Not content with breaking the news that Fran Healy probably won’t be calling any Mets telecasts in 2006, the New York Post’s Phil Mushnick serves up the following critique.

Where Are They Now? Tom Petit of Stamford, Conn., writes to ask whatever happened to Fran Healy, the fella who caught for the Royals, Giants and Yankees in the 1970s. Petit asks because, after the sixth inning of Tuesday’s Nationals-Mets game on MSG, the Fran Healy who was calling the game obviously never played baseball, at any level.

David Wright was on first when Marlon Anderson hit a soft grounder to the second baseman. Anderson was thrown out; Wright moved to second. Healy then said: “Now, and I know it’s tough to do, but it would be nice if the second baseman, Deivi Cruz, came in [to field the ball] and David Wright made contact with him because the Mets would then have interference on their side. They would have runners on first and second. I’m surprised it’s not done more often.”

Ted Robinson, working with Healy, responded with total silence, no doubt a stunned silence given Healy’s latest mind-blowing take on baseball matters.

Healy must’ve confused baseball with football. First, it’s not “tough to do.” Any time a runner wants to prevent an infielder from fielding a batted ball, he easily can do so. But the interference would be on the baserunner, not the fielder, and why do we have to explain this to an ex-major leaguer and longtime voice of New York baseball?

That Healy is surprised “it’s not done more often” is roughly the same as saying, “I have no idea, whatsoever, what I’m talking about.” Why, after all, didn’t Healy try it when he played? Why, en route to second, didn’t he “make contact” with the second baseman as he was fielding the ball?

Then again, as Petit suggests, that can’t be the same Fran Healy.