Champagne for My Real Friends, Real Pain for My Sham Friends

What's up everyone, I'm pushing the deadline a bit today but you know us here at Yankees 2000 wouldn't feel right about signing off on 2005 without one final post. So everyone knows the best part of New Year's is popping open the champagne and ringing the new year in with some style.

As the big night and the champagne draw ever closer, I wanted to give you guys five reasons to suck that bubbly down to, and five reasons to pour some out for. Without further ado...

5 Reasons to Pour Some Out:

5. Doug Mientkiewicz.

There are some things in sports fandom you can't explain. Sometimes you develop a shining for the player without any real good reason why. For me, Doug Mientkiewicz is one of those players. Maybe it's the last name. Maybe it's the self-deprecating sense of humor. Maybe it's that I wore No. 16 in my youthful days of Upper West Side soccer/baseball dominance. Maybe it's the boyish good looks. Who knows?

Whatever the reason, I campaigned hard for the Mets to make a move for Mientkiewicz last winter, and I've been on his jock pretty hard ever since he first donned the orange and blue. 2005 wasn't Dougie's finest season. His fielding was strong but unexceptional. He was by and large a disaster at the plate. When it was over, he openly bashed the Mets as an organization that didn't have a clue.

Through it all, however, Eyechart found a place in my heart and on my back, the black Mets t-shirt with his name and his (our!) number emblazoned on the back replacing on most occassions the famed orange Jose Reyes t-shirt that had predominated in the previous 2 seasons.

As I look forward to 2006, as I look forward to being the only guy in Shea with a Doug Mientkiewicz t-shirt on, I would be remiss if I didn't pause to pour some out for good old Dougie Doug.

RIP, pal.

4. Fran Healy.

This one's not a done deal. If Fran has proven anything in his 20-plus years of service out of the Mets broadcast booth, it's that the man is a survivor. Just when you think he's about to get axed, somehow Healy avoids the chopping block.

With the onset of the Mets' new regional network SportsNet New York (aka, The Metwork), Healy's tenure with the Mets faces perhaps its most dire threat yet. Houdini himself would be hard pressed to figure a way out of the trap Healy is in, and with that in mind, it's only fair that we pay our respects.

A lot of us don't think much of Healy as an announcer. I certainly don't. But there's no changing the fact that his commentary has been part of the experience of watching the Mets my entire life. Am I going to miss his trademark calls (Can 'o corn! or the famous, Ground ball to Reyes... Got 'em!! come to mind), his product placements, or his beef with Keith Hernandez? The truth is I will on some level. I'll recognize of course that the broadcasts are better off without him, but I can still feel some twinge of nostalgia wash over me as I consider that I may have heard his last call of a Mets game ever.

3. Mike Jacobs.

You know the one. The guy with the sweet swing and the slicked back blond hair. I was at the game where he got his first at-bat and crushed that pitch (it might have been the first one he ever saw) over the wall in right field for a 3-run home run.

As the 2005 season went on and Doug Mientkiewicz increasingly found himself on Willie's bench, I developed the habit of booing the shit out of any player chosen to play first base in his stead. Sometimes these boos were entirely warranted (Miguel Cairo, more on him later), other times they weren't (Chris Woodward).

But there was on exception to the rule, none other than Mike Jacobs. The Jake gave the Mets a jolt that lasted about as long as that series in Arizona (you know, the one before the wheels came off on our entire season?), for which he was summarily rewarded with a trade to the dismantling Florida Marlins.

I'm as happy as anyong to see Carlos Delgado arrive at Shea. He's everything the middle of our lineup needed last year. But it's always sad to part with one of the young success stories of your farm system, even when it is the right move.

Best of luck to you next year, Jake. You've got a lifetime (or at least 3 years, before we forget) of cheers at Shea Stadium coming your way.

2. College.

Over. Done. Gone. Finito.

Truth is, I was plenty ready to graduate by the time June came around. I'm also pretty happy to be done, and I've been enjoying my time as a young professional.

But at the same time, college is college. It's a unique time in your life when you can try so many things, meet so many people, slay so many chicks (or not... salt), and kill so many thirty bangers. Everyone's got their own things that they loved about college so I won't bore you with mine. Suffice it to say that the Village Beautiful was good to me, and I'll always think back to it and smile.

