A New Beginning

Mets fans, the time has finally come.

Throw away your 2010 season program. Tear up your copy of the Wilpon/Madoff complaint. Set fire to your Perez and Castillo jerseys, if you haven’t already done so.

Then kick your feet up, pour yourself a big glass of blue and orange kool-aid, and get ready for a new season of Mets baseball. Because despite a tumultuous past few years and an offseason that has led to the Mets being constantly made fun of by Yankees fans, Phillies fans, the media, Manhattan Mini Storage, and that guy in your office who doesn’t even follow baseball, there are still plenty of reasons to be excited for the 2011 season.

Here are just a few:

A Major League lineup. Last season, the Mets opening day lineup featured the immortals Alex Cora, Luis Castillo, Mike Jacobs, Gary Matthews Jr., and Jeff Francoeur. No, I’m not referring to the AAA Mets. This season, with Reyes and Beltran back to go along with Pagan, Wright and Ike, and Bay hopefully healthy soon, the offense has a chance to be really good (Yes, I know that’s been said before).

Ollie and Luis are finally gone. Few Mets have been hated as much as these guys, and for good reason. For the first time in a while, we don’t have to worry about seeing Ollie walk the ballpark or Luis hopelessly limp to a ground ball three feet to his right, then complain about being benched. The 2011 Mets are almost entirely full of hardworking, likeable players, assuming of course that K-Rod has stopped punching old people.

The injuries bug has already come and gone. At this point every Mets fan knows to expect at least a couple of our stars to get injured every season. With Santana already out and Bay on the DL to start the season, the Law of Averages says that no other big players will be hurt later on. Unless of course the Law of Beltran overrides it.

The Phillies will choke. How do I know the Phillies will not win the World Series, despite already being penciled in for an NL penant? Their amazing rotation was featured on the SI cover, the kiss of death for any athlete (just ask the 2009 Mets). And if the SI jinx fails to deliver, we can bank on the fact that Werth is gone, Utley and Lidge are injured, and they were actually considering starting Luis Castillo.

You just never know. When expectations are high the Mets always come up short. So this year, when expectations are non-existent, why can’t the opposite come true? Hey, it worked for VCU.

Let's Go Mets.