METS CLOSE RANKS AND REBUT CHARGES

Nine years ago, when Vince Coleman threw a firecracker at fans, Bret
Saberhagen squirted reporters with bleach and the Mets lost 103 games, Fred
Wilpon told the players how he felt. Wilpon, the team's former co-owner and
now sole owner, has been humbled by another disappointing season, but he
does not feel it is necessary to address the players again.

"This isn't even close," Wilpon said yesterday. "We have been through times
that have been much different than this."

Still, Wilpon has seen better days. On Friday, an article in Newsday said
at least seven Mets were suspected of smoking marijuana.

"I am personally embarrassed by what has happened in the last few days,"
Wilpon said in his first public comments since the article was published.
"I'm embarrassed not only for myself and my family. I'm embarrassed more so
for the organization and I'm particularly disturbed by the implications of
painting the entire organization with the same brush. I know many of those
guys in that locker room. They're good citizens, good fathers, good family
people, and they're not involved."

In August, Wilpon held his first meeting with players since 1993, telling
them their performance was unacceptable and embarrassing. The team was in
the middle of a 12-game losing streak, and Wilpon was emerging from his own
struggle with the former co-owner, Nelson Doubleday, for ownership of the team.

The Mets have been dogged by more than losses this season. Mike Piazza felt
obligated to affirm his heterosexuality in an on-field news conference in
Philadelphia after a New York Post column alluded to a Mets star being gay.
Roberto Alomar, struggling through his worst season since his rookie year,
and Roger Cedeno, another addition to the team in the off-season, had a
shoving match before a game. Valentine suffered a public meltdown after the
last game of the losing streak, denying an allegation that he was trying to
get fired. And last week Keith Hernandez, a former Met and current
broadcaster, apologized to players for writing in an Internet column that
they had quit.

Wilpon met with the front office on Friday, and one person in attendance
said Wilpon handled the latest crisis fairly calmly, perhaps because he had
known Newsday was working on the article. So Wilpon, General Manager Steve
Phillips and Manager Bobby Valentine set out to douse this latest brush
fire, coordinating their stories after Phillips and Valentine had
contradicted themselves in the Newsday article.

"I feel very comfortable standing up here and saying that I know there is
not rampant drug use in our organization," Phillips said Friday.

Grant Roberts, shown using marijuana in a photograph that was published
with the Newsday article, was contrite Friday, apologizing at a news
conference, saying: "The picture that you all saw is from the off-season in
1998. The woman who gave up the picture has also tried to threaten me and
do other things, to get me to do stuff and give her things. And obviously I
did not."

Major League Baseball is investigating the alleged extortion attempt by a
Binghamton, N.Y., woman a month ago. "There is no question the story is
true," Wilpon said.

The latest saga offered a revealing look inside the complicated
relationship between Valentine and Phillips. They contradicted each other
in the Newsday article, with Valentine saying he had voiced concern about
possible drug use in spring training and Phillips saying he did not recall
any such conversation. On Friday, Valentine said he did not become worried
until reliever Mark Corey had a seizure outside a hotel near Shea Stadium
in June, and later admitted to smoking marijuana.

The Mets said they were unaware of anyone besides Roberts, Corey and Tony
Tarasco, who was driving Corey that night, having smoked marijuana.

Citing a top team official, Newsday also said Valentine confronted Roberts
over his suspected drug use this season. Phillips asked that official to
come forward, and Valentine said in the article, "If I told you guys I
talked to Grant Roberts, maybe I was the one smoking that stuff."

Before Friday night's game, Valentine, trying to illustrate the potential
dangers of playing under the influence of drugs, struck a pose as a
disoriented hitter swinging an imaginary bat. The scene drew a scowl from
Phillips.

Wilpon has been adamant that Phillips and Valentine will return next
season. When asked yesterday if he stood by that statement, he said, "I
don't think Bobby Valentine or Steve Phillips could have done any more than
they've done."

Wilpon held a three-hour meeting yesterday with members of the Mets' front
office, and afterward said he saw no evidence that the relationship between
Phillips and Valentine had been strained.