Hopes and Fears: The You Ain't Shit Mets

As I write this it's Sunday evening, and the baseball season has begun. It's the bottom of the fourth inning, and our old nemesis is beating our current nemesis, 4-0. A short time ago Nails texted me "I hate rooting for the braves, but love having baseball back!"

The day before the start of the Mets' season is what Christmas Eve used to be. I glance impatiently at the clock, the principle emotion, excitement, competing with expectations and the fear that that special present might not be under the tree.

The baseball season, of course, is a much different proposition than Christmas morning. In baseball you don't get all your presents at once. You get a big one -- you get baseball back. But the real prize, the thing you really wanted, that can never come until 6-7 months later.

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In some respects, we're going on 24 years of waiting for that thing we really wanted. But for me the calculus that really matters is what's happened since 2006.

2006 was a special season. Watching the Mets that year was such a joy, but in the end, 2006 turned out to be the miracle year that wasn't. In 2007 we played on the fumes of 2006 only to fall flat on our faces. If the downward spiral began with the Game 7 loss in 2006, it culminated with the 7-up-with-17-to-play debacle in 2007.

Some people lump 2008 in with 2007, but I've never thought that was fair. In 2007 the team didn't seem to give a damn what happened. In 2008 the team fought and clawed and gave it their all (or at least I believe they did), but there was a fatal flaw in their composition, a defective bullpen, and in the end that flaw did them in.

Both seasons were disappointing. But as learning experiences go, 2007 felt like a full stop where 2008 felt, somehow, like something to build on. After 2007 all there was was bitterness, and an odd relief at no longer needing to watch the team throw it all away.

In 2008 there was drama and excitement every single night; in the end they came up short, but it was OK -- you knew they'd tried. If we could only fix the fatal flaw, who knows what we'd be?

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Things will be different this year. Between the bullpen upgrades, the absence of Willie Randolph, and the opening of Citi Field, in 2009 there won't be any "OK -- they tried".

It is my hope that 2009 is a year of renewal. You look at this Mets team, and you look at the teams around the NL East, and there's no reason the Mets can't win the division. You think about a team with David Wright, Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Johan Santana, Francisco Rodriguez, and J.J. Putz and you have all the pieces of a team that can be a juggernaut. I can't help but have hope.

But after 2006, 2007, and 2008, those hopes are tempered by fears. Fears of falling flat in September again, fears that John Maine and Oliver Perez might not fulfill their potential, fears that Mike Pelfrey isn't ready to be what we need him to be, fears that the team may not appear to care as much as the fans in the seats.

After the disappointments of the past few years, we need something good to happen. But for something good to happen, the players have to take ownership of the season. They need to play like it's them versus the world every night; they need to play like they've got everything to prove. That shouldn't be difficult. For all their gaudy individual statistics, this team has never fulfilled its potential. They've never really succeeded.

Changing that begins with accepting the failures they've suffered and using them as inspiration. They need to embrace as their ethos the you ain't shit mentality I outlined in November. They have all the talent in the world. A Cy Young winner at the top of the rotation. Multiple MVP candidates. The all-time single-season saves leader. Doesn't matter. They ain't shit until they put it all together.

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On Monday, at a presumably rain-soaked Great American Ballpark, they'll begin anew the task of putting it all together.

Having been proven awesomely wrong the past two seasons, I'm wary of making predictions. But when I look at this club, I see a team that should win something like 93 games. That's a bullish number; what can I say, I'm a long-time believer in a strong bullpen (a lesson the Mets keep relearning every few years). I won't make playoff predictions yet, but I will say I think this team should go to the playoffs.

It all starts Monday. Christmas morning.

- A.F.O.M.G.