On the Mets beat

Paul Lo Duca and Orlando Hernandez were among the notable Mets to show up this morning, but no one was more interesting or entertaining than Scott Schoeneweis. Middle relievers usually blend into the background, but not the animated Schoenewies, who spoke extensively about Blue Devil basketball, his battle with testicular cancer while at Duke, and also the story behind why he wears the No. 60.

I'll get into each of those subjects more in depth later in my story for Newsday, but as for the No. 60, he's been stuck with it ever since his rookie year with the Angels in 1999. The Mets tried to finally correct the injustice this spring -- issuing him No. 36 -- but Schoeneweis chose instead to stay with his old jersey.

"My first five minutes as a Met, I was high maintenance," Schoeneweis joked.

Cliff Floyd may be gone, but it looks like the media has a new go-to guy in the clubhouse.