How many Mets fans here actually make posts about the Mets?

[Matt39]

LL being one....and the rest????

Isn't that just a little strange?

We all know the J/B is simply obsessed with the Yankees, but damn...it seems the Mets fans are just as bad.

[TomShane]

It's simple, bro. When you're a Mets fan you have no expectations of winning, so when the team doesn't win there's nothing to write about. Now, when the Yankees, whose fans come out in force to tell anyone who will listen that they're WS locks in April, lose, it's news because no one spins reality quite like Yankee Nation. btw, when is Randy Johnson going to start his AL Cy Young campaign?

[Matt39]

Well, I'm as hard on the Jets as I am on the Yankees. Im surprised you're not the same Tom?

The Mets are just as overpaid as the Yankees! But they're expected not to compete? How do you get away with that? Simply because the YAnkees are in town as well?

Seriously, I have no problem with the Mets nor their fans. I'll even root for them at times. Seriously when Benitiez blew that game in 02 I think against the Braves to end their playoff hopes I was pissed.

This year has just been ridiculous though. Borderline scary. Your team sucks too!

[The Troll]

btw, when is Randy Johnson going to start his AL Cy Young campaign?

After Derek Jeter starts his MVP campaign.

[Matt39]

After Derek Jeter starts his MVP campaign.

3000 years and counting

[T-Mac]

I do all the time, but Smizzy jumps all over the delete button. Who the hell made this blockhead a mod anyway?

[Jetsfan80]

Well, I'm as hard on the Jets as I am on the Yankees. Im surprised you're not the same Tom?

The Mets are just as overpaid as the Yankees! But they're expected not to compete? How do you get away with that? Simply because the YAnkees are in town as well?

Seriously, I have no problem with the Mets nor their fans. I'll even root for them at times. Seriously when Benitiez blew that game in 02 I think against the Braves to end their playoff hopes I was pissed.

This year has just been ridiculous though. Borderline scary. Your team sucks too!

Uhh, dude, last I checked, the Yankees are overpaid twice as much, and not only that, but the Mets are as many games out of the wild card (4 games in the loss column) as the Yankees. OH! And, we didn't get swept by the Royals, nor do the Devil Rays own us.

[GimmeShelter]

Uhh, dude, last I checked, the Yankees are overpaid twice as much, and not only that, but the Mets are as many games out of the wild card (4 games in the loss column) as the Yankees. OH! And, we didn't get swept by the Royals, nor do the Devil Rays own us.

Correct. Give the Mets another 100 mill in players(ie bring the payroll upto Yankeee level) and we would not be treading water.

Mets have had injuries but will click at some point.

Remember Yanks being 2x our payroll does not equate to both NY teams being equally overpaid.

Mets fans comment on Yankees due to,

1.) There are so few of us on this board so our threads get buried quickly.

2.) Go back to opening day Yankee threads or GJH thread giving Yanks credit for Mets losing to the Braves.

[Jet/BosoxFan]

Dont sweat this Matt39 dude, Met fans...he's just trying to rain on your Yankee-hatin' parade. I've heard this act before from this guy. We dont have to justify hating a team that over-spends the rest of baseball by a wide margain and brings in the most unlikebale, detestable players like A-hole, Giamboo, and Garroid. We hate the Yankees, Matt, and we have multiple orgasms when they lose 3-of-4 to the putrid Devil Rays! Get the F used to it, already, will ya!!!

Something tells me Matt39 will be the first one at the door begging for an invite when we throw this year's Yankee Elimination Party!

[shawn306]

Uhh, dude, last I checked, the Yankees are overpaid twice as much, and not only that, but the Mets are as many games out of the wild card (4 games in the loss column) as the Yankees. OH! And, we didn't get swept by the Royals, nor do the Devil Rays own us.

Yeah but the A's and Mariners do

[shawn306]

Correct. Give the Mets another 100 mill in players(ie bring the payroll upto Yankeee level) and we would not be treading water.

Mets have had injuries but will click at some point.

Remember Yanks being 2x our payroll does not equate to both NY teams being equally overpaid.

Mets fans comment on Yankees due to,

1.) There are so few of us on this board so our threads get buried quickly.

2.) Go back to opening day Yankee threads or GJH thread giving Yanks credit for Mets losing to the Braves.

