Captain Red Ass has left the building.

When Mike Piazza left, I knew he had some big shoes to fill. I wasn’t particularly receptive to the idea of anyone else taking his place behind the plate. It was gonna take me a little while to warm up to the new guy.

Apparently, they told me this new guy has a lot of heart.

I wound up affectionately referring to the new guy as ‘Paulie’, ‘Dookie’, or ‘The Duke’. Greg at Faith and Fear In Flushing explains more eloquently than I ever could the way Paulie wound up allowing us to move on from Mike and finally embrace ‘Paulie Walnuts’.

Paulie seemed to play with a chip on his shoulder. He’d often come out to the mound and bark something to the pitcher and fire him up to finish the job. Guillermo Mota didn’t seem to get the message one chilly night last September, but thats besides the point. The point is, Paulie has what the Mets are in dire need of right now, someone who takes losing personally. To quote Coop on Flushing University, ‘If you ask me, the Mets need 24 more Paul LoDucas.’

Players are gonna fail sometimes, they’re not machines, they’re human and Paulie was a lot more human than maybe the Mets could handle.

He wore his emotions on his sleeve and he didn’t pull punches about how he felt about the way the team stunk it up at many times last season. Reporters love Paulie cause he’s not going to just give them the trite answers and cliches you see on Sportscenter every night.

If Paulie was pissed you could see it and you could hear it, and as a fan I appreciated him actually seeming like he cared as much as we do. Lets be honest here, in many cases we as fans are more emotionally invested in these games than some of the players are, but Paulie seemed like the exception.

I find myself in the same position I was two years ago, forced to move on from one of ‘my guys’ leaving the team. Guys like Mookie, Dookie, Uncle Cliff, Nails, and Uncle Mike are members of this exclusive group. ‘My guys’ don’t necessarily have to be world beaters, or put up numbers that make Bill James’ head spin. They’re players that make you want to root for them and you get a great deal of satisfaction seeing them do well cause they seem to relish the opportunity to be where they are.

In Dana Brand’s book, Mets Fan, which has quickly become near and dear to me, he writes about Mookie Wilson. His description of Mookie is the very definition of what the kind of player I root for embodies, saying that Mookie had ‘the enthusiasm of a fan wrapped in a ballplayer’s body’.

Thats how I would describe Paul Lo Duca. Thats what we lost yesterday.

Apparently, they tell me this new guy has a lot of heart.