Saturday, March 3, 2012

32 Days

In just over a month the Mets season will have started.  They will have played a game that counts in the standings.  Started their journey to prove all the doubters wrong.  In 32 days they will have played baseball just like every other team because no matter how much money the Wilpons do or do not have and no matter what illnesses the medical staff does or does not diagnose, they are a Major League Baseball team.  They will have played one game and have at least 161 more to play.

On April 5, Gary Cohen, Ron Darling, Keith Hernandez, and Kevin Burkhardt will be at Citi Field broadcasting the game.  David Wright, Josh Thole, Daniel Murphy, Ike Davis, and the rest of the starters will take the field ready to play all nine innings after a long spring of late-inning minor league replacements.  R.A. Dickey or Johan Santana or Jon Niese will take the mound, ready to throw the first pitch of the season.  Perhaps the smaller dimensions of Citi Field will bring the Home Run Apple out early.  If the Mets win then "Taken' Care of Business" will play throughout the stadium.

I can't wait 32 more days.  I don't want to sit through the endless innings of players with numbers in the 80s playing the ends of games.  I don't want to see pitchers only throwing at 75 percent because they're saving themselves for the season.  I want to see the season they are all waiting for.  I want to know there will be a lineup at 4 o'clock and a game at 7 o'clock.  I want that game to count.  I want to know every player is putting in full effort because one win could be the difference in a season.

I want to see Jon Niese buckling knees with his curveball.  I want to see batters completely baffled by R.A. Dickey's knuckleball.  I want the Mets dugout to explode when Daniel Murphy gets a 2-RBI double and the Mets get a lead.  I want Josh Thole to high-five Jon Rauch after he gets the last out of a game.  I want to see Justin Turner give someone a pie in the face during their postgame interview on the field.  And I want it all to be under the lights at Citi Field because there's nothing better than a night baseball game.  A game that starts in the heat with the sun beating down and ends with the cool breeze that carried that late home run over the wall.

The offseason is over but I want more.  Let's fast-forward to the exhibition games and get right to the real thing.  Please?

Let's Go Mets!

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