1. Wish someone who will immediately get it a happy new year today.
2. Wish someone who has no idea what you're talking about a happy new year today.
3. Develop amnesia — what 2007?
4. If you still remember 2007, take a shower. Or a pill. Or a good, long look at Johan Santana.
5. Expect No. 1 starter quality from Santana, but don't count on a win every time.
6. Don't ever use a 4-for-4 by Minnesota Twin Carlos Gomez as a reason to bash Omar Minaya.
7. Allow Willie Randolph April before attacking him for past sins and detecting troubling patterns of misjudgment; he may be right and you may be wrong.
8. Applaud Carlos Delgado without qualification for a month.
9. Give Scott Schoeneweis the benefit of the doubt until mid-May. He can't possibly be any worse this year than last.
10. Take a deep breath before reacting to the first big hit or walk allowed by any Met reliever.
11. Present Ryan Church with a clean slate.
12. Jose Reyes gets 10 stolen base attempts to refigure it all out before being subject to reminders that he ran from second and two out with David Wright up against the Phillies last September 15 (if you haven't developed amnesia about all that).
13. Resist the temptation to take cheap shots at perennially lousy N.L. opponents. One of them is your defending champion.
14. Respect the Phillies and Braves. Do not fear them, not even the Mets-killers among them.
15. Don't let the predictable journalistic abominations that will slobber over the demise of the current Yankee Stadium (opened 1976) while dismissing the end of the one and only Shea Stadium (opened 1964) get to you. Seek refuge in blogs like ours and Loge 13 which present a more appropriate worldview of the Metropolitan area's current ballpark transition period.
16. Keep reading Mets blogs.
17. Tell at least one Mets fan you know who doesn't read Mets blogs to read one — ours or any other you enjoy. That Mets fan doesn't know what he or she is missing.
18. Don't wait for a walkoff win to read Mets Walkoffs and Other Minutiae, up and running after a winter's hibernation.
19. If you like deep, deep Mets minutiae of the Mets Walkoff variety, check out the equally detail-oriented Metaforian.
20. If you don't mind being reminded of the most gaping hole in Mets history, go to NoNoHitters.com and revel in the fact that Mets fans come up with stuff like this.
21. If the mood strike you, do what CharlieH did and start your own Metsian blog. No gatekeepers here.
22. Be outraged — send them a pointed e-mail, even — that MLB shortsightedly short-circuited the legendary and beloved jphilips41's YouTube page, the one with otherwise unseen clips from the '73 World Series pregame shows and the '77 and '79 Mets Old Timers Day ceremonies. Neil Best in Newsday broke the bad news, and it's bad news not just for Metsopotamians and for John Philips but for baseball which is lucky it can crawl, so often does it shoot itself in the free-publicity foot.
23. Should you ever meet John Philips, his next beer is on you.
24. Seeking a substitute for the treasure trove that was jphilips 41's collection won't be wholly satisfying, but you could do worse than the warts & all Shea Stadium slide show presented by Ballparks, Arenas and Stadiums. Other great ballpark, arena and stadium slide shows included.
25. Ignore the Carvel lines at Shea and go for Dippin' Dots instead. That's the ice cream of the future anyway…literally.
26. Somebody go to one of those “watch parties” bars hold when a season starts and tell me what the appeal is. I don't want to watch the Mets with a bunch of drunken strangers, except at Shea.
27. Be amazed by the gall of the ESPN Zone to hold a “watch party” at its Times Square location this Tuesday night for the Mets and Braves when reliable sources inform me that the very same ESPN Zone initially refused to change one of their myriad televisions on a recent Sunday to a Mets exhibition game even though a table full of Mets fans made the request, even though just about everything else being shown on every screen was spectacularly irrelevant to a New York audience.
28. If a nosy child asks you, as one did me last week, if you like the Mets because you're wearing a Mets sweatshirt and then volunteers, “I like the Yankees,” don't be shy about responding, “Good for you,” loudly in a room full of bored adults, such as a doctor's waiting room. It will make you and everyone in the room feel better.
29. If you are fortunate enough to find a good, old-fashioned stationery store that actually sells baseball cards by the pack and the store owner, moving and talking slowly after decades in the same location, asks you to confirm that “kids still like these, right?” be quick to reassure him that kids definitely still like these.
30. Don't feel compelled to tell him the kid in your focus group is 45.
31. If you turn on your car radio and hear David Coverdale crow, “Here I go again” moments after fulfilling your annual obligation to buy several packs of baseball cards before a new season starts, read into it anything you like.
32. If the first 2008 baseball card you find upon opening that first pack is an American Leaguer with whose work you are only vaguely familiar, it is appropriate to channel Whitesnake once more and think, “Here I go again,” because the first baseball card of any year is almost never a Met.
33. Should you gaze upon the midtown sky on the evening of April 8, pay attention to the colors of the tallest building in the vicinity. You will be pleasantly surprised (if you don't click here and ruin the surprise).
