Hall Of Hate: The 2006 Results

Apparently there's still a large misconception floating around major league circles. Allow me to clarify you GM's out there who happen to be reading this blog looking for ideas:

Jim Duquette no longer works here.

How else could one explain this phenomenon, the one which manifests itself into White Sox GM Kenny Williams requesting Filthy Sanchez and Mike Pelfrey for Freddy Garcia...a pitcher that is experiencing some "dead arm" issues.

Williams obviously has been drinking the Chuck Lamar kool-aid while reading his new book "The Best Trades Are The Ones You Don't Make, Unless The Mets Are On The Other End Of The Phone".

Well, the other end of the phone is now in Baltimore, and thus is the perfect bridge to the results that you've all been waiting for:

What is most surprising to me about this year's Hall of Hate class is that it doesn't include a single player...which leads me to your vote leader, WFAN's Mike Francesa. Francesa led the way with a whopping 316 votes. Francesa is currently on vacation, but will return once again to the WFAN airwaves with the comfort of knowing that all of the hate that he has spewed on the airwaves towards the Mets, with the express purpose of firing up Met fans everywhere, is slowly working. He has turned his supreme and irrational hatred of the Mets, which has manifested in his support for his Yankee arch-rival Red Sox during a close pennant race in hopes the Mets would be swept, into induction into the very exclusive company of the Hall of Hate. For that, he deserves our congratulations.

Also, by your vote, Jim Duquette is indeed a proud member of the 2006 Metstradamus Hall Of Hate class. Duquette received 270 votes, putting him second out of the fifteen nominees.

Duquette is currently the Vice President of baseball operations for the Baltimore Orioles, and no doubt scheming to try to acquire Mike Pelfrey for Rodrigo Lopez to cement his reputation as the greatest enemy of the New York Mets franchise. Although Duquette has a long way to go to earn that title, he feels that if he works hard enough, it's more than an achievable goal.

Induction into the Metstradamus Hall Of Hate via fan voting is a good start towards that goal. There's no better way to learn how to be a good general manager is to cut your teeth and oversee a colossal screw up, learn from that colossal blunder, then go somewhere else to put what you've learned to good use.

This year's induction class will here to forth be known as the GM class, as Steve Phillips also made the top three via your vote receiving 221 votes over an 11 day period.

If you are ultimately responsible...as Steve Phillips was...for bringing David Wright and Jose Reyes into the organization, then you have to had done some extremely bizarre things to have so many Met fans hate you, as 221 of you do. You can point to the whole "24 and 1" debacle from the Alex Rodriguez free-agent negotiations. You can point to the trades from Mo Vaughn and Robby Alomar. You can point to the irrevocable relationship with Bobby Valentine which indirectly led to the Art Howe era.

But most of you will point to the line that reads "all of the above".

It's worth it to note that although the fourth place vote-getter missed out by a significant amount of votes, it is rather impressive that a man who has been dead for close to two decades received 145 votes.

So congratulations to this year's inductees, and thank you to those who took time out to vote. Here are the complete results of the voting:

Mike Francesa 316
Jim Duquette 270
Steve Phillips 221
Dick Young 145
Guillermo Mota 120
Jeff Torborg 117
Pete Rose 116
Mel Rojas 111
Joe Torre 108
Richie Hebner 65
Eddie Murray 30
Tony Fernandez 27
Anthony Young 23
Alejandro Pena 17
Gene Walter 8

A Rescue Most Grand

If Gilligan had a rescue team like this, there would have been no show.

Luckily for Orlando Hernandez and the Mets, there would be no sinking feeling Sunday night.

On the positive side, it's good to have Cliff Floyd back in the fold. Actually, he's been contributing plenty since coming back from injury, hitting .324 since his return...that is, before tonight's game. But now the whole country has noticed the renaissance of Cliffy after his two dingers on Sunday...that is...the ones who could wade their way past the half hour montages of Cubs fans whining about '69 and Leon Durham and Steve Bartman. Was there another team out there?

