Number 41, Tom Seaver was in town today to help promote the website Bringchange2mind.org, but he wasn’t pulling any punches when the topic of Jose Reyes came up.

Dave Hutchinson of the Star-Ledger has the low-down,

The greatest Met of them all, Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver, says Jose Reyes should get what the market bears and if that means leaving the organization, so be it.

As for Reyes possibly hitting the free agent market and cashing in big, Seaver said the shortstop should go for it.

“Why wouldn’t you?” Seaver asked. “If people (teams) are paying. Players aren’t using handguns to take this money. People say it’s absurd. But why wouldn’t you take the money.”

Absolutely, I totally agree. It looks like Tom Terrific is a big Jose Reyes like me:

“He’s a spectacular player in so many ways,” Seaver said. “He’s a spectacularly beautiful player, and he’s a player that a pitcher defends against, too. With this ballclub, that’s probably the most important out of the inning, is him because he can do so many things.”

Baseball is in the business of entertainment and they charge fans very steep prices for it, especially the New York Mets. Right now, Jose Reyes is the biggest draw in New York and he should be paid accordingly.

You only live once Jose, my advice to you is take all the money you can get and keep running.

If the Mets fail to sign Jose Reyes and he walks, shame on them. I’ll hold no ill-will toward any young man who is looking to make the best life possible for him and his family. He’s pursuing his share of the American Dream.

Do I want to see Jose Reyes go? Hell No!

But if this team allows that to happen then they will have to deal with repercussions just as they did when they traded Tom Seaver. It won’t be pretty… You should see half the emails I get about this every day.

We’ve only had one life-long Met on this team in franchise history, Eddie Kranepool – that’s it. That already speaks volumes about what the Mets think about keeping their home-grown stars. They don’t keep any of them because, let’s face it Kranepool was no star.

This whole situation makes me sick and I hate it.

Reyes and Carlos Beltran are my favorite Mets and now I have to face the possibility that neither of them will be back in 2012. Two spectacular players who together hold over two dozen franchise records and never spent a day at the Smithers Institute, the Betty Ford Clinic, or in county lock-up.

I don’t blog as much as I used to this season… Basically it’s because I started Mets Merized Online the same season we signed Carlos Beltran, and Jose Reyes played his first full season and led the league with 60 stolen bases and 17 triples. What an exciting time to be a Mets fan after years of being down in the dumps after that 2000 trip to the World Series.

Whenever I see Beltran blast a home run out of the park I still cheer like always did, but now it’s always bittersweet. Worse yet is watching a healthy Jose Reyes become the most exciting player in baseball (again) and hitting the prime years of his career. Knowing that this could be his last hurrah in a Mets uniform is just too much to take.

Anyway, good job by Tom Seaver, another spectacular Met, for telling it like it is.