Call-ups happy to shuffle out of Buffalo

No offense, Buffalo. But when Nick Evans' telephone rang at 1:15 a.m. Tuesday, summoning him to put the Queen City in his rearview mirror to come to work in Queens, "I'll take that call every morning," Evans said. "I woke right up."

Ruben Tejada got a similar call hours earlier. By midday, both were in the New York Mets clubhouse, major-leaguers once again.

For the Mets, these two most recent calls to their minor-league bullpen of talent were not entirely pleasant developments, since they were precipitated by the loss to injury of big hitters David Wright and Ike Davis.

But for Evans and Tejada, both of whom had briefly worn Mets uniforms last season, "When you come up, it's good," Evans said. "Whenever you know there's still hope that you'll get a chance to come up, you just want to come up."

Besides, they're hardly among strangers. "I think we counted, like, nine of us today that started the year in Buffalo," Evans said.

Sure enough, outfielders Jason Pridie and Fernando Martinez, infielder Justin Turner and pitchers Dillon Gee, Mike O'Connor, Pat Misch and Ryota Igarashi -- as well as Evans and Tejada -- all were with the Bisons on Opening Day. (The number was reduced to eight Tuesday when Igarashi was optioned back to Buffalo.)

But just to accentuate the degree of change since Buffalo, Evans and Tejada -- just as Turner before them -- are being pressed into position changes. With the Mets infield a muddle, Tejada, Buffalo's starting shortstop, is scheduled to play second base and Turner, the Bisons' second baseman on Opening Day, will fill in for Wright at third.

Evans could play first or third. Or the outfield. "Right now," manager Terry Collins said, "they need to adjust. I need to adjust."

Buffalo, this isn't. "The feeling," Misch said. "The stadiums. The crowds. The clubhouse. The food. Everything. The bigger cities. The whole nine yards."

Ascending to the majors, "in every way you could think of, it's different," Gee said. "The amenities, the travel, the hotels you stay in. You're under a microscope more here. The baseball: This is the best of the best out here.

"Obviously, it's still 60 feet, 6 inches to the plate and 90 feet between bases. If you take that into account, it calms you down a little bit. But the surroundings: You're playing in a stadium with two more decks than you've ever seen before."

Tejada said that, despite having had a taste of the majors last year, there is an excitement factor "like the first time."

And it beats going down to Upstate.