The country also noticed that smile...the smile Cliff had while crossing the plate after the grannie that turned a three run deficit into a Mets beating. In all likelihood, the smile never left. But it took until now for it to shine through to everyone. But your pal Cliff is also back. And you know damn well he isn't going to miss this party.

But yes, there's negative too. In his previous two starts, Orlando Hernandez was Dr. Hekyll. Tonight, he was Mr. Jive...as in Jive Turkey. Boy when he's bad he's awful. And when he's awful, he's forcing the Mets hand when it comes to possibly dealing from strength to shore up the weakness of the rotation. It's a tricky scenario as neither Aaron Heilman (2 runs given up in the seventh inning) or Freddy Garcia (six runs in his seven innings today) looked particularly stellar today...but at least Garcia managed to make it seven innings because he's actually younger than dirt, unlike the Mets starter tonight.

It's a situation so tricky that the Mets might actually be looking back towards Kris Benson.

(Black is up? East is white?)

So now it all falls on young Mike Pelfrey. If Mike Pelfrey can turn his needle towards the end of the meter that says "Francisco Liriano" or "Fernando Valenzuela from 1981", then you can live with Orlando's yo-yo at the back end of the rotation as long as Pedro comes back from his funky chicken. If Pelfrey's needle is on the left side which says "David West", well then there's trouble. Then the Mets will have to think long and hard about either biting the bullet and getting a starter out of Chicago, or perhaps dangling Milledge out there and hope it lures Dontrelle Willis back.

And on that subject, let me just say that while I am against trading young Lastings unless he does in fact turn into Dontrelle, let me take this opportunity to remind Omar Minaya that NOW, when you have a legitimate World Series contender, would be the time to consider trading young chips for proven stars. NOT when you're 6 and 1/2 back as if it were 2002 or 2004.

Consider that advice free.

McNugget Of Poison

Doesn't Pedro Martinez's contract have one of those standard clauses that prohibits dangerous activities like hangliding, motocross racing, and in Pedro's case, eating chicken in the Dominican Republic?

Silly us...afraid that Petey's shoulder wouldn't hold up for the duration of his four year contract. No...what we should have been afraid of was too much Mop & Glo on the clubhouse floor, and the cooks in the Dominican restaurants not washing their hands before handling the chicken.

Speaking as somebody who has had a recent battle with suspected food poisoning, I can tell you while you don't exactly think you're going to die, you find yourself waiting for death to knock on your door, but death isn't coming. That's what Pedro is feeling right about now.

And that's what Met fans must be feeling after sitting through a Cubs sixth inning rally on Saturday that was like Chinese water torture: drip, drip, drip. Sun-aided triple to right field. Baltimore chop up the middle. Baltimore chop over David Wright's head. Small portion single to left field. More of the same in the seventh inning against the soon to be minor-league bound Henry Owens (finally, I figure out who that chap wearing number 36 was, and they send him down. Wonderful.) And you're sitting back in your recliner, much like somebody experiencing food poisoning just hoping for that extended appointment with the porcelain god to make it stop, much like you're hoping for the long ball from Derrek Lee to convince you once and for all that it's over and you can go about your normal lives again. Wrong. You're bedridden with the IV attached to your vein going drip...drip...drip. And death won't come.

Speaking of death not coming, I actually got asked last night what happened to old friend Edgardo Alfonzo and his now fledgling career. And whaddaya know, he's back...signing a minor league deal with Norfolk today.

It would have to be so, of course, that on the week that a group of Mets took a playful pose on the cover of Sports Illustrated, that the team would bring back a player from the last time a group of playful Mets were the lead story of the grand old lady known as Sports Illustrated. And although I don't see it happening, I hope that Alfonzo finds his way into that Met uniform one more time, although it will have to be another model, due to 13 being off the rack.

