Look, it’s an awful lot of money, and it’s hard to blame Jose for being tempted by that amount of dough.

Still, Reyes made a mistake by not coming back to the Mets.

Not because he should have had some loyalty to the team that gave him his start.

Not because he should have been willing to accept less money, given the unfortunate position the Mets are in thanks to Bernie Madoff.

Not because New York is the greatest city in the world.

Not because Miami is going to make him cut off his trademark dreads. (That’s way worse than Mr. Burns forcing Don Mattingly to lose his sideburns.)

Not because he and David Wright made for an amazing left-half of the infield.

Not because he had a kick-ass non-transferable theme song with the Mets. (At least, I hope they are legally barred from doing the Jose chant in Miami.)

No, it’s because despite all of the money that he’s going to make in Miami, he’s going to have to wear THIS HAT to work every day:

Yikes.

Sucks to be you, Jose!

…Another disappointing Mets season.  But unlike some other heartbreaking years in recent memory, this season offered a few small consolations.

First off, the Mets have their first batting champion in Jose Reyes.  I understand why people were bummed that he chose to sit after getting his first hit on the last day of the season – it was less than honorable, it was an obvious move to put himself first, and it wasn’t even that mathematically safe (if Ryan Braun went 3 for 4, he would have ended the season with a higher average.)  In the end, he won the title, but even if he had lost it, there’s no arguing with the fact that he had an amazing year… not surprisingly in the year before he becomes a free agent.  It will remain to be seen if the Mets can resign him.  I personally hope they will (as does GM Sandy Alderson), but if they don’t resentful fans can point to his leaving game #162 early as making him unworthy of our team.  And as far as the criticisms that Ted Williams had more class when he played both games of a doubleheader on the last day of the season 60 years ago, well hey, the game has changed plenty over the past six decades.  Get over it.

Then there’s the news from the lawsuit against the Mets ownership – now they may only have to pay $300 million – which is still a heckuva lot better than $1 billion! Hopefully this will free up funds to rebuild the team.

Eli got to go to not one but two games this year, including his first Mets win – a victory over the Philthies, no less!

I root for the Red Sox on account of the fact that I hate the Yankees, and because my wife is a “fan.”  And I can certainly empathize with the pain of their fans on watching their team collapse.  That said, I am grateful that the Mets are no longer the holders of the title of “greatest collapse in baseball history.”  And speaking of collapses…

Hahaha, the Braves blew it!  Suck it, Larry and company!

Now if only the Yankees and Phillies could be quickly eliminated (and humiliated) from the postseason, all would be right with the world.

Mets in 2012!

Here’s how much of an eternal optimist I am: I choose to believe in the Mets this year.

Now I know, any baseball prognosticator worth his or her salt is predicting that the Metropolitans will be battling it out with the Nationals over who will end up in the NL East cellar.

I also know that these predictions are based on several observable facts about the Mets and their competitors, and many of them are hard to ignore.

Still, I say, LETS GO METS!

It seems to me that every year the Mets are expected to be good, they ended up sucking. So therefore by completely infallible logic, whenever the team is doomed to fail, they’ll actually be amazing!

(Look, it takes just a hint of delusion to remain a lifelong Mets fan, OK?)

So I say who needs Santana for a WHOLE SEASON anyway? I say that Bay being on the DL is a minor bump in the road. I say that a team in financial crisis is a team the average American can relate to! I say that our starting rotation and half of our line-up of young kids with no experience are guaranteed to shock and amaze all of their foes who aren’t expecting a challenge. But they’ll get one – oh yes they will!

I hope.

Besides – despite the fact that early promotional schedules showed no Fireworks Night, an apparently updated listing has a July 15th “Pyrotechnics Night,” which I guess is the same thing, only CLASSIER. Who’s in?

Congratulations Terry Collins, you just got the worst job in Major League Baseball! Good luck to you!

You’re walking into a crappy situation – the payroll is over-inflated, you’ve got injuries to deal with, and the players that are healthy aren’t playing to their true potential.

And yet, you will be expected to win. Because you’re in New York, that’s why. But the good news is that since you’ll be managing the Mets, so expectations will be somewhat realistic. Hopefully you’ll be able to make the best of what you have to work with, and turn this team into the juggernaut it once was. Is that too much to ask for? Probably.

Well how about this – at least be more fun to watch than Jerry Manuel. No offense to the guy, but he was booooooooring. We need energy! We need life! We need a manager who will yell and scream and make gutsy decisions that only occasionally implode. You don’t have to show up in a disguise after being ejected like Bobby V., or get us to the World Series in your first year managing, but make the Mets good, make the Mets fun, and make the Metss NOT be a laughingstock.

Please?

It was another disappointing season for the Mets, and another year where the playoffs are, as far as I’m concerned, canceled.  (Let’s go every team besides the Yankees, Phillies, and Braves!)

Manuel and Minaya are gone, and there could be (and should be, according to this guy) some major housecleaning going on this off-season.  It would be a damn shame to lose guys like Reyes and Beltran, who have incredible talent, but if it’s the best thing for the club, maybe they have to go.  On the other hand, the Mets owe so much money to players next year that it will be hard for them to be big spenders in the off-season.