[Latinlawyer]

Hey man, mets fans are loyal...ask FABA...we do post. This upcoming subway series is crucial...we need to climb out from the cellar and the yanks need a series win after that disgusting display against the devil rays.

METS SWEEP YANKS...after a 3 out of 4 series against the rays...anything is possible.

LL

[Latinlawyer]

Hey man, mets fans are loyal...ask FABA...we do post. This upcoming subway series is crucial...we need to climb out from the cellar and the yanks need a series win after that disgusting display against the devil rays.

METS SWEEP YANKS...after a 3 out of 4 series against the rays...anything is possible.

LL

[Jetsfan80]

I'm not making any predictions for this upcoming series. While it obviously can't be treated like any other series, at this point in the season, it's important for another reason: Despite being in last place, there is some sunlight left in this season after the Mets took 2 of 3 against the Phillies. If we win 2 of 3 or sweep the Yankees, it would put us right back in the hunt in the NL East. Heck, the Mets, as bad as they've been, are only 3 games back of the wild card in the loss column, so every one of these games matters.

[T-Mac]

You want a post about the Mets? Now that we're both at .500 I'll tell you what's wrong w/ the Mets. Willie Randolph. Your 1B CAN'T hit .210. Took too long to find an injury excuse for Matsui. Thankfully you now have one for M*******z. Why can't Wright have a more prominent spot in the batting order? Heilman may not turn out to be Isringhausen, but let's just throw him out there once in a while and see what happens. Reyes, despite his recent run, is no leadoff hitter. But the Yankees lose, Thuuuuugh, Yankees lose.

[T-Mac]

You want a post about the Mets? Now that we're both at .500 I'll tell you what's wrong w/ the Mets. Willie Randolph. Your 1B CAN'T hit .210. Took too long to find an injury excuse for Matsui. Thankfully you now have one for M*******z. Why can't Wright have a more prominent spot in the batting order? Heilman may not turn out to be Isringhausen, but let's just throw him out there once in a while and see what happens. Reyes, despite his recent run, is no leadoff hitter. But the Yankees lose, Thuuuuugh, Yankees lose.

[Maxman]

T-Mac:

Willie is learning no doubt. A few things though.

Willie is from the school of thought that you take as much pressure off the young kids as possible. This is why Wright hits where he does. Anyone remember Soriano hitting 9th when he started? If Wright continues to hit like he has, he will be moved up for good.

Also you have to give Willie credit for letting this team run. They lead the NL in stolen bases and are pretty agressive.

[Maxman]

T-Mac:

Willie is learning no doubt. A few things though.

Willie is from the school of thought that you take as much pressure off the young kids as possible. This is why Wright hits where he does. Anyone remember Soriano hitting 9th when he started? If Wright continues to hit like he has, he will be moved up for good.

Also you have to give Willie credit for letting this team run. They lead the NL in stolen bases and are pretty agressive.

[GimmeShelter]

You want a post about the Mets? Now that we're both at .500 I'll tell you what's wrong w/ the Mets. Willie Randolph. Your 1B CAN'T hit .210. Took too long to find an injury excuse for Matsui. Thankfully you now have one for M*******z. Why can't Wright have a more prominent spot in the batting order? Heilman may not turn out to be Isringhausen, but let's just throw him out there once in a while and see what happens. Reyes, despite his recent run, is no leadoff hitter. But the Yankees lose, Thuuuuugh, Yankees lose.

Dead on the money T-Mac.

Lyle Overbay from Milwaukee would be nice at first.

In fact he would be worthy of a long term deal.

Brewers say they may wait till off-season to move him but Cecil's son Prince Fielder needs to play every day.

[GimmeShelter]

You want a post about the Mets? Now that we're both at .500 I'll tell you what's wrong w/ the Mets. Willie Randolph. Your 1B CAN'T hit .210. Took too long to find an injury excuse for Matsui. Thankfully you now have one for M*******z. Why can't Wright have a more prominent spot in the batting order? Heilman may not turn out to be Isringhausen, but let's just throw him out there once in a while and see what happens. Reyes, despite his recent run, is no leadoff hitter. But the Yankees lose, Thuuuuugh, Yankees lose.

Dead on the money T-Mac.

Lyle Overbay from Milwaukee would be nice at first.

In fact he would be worthy of a long term deal.

Brewers say they may wait till off-season to move him but Cecil's son Prince Fielder needs to play every day.