Edgardo loves New York, and didn't hesitate to let the city know that after leaving for San Francisco...he put advertisements on top of yellow cabs thanking the city for eight great seasons. That to me is someone who deserves one last crack at glory here...even if it has to be as a September call-up. Even if it has to be reminiscent of John Stearns, who came up in 1984 on his last legs and hit a pinch hit double to a wild Shea Stadium ovation. It was an ovation brought about because deep down we all knew that John Stearns had nothing left in his aching body, but it was nice to see him contribute somewhat to a winning Met team with the blue and orange piping down the sides of the uniform that looked strange on "Dude"...rather than those putrid 70's teams that wasted the talents that John Stearns could have brought to a pennant contender.

Unlike Stearns, Alfonzo played on some winners and had considerably more talent than Stearns had...and it's such a shame that a 32 year old ball player has been reduced to grasping at one last ovation from the team that gave him so many a short time ago. Unfortunately, back issues has forced him to this point where he very well may have nothing left. But it was worth seeing John Stearns in that Met uniform that wasn't synonymous with losing. And it would be worth seeing Alfonzo perform one more time with the back drop of winner like himself.

Old Times

"Steve Trachsel worked slowly and the Cubs lost. Must have seemed like old times for longtime faithful at Wrigley Field."

For whoever wrote that...you win, my friend. I can't think of a better way to kick off blogging for half number two.

Because no statement truly crystallizes the good times the Mets are experiencing and the depths of despair that the Cubs are going through. Now I don't want to start a big riff on the Cubbies here, but you know how to tell how bad they are? Just look at the mild mannered Greg Maddux start barking at anyone who will listen about the botched double play in the 4th inning that Xavier Nady may or may not have been in the baseline for. Nady's take out slide forced Ronny Cedeno to throw an inning ending double play into the dugout and enabled two runs to score on the play. But telling is that instead of barking at the umpire, Maddux stayed near the mound and grumbled endlessly. Is this behavior consistent with the normally unflappable Greg Maddux...the Greg Maddux that spent many a season as an Atlanta Brave taking his surgical scalpel of a splitter and dissecting the Mets year in and year out? And a more important question is: Is this behavior consistent with someone who wants to continue drawing paychecks at his current place of business? Something tells me that Jim Hendry isn't going to have to twist Maddux's pitching arm too much to get him to accept a trade to a contender.

You know how else to tell how bad the Cubs are? How about the little kid pointing to where Chris Woodward's triple hit...a placement which should have made it a home run? Is this kid being raised the right way? Is this kid being raised to play fair and be honest? Or is this kid being raised to be a true Cubs fan..."let the visitors get all the runs they want, if there's a bottom of the ninth, we can all drink more beer!"

And then there's Steve Trachsel. He may drive you nuts...all right, he drives me nuts. But how ironic is it that the pitcher that was basically banished from the rotation after throwing a one-hitter last season...the pitcher who was labeled as starter number five behind a rookie and a disaster earlier this season...the pitcher that gets lost on everybody's radar behind two hall of famers is the one that's on the seven game win streak? Can you explain it? I sure as heck can't.

It certainly hasn't been too pretty, but at this point even if the Mets acquire a frontline starter such as a Livan Hernandez or a Jason Schmidt, can you argue that Steve Trachsel doesn't deserve playoff starts? Before you answer that, remember that what Trachsel has brought to the Mets during this streak, 6 innings, 2 or 3 runs, 3 or 4 walks, is basically the best you can expect to get in the playoffs. And the opposition during this streak has included legitimate playoff contenders such as the Reds, Yankees, and Blue Jays. How can you tell him no?

Just bring a bucket of Tums to the game...and share with your friends.

***

Can somebody explain to me why, during SNY's top ten plays of the first half for the Mets, play number 2 (or group of plays) were Aaron Rowand's face plant and Coco Crisp's crusher against the Mets?

Two?

