A team with heart, Wilpons

These are exciting times to be a Met fan. Sure, sure, I know, they are only hovering around .500 ball and they can't seem to string together the four or five wins that would finally propel them comfortabely over the .500 mark for the first time all season. But you have to remember that they've probably had the toughest stretch of games of anyone in the majors over the past ten games and have held their own quite nicely. They've had the hardest interleague schedule of any team in baseball, having to play all three first place teams and in some cases,...they destoyed the competion.

What I mean about exciting times is that this team, a seemingly odd hybrid of players that Omar Minaya put together mixed with some fresh and fiesty non-prospect talent from their farm in Buffalo, has bonded together and played some unpredictable and sometimes downright great baseball. Sometimes they outpitch, sometimes they outslug, and sometimes they'll even knock one right over the seemingly evergrowing walls inside the grandest canyon of them all that is CitiField. Its actually really really refreshing to see a team play with heart and character like this Mets team has, as opposed to the dreary and dreadful play it performed nightly for the past couple of years.

My belief, is that the firey manager, the awesome shortstop, and the core of buffalo solders with something toprove are all the contributing factors to this team being respectable, and more importantly, a team. Like many of you, I grew up a Mets' fan and one of my biggest joys is watching them win. Watching one of their pitchers dominate. Watching one of their players have a night at the plate that becomes the answer to a trivia question, like the night Beltran blasted three homers into Colorodo's Rocky Mountains. Watching Jose Reyes round second, seemingly running faster then any man alive, his tounge flopping out of his mouth like a thirsty wolf as he dives headfirst into third base. Watching him produce a "Reyes' Run", which only he can, and only he could make look so easy. These perfect instances are happening more and more and I can't help but feel that even if this season ends up in the gutter, it's going to be okay. I truely feel that their minor league system, has the pieces in the years to come to keep thist train moving.

Actually, the only critiques I have so far is Terry Collins use of K-Rod, which gives me 17.5 million reasons to be frustrated, and the Wilpons being seemingy unable to get this minority stake in the team sold. I don't know, I just have a funny feeling that they are trying to work out a deal thats going to assure them total and complete ownership of this team in five years. What else could possibly be holding up this deal? We've all heard bits and pieces about this transaction, and it is supposed to have a path to ownership for David Einhorn, but I think Fred and Jeff have had second thoughts. Wasn't this deal supossed to be done by the end of June? Just seems like it's taking awhile and I wonder how long they can keep this up? Don't the Wilpons have a mountain of debt, a monster payroll, and a 25 million dollar loan from MLB to pay off? I wish my morgage company was as nice as the Wilpon's creditors. Sign me up for 25 million MLB, I'll pay it back, I promise...

In my view, the only missle that could sink this battleship is the ownership. They've already had their enormously goofy financhials be a reason for a Mets armageddon, complete with lowering payroll at a time when they finally have a front office who knows how to spend wisely. Its just maddess, that despite the attendence, the high cost we pay for their product, naming rights revanue, SNY's success and profitability, and all the cash coming off the books, the Wilpon's cashflow problems might be so bad that we couldn't keep possibly the best shortstop on both sides to the ball playing in the game today. I mean, as I write this my frustration is so overwhelming that I just crushed by Bud bottle into a thousand pieces using my own hand, and am now staring at an awful mess. So please forgive me if I must cut this short this time. I must, just like the Wilpons, start to pick up those thousand little pieces of mess I created if I ever want to get this straitened out.

So in closing, I'd just like to thank Mack for letting this simple Mets' fan, who has never written anything other then a few comments on this wonderful sight, a chance to voice my humble opinion every once in a while. Thanks Mack, I really appreciate it and hope to do it again!

Bye.

Charley T