[faba]

The Mets have holes in the team but the future is looking better with young guys that have talent in Reyes, Wright and Beltran as mainstays for many years in the lineup.

Heilman I too would like to see out there in the starting rotation or as set-up man -give him a role and stick to it and see how good he can actually be

[faba]

The Mets have holes in the team but the future is looking better with young guys that have talent in Reyes, Wright and Beltran as mainstays for many years in the lineup.

Heilman I too would like to see out there in the starting rotation or as set-up man -give him a role and stick to it and see how good he can actually be

[TomShane]

Well, I'm as hard on the Jets as I am on the Yankees. Im surprised you're not the same Tom?

The Mets are just as overpaid as the Yankees! But they're expected not to compete? How do you get away with that? Simply because the YAnkees are in town as well?

!

Matt, I just saw this post, bro. Excellent point. What you can at least say about the Mets that you can't always say about the Jets is that when the Mets screw up, they screw up in an attempt (albeit misguided) to win, and they at least throw us a bone, like in '86 and 2000.

But the Mets, and Mets fans can tell you this, are extremely hard to root for consistently to the point where you form an emotional attachment to them. When the Jets are bad, they at least have a loveable loser ethic to them (except for the Kotite debacle). When the Mets are bad, they have Bobby Bonilla and Brett Saberhagen on their team basically telling the fans to f*ck themselves. Our Met heroes are the egomaniacal Tom Seaver, drug addled Doc Gooden, Keith Hernandez and Darryl Strawberry, or, for die-hard Mets fans, guys like Ray Knight and Ed Kranepool. We don't have a Mick or a Babe or Joe D., who, despite their faults, transcended the game. When the Yanks are bad, their fans think about Murderer's Row. When the Mets are bad, we are reminded that Kevin Mitchell once cut the head off of a cat during a coke binge.

The Mets franchise, historically, is a mess with a ton of money that they spend foolishly and, despite all that, every so often stumble on to a 1986 or a 2000. Do we expect any success we may have to last more than one year? No. Do we expect to see success again? Sure. Someday. When you're a Mets fan, you watch the Mets out of the corner of your eye and you don't bet the mortgage on anything going right with them. If they win, it's a great story. If they lose, you go mow the lawn.

For instance, was I happy when we hired Willie Randolph as manager? Absolutely. I knew he was a no-nonsense winner, and one of my favorite baseball stories of all time was the one in which Willie, then Yanks third base coach, walked up to young stud and King of the Baseball World Ken Griffey Jr. The story goes that Willie says nothing, but reaches up, takes Griffey's baseball hat off that he was wearing backwards at the time (in BP), and puts it back on his head the right way as if Griff was 6 years old. True balls. That was what the Mets need desperately--someone who does things the right way and isn't afraid to turn a superstar's hat around on his head. However, my concern was that Willie would come in, spend two minutes with Jeff Wilpon, throw up on his shoes and run screaming back to the Bronx. There is no discounting how stupid the Wilpons are when it comes to making baseball decisions, and I figured WIllie would get sick with the unprofessionalism in Met-land. Instead, Omar Minaya seems to be keeping the Wilpon's locked in the broom closet while him and Willie clean up their mess.

When we signed Beltran, was I happy? Yes. But I was deeply concerned how a streaky hitter with sporadic power was going to do in the caverns of Shea Stadium, where you can hit a 409 foot warning track pop-up while the winds are always blowing in, except in center field where they have hurricane level swirls that turn career Gold Glovers (Mike Cameron) into Comedy Central-worthy error-prone buffoons (Mike Cameron).

When we signed Pedro, was I happy? Yes. But I was concerned how a beat-up pitcher with declining stuff was going to do in a Stadium that makes professional pitchers and Cy Young winners (Tom Glavine) look like whiny morons (Tom Glavine), especially considering the Mets' penchant for paying butchers to play behind them in the infield. Also factor in the Mets fans's legendary short fuse with primadonnas (Bonilla, Piazza, Straw), and I was also concerned how Pedro would respond the first time he gave up eight runs in three innings with the Shea crowd booing him. Pedro would have gotten on a plane back to the Dominican with a season ending "strained hammy."