What they really need is, IMHO, a manager that motivates the team to play amazing baseball, game in and game out, no matter who is injured or what the expectations are or what the scoreboard says.  It wasn’t all that long ago (2006, to be exact) that the Mets were a force to be reckoned with – an intimidating squad that just rolled over their opponents.  I’m not saying Willie Randolph deserves all of the credit for that team, but I do believe that a manager needs to have a strong winning mentality that he passes on to the club, and it was just hard to get that vibe from Manuel.

In the end, Mets fans know to always be optimistic about the future, and hope things will be better next year.  The fact that ownership has fired Minaya and Manuel at least shows that they are serious about making some changes.  And as always,

LETS GO METS!

Remember just a month ago, when the Mets were in serious contention for a playoff spot? They were in striking distance of the evil Braves, and they even had the lead in the wild-card race for a nice stretch. And this was all without Beltran! It looked like the Mets could really have a strong season.

And then… well, the story is familiar. They can’t beat bad teams (they split a series against the Nats, and then a few weeks later got swept by the Diamondbacks!) and they just can’t seem to get runs across the plate. Last night’s loss was just the latest in a string of disappointing games, and now the Mets are 7.5 games out of first, 6.5 out of the wild-card, and one paltry game over .500. Earlier in the month they seemed like they would be making a big move before the trade deadline, but now it seems silly to make a play for a name player.

Come on, you guys are better than this! Start playing like you did in the first half again! Sweep the bad teams, and take the series against the better teams! Win at home AND on the road! Give your pitchers some damn run support! Make the race in the NL East interesting, at the very least.

As the old saying, goes…

LET’S GO METS!

It’s another year, and while the Mets are entering the year with plenty of questions, I am -like always – cautiously optimistic. Plus, no one actually expects the Mets to seriously contend his year, which could be a good thing – odds are far better they will exceed expectations, instead of failing to acheive them (cough, 2009.)

Let’s Go Mets 2010!

Great news!  The 2010 Mets will be correcting at least one mistake of the 2009 season – they’re reinstating the Six Pack!  For years, me and various pals had bought the Six (and later Seven) Packs as ways to get together a few times over the summer, see a handful of games each season (usually including a Braves game and a Yankees game), and as a way in to get postseason tickets as well, when applicable.

Then for 2009, the Mets abandoned the 6/7 Packs, and only sold 15 game plans.  I guess they wanted to get more money for their new stadium, but in the middle of a horrible recession, I could not understand why they would cut out a plan that was nice and affordable.  As a result, for the first time in years, I didn’t buy a Pack, and I actually only made it out to Citi Field for one game – and for one preview practice day, which was awesome!  (Also, the fact that we left Queens for the greener pastures of Suffolk County didn’t help matters…)

Well a nice fellow from the Mets ticketing office called me and asked if I would be interested in one of the 2010 Six Packs.  (The list of the various packs they’re offering can be found here.)  In all honesty, I don’t think any of them will work for me personally, now that there’s an infant and a longer commute involved.  All of the packs have a majority of games during the week, and that just isn’t as simple for me anymore.  Still, I’m happy in principle that the Mets office is bringing back the packs.

And there’s even better news – apparently there will be other packs forthcoming that will allow you to pick a handful of games yourself.  The guy I was talking to didn’t have all the details yet, but I’m excited by the possibility – if we can pick a few games on weekends throughout the season, that would be AMAZING.  Seriously, I cannot wait to bring Eli to some games!

But I haven’t even told you the BEST news yet – as evidenced by the “Pyrotechnics Pack,” the Mets will once again have a Fireworks night!  Everyone who knows me knows that I LOVE the Mets Fireworks nights, and have been going to those games for many years; I think this yearly custom became an annual tradition for me  somewhere in the mid 90’s.  The last one at Shea was, I believe, in 2005.  That year we didn’t go the game because we were moving into our new apartment in Queens, but Courtney, myself, and all our friends who had trekked out to help us move watched the game on TV in our empty living room as we ate pizza, and then drove over to the parking lot of the College Point Home Depot to watch the fireworks.  It wasn’t the same, but we still got to see the fireworks, and we were with friends, so it still counts.  After that year, with the construction of Citi Field underway, the fireworks nights were canceled.  I have no idea why they didn’t do one last year, but whatever.  I’m over it.  There will be one this year, after the July 5th game.

And the Noahs will be there.  Hopefully you will join us, too!

Or, as Jon Stewart himself says…

Well said, Jon. Well said.

…At least the Mets can’t blow their postseason chances on teh last day of the season for a third consecutive year!

Cuz that would have just been devastating.

Although, collapsing early on in the season isn’t that much better.

I have been very far removed from baseball this year – with moving out and moving in and closing, coupled with outrageous ticket prices and a lack of a 7-Pack, there just wasn’t that much motivation to head out to the stadium. Or to put on many games at home, given how pitiful the team was looking. And don’t get me wrong – I’m no fairweather fan, and I’ve loved the Mets through some pretty dark times, and this season was no different. I used to love going to games in the mid-90’s, when I knew the team was terrible, and it was still fun to watch them play. But now, knowing that they actually are a talented team that’s just too injured or slumping to show it, that just makes the whole thing more painful.

Well, as I’ve been saying my whole life as a Mets fan – there’s always next year. And eternal optimist that I am, I’m already getting psyched:
Reyes says he’ll be ready for spring!
And ticket prices will actually come down in 2010!
And legendary manager Bobby Valentine is willing to return to the Mets! (Even though the odds of that actually happening are pretty damn minuscule.)

Now if they’d just bring back the 7-Pack… After all, I’m going to have a brand new fan to bring to games next year!