(Straw and former teammate Gary Carter demonstrate their great working chemistry by escorting Air America’s Al Franken to the Shea parking lot)

From the SF Chronicle / Ronald Blum : (link swiped from Repoz and Baseball Think Factory)

Darryl Strawberry thinks the Yankees’ clubhouse is beset by bad chemistry that can be cured only one way: Derek Jeter needs to “embrace” Alex Rodriguez.

“They’ve got to come together,” Strawberry said Tuesday. “It’s time for them to mend their relationship and get back to, like, OK, let’s have some fun. We’re here in New York together. We’re on the greatest team that we possibly could play on. Let’s try to win instead of going separate ways. Because I remember them when they were young and they went to dinner together and they did everything together.”

Strawberry, a former Yankees and Mets star, spoke after a news conference to announce that Yankees special adviser Ray Negron’s book “The Boy of Steel” will be made into a movie. The book tells the story of a cancer patient who became a Yankees bat boy for a day.

“I hope Jeter would embrace him this year, in spring training, and bring him into the full circle as a part of the Yankee family,” Strawberry said. “If Jeter does it, I think everybody else will respond. I hope that works out for him, because once upon a time, they were best of friends and some things happened, which is life. And hopefully they will put those things behind them and hopefully they can come together.”

The New York Mets signed a quintet of players to minor league contracts today, amongst them right-handed pitchers Clint Nageotte, Jorge Vasquez and Lino Urdaneta, lefty William Collazo and outfielder Chip Ambres.  All five — including Ambres — will be mentioned as potential starters before Aaron Heilman receives consideration.