And while we're at it, why are Matt Yallof and Ron Darling discussing Randy Johnson and tonight's Yankees/White Sox game during the first five minutes of the Mets pre-game show...the Mets pre-game show?

I understand that SNY isn't the propaganda machine that other team-owned stations are, but I give up trying to explain how this station seems willing to pull a hamstring to try to show how neutral they are. Even when they pull a hamstring they take great care to pull Rickey Henderson's hamstring because he played with both the Mets and the Yankees.

Really. I give up.

***

Here's another television thing that creeps me out: Chip Caray and Skip Caray in the same booth during Braves telecasts. Why? Because of Chip Caray quotes such as this:

"In 2003 Piazza threw out 28% of would be base stealers. This year Dad, throwing out 9% of base stealers.

I'll never get used to a grown man calling his broadcast partner "Dad".

That being said, I have to say that I am a touch disappointed that Braves games will no longer be on TBS nationally after this season...only because it's good to see a 10PM Braves/Padres game on a Friday night when there's nothing else on. It's the mortal enemy, but it's still a sporting event. And it's a good way to get out of watching programming on TLC or something equally domestic. Besides, how else am I going to notice Skip Caray ramping up the inflection and the volume of his announcing voice in hopes of remaining in the TBS broadcast booth for national games?

This brings up another television related question: If ESPN loses out on the last portion of the new baseball contract, what happens to a show like "Baseball Tonight"? There have been some complaints about putting playoff baseball on TBS, because nobody watches TBS for other shows. I don't really buy that, because baseball fans will watch baseball if it's on...well...TLC. And TBS gets a decent amount of clearance in homes. But what it will probably mean is that not only can't TBS provide as many baseball games as ESPN's entire family of networks can, TBS isn't going to provide a show like "Baseball Tonight" or other alternative baseball programming.

And that would be a shame. Because for as many times as I've voiced displeasure with something John Kruk says (and let's face it, when don't I voice displeasure...I'm cranky!) B.T. to me is unequivocally the best type of programming ESPN provides, and I hope that it isn't going to go away merely because the network loses it's rights. I can't imagine it would go away, and I'm not comparing baseball with hockey, but "NHL 2-Night", another great show with John Buccigross at the helm, went the way of the dinosaur when ESPN gave up its hockey package. The show was cut back well before that anyway. And I realize that hockey isn't nearly as big as baseball is here in the States, but it does make you think how much ESPN would cut back alternative programming like BT if it loses the rights to MLB games? Think about how much more often "NFL Live" has been on the air in the off-season after ESPN merely traded up its Sunday night package of games for the Monday night package.

It scares me that instead of BT, we'll have "Family Supper Hour" with the Carays to watch instead. "Hey look who's coming for dinner! It's Pete Van Weiren!!! Why don't you grab yourself some gravy and tell us if the Mariners are going to trade for some pitching."

Hey, I may disagree with John Kruk sometimes, but if it's a choice between getting my baseball from Kruk, and getting my baseball from Jeanne Zelasko, I will invite Kruk into my house any day of the week (I just have to hide my Labatt Blues.)

Second Quarter Grades

I received some flak over my quarter pole grades because I gave out too many A's. Apparently someone out there went to one of those really strict schools where if he got all 99's on his exams in the first quarter, he still got a C for the semester because there was so much more schooling to go.

Well, get ready for more good grades, as the Mets are running away with the division and they deserve it. These grades are weighted towards performance from May 23rd on...the second semester. If you don't like good grades, then just stare at your own report card for a couple of hours.

David Wright: Player of the month for June. MVP chants at Shea. Home run derby appearance. David Letterman guest spot. Shall I go on? Head of the class.

Grade: A+

Jose Reyes: Part of the reason that the Mets are in such good shape is that the two players of the future are starting to present themselves in the present. I have Reyes a B when he was hitting .246; he's hitting .300 now. Sorry folks, another good grade.

