NEW : David Wright returns sporting new helmet, but Mets get throttled by Rockies, 8-3

DENVER - David Wright took ribbing from both teams for the oversized helmet he wore, but the third baseman didn't waste time getting back into the swing of things. Wright singled on the first pitch he saw upon returning from a concussion, although it was downhill from there for theMets, who lost to the Rockies, 8-3, Tuesday night at Coors Field.

Wright went 1-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts, 17days after getting beaned by a fastball from San Francisco's Matt Cain. He wore a new, bulkier helmet billed to withstand 100-mph blows, which made him the target of barbs from the Rockies and Mets. Wright said he would continue to wear the helmet, which he joked ought to say "Riddell" instead of "Rawlings" because of its football quality. He did acknowledge it needed to be reconfigured to fit better, since it slid down while he ran the bases.

"There just need to be a few adjustments," Wright said. "Obviously, I really don't care what I look like. If it provides a little more safety, I'm all for that. I just need to get it to fit a little better. I don't know. Maybe I've got an odd-shaped head."

Wright added: "It's all in good fun. Those guys were laughing at me on the other side. Our guys were laughing at me. ...They were on me all night. All the guys in the field were yelling at me. Everything is back to normal, I guess."

Colorado (73-59) snapped a five-game losing streak and took a one-game lead over San Francisco in the wild-card race by battering Mike Pelfrey. Pelfrey (9-10) surrendered a two-run homer to Carlos Gonzalez in the second and, after a pair of walks, a three-run homer to Todd Helton in the fourth as the Rockies took a 7-2 lead. Pelfrey was charged with seven runs (six earned) on six hits and five walks in four innings. "I didn't belong on the field tonight," Pelfrey said. "I was terrible."

The Mets narrowed their deficit to four runs in the seventh on consecutive triples by ex-Rockie Cory Sullivan and Angel Pagan. Sean Green then loaded the bases and issued a four-pitch walk to pinch-hitter Jason Giambi in his Rockies debut a half-inning later.

The Mets (59-73) had scored two first-inning runs. Shoddy baserunning cost them a bigger inning. After singling to open the game, Pagan momentarily took second base on what appeared to be Luis Castillo's single in front of Gonzalez in center field. But Pagan, who lost track of the ball's flight and didn't pick up his coach either, changed direction and retreated toward first base. By the time Pagan realized his mistake and headed back toward second base, he had been forced out.

As for Wright, he maintained that even with the benefit of hindsight, he probably would have resisted going on the DL. Still, he acknowledged it was probably for the best. "I don't ever want to go on the DL," Wright said. "I want to be out there no matter if we're winning the division, if we're losing the division, if we're 10 games out, 15games out, whatever. I want to be in there fighting with my teammates and finishing out the season.

"It's something that, I guess looking back on it, it was probably the right decision. But, at the same time, this is what I enjoy doing. I enjoy playing. I want to be in the lineup. If I had to go back and do it again, I'd probably still put up a fight."

Jerry Manuel said Wright would not start Wednesday night.

"Just to be sure," the manager said.

"I don't know if I have a choice," Wright said.

Manuel did soften his stance on easing Wright back into the lineup. Manuel said Wright would regularly start once the Mets return home Friday. "I saw the ball better than I thought I would tonight," Wright said. "Just my timing was a little off and the pitchers made some good pitches. I felt a lot better than I thought I would. The parts you use for baseball are a little sore, but for the most part I feel pretty good."

source : http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2009/09/01/2009-09-01_david_wright_returns.html

NEW : Pete Stark: Co-Ops The Equivalent Of A "Medical Unicorn"

One of the leading progressive voices in the House of Representatives declared on Thursday that a co-operative approach for health insurance coverage was such a vague entity -- and political non-starter -- it might as well be a "medical unicorn."

Rep. Pete Stark, (D-Calif.), chair of House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, insisted during a conference call with reporters that even if co-ops were structured in a way that resembled a public option -- nationally-based and with strong administrative support -- there would be no way to ensure their success.

"There aren't many of you listening who remember the co-ops in the '30s, which was kind of a Roosevelt outfit, rural electric co-ops, phone co-ops," Stark said. "But, as I say, there is no real example of either the regulation, or how you would establish them, or where they would get enough people to have a purchasing base. So you might as well talk about unicorns. You know, what is a medical unicorn? My kids all know what a unicorn is. But you don't. You have never seen one. So I think this co-op is just a way of ducking the issue of having the public plan."

Stark's remarks are the latest pushback to come from House progressives to the work being done in the Senate Finance Committee. Sen. Kent Conrad, (D-N.D.) has been championing the co-op as the politically feasible alternative to the public plan -- a policy proposal that could get the 60 votes needed for passage. The senator could, in the end, be right with his vote count. But in the House, the opposite holds true: it remains unlikely that a bill would pass without a public option.

Later in the call, Stark took a whack at Conrad and others who are backing the co-op proposal, noting that the idea was coming from a few senators with "less than three percent of the rural constituency."

"I tend to ignore [the proposal] as a non-starter," he said.

His colleague, Rep. Xavier Becerra, (D-Calif), who is vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, concurred.

"Co-ops have been tried in the past, in the '40s. And they eventually have failed," he said. "We have not seen any success to date... to lead us to believe that co-ops can succeed. And those that still survive look more like private insurance companies than co-ops."

source : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/27/pete-stark-co-ops-the-equ_n_270412.html