here are a couple of stories about it.

unfortunately, i’m not the mets fan, as the ball is supposed to be worth upwards of $500,000. but it was nice to see a guy from queens emerge victorious from what i’m sure was quite a battle for that ball, after it went into the stands in san francisco.

good for him.

and, i suppose, good for barry. i promised to ease up on the barry bonds hating, and i have to admit that i smiled a bit as i watched the video online this morning.

history will judge him, blah blah blah. maybe fairly, maybe not. but for now, it is what it is, i’ll live with it, and you can debate about who the true home run king is. you can make a strong argument for babe ruth, after all, who hit 714 in far fewer at bats than either aaron or bonds, having spent a few years as one of the best pitchers in baseball before becoming one of its best hitters.

but in the end, the number is the number. wonder what number will, in the end, be a-rod’s new target? 800? more than that?

we’ll see if barry plays next year, and which team will have the nerve to sign him.

no, i mean that. no irony, no sarcasm, no bitterness.

it’s been a great season, full of highs and ups, and very few lows and downs. i had fun when i went to shea, and i’ll miss the creaky old place when it’s gone. i even enjoyed the food, especially since i found mama’s of corona in the concourse. great subs, and excellent salads and antipasto.

i watched the new mets tv network, sny, quite a bit, and enjoyed the commentary, the personalities, and the coverage. it was a great first year for them, and they are to be congratulated on how much they improved from an admittedly rocky start, and how quickly they got up to speed.

thanks to omar minaya, for getting us good players and giving us a very competitive team ahead of schedule. and to willie randolph and rick peterson, who pulled all the right strings and got the best out of everyone even through the ghastly year-end injury fest.

i got up this morning ready to be cranky about the mets’ heartbreaking last-minute game seven loss, and to dissect all the details about who did what, and why, and whose fault it was, and what should be done, and all the other technical analysis that runs through my head all the time, but especially at times like these.

and then i realized that none of that really matters. they did their best, got further along than anyone ever expected given the injuries and pitching woes–and in the end got a bit unlucky.

i’m convinced that the best team did not win, and that the mets would have had a far better chance against detroit than will the cardinals. it pains me to see success come to a team that is so obviously rancorous, with scott rolen not talking to tony larussa, and outfielders running into each other from a lack of communication and yelling at each other afterwards. they are the living embodiment of james woods’ great quote from this season’s new show shark: “there’s no team in i”.

but all that’s water under the bridge now.

the mets have the core of a team–players, coaches, and front-office staff–that will be competitive for years to come, and winter trades and free agent acquisitions will only make it better. the seeds of a dynasty to rival the braves’ long run are in place.

next year can only be better than this year.

thanks, mets.

ok, i’m through with my dithering and waffling and prevarication. i’m a believer.

after the last game, in which oliver perez did well enough and the mets hitters did more than well enough, i’m breathing a bit easier.

and it’s probably going to rain today in st. louis, which means that the game may be rained out. and if it is rained out, it’ll give glavine another day of rest, and he’ll pitch at full strength. even if it isn’t rained out, i’ll still take tom glavine on short rest over jeff weaver, who lost to glavine in game one.

and in any case, last night’s victory ensured that the series will return to new york. yesterday i said mets in seven games.

i’m thinking it might be six. after last night, i think the mets are finally motivated enough to get this thing done. the slump is over, the hitting is back, and the pitching will hold up enough to get the job done.

we may even have el duque back for a world series start, which would just be a bonus. please, though, no more steve trachsel. anyone but trachsel. start darren oliver instead of trachsel. start aaron heilman. leave trachsel off the world series roster.

let me repeat that, willie, and omar. leave trachsel off the world series roster. you aren’t going to start him, if you have an ounce of sense, which you do, and you sure as hell aren’t bringing him in for relief. don’t waste the roster space. sorry if that sounds cruel, but the mets would be better served with an extra position player, or heath bell in the bullpen, or dave williams instead of trachsel. you aren’t re-signing him anyway–so what if his feelings are hurt or whatever.

and, as a footnote, the mets-tigers world series won’t be seven thrilling games. it’ll be six thrilling games and one blowout game. probably the mets getting blown out at home. but, still, mets in seven.

ya gotta believe!

i know the mets are only down one game. i know it’s only two games to one.

and i know i gotta believe. and i still do, mostly.

but i am worried.

the mets looked bad last night, excpt for darren oliver, who probably should have started the game in the first place. i know that steve trachsel deserved a start and all, but he looked doubtful about his prospects from the first pitch, and he pitched that way. tentative, and not at all commanding.

hey willie. i don’t care how much we pay this guy. leave him off the world series roster, assuming we get there. or immediately yank him at the very first sign of trouble. even though he barely pitched more than an inning last night, willie still left him in too long.

we’d better win tonight, and oliver perez had better pitch the game of his life. if he doesn’t, this thing might not even get back to new york.

tell you what, though. i’m been sportin’ for the tigers all season, and telling everyone i know that they were the team to beat, even with their end-of-season swoon. and the tigers’ league championship clinching win yesterday was a classic game in every respect, from the come-from-behind tying of the game, to the heads-up gutsy play, to the walk-off ninth inning home run. they are the big story of the post-season, the yankees-and-oakland-slaying davids, and they are in my estimation the team to beat this post-season.