Grade: A+

Paul Lo Duca: Average has jumped from .279 to .302 so far in the month of July. And he may be the best post game interview Shea Stadium has seen in years.

Grade: A

Carlos Beltran: Maybe, just maybe, the most important component of Beltran's renaissance is the jump in his walk total and OBP from last year to this year. The presence of Carlos Delgado has helped that, but Beltran is smart enough to know he doesn't have to do it all this time.

Grade: A

Darren Oliver: No question, the unsung hero of the Mets. Impressive stats, but it's his willingness to eat innings in blowout losses or emergencies that has kept the bullpen fresh for the closer games.

Grade: A

Chad Bradford: Save for one disaster against Pittsburgh, Bradford hasn't given up a run since May 18th. His efforts have been so quiet that Shea Stadium security still checks his ID at the door...they're not entirely sure he's on the team.

Grade: A

Tom Glavine: Statistics have dipped a bit since the first round of grades, but Glavine is still undefeated since April 24th.

Grade: A-

Duaner Sanchez: Not quite the dominant force he was earlier, but still extremely Duanerlicious.

Grade: A-

Pedro Feliciano: Nothing but zeroes and zeroes and zeroes from Feliciano.

Grade: A-

Endy Chavez: He's Jermaine Allensworth with a purpose. (I don't know what that means either.)

Grade: B+

Jose Valentin: Is this going to keep up with Valentin? Who cares! Kaz Matsui is gone. And that's thanks to Jose.

Grade: B+

Steve Trachsel: Any starting pitcher, especially a Met starting pitcher, who wins six starts in a row by all rights and purposes should receive an A. But I'm not giving it to him because he's gotta give me heart attacks along the way. Safety net not included.

Grade: B+

Julio Franco: Hasn't broken up any fights or soothed any egos that we know of this quarter, but you know that Julio is working behind the scenes to make this 2006 Mets experience a safe and happy one for you. If Rusty Staub ate egg whites instead of ribs, might Rusty still be playing today?

Grade: B

Billy Wagner: I've gotta be somewhat nice to him and give him some credit for bouncing back after the Yankee debacle. Has done well in the limited amount of save situations he's been in, but still had a bad meltdown in him against Cincinnati...and I just can't quite embrace him quite yet. Closers, you see, get graded on a much harsher curve. He's getting there though.

Grade: B

Ramon Castro: If Ramon Castro had head-butted Marco Matterazzi, Matterazzi would have died an ugly death.

Grade: B

Carlos Delgado: A couple of short but nasty slumps has kept his average down, but the power numbers are still there. There's a good deal of room for improvement for Delgado.

Grade: B-

Orlando Hernandez: I still can't get over the sight of Orlando in orange, blue, and black. Giving him a grade his tough because he's gone back and forth between ridiculous and sublime. Yo-yo-ing like his 50 mph curve ball.

Grade: B-

Pedro Martinez: I'll cut Petey a little slack because he was injured...but then I gotta take that slack away because his injury was caused while putting on a t-shirt. That's not cool.

Grade: C+

Xavier Nady: Another guy I have to cut a little slack for because appendicitis and broken bones in your wrist don't tickle. But he needs to get find his power stroke and stop chasing low slop.

Grade: C+

Cliff Floyd: Yet another outfielder who needs to find his power stroke. He's actually hitting .249 which is amazing after the sludgy start he got off to. But this lineup needs Cliff Floyd to be vintage '05.

Grade: C+

Alay Soler: The strike zone is your friend. Go ahead, touch it. It's not going to bite you.

Grade: C

Lastings Milledge: It was short, but it certainly was eventful, wasn't it?

Grade: C-

Chris Woodward: Is he still here? I hope he still has one monster hit left in him this season.