Being a Mets fan is a different beast than being a Yanks fan. You guys have the luxury to hoot and holler in May that you're about to field a team of All-Stars because even if one of them implodes on you, Big George is going to go get another one to replace him. Mets fans, despite the insane Wilpon money, know better. When Bonilla sucked, he went out there every day. When Kaz Matsui sucks, he's out there. When Glavine, Kaz Ishii, Al Leiter, etc, can't get an out, they're going out there regardless. With the Yanks? Giambi sucks? Let's get Mike Sweeney. Tony Womack sucks? Let's go get Adam Dunn. It's a positive that George cares more about winning than he does about the bottom line--clearly not the case with Wilpon--but it's equally indisputable that by doing so, he has created a different kind of fan expectation that is not particularly healthy or fun, for that matter. You can't tell me that Yanks fans aren't embarrassed by five years of losing to inferior teams--teams that in some cases cost a third or a quarter of what the Yankees do.

When the Mets falter, Mets fans just kind of shrug their shoulders because we know that Wilpon is going to dance with the multi-million dollar hookers he brought. When the Yanks falter, Big Daddy George comes to the rescue and bumps his payroll up another $20 mil. That's why the Yanks are laughable, and that's why fans of other teams piss all over the Yanks when they lose.

So is it right that as a Mets fan I LOVE ripping the Yanks? Yes. Because the Mets are the Mets. And that's allllll the Mets ever aspire to be. But the Yankees are America's Team. They're 26 time World Champions. They have their own TV Network, They've assembled their own group of homer broadcast "journalists" and sportscasters to spew propaganda. The Yankees aren't a team so much as an icon--a brand. Saying that the Mets suck means nothing more than that the Mets baseball team sucks. Big Deal. But saying "The Yankees Suck" is an attack on an entire nation--an entire way of life that is sold to the American public as a utopian ideal. The Yanks sell themselves as THE model sports franchise in the entire world--think about that--the entire WORLD, and they can barely field a .500 team. Nobody gives a sh*t if the Mets suck because they are just a baseball team. But people care that the Yanks suck because, in every one of their advertisements and in every inch of Yankee paraphenalia; in every fan, every vendor, every T-Shirt, every Yankeeography, in every time a pinstripe appears on TV, we are reminded that the Yankees pretend to be much more than a baseball team. And in the end, they are not. And right now, they are the world's most expensive .500 team. If they were an IPO, stockholders would be jumping out of windows.

[TomShane]

Well, I'm as hard on the Jets as I am on the Yankees. Im surprised you're not the same Tom?

The Mets are just as overpaid as the Yankees! But they're expected not to compete? How do you get away with that? Simply because the YAnkees are in town as well?

!

Matt, I just saw this post, bro. Excellent point. What you can at least say about the Mets that you can't always say about the Jets is that when the Mets screw up, they screw up in an attempt (albeit misguided) to win, and they at least throw us a bone, like in '86 and 2000.

But the Mets, and Mets fans can tell you this, are extremely hard to root for consistently to the point where you form an emotional attachment to them. When the Jets are bad, they at least have a loveable loser ethic to them (except for the Kotite debacle). When the Mets are bad, they have Bobby Bonilla and Brett Saberhagen on their team basically telling the fans to f*ck themselves. Our Met heroes are the egomaniacal Tom Seaver, drug addled Doc Gooden, Keith Hernandez and Darryl Strawberry, or, for die-hard Mets fans, guys like Ray Knight and Ed Kranepool. We don't have a Mick or a Babe or Joe D., who, despite their faults, transcended the game. When the Yanks are bad, their fans think about Murderer's Row. When the Mets are bad, we are reminded that Kevin Mitchell once cut the head off of a cat during a coke binge.

The Mets franchise, historically, is a mess with a ton of money that they spend foolishly and, despite all that, every so often stumble on to a 1986 or a 2000. Do we expect any success we may have to last more than one year? No. Do we expect to see success again? Sure. Someday. When you're a Mets fan, you watch the Mets out of the corner of your eye and you don't bet the mortgage on anything going right with them. If they win, it's a great story. If they lose, you go mow the lawn.

For instance, was I happy when we hired Willie Randolph as manager? Absolutely. I knew he was a no-nonsense winner, and one of my favorite baseball stories of all time was the one in which Willie, then Yanks third base coach, walked up to young stud and King of the Baseball World Ken Griffey Jr. The story goes that Willie says nothing, but reaches up, takes Griffey's baseball hat off that he was wearing backwards at the time (in BP), and puts it back on his head the right way as if Griff was 6 years old. True balls. That was what the Mets need desperately--someone who does things the right way and isn't afraid to turn a superstar's hat around on his head. However, my concern was that Willie would come in, spend two minutes with Jeff Wilpon, throw up on his shoes and run screaming back to the Bronx. There is no discounting how stupid the Wilpons are when it comes to making baseball decisions, and I figured WIllie would get sick with the unprofessionalism in Met-land. Instead, Omar Minaya seems to be keeping the Wilpon's locked in the broom closet while him and Willie clean up their mess.

