Mets Challenge: Make Us Care...plus superfun contest

                                                       Too soon for these jokes?

So I hear J-Jenr-ry "Gift of the" Mejia will be pitching relief with the Mets big club instead of doing whatever it is the most vocal of the fanbase wants them to do with him (keep him in the minors to develop so Omar can destroy his value and trade him for peanuts in the future).

Big deal.

The Mets organization is rushing a prospect.

Don't get me wrong, I'd like to get excited about this injustice, like some of my favorite writers of things Mets are doing. But, since I'm not paid to do so, I can't seem to do it. Yes, the Mets are mismanaging their assets. Yes, this kid could have a great future (yawn). But, I guess it's like this. There are just too many problems for this one to really deserve the attention it is getting (just take a look at the list of guys going north with the big club). It seems to me that the excessive outrage--the Mejia-mania--is symptomatic of Mets fans loosing all perspective. They want so badly to care again, but the club has given them nothing to care about.  After  3 plus years with no management and no real prospects for change, Mets fans are like castaways holding on to some driftwood and bobbing up and down, lost at sea, thinking of fresh water and dreaming of eating each other. And man, that really really looks like land over there. They're fixated on buying the high test gas and polishing the hood ornament when the car is bellowing white smoke (that's the bad kind) and the interior smells of spoiled watermelon. See, you need a lot of metaphors to work through this thing. 

I think the club has bigger problems. At this point, the product the organization is running out there inspires nothing but resignation or spite in its most dedicated fans. Reading the tea leaves, its hard to avoid the conclusion that fans are going to be deserting this club soon in droves.  It doesn't matter much to me, since I'm stuck with them, but that sound the Wilpons hear is all the post-2006 bandwagon Mets fans charging Yankees World Championship commemorative items (hat tip to Chipper Jones).

After the newer fans install their Mariano screen savers, the more hardcore Mets fans are next. No they won't abandon the team completely, but in karmic terms, their support will be muted. And karma, as we know, is a beach.  Next, blog traffic will die down a bit. Football season will seem to come a little earlier.

On the eve of the 2010 season, I sense less interest in the force. My own personal behavior is not representative of all fans, but:
I have not purchased a single ticket. (I am an out-of-town fan, but my norm is 3 cities, 3 series a season)
I have not subscribed to so-called "Extra Innings" or that buggy internet service the MLB has. Yet.
I have no plans to go to Citi.
I haven't read a single page of any of the proliferating Mets "Annuals" (well, to be fair I also haven't received my free copies yet)
I am not really excited to watch this team, despite the names being thrown around: Blanco, Jacobs, Matthews Jr., Catalanotto. These guys certainly do not light up a room.

Where were the stories that would interest a fan this spring? Many fans spent the winter castigating Omar for signing Jason Bay, and others spent the time trying to calculate how it was even possible for a GM not to sign a single front-line pitcher to bolster the rotation.  Then the boring spring hit and basically, the dumbness got bigger, the patient got worse, and future looked more futile. Beltran took matters into his own (doctor's) hands. Pedreadful Feliciano wants to be a set up guy. Jose Reyes. And after all that work put in by Keith Hernandez, we may never see Daniel Murphy again.  Man, can someone please take a piss on a Palm Beach pizza place?

Make us care, Mets. Make us care.

***
Announcing the Homestand Housecleaning or Holiday Inn Housecleaning? Contest

 

The Rules:
It's easy to play! Post your guess as to when the Wilpons will make their first major firing of the season in the comments section. "Major" meaning from coaches on up to GM (wait, does this team have a GM? I'll have to check and get back to you). All you have to do is guess which series (e.g. "the Dodgers in July"), not a specific game. Will they do it late night West Coast style?  Will they fire Jerry and leave him in Art Howe purgatory? If the sackings come on an off day or during the All-Star break, we'll go to a tie breaker, so include in your guess the team the Mets will be facing when Jason Bay's knee explodes (just the team name, not the dates of the series...it's so easy!).  Feel free to embellish your prediction with details of what bumbling mess the Mets brass will perpetrate presently.

 Prize: 
The fan who guesses the correct series will have the honor of me working their name into every post I make for an entire month. Just think of it! YOUR name scrawling oddly across SportSpyder, and occasionally on Ball Hype.  Or, alternatively, if that's what you're into, YOUR name, totally anonymously taking up the title space of the premier backwater novelty sports blog devoted to the NY Mets!

As they say in the internet, "thats rediculous!"