Only two members of the Mets traveling party had enough juice to get tickets to Saturday's Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals: Cliff Floyd .... and WFAN's own Ed Coleman? Not the duo you were expecting, I know, but the two were talking smack in the clubhouse this morning.
"Hey Cliff, I didn't see you there last night," Coleman said. "I think you were too far up."
Actually, the reverse was true, with the Mets leftfielder seated near the Heat bench and Coleman more than a few rows behind him. "I was going to send a beer up," Floyd joked.
Floyd had the ticket connection, but not the star power to get on TV. Usher, Diddy and Tom Brady were among the celebrities to get network face time, but Cliff got no love from ESPN. "They check your statistics first before they put you on," Floyd said.
In other Mets news, Kaz Matsui is benched for today's game, and it appears he is no longer the everyday second baseman. Jose Valentin is starting this afternoon and manager Willie Randolph said he would use a rotation of Valentin, Matsui and Chris Woodward for the forseeable future.