24
2010
25 Things To Make 2010 Enjoyable.
An article by 
You’ve heard me say it, and I still think it’s true. I think last year humbled me a bit as a Mets fan, and a baseball fan. Now I’m not saying I’m going to sit quiet, not complain, or not get into a daily debate with Bayonne over the value of getting on base as opposed to the sacrifice fly (zing!)
What I mean is, I think for the past 3 years the off-season has created a false expectation. An idea that the only way this season is watchable for me, is if the Mets make it to the playoffs and ultimately win the World Series. I think I’ve started to realize that the only expectation I should have as a NY Mets fan prior to the season starting is that the season will be entertaining and watchable.
Look back at the past few World Series teams. Ignore the Yankees for a moment who expect to win it all, every year. Since 2000 there have been obviously 20 World Series teams. Of those 20 individual teams, I would say 14 of those fan bases went into Opening Day hoping for a competitive season, but not expecting a World Series appearance.
2008 Rays, 2008 Phillies, 2007 Rockies, 2006 Cardinals, 2006 Tigers, 2005 Astros, 2005 White Sox, 2004 Cardinals, 2004 Red Sox, 2003 Marlins, 2002 Giants, 2002 Angels, 2001 Diamondbacks, 2000 Mets.
Sure, we can hope for it to happen, but I think by creating expectations since 2006 that it WILL or SHOULD happen, we’ve forgotten about the rest of the season.
So with Opening Day right around the corner, I’m ready to go. Here is my list of things I’d like to see during this 2010 Mets season. If I see at least 50% of these occurrences, I will consider that a successful season for me as a Mets fan. As the season progresses, we’ll see how we did.
25 things to make this season an enjoyable one:
- Opening Day defeat of the Marlins: Few days to me are as important as Opening Day. I believe offices around the country should be closed to celebrate this day.
- Jose Reyes with a Citi Field triple in his first series back from the DL
- Carlos Beltran back in time for the May 1 game at Philadelphia
- Luis Castillo catch the winning fly ball against the Yankees.
- David Wright, Jason Bay, Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Johan Santana and Frankie Rodriguez on the NL All-Star team.
- An over .500 West Coast road trip after the all-star break
- Defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks on a late July Friday night, courtesy of Aaron Heilman.
- A walk off victory against the Phillies on either August 13th or 14th. Preferably with the phrase “OUTTA HERE!” screamed so loud, Gary has to let Keith do PBP the next night.
- A Citi Field moment. That means the moment late in a game where the crowd comes alive and it feels like the energy of Shea has finally transferred over.
- The firing of Jerry Manuel if under .500 by June 1. This however must be done in the middle of the afternoon, and not in the middle of the night.
- The hiring of either Wally Backman, Bobby Valentine or Ken Oberkfell if Jerry is let go.
- Oliver Perez wins 14 games. This is mostly due to the fact I picked him to win Comeback Player of the Year, and I have a wager with a friend on his win total.
- Cole Hamels to suck again.
- An “MVP” chant at Citi Field during the summer for either Reyes, Wright, Beltran or Bay.
- Box Frites to still be amazing. This is a guarantee.
- Catch Keith drinking wine again on camera.
- Have two of the following prove to Mets fans that hope is on the way: Ike Davis, Josh Thole, Fernando Martinez, Jon Niese, Ruben Tejada, Jenrry Mejja.
- One of the two Japanese imports to not pitch like Kaz Masui hits.
- Francoeur throwing out the final runner at the plate.
- Daniel Murphy with an OBP of at least .350
- No PR disasters. Everybody leave your shirt on, if you’re going to fire somebody, do it right, and please let the next press conference be worthy of one?
- Reyes to shrug off the critics and just play his game. This includes dancing if he feels like it.
- Bay, Wright, Reyes, Johan, and K-Rod to not spend 1 day on the Disabled List.
- Play hard, you can lose games, but don’t give up in the 3rd inning. “Play to the whistle” as they say.
- 82 regular season wins. All I want is more wins than losses, the rest I will take as gravy on the side. Give me a competitive season, and I’ll be happy.
So there you have it. My hope is that all 25 of these items can occur, but I’ll settle for above .500 on this list as well. Let’s have an enjoyable season, which will hopefully lead to a successful one!
