However, Figueroa's circle was a lot fuller than most.

Between being drafted in the 30th round in 1995 out of Brandeis University and heading to Port St. Lucie, Fla., as a non-roster invitee this spring, Figueroa has racked up 104 victories, 1,251 strikeouts, 25 complete games and 11 shutouts in 12 Minor League seasons, all of which lead active pitchers heading into 2009.

"My greatest fear in the Minors every year is when we get those team baseball card sets and people start looking at the back of the cards," said Figueroa, 34, who also has posted a 4.64 ERA in 90 big league games. "They look and think it must be a typo."

But for him, the key word in that honor is not "career" or "leader." It's "active."

Growing up in Brooklyn and graduating from Lincoln High School, Figueroa was a die-hard Met fan.

His draft visibility may have been hurt a bit by pitching at such a small school -- Figueroa remains the lone Brandeis alumnus to make it to the Majors -- but he made up for it quickly.

He began his career in Kingsport, Tenn., where he went 7-3 with a 3.07 ERA for the Appalachian League squad.

Nice numbers, but no one could have predicted what Figueroa would do in his full-season debut the following summer with Columbia (S.C.) of the South Atlantic League.

Figueroa ran away with Sally League Pitcher of the Year honors, going 14-7 with a 2.04 ERA, eight complete games, four shutouts and a Minor League-leading 200 strikeouts. In 185 1/3 innings, he yielded 119 hits, limited opponents to a .181 average and earned the nickname "Brooklyn Cy Clone," five years before the Mets brought their short-season team of the same name to the New York-Penn League. (They actually played as the Queens Kings in 2000).

In 1997, Figueroa skipped to Double-A Binghamton, where he spent nearly two seasons before he was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Thus, the long, strange trip began.

Over the next decade, Figueroa would pitch for six organizations (the Diamondbacks, Phillies, Brewers, Pirates, Nationals and finally the Mets again) in four countries (Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Taiwan and Mexico) to keep his dream alive.

He made his big league debut with Arizona in '00 and spent nearly all of '02 in the Majors with Milwaukee, posting a 5.03 ERA in 30 games (11 starts). But his dream became a nightmare in '05 when a torn rotator cuff wiped out the whole season.

When he was ready to take the mound again, he found it hard to find a team. He hooked up briefly with the independent Long Island Ducks before a stint with Washington's Triple-A outpost in New Orleans.

But the offseason came and Figueroa again was looking for work. He found it pitching first for Chihuahua in the Mexican League in the summer of '07 and then Taiwan, where he achieved All-Star status and earned postseason MVP honors for the Uni-President Lions.

Winter ball brought him back a little closer to home in the Dominican Republican, and it was there that he caught the eye of Ramon Pena, special assistant to Mets general manager Omar Minaya.

"The job with the Mets was absolute luck, just being in the right place at the right time," said Figueroa, who remembers sitting in the stands at Shea Stadium cheering for his own idols, Dwight Gooden and Ron Darling. "I was pitching for Aguilas in the playoffs, and I struck out 13 in a game. I had a contract a few days later."

A few months later, just shy of 13 years after being drafted by his hometown team, Figueroa beat the odds by making the club out of Spring Training.

Figueroa got his first start with the Mets on April 11. His teammate, closer Billy Wagner, had gotten a luxury suite as part of his free agent deal and invited Figueroa to use it to bring any of his friends and family.

So on that night, the box was filled to capacity with his wife, Alisa, daughter, Renee, his parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, other relatives and friends.

For five innings, Figueroa was perfect.

"It was surreal, the roar of the crowd, going to the home dugout those first few innings and seeing the fans there and remembering when I was a kid, sitting in those stands and watching Darling and Gooden coming back to the dugout," recalled Figueroa.

He gave up two hits in six innings, got the win and, after Wagner notched the save, he handed Figueroa the game ball.

Figueroa made four starts for the Mets, posting a 3.86 ERA, before struggling in back-to-back starts in May. That made him expendable and saw him dispatched to Triple-A New Orleans. But he returned in September in a relief role, where his 1.35 ERA in seven games should have put him firmly in the '09 mix.

Instead he was designated for assignment, though the Mets made it clear that they wanted to keep him. He eventually resigned with the team, received a a non-roster invitation this spring and will go through the whole circle once again.

"I just look at it as another challenge going into camp this year," he said. "They know what I can do and they know I performed well down the stretch."

If they needed another reminder, they got it last month when, in a playoff start with the Cardenales de Lara of the Venezuelan Winter League, Figueroa tossed nine innings of no-hit ball before the game was decided in the 10th.