Think of one’s attitude about the 2012 Mets as a scale. Let’s say the stuff that’s bad, depressing, worrisome, etc. goes on the left, and the good, happy, optimistic stuff goes on the right.
BAD STUFF
- The team is broke
- Bud Selig is going to keep looking the other way instead of doing anything about it
- How quickly and thoroughly the team gets un-broke will be determined by lawyers
- Those lawyerly determinations will probably take a long, long time
- We finally have a smart GM — and he doesn’t have any money
- Help from the farm system is probably at least a year away
- The Mets play in a division with a very good team, a pretty good team, and two improving teams
- Even if everything breaks right, forget about obtaining pricey veteran help
- The Yankees are an aggravating, omnipresent point of media comparison
- The starting pitching is in all likelihood going to be somewhere between mediocre and bad
- Key players are coming off injuries
- Other key players are trying to reverse scary declines
- Smart Mets fans reflexively assume anything said by ownership or the business side is untrue
- Did I mention the team is broke?
GOOD STUFF
- The Mets are playing spring-training games next week
But hang on. Let me put that the way it came to me, lying in bed this morning:
OH MY GOD YOU GUYS THE METS ARE PLAYING SPRING-TRAINING GAMES NEXT WEEK! YOU CAN SEE IT RIGHT ON THE SCHEDULE AND EVERYTHING! WE CAN WATCH THEM! THERE WILL BE GREEN GRASS AND INFIELD DIRT AND SUNNY SKIES AND THE POP OF CATCHERS’ MITTS AND THE CRACK OF BATS AND RUNNERS TAKING LEADS AND GUYS WORKING COUNTS AND DUDES IN THE DUGOUT SPITTING SUNFLOWER SEEDS AND UMPS BRAYING BALLS AND STRIKES AND FANS YELLING HUM BATTER AND MANAGERS AND COACHES CLAPPING AND SAYING SILLY THINGS! THERE WILL BE METS! THERE WILL BE GAMES! THERE WILL BE METS GAMES!
And all of a sudden the scales are all the way over there on the right — CLANG! — on the good side. And somehow, at least for now, none of that stuff that fell off the bad side of the scales matters.
Let’s play some ball.