Grade: D+

Aaron Heilman: Earth to Aaron, it should be apparent by now that you are never going to start for this team unless Pedro, Glavine, Orlando, Trachsel, Soler, Jose Lima, Oliver, Mike Pelfrey, Willie Collazo, Jeremi Gonzalez, Ron Darling, Al Jackson, Jason Scobie, Jeff Musselman, Julio Valera, and Victor Zambrano all come down with the H5N1 virus. So get over it and pick it up, or you're getting traded to the Tokyo Giants for Taka Tanaka.

Grade: D+

Trevor Hoffman: I don't want to hear about your own World Series aspirations. You pitched for the Mets on Tuesday. And you blew it.

Grade: F

I'm Still Standing...Yeah Yeah Yeah!

Well, I created this mess...actually, Alay Soler and Heath Bell created this mess...so it's time to come and clean up. Kind of feels like the poor soul that had to clean up the airplane after the '86 Mets came back from Houston.

As much as I despised losing this bet, and as much as it pains me to have exposed you all to the junk that you have been exposed to, I consider the residue of this failed bet an education for all of you. And I don't mean an education in terms of what their messages were (heavens no), but more of an education of what I put up with day in, and day out, and have put up with for a good long time. It's part of the constant persecution faced by me, your fellow Met fan, that spurred me on to spread gospel to all of you through this little blog. It would be easy to come to you all today to say forget what you've read...put it behind you...pay no attention to the ramblings of that madman. I'm not going to tell you that. Rather, I want you to remember the previous 24 hours. Because you sometimes have to taste the blood of evil, know the scent, and understand just how low the enemy will stoop to develop an appetite for conquest. Eyes on the prize, boys and girls...eyes on the prize.

But seriously, didn't Darth Marc remind you of James Brown over these past few hours? "I can't go no more. I can't go no more." Only to come back with another unintelligible number. Six posts? Man, that's like two weeks worth of posts on his own blog. While hardly necessary, it's worth a bit of analysis.

First it was some drivel about Anthony Young and "Who Let The Dogs Out", which I believe is still on the charts just below that song about the sodomy in men's exercise clubs that groundscrews dance to in the Bronx.

Anthony Young?

The Mets have employed various lunatics, felons, and psycophants, and Anthony Young is the best you can come up with?

And about the whole "I'm gonna shoot myself if one more Met fan tells me the Met rivalry is better than the Red Sox rivalry", who the hell says this? I don't know which Met fans you talk to, but I know of nobody who actually thinks this way. I think somebody should emerge out of the bars once in a while (if you're Darthy's friend, chances are you're in the bars) and stop talking to creepy strangers while the F train is stuck in Brooklyn...like, oh my god!

Then, Darth Marc has to enlist the help of another cartoon character to try to slay me with the same tired, old material I've heard from him for nine years. Dude, when it comes to the men who've carried the title of "Batman", Val Kilmer laughs at you.

And before Darth gets all proud of himself for siccing "Batman" on me and thinking that he caught me off guard with that one, he (and you) should know this: If I had won this bet, then this Yankee fan known as "Batman" (who by the way completely sold Darth Marc out by letting me know his potential game plan) had verbally agreed to write a guest column for me as well, at the ready to blast his fellow Yankee fan Darthy for being an overall jinx to his team in various ways. So you see "Batman" is nothing more than a calculating mercenary who burns both ends of the candle, will blog for the highest bidder, and has no problem attacking his own.

Superhero my ass.

Then, the picture album. Awwwwwwwww, how cute...and mature too. I especially like the one that depicts their heroes in the moments after being asked about steroids.

Just when you thought he was done ("I can't go no more!"), in true Darth form, he gets all Zinedine Zidane on us and gets rattled by the gallery. It's just more proof that together, we can fight Sports Blogging Deficiency.

The next post might be my absolute favorite, as our favorite Yankee fan turns his lonely eyes to...Joe DiMaggio? No, Cole Hamels.

Cole Hamels???

