Phillips to Get to Heart of Matter

General Manager Steve Phillips of the New York Mets said he was “surprised and curious” Friday that Manager Bobby Valentine criticized the team’s front office during a discussion with students at the Wharton School of Business.

Phillips flew to Pittsburgh to talk to Valentine, but said he didn’t plan to fire him.

Valentine said he thought his comments with the University of Pennsylvania students Wednesday in Philadelphia were off the record and mostly tongue-in-cheek.

Valentine told the group that the Mets spent too much money to sign Todd Zeile, that he couldn’t bench Derek Bell because of his salary and that the Mets shouldn’t have gotten rid of Masato Yoshii.

“I was kidding, saying this is the kind of stuff you’d hear on a talk-radio show, and I was playing the caller most of the time,” Valentine told The Record of Hackensack, N.J. “They threw it at me, I threw it back at them.”

But Phillips was concerned enough to get on a plane and fly to Pittsburgh, where the Mets are playing a three-game series.

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Sidelined St. Louis Cardinal slugger Mark McGwire was treated in St. Louis for an inflammation in his back and will be reevaluated Monday.

An exam by team physician George Paletta showed no new disk injury. McGwire will sit out the remainder of a series against the Colorado Rockies at Denver. During that time, he will rest and receive treatment.

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Gary Gaetti’s bid to continue his career at age 41 ended when he retired because of a knee problem after going hitless in 10 at-bats with the Boston Red Sox. Gaetti, a third baseman most of his career who played on the 1987 champion Minnesota Twins, joined the Red Sox early in spring training.

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Graeme Lloyd returned to the Montreal Expos for the first time since the death of his wife Cindy on April 3. Lloyd was already on the disabled list because of left shoulder tendinitis when his wife died because of complications with Crohn’s disease, chronic inflammation of the digestive tract.

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The Detroit Tigers have set a franchise record for season-ticket sales with more than 17,000, about 5,500 more than the record set last year.