About the Author: Michael J. Branda
I work for a non-profit organization, working closely with all of our fundraisers in hope of one day finding a cure. My time with MMO began in July of 2009 when I wrote a Fan Post defending Omar Minaya (before it was cool to do that.) I grew up a Mets fan with the mid 1980's teams. My favorite Met of all-time is (and was) Wally Backman. When it comes to sabermetrics versus old school thinking, I like to think I meet in the middle. I believe thinking of new ways to get answers is helpful, especially when the same way has not produced results. However, I think over-thinking certain situations can get you into trouble. I'm excited for the new regime, because I believe they have pieces in place to focus on several aspects of the Mets organization. I've waited this long for a World Series, waiting a few more years for another chance isn't going to kill me.
11 Comments + Add Comment
Recent Comments
- Bayonne Mets Fan: on Series Preview: Mets @ Pirates: Bobby Ojeda again on pre game ripping...
- Petey Pete: on On The Road With Petey Pete: New Britain, CT & The Binghamton Mets: Well I made it, I'm sitting in...
- stick: on Enough Is Enough, Send Ike Down Already: and making those simplifications/adjustments are exactly the...
- DaveUpstateNY: on How Young And Mejia Factor In Mets Starting Rotation Plans: "...things will drastically change in the coming...
- Des: on Enough Is Enough, Send Ike Down Already: Metsie -- You make an interesting proposition...
MMO Live Chat
Recommended Links
Write Your Own Mets Post
Advertisement
Advertisement
We Appreciate Your Help
Affordable Graphic Design
From your lips to gods ears. The City field moment is an intersting one. It’s really important to make city field feel like home. A Reyes bases loaded triple vs. the Phils to sweep the series would be nice..against Cole Hamels of course.
Great list and the odds are very good that we could achieve most of it, even winning over 81 games.
I love it! And excellent, excellent point about all those teams that went on to the WS w/out expecting to. It gets overlooked often. Frankly, I’d just like to see a team stay in every game and not give it away due to mental lapses and stupid mistakes. Thats all I ask!
You should see if your friend will let you out of your Oliver Perez bet. If anyone wins comeback player this year, it’s Jose Reyes.
Love the list; but I’d certainly add just 1 more item:
-For Fred to reallocate frontoffice executive oversight splitting all facility realated responsibilities under COO/Partner Jeff & all field/team related responsibilities incl.medical & payroll allocation including GM position under Team President/Partner Sol Katz.
To me, that’s almost a Playoff position or equivilent to a late season .600 W% beguinning 09/01.
What evidence do you have that Katz is so Jim Dandy?
simple process of elimination, Sol has been senior partnered with Fred since day #1 and absolutely zero negative articles,quotes have ever risen to the surface regardless at how bad it’s ever been. BTW, mask, did u know there are 3 Katz family members & 3 Wilpon family members listed amongst the 7 Partner/Directors in the NYM frontoffice directory? Yet, the only names ever connected to neg. issues are Wilpon. I think it’s time to LET THE KATZ, OUT! WHO LET THE KATZ OUT? LMAO!
If the Katz clan is so brilliant, why haven’t they been more effective at keeping the ship of state on course?
Mask, like anything else, MAJORITY RULES & Fred is certainly the Majority owner just as Doubleday was to him, prior to ’02 buyout, Fred Wilpon was the Saul Katz esp in the 80s. Back in the 80s few Met fans could pick Fred out of a lineup. I don’t even recall seeing him in the lockerroom celebrations.
I’m not advocating an entire regime overthrow; but as u may recall, I believe a lot of positives could be experienced by shifting the GM & his subsequent organization & responsibilities out from under the COO to under the Team President(Saul Katz) porton of the org chart. This could be done internally via interoffice memo with little fanfare to embarass the Wilpon name. I don’t ever see Daddy publicly executing his younger son; nor do I see a wilingness to expose the Family name to further public humiliation. the simple statement/fact that we’ve rarely ever see Saul indicates to me a willingness to remain out of spotlight & allow the baseball professionals to run baseball operations. Saul has nothing to prove to himself or others, Jeff obviously always has. Jeff is as controlling of his public image as Tiger is renowned at being. Most of Jeff’s public appearances are media controlled by his network, SNY, Jeff is the sole Met/Sterling executive presence @ SNY. Notice, he’s always positioned off to the side while he uses mouthpieces like Ricco, Minaya, Duquette to stand behind podiums for pressers. could it be they don’t have the required phonebook or milk crate so Jeff could be seen standing behind the lecturn?(lmao)
I really liked the ‘Castillo catching the fly ball against the Yankees’ one
[...] 25 Things To Make 2010 Enjoyable. (metsmerizedonline.com) [...]