MET NOTES

Before yesterday’s game with the Orioles was rained out, Met bench coach Don Baylor told the team he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow.

Baylor lightened up what could have been a somber meeting with players by telling them, “Don’t ask me every day how I’m feeling.”

Baylor has the same form of cancer that Yankee pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre was diagnosed with a few years ago, and he’ll probably need a stem cell transplant within the calendar year, Dr. John Olichney said.

Olichney said the bad news is there is no cure for multiple myeloma. The good news is that Olichney said the success rate for treatment is in the “60 to 70 percent range” and Baylor is young enough, at 53, to sustain a high quality of life. The disease was caught during a team physical and subsequent tests. Baylor was diagnosed in mid-March but doesn’t feel any symptoms.

“If I get five hours of sleep, I’m fine,” Baylor said. “My energy level has been fine.”

Baylor will begin chemotherapy next week. He and Stottlemyre have spoken on the phone.

“He had a lot of questions and we had a good talk,” Stottlemyre said. “I was glad we had the conversation.

“He asked about what he was gonna go through. I told him what I did was keep busy. The biggest thing is to keep busy.

“One good thing is he was an intensive player, and he’s the right type of person to go through this.”

*

John Franco (Tommy John surgery) threw a side session yesterday and will begin throwing to hitters in April.