John Franco, who has been a “go-to guy” during his 14 years as a relief pitcher for the Mets, has also long been a go-to guy for mob guys looking for free tickets to the team’s games, Gang Land has learned.

Despite strict prohibitions by Major League Baseball against associating with organized crime figures, Mr. Franco has had a long, chummy relationship with members of the Bonanno family, according to FBI documents obtained by Gang Land.

Over the years, Mr. Franco has given Bonanno wiseguys complimentary tickets to Mets games – both home and away – as well as special passes to visit with the Brooklyn-born Mr. Franco in the Mets’ clubhouse before games, according to law enforcement and other sources.

The onetime standout reliever, who has appeared in 695 games for the Mets, has not been implicated in any criminal activity. But his meetings with mobsters may sink his already tenuous baseball career. The 44-year-old lefthander pitched poorly this past season – he had no saves, a 2-7 won-loss record, and a very high 5.28 earned run average. The Mets have not offered him a contract for 2005.

The veteran Mets closer may also wind up on the witness stand in a pending federal mob case to answer questions about questionable actions he allegedly took more than a decade ago. Prosecutors may seek Mr. Franco’s testimony in the racketeering and murder trial of a Bonanno gangster, Vito Rizzuto, dubbed the “John Gotti of Montreal” by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Rizzuto, 58, is charged with taking part in the May 5, 1981, murders of three Bonanno capos. Arrested by the RCMP in January, he is detained in Montreal and fighting efforts by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn to extradite him to America to stand trial.

In 1993, according to an FBI report obtained by Gang Land, Mr. Franco got tickets for then-Bonanno consigliere Anthony Spero and other wiseguys for a Mets game with the Montreal Expos at Olympic Stadium. That summer, Spero and capo Frank “Curly” Lino led a Bonanno contingent to Montreal for discussions with the family’s Sicilian faction, according to a summary of an FBI interview with Lino.

The purpose of their visit was to inform the Canadian Bonannos that Joseph Massino was the family’s new boss, according to a report by FBI agents Christine Grubert and Jay Kramer. During their stay, the agents wrote, Spero was also “introduced as the Bonanno family consigliere” to Rizzuto, the Montreal mobster described in court papers by Canadian prosecutors as “the Godfather of the Italian Mafia in Canada.”

The New York wiseguys and their Montreal cohorts held a “made men only” dinner at a local catering hall, the agents said. Afterwards, “Franco invited the New York-based Bonanno members to a baseball game in Canada,” wrote Ms. Grubert and Mr. Kramer.

Spero, Lino, mobster Frank “The Fireman” Porco, and other mob associates “went out with Mets players after the game,” the agents wrote, indicating that some of Mr. Franco’s teammates also shared a late-night snack with the Bonanno contingent.

The three wiseguys are currently in carcerated. Spero, 75, is serving life for murder; Porco, 75, pleaded guilty to loan sharking last year and is due to be released from prison next year, and Lino, 66, facing life for several murders, hopes that by cooperating he will earn an early release.

“Frankie Lino often bragged about his connection with Franco,” said a for mer acquaintance of Lino’s. “He offered me good seats on more than one occasion,” the source added.

A separate Gang Land source who received Mets tickets through a Lino connection fondly recalled meeting Mr. Franco in the clubhouse before a Mets home game at Shea Stadium a few years ago: “He was obviously busy, but he took the time to say hello and shake hands with everyone in my party. A really nice guy.”

Law enforcement officials and additional Gang Land sources familiar with Mr. Franco’s associations with mobsters say Lino and other wiseguys also obtained Mets tickets through Mr. Franco’s brother, James, who once operated an indoor sports facility for his brother John.

“Jimmy’s a neighborhood guy who likes to hang around with wiseguys,” said one source.

Sources say that James, like his more famous brother John, has not been implicated in any mob activities by Lino or another Bonanno defector who attended many Mets games with Lino over the years, Joseph “Joey Mook” D’Amico.

Even though neither turncoat has made any allegations of wrongdoing, for John Franco to have any contact with mobsters flies in the face of years of hard work to fashion and maintain a squeaky-clean image.

As one baseball official put it, “This is not a rookie mistake. John has been around a long time and should have known better.” The Mets, like every Major League team, warn players to steer clear of gamblers and avoid relationships with any “criminal element,” a spokesman for Major League Baseball, Richard Levin, said.

A local boy who made good, Mr. Franco graduated Lafayette High School in Bensonhurst and starred for St. John’s University, where he pitched two no-hitters in his freshman year. Originally signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers, he began his major league career with the Cincinnati Reds in 1984. He came to the Mets in 1990.

He quickly became a team leader and a fan favorite. He also distinguished himself off the field with charitable contributions and community work, winning plaudits from baseball writers and photographers and earning humanitarian awards from numerous organizations, including the Catholic Youth Organization and the March of Dimes.

The Mets’ senior vice president, Jim Duquette, declined to comment. Mr. Levin told Gang Land that MLB had only recently learned of Mr. Franco’s questionable off-the-field conduct. “We feel that it is inappropriate to comment until we know more about it,” he said.

Neither Mr. Franco nor his agent, Danny Horwits, returned repeated requests for comment.

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Five years ago last week, before Frank Lino became a turncoat and while the Curse of the Bambino was still holding strong, the Yankees won the pennant by beating the Boston Red Sox, the first time the longtime rivals met in an American League Championship Series.

A month earlier, however, while the issue was still in doubt, Lino used the pennant race to win an extra four days of freedom from Manhattan Federal Judge Denny Chin before beginning a 57-month stretch for stock fraud by whining that he had tickets for a September 10, 1999, game between the Yanks and Red Sox.

As Gang Land reported at the time, Judge Chin magnanimously pushed back Lino’s surrender date to September 14. “I’m a Yankee fan, too,” said the judge.

Turns out that Lino was nowhere near Yankee Stadium that night as Pedro Martinez struck out 17 and the Red Sox handcuffed the Yankees, 3-1.

“He didn’t have tickets to the game. His connection was Mets tickets, not the Yankees,” said a source who saw Lino in a bar that night and spoke to him about it. “He was just being a wiseass in court. He never thought the judge would go along with his request.”