The 2008 Mets went quietly into the night. There was no fanfare, no curtain calls. The final chants ever shouted at Shea of Lets Go Mets were more out of desperation than of hope. As we reached into our gut one final time, we were dreaming of summoning the ghosts of rallies past. That did not happen. As we turned off our TV sets and fans shuffled tired feet out of the stadium for the final time, we were already preparing for next year. Because that’s what we Mets fans do. And that’s alright.

It was two weeks ago that the ball jumped off Ryan Church’s bat and for one glorious moment Mets fans from coast to coast jumped to their feet. However, there were no miracles left. There would be no ground ball to Buckner. No black cat on the field. No grand slam single. The lid on 2008 was officially sealed.

However, time is a great healer. The League champions have not even been crowned yet and already we are deciding what needs to be done for next year. As I read the articles, the blogs and the comments, it makes me smile. Everyone has an opinion. Manny. K-Rod. Brian Fuentes. Should Manuel have been brought back? Should Minaya have been let go? And this is what makes it great to be a Mets fan.

We hope that each new season will deliver us a Championship. Every spring, we are born anew and have that chance to start over, to try once again to obtain perfection. There have been 46 seasons since the Mets were established. 44 have not brought us a championship. But that’s alright. We love our Mets no matter what. Sure, we may not have “26 Championships” like some teams. But we are Mets fans and proud of it. Any one can root for the Yankees. It’s easy to root for a team that seemingly always wins. It takes a special soul to root for the Mets.

On Monday, April 6, the 2009 Mets will walk onto the field in Cincinnati to play the Reds in our first game. As Jose Reyes walks to home plate and digs in for the first time, we will all be looking forward. The heartache of 2008, the collapse of 2007 and the missed opportunity of 2006 will be gone. Gone, but not forgotten.

We will have a new home, a couple of new starters, a new closer, a new relief core, a new 2nd baseman, and a manager at the helm from game one, not game eighty. But more importantly, we will have a new attitude. We will have hope. Hope that ‘Next Year’ is 2009.

It will now be 23 years–23 years–since our last championship. To a Cubs fan, 23 years is nothing. To a Yankees fan, 23 months seems unacceptable. But there’s an entire generation of fans who have not witnessed a Mets championship first hand. I was too young to remember the miracle of 1969. The stories of shoe polish and the catches of Tommie Agee and Ron Swoboda I heard from my dad were just that. Stories. I did not experience it first hand. Now, as the years pile up, to the new generation of fans the names of Mookie Wilson and Doc Gooden are just vague memories from childhood. What Gary Gentry and Ed Charles mean to me Bobby Ojeda and Ray Knight mean to newer Mets fans. Names from a long gone era.

We are still injured, licking our wounds and trying to dissect and analyze what exactly went wrong and why. And what needs to be done to prevent it from happening again. We could not close out our old stadium with a Championship. Maybe we can christen our new stadium with one.

To Err is Human,

To Forgive is a Mets fan