Urbanite

The good for Mets top prospect Zack Wheeler on Wednesday was that his fastball reportedly clocked in at 97 mph after missing his start last Thursday due to inflammation in his shoulder.

The bad news? He surrendered two solo home runs and recorded just two strikeouts in five innings of work for the Triple-A Las Vegas 51s. He also allowed seven baserunners (five hits, two walks) and got the...

Conspiracy theorists have cried foul following the NBA’s annual draft lottery since its inception in 1985, when the Knicks won the right to select Patrick Ewing first overall on 7 to 1 odds.

Last year, the suspicion stemmed from the fact that the NBA temporarily owned the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans) during a transition to current franchise owner Tom Benson, and the league wanted to...

While the Knicks’ 2012-13 season was easily the team’s most successful campaign in more than a decade, the fact remains that it fell well short of a championship or even a conference finals berth against LeBron James and the Miami Heat. Surely, they’ll be in the thick of things again next season, but expect a few tweaks to the roster. Here’s a few early predictions for the Knicks’ offseason.

J.R....

The Triple Crown talk inevitably begins roughly five seconds after the latest 3-year-old wins the Kentucky Derby. This year, it’s trainer Shug McGaughey’s colt Orb who will continue to chase history at the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore.

Although he’ll start Saturday’s race from the rail, Orb is capable of getting through the other eight horses in the field. He debuted as the even-money favorite...

The Jets starting quarterback race is already clearing up a bit.

David Garrard, the former Jaguars starter who joined the Jets this offseason, said he will be forced to retire due to injury, according to a tweet by SNY’s Adam Schein.

The tweet read: “Text from Garrard: ‘Having to call it quits. My knee is not holding up. Continuing to swell after practices. Limiting what I can do.”

With...

Signs are pointing to Victor Cruz receiving his big contract, after all.

The New York Post reported Tuesday that he and the Giants are close to completing a long-term contract to keep the New Jersey native playing in East Rutherford in 2013 and beyond.

“In a perfect world I want to finish my career here,” Cruz told the Post.

Cruz, 26, entered the offseason as a restricted free...

The Knicks’ Tyson Chandler was one of two centers named to the NBA’s All-Defensive First Team Monday.

Oddly enough, the other center wasn’t this year’s Defensive Player of the Year, the Grizzlies’ Marc Gasol, but instead it was Joakim Noah of the Bulls.

Chandler and Noah each earning 24 points. Chandler received the most first-place votes among centers with nine compared with Noah’s...

In an expected move, the Yankees retroactively placed Eduardo Nunez on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left oblique before yesterday’s game against the Royals.

Nunez is replaced on the active roster by infielder Alberto Gonzalez, who comes up from Triple-A after the Yankees made a deal to acquire him from the Cubs on Thursday.

Nunez is hitting just .200 with no home runs and...

Joba Chamberlain doesn’t get it.

I don’t want to make it seem as if he spat on Lou Gehrig’s plaque in Monument Park, but by the way he scolded Mariano Rivera on Saturday for “shushing” him illustrates very clearly that he is not Yankee material.

Even when he had the chance to do a little damage control before Sunday’s game and publicly avoid coming off as a rock-headed blowhard with...

A judge issued a temporary restraining order against a New Jersey auction company attempting to sell some of Kobe Bryant’s old memorabilia, according to TMZ.com.

For a $450,000 advance, Bryant’s mother Pam had given Goldin Auctions some of the star’s old gear from high school and his early NBA career to auction off, according to ESPN.

But Bryant sued, saying the stuff wasn’t hers to...