When we signed Beltran, was I happy? Yes. But I was deeply concerned how a streaky hitter with sporadic power was going to do in the caverns of Shea Stadium, where you can hit a 409 foot warning track pop-up while the winds are always blowing in, except in center field where they have hurricane level swirls that turn career Gold Glovers (Mike Cameron) into Comedy Central-worthy error-prone buffoons (Mike Cameron).

When we signed Pedro, was I happy? Yes. But I was concerned how a beat-up pitcher with declining stuff was going to do in a Stadium that makes professional pitchers and Cy Young winners (Tom Glavine) look like whiny morons (Tom Glavine), especially considering the Mets' penchant for paying butchers to play behind them in the infield. Also factor in the Mets fans's legendary short fuse with primadonnas (Bonilla, Piazza, Straw), and I was also concerned how Pedro would respond the first time he gave up eight runs in three innings with the Shea crowd booing him. Pedro would have gotten on a plane back to the Dominican with a season ending "strained hammy."

Being a Mets fan is a different beast than being a Yanks fan. You guys have the luxury to hoot and holler in May that you're about to field a team of All-Stars because even if one of them implodes on you, Big George is going to go get another one to replace him. Mets fans, despite the insane Wilpon money, know better. When Bonilla sucked, he went out there every day. When Kaz Matsui sucks, he's out there. When Glavine, Kaz Ishii, Al Leiter, etc, can't get an out, they're going out there regardless. With the Yanks? Giambi sucks? Let's get Mike Sweeney. Tony Womack sucks? Let's go get Adam Dunn. It's a positive that George cares more about winning than he does about the bottom line--clearly not the case with Wilpon--but it's equally indisputable that by doing so, he has created a different kind of fan expectation that is not particularly healthy or fun, for that matter. You can't tell me that Yanks fans aren't embarrassed by five years of losing to inferior teams--teams that in some cases cost a third or a quarter of what the Yankees do.

When the Mets falter, Mets fans just kind of shrug their shoulders because we know that Wilpon is going to dance with the multi-million dollar hookers he brought. When the Yanks falter, Big Daddy George comes to the rescue and bumps his payroll up another $20 mil. That's why the Yanks are laughable, and that's why fans of other teams piss all over the Yanks when they lose.

So is it right that as a Mets fan I LOVE ripping the Yanks? Yes. Because the Mets are the Mets. And that's allllll the Mets ever aspire to be. But the Yankees are America's Team. They're 26 time World Champions. They have their own TV Network, They've assembled their own group of homer broadcast "journalists" and sportscasters to spew propaganda. The Yankees aren't a team so much as an icon--a brand. Saying that the Mets suck means nothing more than that the Mets baseball team sucks. Big Deal. But saying "The Yankees Suck" is an attack on an entire nation--an entire way of life that is sold to the American public as a utopian ideal. The Yanks sell themselves as THE model sports franchise in the entire world--think about that--the entire WORLD, and they can barely field a .500 team. Nobody gives a sh*t if the Mets suck because they are just a baseball team. But people care that the Yanks suck because, in every one of their advertisements and in every inch of Yankee paraphenalia; in every fan, every vendor, every T-Shirt, every Yankeeography, in every time a pinstripe appears on TV, we are reminded that the Yankees pretend to be much more than a baseball team. And in the end, they are not. And right now, they are the world's most expensive .500 team. If they were an IPO, stockholders would be jumping out of windows.

[Preston Howley III]

You want a post about the Mets? Now that we're both at .500

It's all uphill from here. You got 3 or 4 guys who really could use a season in AAA.

And yet, they are competing and on the verge of sweeping the Yanks.

Minaya and Randolph are way ahead of schedule with this team.

[Preston Howley III]

You want a post about the Mets? Now that we're both at .500

It's all uphill from here. You got 3 or 4 guys who really could use a season in AAA.

And yet, they are competing and on the verge of sweeping the Yanks.

Minaya and Randolph are way ahead of schedule with this team.

[T-Mac]

You want a post about the Mets? Now that we're both at .500 I'll tell you what's wrong w/ the Mets. Willie Randolph. Your 1B CAN'T hit .210. Took too long to find an injury excuse for Matsui. Thankfully you now have one for M*******z. Why can't Wright have a more prominent spot in the batting order? Heilman may not turn out to be Isringhausen, but let's just throw him out there once in a while and see what happens. Reyes, despite his recent run, is no leadoff hitter. But the Yankees lose, Thuuuuugh, Yankees lose.

How did I forget LoOper? {B]WHY can't WilliE leave Hernandez in the game after he fought thru A JAM?

[T-Mac]

You want a post about the Mets? Now that we're both at .500 I'll tell you what's wrong w/ the Mets. Willie Randolph. Your 1B CAN'T hit .210. Took too long to find an injury excuse for Matsui. Thankfully you now have one for M*******z. Why can't Wright have a more prominent spot in the batting order? Heilman may not turn out to be Isringhausen, but let's just throw him out there once in a while and see what happens. Reyes, despite his recent run, is no leadoff hitter. But the Yankees lose, Thuuuuugh, Yankees lose.

How did I forget LoOper? {B]WHY can't WilliE leave Hernandez in the game after he fought thru A JAM?

[Jetsfan80]

Matt, I just saw this post, bro. Excellent point. What you can at least say about the Mets that you can't always say about the Jets is that when the Mets screw up, they screw up in an attempt (albeit misguided) to win, and they at least throw us a bone, like in '86 and 2000.

But the Mets, and Mets fans can tell you this, are extremely hard to root for consistently to the point where you form an emotional attachment to them. When the Jets are bad, they at least have a loveable loser ethic to them (except for the Kotite debacle). When the Mets are bad, they have Bobby Bonilla and Brett Saberhagen on their team basically telling the fans to f*ck themselves. Our Met heroes are the egomaniacal Tom Seaver, drug addled Doc Gooden, Keith Hernandez and Darryl Strawberry, or, for die-hard Mets fans, guys like Ray Knight and Ed Kranepool. We don't have a Mick or a Babe or Joe D., who, despite their faults, transcended the game. When the Yanks are bad, their fans think about Murderer's Row. When the Mets are bad, we are reminded that Kevin Mitchell once cut the head off of a cat during a coke binge.

The Mets franchise, historically, is a mess with a ton of money that they spend foolishly and, despite all that, every so often stumble on to a 1986 or a 2000. Do we expect any success we may have to last more than one year? No. Do we expect to see success again? Sure. Someday. When you're a Mets fan, you watch the Mets out of the corner of your eye and you don't bet the mortgage on anything going right with them. If they win, it's a great story. If they lose, you go mow the lawn.

For instance, was I happy when we hired Willie Randolph as manager? Absolutely. I knew he was a no-nonsense winner, and one of my favorite baseball stories of all time was the one in which Willie, then Yanks third base coach, walked up to young stud and King of the Baseball World Ken Griffey Jr. The story goes that Willie says nothing, but reaches up, takes Griffey's baseball hat off that he was wearing backwards at the time (in BP), and puts it back on his head the right way as if Griff was 6 years old. True balls. That was what the Mets need desperately--someone who does things the right way and isn't afraid to turn a superstar's hat around on his head. However, my concern was that Willie would come in, spend two minutes with Jeff Wilpon, throw up on his shoes and run screaming back to the Bronx. There is no discounting how stupid the Wilpons are when it comes to making baseball decisions, and I figured WIllie would get sick with the unprofessionalism in Met-land. Instead, Omar Minaya seems to be keeping the Wilpon's locked in the broom closet while him and Willie clean up their mess.

When we signed Beltran, was I happy? Yes. But I was deeply concerned how a streaky hitter with sporadic power was going to do in the caverns of Shea Stadium, where you can hit a 409 foot warning track pop-up while the winds are always blowing in, except in center field where they have hurricane level swirls that turn career Gold Glovers (Mike Cameron) into Comedy Central-worthy error-prone buffoons (Mike Cameron).

When we signed Pedro, was I happy? Yes. But I was concerned how a beat-up pitcher with declining stuff was going to do in a Stadium that makes professional pitchers and Cy Young winners (Tom Glavine) look like whiny morons (Tom Glavine), especially considering the Mets' penchant for paying butchers to play behind them in the infield. Also factor in the Mets fans's legendary short fuse with primadonnas (Bonilla, Piazza, Straw), and I was also concerned how Pedro would respond the first time he gave up eight runs in three innings with the Shea crowd booing him. Pedro would have gotten on a plane back to the Dominican with a season ending "strained hammy."

Being a Mets fan is a different beast than being a Yanks fan. You guys have the luxury to hoot and holler in May that you're about to field a team of All-Stars because even if one of them implodes on you, Big George is going to go get another one to replace him. Mets fans, despite the insane Wilpon money, know better. When Bonilla sucked, he went out there every day. When Kaz Matsui sucks, he's out there. When Glavine, Kaz Ishii, Al Leiter, etc, can't get an out, they're going out there regardless. With the Yanks? Giambi sucks? Let's get Mike Sweeney. Tony Womack sucks? Let's go get Adam Dunn. It's a positive that George cares more about winning than he does about the bottom line--clearly not the case with Wilpon--but it's equally indisputable that by doing so, he has created a different kind of fan expectation that is not particularly healthy or fun, for that matter. You can't tell me that Yanks fans aren't embarrassed by five years of losing to inferior teams--teams that in some cases cost a third or a quarter of what the Yankees do.

When the Mets falter, Mets fans just kind of shrug their shoulders because we know that Wilpon is going to dance with the multi-million dollar hookers he brought. When the Yanks falter, Big Daddy George comes to the rescue and bumps his payroll up another $20 mil. That's why the Yanks are laughable, and that's why fans of other teams piss all over the Yanks when they lose.

So is it right that as a Mets fan I LOVE ripping the Yanks? Yes. Because the Mets are the Mets. And that's allllll the Mets ever aspire to be. But the Yankees are America's Team. They're 26 time World Champions. They have their own TV Network, They've assembled their own group of homer broadcast "journalists" and sportscasters to spew propaganda. The Yankees aren't a team so much as an icon--a brand. Saying that the Mets suck means nothing more than that the Mets baseball team sucks. Big Deal. But saying "The Yankees Suck" is an attack on an entire nation--an entire way of life that is sold to the American public as a utopian ideal. The Yanks sell themselves as THE model sports franchise in the entire world--think about that--the entire WORLD, and they can barely field a .500 team. Nobody gives a Sh#t if the Mets suck because they are just a baseball team. But people care that the Yanks suck because, in every one of their advertisements and in every inch of Yankee paraphenalia; in every fan, every vendor, every T-Shirt, every Yankeeography, in every time a pinstripe appears on TV, we are reminded that the Yankees pretend to be much more than a baseball team. And in the end, they are not. And right now, they are the world's most expensive .500 team. If they were an IPO, stockholders would be jumping out of windows.

That sums it up better than any of the rest of us could put it. Great post, TS.

[Jetsfan80]

Matt, I just saw this post, bro. Excellent point. What you can at least say about the Mets that you can't always say about the Jets is that when the Mets screw up, they screw up in an attempt (albeit misguided) to win, and they at least throw us a bone, like in '86 and 2000.

But the Mets, and Mets fans can tell you this, are extremely hard to root for consistently to the point where you form an emotional attachment to them. When the Jets are bad, they at least have a loveable loser ethic to them (except for the Kotite debacle). When the Mets are bad, they have Bobby Bonilla and Brett Saberhagen on their team basically telling the fans to f*ck themselves. Our Met heroes are the egomaniacal Tom Seaver, drug addled Doc Gooden, Keith Hernandez and Darryl Strawberry, or, for die-hard Mets fans, guys like Ray Knight and Ed Kranepool. We don't have a Mick or a Babe or Joe D., who, despite their faults, transcended the game. When the Yanks are bad, their fans think about Murderer's Row. When the Mets are bad, we are reminded that Kevin Mitchell once cut the head off of a cat during a coke binge.

The Mets franchise, historically, is a mess with a ton of money that they spend foolishly and, despite all that, every so often stumble on to a 1986 or a 2000. Do we expect any success we may have to last more than one year? No. Do we expect to see success again? Sure. Someday. When you're a Mets fan, you watch the Mets out of the corner of your eye and you don't bet the mortgage on anything going right with them. If they win, it's a great story. If they lose, you go mow the lawn.