1. Joe McEwing.

I may cry as I write this. My love affair with Super Joe dates back almost as long as I can remember. It probably has a lot to do with the circumstances surrounding his departure from the St. Louis Cardinals, who traded him to the Mets in exchange for the ageless Jesse Orosco.

Joe had been a fan favorite in St. Louis following his rookie season when he somehow hit .275. His hustle was legendary. So much so that before he walked out the door that final time after the trade was announced, manager Tony LaRussa called Joe Mac into his office for a chance to say goodbye, and one more thing...

Tony LaRussa: Joe, one last thing before you go?

Joe Mac: Sure, skip, anything. What is it?

LaRussa: Joe, before you go, I gotta get your spikes.

So impressed was LaRussa with McEwing's hustle and work ethic that he insisted upon getting a pair of his cleats for his office, that they might remain a constant reminder to his players of the value of hard work.

When Joe McEwing was released on the fateful day in March, a little part of me died. But let me close with the following excerpt from an article by Marty Noble on MLB.com:

Tommy Bowes has been the head groundskeeper at the Mets' Spring Training and minor league headquarters since 1988, and he's been close to a number of players over the years.

"Saying goodbye to Joe," Bowes said, "is like when they said goodbye to Lou Gehrig in the movie [Pride of the Yankees]. Everyone lined up behind Gary Cooper.

"I've seen some guys cut in Spring Training, but no one has had the effect that Joe's leaving is having. These guys are going to know he's not around."

Then Bowes turned to David Wright and said, "You're him in a younger form. Stay the way you are."

Rest in peace, old friend. Rest in peace.

5 Reasons to Suck it Down.

5. Miguel Cairo is no longer a Met.

Just like there are players who you irrationally adore, there are also those players you irrationally despise. Miguel Cairo is not one of those players. He just sucks. The guy had 10 RBI in 218 at-bats out of the 2-hole last year.

Now look, I know Reyes doesn't get on as often as we'd like, but we also know that when he did get on base, he scored with great frequency. Part of that surely had to do with Cairo moving him over once in a while, but how many times must Cairo have batted with Reyes on 2nd when a single could score a run? I'll bet it's sure as hell a lot more than 10 times.

I thought the Cairo signing was a good one when it happened. As it happened, however, Cairo did nothing but suck and take time away from Anderson Hernandez, Kazuo, and, inexplicably, Dougie Doug over at first. Thank god he is off the team.

4. The left side of the infield.

The lovefest with David Wright never stops around here does it? You know what, you've all heard it so many times before about both Wright and Reyes, but let me just say this. Think of all the years of prospects who never amounted to anything. Now we've got two 23 year olds, one of whom is already nasty, the other of whom is pretty good and has an almost unlimited cieling if he could just learn to take a pitch or work a count.

We're looking at two quality guys who are good ballplayers and, somehow, better citizens. It's a special time we're living in with these two. Think of them on new year's as you sip your champagne and imagine drinking champagne, say, in late October some time.

3. Respectability.

The Mets were so bad for those three years there. Like they almost became unwatchable. Certainly it was nothing compared to the excitement of 2005, when the team finally turned the corner and became fun again.

For all those who don't know (that is, all the Yankee fans out there) this is part of the cycle of baseball. You're good a few years, you're bad a few years, and on and on. It makes the winning that much sweeter. We didn't win often enough in 2005 to truly erase the memory of 2002-2004, but that reminds me...

2. The dream of 2006.

Are we a favorite to win the World Series? No. Are we the favorite to make the World Series out of the National League? No. Are we even the damn favorite in our own division? No.

But one thing the Mets definitely will be in 2006 is contenders for each of those. The team Omar and Co. have put together should be in position to make a serious run at toppling the Braves for the first time since I was single-digits in age (yes, it's really been that long). If not that, the Mets should make a strong bid for the National League Wild Card.

And then once you're in the playoffs, who knows what'll happen? Pedro's as good a No. 1 as you can ask for. The offense looks like it should be pretty balanced. Who knows where this team will end up in 2006? It should be fun to watch one way or the other, and that's a start.

1. Readers like you.

Honestly, the following we've cultivated and the feedback we get here at Yankees 2000 means a lot both to me and old Sippy Momo. We hope you've enjoyed the content here in 2005, and we're gonna do everything to make it even better in 2006. By which I mean we'll just hope to become better writers, get some pictures up, and call it a day at that.

Best of luck to everyone in 2006!

- A.F.O.M.G.