I love how fans are now telling other fans how to root, root, root for the home team. Telling a Mets fan or any sports fan how to support their favorite team is similar to telling a person how to grieve the loss of a loved one. It’s a very personal emotion.

Some fans a vocal and want someone’s head on a platter. Some fans wear blinders like folks did during the Vietnam War when they wore buttons “My Country Right or Wrong” Some fans pull out slide rules and calculators to figure out if a player hits better on Saturday’s at 3:47PM  when he wears one sock up and one down. There are fans who are with you win or win and some who are highlight fans. They never watch a full game just the clips on SportsCenter. The worst part of that clique is they feel they are “experts” on the team.

Then there are guys like me and a bunch of other folks who not only follow the big league team but also fret about the Savannah Sand Gnats, Brooklyn Cyclones and the Kingsport Mets. We read anything that pertains to the Mets and the organization from the signing of a 16 year old Dominican outfielder to how many bricks it will take to build the rotunda of Cti Field. To say we immersed into the Mets culture is like saying we need air to breathe.

I hate to be a grumpy old bastard (usually I LOVE being a grumpy old bastard in fact it is one of the few things in life I am really good at. Just ask my wife and kids. ) but I don’t need some twenty something or thritysomething Mets fan telling me a fortysomething (this is my last year as a fortysomething which when I turn fifty next summer I  will become an unbearable grumpy old bastard) Mets fan how I should feel or root for the Mets. With all due respect, FUCK YOU!

My feelings right now are of sadness. I’ve moved on from the pissed off stage and the shocked stage and now I’ve moved into the sadness stage. I’m sad because no one in uniform has stepped up and led except for Paul LoDuca and Pedro Martinez. With all the stock answers that come from Willie, David Wright and Carlos Beltran it’s refreshing to hear LoDuca show honesty. From reading the quotes that come out of the Mets clubhouse the players are either full of shit or great actors. This team last night looked like they were playing baseball with sharpshooters aiming at them from the light sanctions.  Let’s face it it’s tough to relax when your team can’t pitch or field and 50,000 people are howling and talk show callers are raging and bloggers are bloviating and the newspapers but out front pages headlines like this.  It takes a tough guy to play here and just don’t know if the Mets have any tough guys in that clubhouse.

If the Mets drop the next three games I won’t be mad. I will be depressed yes but not mad. I’ve had my heart broken by this organization many times before this. The Seaver trade, Gil Hodges death, M.Donald Grant, Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry’s crash and burn, Vince Coleman, Bobby Bonila, 1985, 1987, 1999. Get the picture. The Mets organization has smacked the shit out me time and again and what do I say “THANK YOU SIR, MAY I HAVE ANOTHER” 

Please don’t get me wrong here this is no surrender post. I won’t say I have total confidence in the Mets winning two or three games this weekend and making the post season but with all the heartache moments I have seen miraculous ones as well. The Black Cat of 1969, Wrigley Field Monday October 1, 1973, Game 6 1986 NLCS Game 6 1986 World Series Robin Ventura Grand Slam Single Rosalita Leiter beating the Reds in a one game playoff in 1999 5-0 There have been great moments and hopefully there will be some this weekend.

I hope to get to Shea tonight and win or lose I will be back not this weekend but hopefully next week. If not I will be back in April just like I’ve done for the past 44 years. WIN OR LOSE I LOVE THE NEW YORK METS. Pass the Kleenex please!

We will have all winter to dissect what went wrong and what has to change but for now is not the time for that. Let’s see how this plays out first. Let’s hope the Nats blow up the chicken men in Philly.  

Add to Yahoo Add to Google Furl this Add to Spurl Save to Del.icio.us Digg IT! Live Bookmarks! Blogmarks