What kind of time do we live in where a Yankee fan who has a week and a half to plan his assault has to depend on facts about a rookie pitcher from a town he despises...who has a 5.44 ERA to boot...to make his point? Come on Darthy Cakes, I expect more from you than that.

Well...maybe I shouldn't. After all, this is a man who has consistently extolled the virtues of the strength of the American League this season...while of course masking the fact that his Yanks are a little more than a razor's edge out of a playoff spot (notice on his blog that there are a lot more posts about the Yankees after they win, and a lot more posts about the American League, Met bashing, and movie reviews after Yankee losses). Hey, say all you want about the National League East being a piss poor division...and about the NL getting their heads handed to them in interleague play...or about Trevor Hoffman (jackass). I for one would rather be in the position that the Mets are in right now than in the position the Yanks are in...any time, any day, any place. The Yankees certainly never had to apologize for winning division after division after division where past Boston there was no discernible talent to speak of. So why should the Mets?

And for the argument that the AL has become dominant because of the Yankees raising their payroll. Great! Too bad that the Yankees raising their payroll hasn't helped the Yankees win any more championships, since your last World Series win (yes, which came at the Mets expense) was won the last time the Yankees had a somewhat reasonable payroll. Now, the payroll is double what it was just six seasons ago with nothing to show for it. Surely you understand that an organization with standards as lofty as yours must consider two World Series losses and three other playoff losses a complete failure with the salaries you've voluntarily taken on. (And please spare us the innocent bystander act just because it was other teams that signed the contracts...because you know that you're the only organization that can swoop in like vultures when those original contracts make for an unhappy marriage, and are more than happy to get guys like Alex Rodriguez at cut rate prices. And before you give me the fact that you gave up a legitimate talent like Alfonso Soriano remember...you depended on our boob of a commissioner to look the other way and give a "well, I'm really not supposed to do this but...OK, just this once, and just because it's the Yankees" speech while knowing full well that Soriano would eventually make his way back to the Yanks in a trade that will make the evenness of the original A-Rod trade a distant memory...and you know damn well that Soriano trade is coming.)

Then finally, the piece de resistance:

"I can be as lame as I want."

Rock on Darthy. It's nice to have goals.

But here is where I'm going to agree with you Darth...

"There is nothing wrong with demanding excellence from the teams you root for."

That sir, is yet another in the myriad of reasons why I started this blog (well that along with the lure of fame, fortune, and world domination). I started this to use a little smart alecky dreck to demand a little excellence from a team in the number one market in the world, along with exposing the injustices caused by the likes of you. And trust me...if the 2006 Mets reach the very pinnacle, I'll celebrate until April of 2007. And yes, I will enjoy this more because of the 20 years of Gene Walters and Bobby Bonillas and Paul Gibsons and David Wests and Vince Colemans, and the ten years working in an office next to yours. Victory is sweeter when it's after 20 defeats. I mean, wasn't 1996 the sweetest one of all for you?

But if it happens, I'll want more. Because there's nothing wrong with demanding excellence from a team with a young manager, a young, talented left side of the infield, a centerfielder in his prime, a tough young bullpen, a farm system that's slowly building back up, a young stud pitcher who's sky is the limit, and a smart, tough general manager who entered a garbage dump and made an organization out of it. There's nothing wrong with that.

But before we start dreaming about a dynasty, let's worry about the first one first. And when that first one comes just remember Darthy:

Anything you've said here in the past 24 hours can be used against you in the court of karma. Especially the one about "I appreciate my good fortune whenever I go to Shea and watch you guys suffer", from a man who gets on the case of Met fans for hating their team more than loving their own. I guarantee you that more Yankee fans pay money to go to Shea during non-interleague games to openly root against the Mets than the other way around...you included.

"There but for the grace of Ruth go I..."

The only place that the grace of Ruth goes these days is to that great speakeasy in the sky for more brandy and hot dogs.

I have a slightly more poignant quote for you...I believe it's on the facade of your little faux cathedral: