To steal a quote from Aaron Lewis of Staind, “it’s been a while.”

I’ve stayed clear of ranting about the Mets, quite honestly, because I can’t take early season games that seriously. Yes, I still watch every pitch of every inning, and it bothers me when they lose, but I’ve learned over the years that playing well in April or May means nothing. I mean seriously, does any intelligent baseball fan think that the Rockies, who breezed through the National League last fall will remain 7 games under .500?

If you don’t, then why on earth are so many Mets fans shopping for Maalox on a daily basis? Is it because we collapsed last year? Well, it’s time to get over it.

See the difference between athletes and fans is that the key to being a successful professional is a short memory. Do you think guys who struggle against a pitcher have a prayer of getting a hit if they say to themselves, “Man this guy has my number. Last season in the third at bat against him during a game in June he made me look silly.”

No. So why do fans say to themselves every time the Mets lose, “Here we go again.”

I have a theory. It’s because Mets fans have no clue how to handle expectations. We’ve had success over the last couple of years and it’s gone to our head. We’ve spent money, and have a solid lineup, but it doesn’t give us the Rite of Passage to think we should win every game. So when the team loses, or plays bad, or get announced on Opening Day for crying out loud in the case of poor Aaron Heilman, some fans (and some who don’t admit it) boo. Why? Because Mets fans are used to being jaded by teams that were supposed to be contenders.

I take you back to 1988. Man, was that team good - better than the 1986 team. You remember that team right? The team that shouldn’t have won, but got the biggest break in World Series history? I was at the game, and watched the entire upper deck head for the parking lot down 5-3 and thought to myself, “what’s wrong with these people?” It’s a question I’ve asked myself for the past 20 years.

In 1988 we ran into the juggernaut that was the LA Dodgers and that stupid Mickey Hatcher and a dominant Orel Hershiser. We, along with the Bash Brother, needle-injecting A’s, were the two best teams in baseball, by far. The Dodgers were better than us over those two weeks and won. Fast forward a few years to Saberhagen and Boo-nilla and Vincent Van Go Away of the early 90s and the Mo Vaughn/Robbie Alomar Era, and it’s no real secret that Mets fans are genetically programmed to expect disappointment. So the defense mechanism is to get angry about it. And why not right?

Wrong. It’s baseball people. Enough of the woah is me crap. I dealt with it for years with the Rangers, an organization so crippled by fear and loathing that it hamstrung itself every time the team made the playoffs. That was until Messier slayed the dragon. We’re not cursed. Let the Cubs or Phillies fans implode under fan scrutiny. Heck, the dynasty is wearing off in the Bronx and fans are getting edgy there too. I call it the “Curse of the Giambino.” This team is good, albeit a little aged, so we need allow them to heal from last year naturally, and good baseball will follow. Don’t make them feel like their playing on egg shells against the Reds. We need to start a streak at home. Those 90s and early 2000 teams? You know why we struggled immediately afterwords? Freddy Coupons knew if he overpaid and the team stunk, BOO!! YOU wouldn’t come to the ball park and support. He never had a Carl Pavano coupon.

The point here is not to coddle this high-priced group or to express your anger that they’re overpaid and you’re not. Don’t nit pick and say they’re not trying or the need to try harder and show BOO!! YOU some effort. Carlos Beltran has played the same way his whole life. Heilman has the same stuff and used to be effective and can be again. And Oliver Perez is, well, he’s exactly what we thought he is when we traded for him: mind-blowingly inconsistent.

The point is simply to urge fans to understand that even in a great year this team is going to lose 70 games and that every time they take the field they are playing against major league teams. There will be times when we win. There will be times when we look great like we did in Philly, and when we look not so great, like in Chicago. The Red Sox got it handed to them by the Rays. They were swept in Tampa and scored like, 4 runs in 3 games. It’s a long season. Don’t beat yourselves up in early May saying things like, “boy that game’s gonna cost us in September.” It’s not productive and really not on the minds of the guys that have 400 more at bats to worry about and over 1000 more outs to record. Come to grips that the Phillies are very good, and have had our number, but that can change in a New York minute.

Or when Johan takes the ball.

OLF Notes

As much as it’s hurts sometimes being a Met fan, I am thankful that I don’t have to listen their announcers. But boy Sterling and Waldman crack me up. And that said, I still have yet to find ONE person who likes Michael Kay. If you know one let me know, seriously, I’m looking for one.

During the Seattle series, I was subjected to this classic Waldman/Sterling banter that went something like this:

“Ya know Suzyn, I saw something the other day that really shocked me. Hideki Matsui is 0-8 career against Felix Hernandez. OH-FOR-EIGHT! I just couldn’t believe it…THAAAA 1-0…cut on and fouled back.”

