1-800-Flowers part of group to invest in Mets

Jim McCann, CEO of 1-800-Flowers.com, confirmed Tuesday that he and his brother, Chris McCann, who is president of the Long Island-based company, are part of a group that has invested in the Mets. He and his family have known the Wilpon family for a long time, he said. And he also is a longtime friend of Fred Wilpon. He declined to specify the amount of his personal investment.

The Mets announced in March that they had completed the sale of 12 minority stakes in the team for $240 million.

"When this opportunity came up over a year ago, it was beyond our reach," McCann said about the initial call for a minority investor. "It was too serious a business investment for us to do it, so we passed."

But this time, he said the investment opportunity made sense. He described it as a "reasonable, good business investment," and it would be fun and interesting for his family, who are Mets fans.

McCann broke the news at a large family barbecue Saturday. His niece, who is a "super Mets fan, couldn't believe it," he said. "She sat there with her eyes wide open."

And his two sisters couldn't resist a few floral jokes.

"One of my smart-aleck sisters said, 'Do you think they'd mind our suggestion that we put flower window boxes along the outfield wall to dress it up?' " McCann recalled.

Rauch exposes hate tweet

Mets reliever Jon Rauch was angry at himself for giving up a walk-off homer to the Yankees' Russell Martin on Sunday, but when he saw some of the vile responses on his Twitter account, it made him angry enough to expose the crude behavior of some fans in the social media. He retweeted some of the worst responses, including one with the hashtag "killyourself."

"If you're going to be bold enough to say that kind of thing and stand behind it, then I'm going to let everybody see it," Rauch explained Tuesday. "I think it gives people a lot more insight into what we go through as players and people that are in the public eye.

"We want to be available to fans. That's why we get on Twitter. The Mets encouraged a couple guys in spring training to be more open and kind of give people insight into our daily life. But personal attacks like that are very uncalled for."

Rauch said he has no problem with honest criticism of his performance so long as it's civil. "I think they need to respect us," he said of the fans. "We're not out there trying to fail."

Injury updates

Terry Collins said shortstop Ruben Tejada (right quad strain) is expected to do some running drills Wednesday in Port St. Lucie but not run the bases. "Ruben is an offensive force," Collins said. "Right now, it's obvious we're missing him." . . . Ronny Cedeño (strained left calf) ran the bases Tuesday . . . Justin Turner (right ankle sprain) got some at-bats Tuesday but did not run the bases.