Long Off-Season

Wow, what a long off-season, from the last game in 2007, that ended with an 8-1 defeat to the Florida Marlins that basically put the final nail in the coffin of the greatest collapse in regular season history. Unbelievable to be up nearly 7 games with only two weeks in the season, to then lose it all, with shoddy play and really, really bad games. To be in first place the majority of the season and to fall apart when all we needed to do was stay above water and cruise to the end, to lose that way was so heart wrenching.

How could a team come back from a season that ended that way. How can they bounce back from that, what is needed to get them thinking and believing that they are good enough to win it all. How do you get a bunch of young players, mixed with veterans to believe in themselves again. How to get the fans, to believe in their team again. That is the question that most if not all Mets fans were probably wondering during this long off-season.

Well first of all, you sit back and allow Omar Minaya to go to work. You pray alot, but you also watch this magician at work. You listen to what he says about what it will take to get us over the hump and you start believing in him first. You get all giddy listening to him talk, just like you did when he promised that he could land Pedro Martinez, that he could land Carlos Beltran, that he could put a team together that could compete for years to come. Then that he could get Delgado to agree to play with the team, to be apart of something special. That Billy Wagner, one of the dynamic closers of our time, would agree to join this new team, the New Mets. You start believing in a man first, then you realize that everything that he has said he would do comes true.

But 2007, ends with a horrific collapse, and you wonder could this be all for not, could all these pieces to a puzzle that leads to a championship, could all the pieces be there, or is there something missing. Something or someone that fits that piece so perfectly, to make this team more balanced then they have ever been.

It started with Pedro Martinez and it hasn't stopped, but you think that that would be enough, and you realize that it isn't. That Minaya has another trick up his sleeve. You realize that he can pull off another transaction that would once again change the face of this New Mets team. But how could that be, when you have brought in the likes of Martinez, Beltran, Wagner, Delgado, who else could you bring in that would actually change this team again.

Well think about this, what if you brought in a player that has been one of the most dominating pitchers in the American League for the past 5 years. That has put together winning seasons and has been at the top with the strikeout leaders. That by himself, has the ability to take a team and carry it to the promiseland. A coveted pitcher that can get a team to believing again that they can dominate a league, a season and put the collapse to the rear and look forward to a championship season.

Well, that may seem as a dream, to get this team back on track, but not when you have Minaya doing his magic, not when you have a leader that wants to do whatever he can to get this organization back on top.

Omar Minaya, the magician, the Savior, has done it again, he has waved his magic wand and brought to NY, Johan Santana. Something that most experts even Mets fans didn't think it would be possisble, but we all thought that way when he promised Martinez, when he promised Beltran, when he promised that he would change this organization and make them good again. He has brought back the fans, he has brought back the winning, he has even brought back the magic at Shea, and now Citi Field one year from its opening day, he has brought together an attitude that no matter what happens in the regular season, no matter what happens to try and break a team, he will be there to make sure that the fans, the players and even the city, still can believe.

This year will be great to follow and watch this team make history, but not like last season, it will be history that will carry this new team again, to the promiseland.