Here’s the latest from Port St. Lucie; lots of batting practice, fielding drills and bullpen sessions – all is as it should be and in a couple of days, we’ll have our first couple of intra-squad games leading up to the March 5th, Grapefruit League opener against the Nationals.

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Underdog t-shirts, really? Who needs them? I can see the Phillies getting a big laugh out of this while sporting their very cool “Punisher” tees except for Cole Hamels who insisted on wearing a “Wonder Woman” t-shirt instead.

Of course the Nationals will be going with “Captain America”, while the Braves are going with a modified version of “Thor” who will wield a tomahawk instead of a hammer. The Marlins on the other hand are still deciding between “Submariner” and “Aquaman”. I wanted it duly noted that among all those choices, only Underdog can really fly. Enough on this.

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Last Saturday morning, I received a strange email that kindly requested that I replace a few words in one of our posts about Gary Carter and fix a spacing typo. I’m like, who the heck is this guy? I actually edited the post as I was asked because it did give it a better appearance. I replied back, “Done, are you happy? in a sarcastic tone which doesn’t really come through in email.

He replied back less than 30 seconds later with “Perfect, thanks Joe. It’s on our front page”. I looked closer at the email and saw it was from FOX and went there and was pleasantly surprised to see that post as big as day as one of their featured stories. I still don’t know who that person was or how he knew my name and personal email, but thanks. 😉

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As you may have read yesterday, we are pleased to announce our partnership with SeatCrew who has given us six pairs of tickets to Mets games that we intend to giveaway this season including two pairs of tickets to Banner Day. Seat Crew couldn’t believe the overwhelming response he got from my announcement and tweeted this a short while ago:

Hey, all of you potential advertisers/sponsors out there looking for a Mets Fansite with a huge following of informed readers (and consumers) who are very engaged and passionate, are you paying attention? 😉

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Last week we were pleased to learn that after Google completed their 2012 re-rankings, MMO went up to Page Rank 5. Page rank measures a site’s influence based on how often other sites with similar or higher page ranks link back to them. Also, Clayton Collier recently informed me that MMO has now climbed to No. 21 on the Top 100 Baseball Sites on Technorati who measures a site’s standing & influence in the blogosphere. Things are really looking up and while many sites have reported a decrease in traffic in 2011 compared to 2010, our numbers indicated that we experienced a 14% increase in traffic which is pretty solid as we get ready to cover our eighth season of Mets baseball.

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Lets talk about what Fred Wilpon said regarding Reyes being a baseball decision for a minute.

As you know, Mets principal owner Fred Wilpon answered questions for reporters in a rare 22-minute interview at the Mets Spring Training Complex yesterday. As usual those with agendas went into attack mode. I find it amazing that some consider themselves on so high a perch, that they would proclaim: “Don’t believe what Fred Wilpon says about himself, instead believe what I say about Fred Wilpon.”  Sadly that tact has worked out well for some and it’s even been a very profitable tact at that.

Today, we are treated to a bevy of articles filled with rage and angst against Fred Wilpon, from those who have an an already razor sharp ax to grind with the Mets owners. Some writers referred to the Mets fan base this morning as ravenous, sharp-toothed, and blood thirsty this morning. Please don’t include me in that group, in fact please stop grouping altogether because I find it rather insulting and beyond ignorant. Don’t include me in that mob mentality some of you have described.

One of our readers this morning gave me pause to put this into perspective in a series of questions one must ask themselves and honestly answer. Do you believe not re-signing Jose Reyes was a baseball decision by Sandy Alderson, or was it a financial decision by Fred Wilpon based on team finances?

If you say it was a baseball decision than any resentment you have should be levied on Sandy Alderson. If you say it was Fred Wilpon’s decision, than stop defending Alderson on the topic of wheteher or not he ever made an offer or a fair attempt to resign Reyes. It’s either one or the other.

If you maintain we didn’t sign Reyes because of Wilpon, then are you also saying you wanted the Mets to top the Marlins offer in either years or dollars or both?

Pick a side and stick to it and stop playing both sides of the fence. You can believe whatever you want to believe, but you can’t have your cake and eat it too, lets not be Yankee fans.

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Newsday cited that 25% of Mets fans are rooting for the team to lose because they think it will expedite Wilpon’s exodus… Wow… If that’s true we just went from the best fanbase in baseball to the bottom of the barrell.

Luckily, I don’t believe that crap or that statistic… All the Mets fans I know would never root for their team to lose… NEVER! Beware of those that do…

Over and out…