“You’re right John. It’s hard to believe that someone with Matsui’s ability could be hitless against anyone.”

“THAA 1-1…outside, nope nipped the corner for a strike. Delayed call by the home plate umpire, he needs to work on that…..Ya Know Suzyn, I was just shocked when I read that.”

Yep, “shocked” that a guy of Matsui’s “ability” could go hitless in two games against a guy with probably the nastiest fastball/off speed combination in the AL over the span of three years.

THAAA 2-2….

Lastly, I have Sexon on my fantasy team. Boy do I wish “losing your damn mind” was a category.

Tommy Dee is a contributor to Hot Foot, a realistic Met fan and editor of SNY’s TheKnicksBlog.

It’s been a long and very restful off-season for yours truly and I’m excited to kick off the 2008 with some thoughts on what has been quite and eventful winter.

First of all have to give a huge thumbs up to De Rosa, whose hard work over the years was rewarded by SNY. GiantsFootballBlog.com is an awesome home for die-hard fans of Big Blue and is just what the doctor ordered.

Speaking of the Giants, I had a great feeling about them beating the Pats all along, but the Super Bowl victory gives ultimate credence to how Eli Manning really should have been perceived. People would question his lame stats and his facial expressions but when they drafted him I wondered how anyone could lead Ole Miss to an SEC Western division title and not have a magical quality? Hopefully, Giant fans will remember the Super Bowl-winning drive the next time Eli has difficulty with the wind at the Meadowlands or has a questionable QB rating.

And in watching the parade it came to mind that, yes, there is no place to win like New York and the “Canyon of Heroes” is the ultimate experience, but why did we need to hear politicians spew forced football jargon?

That said, nice job by “I love it when you call me” Bob Papa, - he made me want to throw my hands in the air.

My thanks to someone from WNBC-TV called Tracie Strahan who made me hit the mute button during their parade coverage after proclaiming, “Now I know what it’s like not to be the most famous Strahan in New York,” in reference to having to share the stage with Michael Strahan, no relation. Yep, those local NBC reporters have a great sense for the moment, don’t they?

Speaking of the mute button, how about Chris Berman’s latest venture? No, not the countless videos of Boomer cussing out ESPN peons, I’m talking about his role as the ultimate sportscaster for SportCenter’s “Greatest Highlight of All-Time.” If you haven’t seen it, ESPN deletes the original announcer’s call, thus overshadowing each broadcaster’s defining moment, so that Berman can interrupt with his own anti-climactic version. There’s nothing like hearing the “BACK, BACK, BACK…gone!” call attached to Aaron’s 715. Thanks Chris, we knew what was going to happen, it happened 30 years ago. Makes you wonder how sports EVER got along before ESPN, and Berman. Actually, it makes you wonder even harder just how cool sports would be if ESPN scaled its narcissism back and reverted to more simpler times.

As far as the Mets are concerned, say what you want about Johan, Pedro or Delgado, but I think the key to this year’s team is Duaner Sanchez. The guy was the best set up man in baseball for a stretch two years ago thanks to a nasty change-up which he learned from Eric Gagne. One can only hope that Sanchez is healthy and ready to contribute.

I recently noticed that the Yankees will start the season with Joba Chamberlain coming out of the pen. Strategically, it makes sense to shorten the game to 7 innings, the championship teams of the late 90’s were carried by getting late inning outs, but who on earth is going to pitch the first 7? Rest easy Yankee fans, Carl Pavano is raving up his engine again.

So here’s my take on the whole Clemens/Mcnamee thing. They’re both creeps. But neither are as creepy as the gutless Republican Congressmen who felt the need to verbally attack the trainer based on his checkered past, yet ignore basic flaws in Clemens’ testimony. The worst offender was Congressman Dan Burton of Indiana, who reminded me of the great Vin Scully’s evil twin brother. The whole thing was such a joke that it really cast a terrible cloud over our justice system. If you really believe that Clemens, a man who threw a jagged-edge bat in the direction of another human being, would allow a man to inject his wife without his knowledge and do NOTHING about it, you either need to pay better attention, actually do a little research, or get your head examined. In fact, Burton should be held accountable for his performance the other day. Ironically, Burton was the primary sponsor for the The Government Performance and Results Act, an 1998 effort to require federal government agencies to do more strategic planning, establish more accountability measurements, and do more reporting on their performance.

You have to love American politics.

The bottom line is Americans and even sports writers to a degree ( doesn’t agree) are forgiving people. Clemens should have come clean, waited 15 years and gone into the Hall of Fame a graceful 50 something, instead of hoping to go in a shady and tarnished, 40 something year old.

The whole thing will continue to drag on and on but let’s hope that the hype doesn’t overshadow what could be a glorious baseball season in New York.