in all honesty, i don’t see either st. louis or the mets geting anywhere against them. and i don’t think that many other people will, either.

which puts the mets in an underdog position, both in the league championship and in a possible world series berth.

exactly where they need to be. exactly where the mets always function best.

ok–with a little circular logic, i’ve talked my way through this. here’s my revised prediction: mets in seven for the league championship, and mets in seven thrilling games in the world series.

ya gotta believe!

ok, i’m breathing a little easier. the mets got it done last night, with a combination of brilliant pitching (from glavine, the one pitcher you expected to get brilliant pitching from) and one timely hit (from beltran, the one guy that you hoped to get a key hit from). it wasn’t an offensive onslaught, but beltran’s home run, the only meaningful hit all night, got the job done.

i’m breathing a little easier. but just a little.

tonight is the test. the mets are battling the cardinals’ chris carpenter, this year’s likely nl cy young winner, with john maine on the mound. maine needs to step up and shut down albert pujols, and especially the hitters in front of him, like glavine and company did last night. pujols never came to bat with anyone on base, and that’s what needs to continue to happen on a regular basis.

if john maine steps up, and the mets can somehow win tonight’s game, then i’ll nearly totally relax, because that means the mets will, barring a historic collapse, go to the world series. with a win tonight, they’d only need to win two out of five against a depleted cardinals team. they could even ice it, and not have to face carpenter again.

which would be wonderful.

and i’m very happy that it appears that detroit is going to the world series as well. i love it when small market teams with miniscule salary totals do well, and detroit’s success is a feel-good triumph, what with their losing 119 games a couple of years ago. coming so close to the mets record of 120 losses in a season, and not that long ago.

detroit is the one team in the playoffs that the mets could lose to, and i’d still be somewhat ok with it. i love jim leyland, from back in the day when he managed the pirates and i was a braves fan. classic playoff games between those teams. he, along with bobby cox and larry bowa, is the prototypical manager-type for me. grumpy, irascible, cranky, demonstrative, and unfraid to throw the book of research away and go with gut instinct. wille randolph, for all of his recent brilliant managerial moves, could be a bit more like that, for me.

and you gotta love detroit’s young pitchers.

anyway, i shouldn’t be looking ahead. first things first.

maine beats carpenter. let’s hope it happens, and this thing gets a bit easier.

i don’t think the mets are playing the st. louis cardinals in the national league championship.

i think they are up against themselves, with something to prove. there’s a lot of history to overcome, a lot of conventional wisdom to prove wrong, and a lot of naysayers to be enlightened.

because, truth be told, st. louis really isn’t much competition on paper, other than albert pujols. a lot of their key players are out, or playing hurt. unlike the mets, who are at full strength and completely healthy.

right.

the mets have just as many problems as st. louis, if not more. but i just get the feeling that the world series this year is meant to be detroit vs. new york. it would be the best possible remaining combination for tv ratings, for fan interest, for historical significance, and for great baseball games in october.

but the mets, to live up to their end of the bargain, are going to really have to reach deep. they are winning postseason games through power hitting, and not through good pitching, and that’s a dangerous thing. great pitching trumps great hitting, right? so, to continue to win, the mets are going to have to keep their hitting hot, which won’t be easy, and they are going to have to have some second-line pitchers (john maine? steve trachsel? oliver perez?) really step up with career-defining performances. if this happens, they will mow down st. louis, and detroit as well.

it’s going to be tough. it’s a tall order.

mets vs. mets. 2004-type mets versus 2006-type mets. who will win?

well, not the exact front row, but damn close. at the mets game last night.

kirk and i buy tickets for a lot of mets games. usually we end up going to at least 5 or 6 games, sometimes more. and when we buy tickets we always get the upper deck. not because we are cheap.

but because i am cheap.

and we also, truly, like the view. i like the upper deck directly behind home plate. you get the best view of the game there. you can see it all, all at one time, and in the proper perspective.

but now and then i get free mets tickets from vendors through work. and the vendors of course have box seats in the best locations, and they give them all out to their clients, and they filter down to me because in new york, everyone wants yankees tickets, and i am one of the few mets fans around.

so last night we had field box seats, section 30, which is directly behind the visitors’ on-deck circle, about five rows back. i could have spit on ken griffey if i had wanted to. the mets were playing the reds, you know. but i like ken griffey just fine, so i didn’t. all the best people don’t spit on other people at baseball games. it’s just not done.

anyway, it was a rare treat. and there was actual waiter service at your seat, and a menu of better ballpark food from which to choose, and so kirk and i got our mama’s of corona’s sub and smoked chicken wrap and nathan’s french fries and diet coke and root beer delivered to our seats.

at great expense, but sometimes in life you splurge.

and we were there with my friend from work, and her daughter. and her daughter got a baseball that the guy next to her caught, which was a total thrill for her. and she got to see david wright up close and personal–she has a big crush on him. good taste, that girl has. can’t argue with her logic there.

but, try as i might, it was hard to concentrate on the game. there are too many places to look at one time, and it was hard to keep track of everything that was going on. in the upper deck, you can see the shifts the defense puts on, and you can tell if a ball is a home run or not, and your eye can follow the ball around the field much better.

it’s fun to live the high life on field level every now and then, but i’m basically an upper deck guy.