34. After Keith Hernandez revealed during a Spring Training game that one of his minor league roommates was Mike Vail and that Neil Allen, for whom he was traded, had the best curveball he ever faced, wonder who or what he doesn't know.
35. Give Wayne Hagin a chance. I cringed during his first Metscast when he said 1986 is a year that will “live in infamy” for Mets fans, but he's got pipes to die for and he's not Tom McCarthy.
36. Stop campaigning for the demotion of whoever's batting .182 after three weeks and insisting Fernando Martinez be promoted at once. Same applies in pitching terms to Jonathon Niese, even if he was born on October 27, 1986, a date that will live in non-infamy for Mets fans.
37. Cheer like hell for Carlos Beltran. Cheer him like he's David Wright.
38. Continue to cheer David Wright as previously cheered.
39. Continue to melt like Dippin' Dots on a hot day at the sight of Pedro Martinez.
40. React to all politicians invading a ballpark with absolute silence. Don't cheer. Don't boo. By your silence, maybe someone will get a clue that we want them concentrating on their government jobs.
41. Line every pocket with pocket schedules. What's the point of pockets otherwise?
42. Make an exception to your “watch party” skepticism when Jon Springer and Matt Silverman host one of their own on Sunday April 6 at Stout NYC, 33rd between Sixth and Seventh. It's to promote the brilliant Mets By The Numbers book that we've mentioned a few times already…and to watch the Mets beat the Braves, if possible.
43. If you haven't bought Mets By The Numbers, you can buy it at Stout.
44. Or buy it sooner. We really like this book around here.
45. We also recommend another selection in the bulging Matt Silverman oeuvre, 100 Things Mets Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.
46. We recommend it so heartily that we're borrowing generously the book's premise for this post.
47. As we can barely come up with half as many Knows & Dos as Matt did, we truly admire the way he covers his Mets bases.
48. So secure yourself a copy…
49. And enjoy Opening Day…
50. And happy new year!
Happy New Year!
Actually, my first baseball card of the year in 2006 was Pedro Martinez… which is why I still remember it, two years later!
Last Opening Day in Miami was in 1999… bad Opening Day, good season.
Let's hope today is a good Opening Day and a great season! Enjoy it guys, and I look forward to another season of reading you guys.
You KNOW #s 5 and 6 don't apply to me. Nor do #s 8, 9, 10, 13, half of 14 (I respect them, but I also fear them), 36, 37 and 39, as all these are most blatantly things I'd either never do or would always do anyway (i.e. don't need to be told). I'd rather die than adhere to #25 and eat those creepy, slimy little eyeballs. #28… my 8-year-old niece notices Yankee fans wherever she is, marches right up to them (even when they're all large and scary-looking, but of course that's redundant) and announces she loves the Mets. I love that kid.
And what the heck happened to jphilips41?! Not a good start to the new year at all.
I don't know about “watching parties” specifically, but I do enjoy watching the game at a bar–particularly when it's not a sports bar. There's just something about sitting amongst complete strangers, not saying a word to eachother, but then suddenly something happens in the game and this group of strangers starts groaning or cheering along with you. It gives me a nice, warm feeling to know I'm in good company, and to know that the small gathering of souls have all decided, like me, that baseball–Mets baseball–is way more important than socializing.
The Magic is Back!!!
Happy New Year FAFIF!
Merry New Year!
Happy New Year, FAFIF. And thanks for plugging the Mets blogosphere, the only place you can get Mets news from people who do not seem to despise the team, or the dear stadium in which they have played for over four decades.
Happy New Year, folks.
And happy birthday to me — this past Saturday. Look at me! I'm 43!
My son heartily concurs with #27!
Amen to that, Kevin. I just finished spending opening day with my buddy Steve, and a buddy of his, at a Florida sports bar called Gators (at least the orange and blue motif fit in nicely). It's in a town called Apopka, whose name in Native American means “little potato”. Big Apple, little potato – close enough for us.
Faith = watching Wright's bases-clearing double pull our boys out to a comfortable lead
Fear = watching Schoeneweis warming up (ohcrapohcrapohcrap)
Spending a few hours with friends, beers, and a Mets Opening Day win = priceless
Happy New Year!
I like this one much better than that other one. Today, they signal the new year by throwing a ball. In January, they just drop a ball. Sounds like that should be scored an error.
Mets blogs! Woo Hoo! My goal is to double my readership(which won't be hard)
I stopped by the Metsblog watch party today as my employment situation conspired against letting me see the game(trust me, i was pissed) It was way too crowded to be enjoyable, and you couldn't hear the audio, but there is still something a little special about hearing the groans and cheers of people rooting the same way you do.
Wish I could make it Sunday, Stout NYC is a pretty cool bar too, cask conditioned beer rocks.
I'll be missing the party too, as I'll be taking in some hoity-toity theatre (Antony and Cleopatra) that afternoon. :-(