For instance, was I happy when we hired Willie Randolph as manager? Absolutely. I knew he was a no-nonsense winner, and one of my favorite baseball stories of all time was the one in which Willie, then Yanks third base coach, walked up to young stud and King of the Baseball World Ken Griffey Jr. The story goes that Willie says nothing, but reaches up, takes Griffey's baseball hat off that he was wearing backwards at the time (in BP), and puts it back on his head the right way as if Griff was 6 years old. True balls. That was what the Mets need desperately--someone who does things the right way and isn't afraid to turn a superstar's hat around on his head. However, my concern was that Willie would come in, spend two minutes with Jeff Wilpon, throw up on his shoes and run screaming back to the Bronx. There is no discounting how stupid the Wilpons are when it comes to making baseball decisions, and I figured WIllie would get sick with the unprofessionalism in Met-land. Instead, Omar Minaya seems to be keeping the Wilpon's locked in the broom closet while him and Willie clean up their mess.

When we signed Beltran, was I happy? Yes. But I was deeply concerned how a streaky hitter with sporadic power was going to do in the caverns of Shea Stadium, where you can hit a 409 foot warning track pop-up while the winds are always blowing in, except in center field where they have hurricane level swirls that turn career Gold Glovers (Mike Cameron) into Comedy Central-worthy error-prone buffoons (Mike Cameron).

When we signed Pedro, was I happy? Yes. But I was concerned how a beat-up pitcher with declining stuff was going to do in a Stadium that makes professional pitchers and Cy Young winners (Tom Glavine) look like whiny morons (Tom Glavine), especially considering the Mets' penchant for paying butchers to play behind them in the infield. Also factor in the Mets fans's legendary short fuse with primadonnas (Bonilla, Piazza, Straw), and I was also concerned how Pedro would respond the first time he gave up eight runs in three innings with the Shea crowd booing him. Pedro would have gotten on a plane back to the Dominican with a season ending "strained hammy."

Being a Mets fan is a different beast than being a Yanks fan. You guys have the luxury to hoot and holler in May that you're about to field a team of All-Stars because even if one of them implodes on you, Big George is going to go get another one to replace him. Mets fans, despite the insane Wilpon money, know better. When Bonilla sucked, he went out there every day. When Kaz Matsui sucks, he's out there. When Glavine, Kaz Ishii, Al Leiter, etc, can't get an out, they're going out there regardless. With the Yanks? Giambi sucks? Let's get Mike Sweeney. Tony Womack sucks? Let's go get Adam Dunn. It's a positive that George cares more about winning than he does about the bottom line--clearly not the case with Wilpon--but it's equally indisputable that by doing so, he has created a different kind of fan expectation that is not particularly healthy or fun, for that matter. You can't tell me that Yanks fans aren't embarrassed by five years of losing to inferior teams--teams that in some cases cost a third or a quarter of what the Yankees do.

When the Mets falter, Mets fans just kind of shrug their shoulders because we know that Wilpon is going to dance with the multi-million dollar hookers he brought. When the Yanks falter, Big Daddy George comes to the rescue and bumps his payroll up another $20 mil. That's why the Yanks are laughable, and that's why fans of other teams piss all over the Yanks when they lose.

So is it right that as a Mets fan I LOVE ripping the Yanks? Yes. Because the Mets are the Mets. And that's allllll the Mets ever aspire to be. But the Yankees are America's Team. They're 26 time World Champions. They have their own TV Network, They've assembled their own group of homer broadcast "journalists" and sportscasters to spew propaganda. The Yankees aren't a team so much as an icon--a brand. Saying that the Mets suck means nothing more than that the Mets baseball team sucks. Big Deal. But saying "The Yankees Suck" is an attack on an entire nation--an entire way of life that is sold to the American public as a utopian ideal. The Yanks sell themselves as THE model sports franchise in the entire world--think about that--the entire WORLD, and they can barely field a .500 team. Nobody gives a Sh#t if the Mets suck because they are just a baseball team. But people care that the Yanks suck because, in every one of their advertisements and in every inch of Yankee paraphenalia; in every fan, every vendor, every T-Shirt, every Yankeeography, in every time a pinstripe appears on TV, we are reminded that the Yankees pretend to be much more than a baseball team. And in the end, they are not. And right now, they are the world's most expensive .500 team. If they were an IPO, stockholders would be jumping out of windows.

That sums it up better than any of the rest of us could put it. Great post, TS.