Epstein press conference at Fenway Park:  —  Epstein opening statement:  —  Yesterday we had an announcement about a new Hall of Famer and today …