British intellectual Thomas Paine published Common Sense with the help of Benjamin Rush advocating independence for the American Colonies from the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1776. The reaction from the public was the spark that essentially lit the fire that would be known as the American Revolution. Having had to endure yet another hot stove season of crappy, senseless rumors from major news outlets, it is my aim to urge fans, Met fans in particular, to use their common sense when sifting through the rumor receptacle.

Grab the torches people; it’s time to put this nonsense to an end.

Over the past few days, and thanks to Met blog pioneer Matthew Cerrone, there finally has been some light shed on a developing situation that seemed so destined from the start.

Let’s look at the Johan Santana situation logically.

Logic (as defined by Wikipedia) - is the study of the principles and criteria of valid inference and demonstration.

For a team that is forced to constantly spin high-priced talent, despite being far from a low budget team, the Twins can still be very competitive next year if they do indeed move Santana. When you consider Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer, Michael Cuddyer, the return of Francisco Liriano, the continued dominance of Joe Nathan and the recent acquisition of Delmon Young and Brendan Harris- on top of the major-league ready talent they will get back in exchange for Johan-there is no reason to think that the Twins cannot compete with the Tigers and Indians. If you agree with such logic, then why would the Twins be willing to ensure American League dominance by moving their prize lefty to either the Red Sox or Yankees?

All of the reports circulating around the winter meetings had Santana pegged for the Northeast, (with the Angels a distant 3rd) for two very simple reasons. 1) The Sox and the Yankees have the young talent to give and money to sign Johan to the contract extension he’s looking for and 2) They are the two biggest media outlets right now in the entire league.

I’m sorry, but could someone give me one quote from Twins GM Bill Smith saying he had any interest in trading Johan to the Sox or Yankees?

What suckers we must feel like constantly looking for information from, specifically the worldwide leader in sports, that was actually nothing more than empty babble. Even our favorite Peter Gammons seemed out of touch:

“They’ve [Sox and Twins] met again [today], the Twins should just say look, we’re either going to take the package for Jacoby Ellsbury, which is a 3-for-1, or we’ll take the package of a 4-for-1 involving John Lester, now the stories that they went to a 5-for-1, that’s not so. Now the only way the Angels pitch is better is if Jared Weaver’s in the deal, maybe Nick Adenhart, and Brandon Wood. They’re going to have to go to two big-time guys, I’m not sure they’re going to do that; it will be interesting to see how far it goes. It behooves the Twins to at least explore the Angels as they have so much talent in their organization.”

We don’t doubt there were discussions, but this speculation from a trusted Gammons combined with the “Twins and Sox are getting closer” headline equals a big bucket of monkey poo.

Or how about this “insight”, Rob Bradford on WEEI:

“The Twins have told the Red Sox that they do want to get this done today, one way or the other. Whether that happens or not, I don’t know, but that’s what they’ve told them. I think the Red Sox have put out the offer… they’re very close, the only wild card here guys is the Yankees, everyone’s saying they’re out of it, if they do decide to jump back in, and include Ian Kennedy..”

Again, paging Mr. Hanky. Uh, how can Bradford “think” the Sox have put out an offer, and admit he didn’t know, yet conclude they’re “very close” to making a deal? It just doesn’t make sense.

Nothing screams “headline” like Yanks/Sox, so this rush to get a deal done screams leak out of Boston outlets that the Sox were close and wanted the Yanks to give up another jewel in their system. To their credit Baby Stein wasn’t biting, and what resonates is another Yanks/Sox battle, only through the media.

My point is there was no reason to believe, whatsoever, that Smith had any intention to trade Johan to either team and that each organization played chicken with each other, with the media (most notably ESPN) adding fuel to the fire. Unless, of course, Smith could goat one team into surrendering a bevy of prospects. It appeared as if Smith was just sitting back and watching the two superpowers toggle over who was willing to give up more, and how much they really wanted Johan.

It turns out that the Yanks, were not giving up another young pitcher, and the Sox weren’t parting with Clay Buchholz and Ellsbury.

This brings us to the Mets, the place where Johan seems to fit perfectly. Santana has leverage here, and is an accomplished athlete, who would love to come to the ballpark and swing the lumber. Of course, logic would not dictate Santana’s demand to come to the National League lies on the fact that he wants to hit. No, but what makes the Mets a realistic option is GM Omar Minaya’s aggressiveness to make a deal, and the young prospects to make it happen.

Now, getting Santana won’t be easy for the Mets, they’ll have to give up a ton. But by thinking logically, Santana to the Mets makes plenty of sense, and the crap that’s been reported over the last few weeks appears to be more of a battle of Northeast media outlets than a chess match between organizations. But of course, we’ll wait for word from Smith himself before getting too excited about the idea of getting the front line starter this team desperately needs.

Kudos to Smith for not getting caught up in the circus, and for those fans who know better.