Happy New Year!  At least, I say that now.  I said that a year ago as I eagerly awaited 2008, wanting so badly to forget the woes of my sports in 2007.  Now, I just want to forget that any sport was played in 2008, except perhaps the Super Bowl (I don’t care about the NFL, but my brother is a die-hard Giants fan) and the Hawaii Bowl (Notre Dame won its first Bowl game since ’94 and made an attempt to patch up its dreadful season).  Ok, ok, there are a few Mets games I want to remember–my first game at Shea (and Johan’s first of the soon to be many complete games), Mike Pelfrey’s streak he went on, David Wright’s first walk-off homerun ever (not even in high school had he hit one), and who could forget Johan’s 3-hit complete game shut-out on short rest after pitching a career high 125 pitches and having an injured knee?  Still, the next day kind of made me want to forget that there was any baseball played in 08.

But let’s forget about 2008, my eyes are focused on 2009, the year the pennant returns to New York (and not at Yankee Stadium)!  The New Year started off great as I broke open my Mets page-a-day calendar, full with trivia and facts (Jan 1 trivia question: what team did the Mets play in the 1969 world series…..EASY!  don’t worry- it has gotten a little more difficult).  I am impatiently counting down the days until baseball returns…thank God for the World Baseball Classic to help speed up the process!  Right now I’m at home so I can watch my SNY tv, and I just finished up a Mets Classic (Mets blow a 5-0 lead in the 8th, but go on to win it in 11, complete with an awesome double play at home to third, in 1986).  I love being around Mets fans….something that there is a shortage of in the mid-west.  Going to my aunt’s house for Christmas Eve and seeing my three cousins all wearing a Mets shirt or hat just makes me so happy.

So I was just surfing the net today and I wandered onto the MLB homepage and an article about the Phillies caught my eye.  Normally, I avoid reading about the Phillies, just because I’m still bitter about what they’ve done to the Mets the past two seasons, but this one intrigued me.  Apparently, J.C. Romero (reliever) was suspended for 50 games for steroid use.  Hmm.  Well, I don’t know about the people of Philadelphia, but if my team had just won the World Series, and then one of the players was suspended for steroids, that would kind of tarnish that title, wouldn’t it?  The article said that Romero tested positive twice during the season (one of which was before an August Mets-Phillies game that the Mets lost and Romero pitched in….that could have cost us the post-season).  Seriously?  TWICE?  How stupid do you have to be to get caught using steroids and then continue to use them?  At least if you’re going to continue to use them, find a better way of hiding it!  And by no means am I condoning the use of steroids (I am as opposed to it as one can be) but to getting caught using steroids and then continue to use them without changing the way you take them….  Of course, he used the excuse of “not knowing that the pills he took contained banned substances” which I feel is unacceptable.  With all of the controversy with steroids over the past couple years and this “issue” of players “not knowing they were taking steroids,” don’t you heavily monitor any substance that you’re taking?  It’s unexcusable to just say you didn’t know you were taking steroids.  Anyway, it might be a little mean of me, but I am glad to see the Phils 2008 World Series tarnished by steroids.  I guess it wasn’t just the awful bullpen and several key injuries that cost the Mets the post season, it was Romero and steroids as well (he won 4 for the Phils, enough to give the Mets the division title).

Enough about the Phillies, the 2009 Mets are becoming more of an actual team!  So it appears that the Mets still need a couple starters, or one good starter and someone to compete with Jon Niese for the 5th starters; a couple infielders (both a second baseman and one in reserve) and more bullpen.  I would really like to see Lowe on the Mets, but I don’t need him.  He is a little older and if Ollie could just pull it together, I’d be really happy to see him back with the Mets in April.  Still, I just want to know that we have another starter and can stop talking about all the rumors and speculation that comes with trades and acquisitions.  As far as the 5th starter, my heart is pulling for Tim Redding!  He grew up less that 10 minutes away from my house, and now that I lost my Notre Dame connection of Aaron Heilman, I would love to gain a Rochester connection with Redding.  In the infield, I find myself really wanting Castillo to be our 2nd baseman.  I know I sound crazy, but Castillo did say a few weeks ago that he was going to work really hard to be in the best shape possible for spring training and redeem himself.  I want to see this become reality for several reasons: a) it would be a huge sigh of relief and save the Mets from having to swallow Castillo’s contract and look for another second baseman; b) I just like to see the underdog succeed, and let’s be honest: Castillo is the underdog here; and c) I really would love to see all the other teams underestimate Castillo and find themselves with their feet in their mouths.  For the reserve infielder, I REALLY want to see Argenis on the Mets again…give him a chance!  True, one of the main factors as to why I like him is that he’s BFFs with Jose, but I also think there’s serious potential there, and we could find ourselves looking back a few years from now, wondering why we ever let him go.  As far as outfield and catching, I don’t really understand why either is a need.  We have five outfielders right now, and Nick Evans would make it 6 (is he officially on the team yet? sorry, I’m not sure), so why are the Mets thinking we need another one?  There was talk of a need in catching early on, and there hasn’t been much talk of it since then, but that might just be that there are bigger priorities first.  I personally don’t want to see our catching change at all.  I love Schneider behind the plate, and haven’t noticed too much of an issue with him calling the game, other than the fact that our bullpen was awful, and I definitely don’t want to see Castro leave (half of the enjoyment of watching Mets games is seeing who ends up with a bubblegum bubble on their cap!).  Hopefully that won’t change in 2009!

I think that the Mets are going to have a great 2009…we’ve addressed the bullpen, we have starting pitching (3 so far, but hey, I’d take winning 3 out of every 5 games…that’s a .600 winning percentage!), our offense and defense look solid…there are a few areas that still need work but there is also more than a month left in spring training, and I have faith in Omar Minaya.

Bring it on 2009, I have a feeling this year is going to be pretty special!