On Opening Day if someone had offered you a bet that after 41 games the Mets would have a better record than the Yankees, would you have taken it? I think you would. I would have taken it in a heartbeat. But after the Yankees' loss to Cincinnati yesterday in a dreary 5-2 game, and the Mets 6-5 victory over Toronto, the Amazins' are 22-19 to the Yankees' 21-20.

I don't think either record really reflects the relative strength of the two teams. The Yankees have now lost Michael Pineda and three key relievers to freak injuries, and Mark Teixiera is out perhaps indefinitely with a mysterious illness. The Mets are probably playing several games above their heads. At any rate, it's fairly easy to pinpoint the main reason that the Mets are 3 games over .500: David Wright, after going 2 for 4 yesterday, is batting .412.

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www.beinglatino.us

If, like me, you're going through a severe case of Mariano withdrawal, take a little time off and go to YouTube. Or trust my own selection of The Best of Mo. This is how I spent my Thursday night, pulling up my favorite Rivera videos so you didn't have to. But if you think you have some as good or better, by all means post them below.

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Wikipedia

Tex is off to an awful start.

We all know about Mark Teixiera's reputation for slow starts, but this is ridiculous. The injuries notwithstanding, the primary reason the Yankees are not in first place right now is because Teixiera has been so awful. And yet, if I had made you a bet that, say, 35 games into the season Teixiera would be not only better but have 5 times as many home runs as Albert Pujols, would you have taken it? I would, if you'd offered it to me - I'd have jumped on it.

After 36 games, Teixiera is outhitting Pujols by 20 points (.232 to .212), has hit 5 home runs to Pujols' one, driving in 19 runs to Pujols' 14. Additionally, he has an OBP of .285 and a slugging of .399 against Albert's .278 and .288.

So if you're looking for a quick answer as to how bad Albert Pujols' season has been up to now, think of it this way: Mark Teixiera has been horrible, absolutely dreadful, and is whipping Pujols in every major batting stat.

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You could tell that it was a special day at Yankee Stadium when the Bleacher Creatures broke from tradition and started a chant for Andy Pettitte which got most of the 41,000-plus to chime in. I don't recall the Creatures ever chanting the starting pitcher's name when they do the first inning lineup call out.

So how did Andy do? Was he the Pettitte of old? I'm afraid it was closer to old Pettitte. He wasn't terrible -- 6 1/3 innings, 7 hits, and 4 runs. But at a time of diminished bullpen strength for the Yankees, he's going to have to do a whole lot better to make a difference. Particularly telling was the fact that he walked three batters and only struck out two. More telling, perhaps, was that the two home runs he gave up both came with men on base. God knows Pettitte made a lot of starts in which he gave up two home runs, but most with bases empty. This time when he got behind in the count even relatively weak hitters were waiting on the fast ball.

And here's the worst news of all: the Seattle Mariners who hit the home runs off him, Casper Wells and Justin Smoak, were batting .207 and .195, respectively.

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Trying to find a hook on the Mets this year is as hard as getting a straight answer about the team's finances. Right now, as they get ready to play at Miami tonight, they are 18-13, in third place, but just one game behind the first place Nationals and a half-game behind the Braves,. They are, incredibly, 4 ½ games ahead of the last place Phillies, whom they just swept in their home park for the first time since 2006.

You'd think Mets fans would be dizzy with excitement, but most of the ones I know seem to be more like dizzy with ... well, just plain dizzy. What is going on? Is this for real? Can it last?

Almost no one is talking about the games per se, they're asking "How are they doing it?" I have an answer for that: I don't know, and if anyone else does, I wish they'd tell me.

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Where's the contract?

Marc Berman of the New York Post seems fairly certain that James Dolan is on the verge of signing Mike Woodson to some kind of multi-year contract with the Knicks. We can then remove the "interim" from Mike's title. I wish I was as sure of this as Berman is, and I suspect Woodson is, too.

Why, exactly, has it taken Dolan so long to come to the conclusion - and that's assuming he's come to the conclusion - that a coach who got a team that was dead in the water to go 18-6 over the final 24 games is the right man to start the next season? I don't know, but it probably has nothing to do with any serious move Dolan might have been making on Phil Jackson - or, for that matter, John Calipari, who probably should have been tested for drug use had he decided to leave his national championship machine in Kentucky for the New York grind house.

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Eli Manning has two Super Bowl rings to big brother Peyton's one, but I'm betting that when the next family dinner rolls around, the real sibling squabble is going to be about who was better on SNL. What did you think?

I thought Eli did fine, especially in the sketch where he takes on big brothers by helping younger brothers with big brother issues. He throws a kid into the trunk of his car and tells him, "Maybe now you'll learn to treat your little brother with some respect, Peyton!" "My name's not Peyton," says the kid." "Whatever," Eli snaps back as he slams down the trunk.

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And so it ends with a bang and a whimper. No Yankee great's departure has ever caused anything like the shock to the system New York fans are now experiencing.

I'm hearing from some, "Well, what about Thurman Munson's death?" A shock, yes, but let's be honest, Munson wasn't loved. Certainly his loss was more tragic in human terms, but in pure baseball terms what can compare to this?

On top of the loss for the season of Michael Pineda, the Yankees are now, realistically, playing for nothing more than to stay in the top half of their division. Yes, Dave Robertson can replace Mariano Rivera, but who, then, is going to replace Dave Robertson as the set-up man?

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www.mojopages.com

Mantle's

The current owners of Mantle's, on swanky Central Park South, have filed for bankruptcy and the rent is now four months past due. A cool million is needed "to get it back on its feet." 

Mantle's 25th anniversary is coming up, but the landlord wants them out by the end of May. Bill Liederman, Mantle's original partner when the restaurant opened in 1987, is now back working with the current owners in a desperate attempt to save the place. According to the New York Post, he has a terrible idea: asking former players like Dave Cone, Ron Guidry and Goose Gossage to chip in perhaps $10,000 apiece.

Liederman says that he can't get the current Yankees to even listen to a proposal, saying "their agents just laugh."

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www.theknickswall.com

"This series is not over," said Amar'e Stoudemire after Saturday's 100-67 slaughter of the Knicks at the hands of the Miami Heat. "We've got to learn from our mistakes today and get ready for the next one."

Coincidentally, this is exactly how General; Custer's last dispatch from the Little Big Horn read. Perhaps the biggest mistake the Knicks made was in going out with a game plan based on beating the Heat through physical intimidation.

The Knicks committed 21 fouls in the first half alone, giving Miami a 28-5 free throw advantage. The most spectacular foul, of course, was the hit Tyson Chandler put on LeBron James with 1:36 left in the half. Incredibly, coach Mike Woodson, Chandler, and the rest of the Knicks are still insisting that it was not a flagrant foul. Take a look from several angles:

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