Wait, What About Mets Fans? We Have to Live, Too

Terry Collins, bless his heart, doesn't have to do this anymore.

I am ecstatic for Yankee fans, really. Happy they have Giancarlo Stanton to go along with Aaron Judge. More homers in the Bronx. The natural order. 

Mostly, I am happy for good friends like Big Al, like Marty, who share their Yankee highs and Yankee lows with me.

Now I read that the Yankees have signed the aging warrior C.C. Sabathia for $10-million for another season. How nice to have owners who spend money like that.

But: it’s that time of year – the holidays, good will to all.
I must admit, I am feeling the opposite emotion of the holidays –deprivation, not getting enough toys.

As a Met fan, cooped up indoors at this time of year, I remember how Mets games helped get me through last season, trying to avoid unpleasant subjects I will not mention.  

I rooted for Curtis Granderson and Jay Bruce and Neal Walker and the best defensive catcher on the team, René Rivera, and Addison Reed, with his cap cockily tilted sideways after a successful inning.  Then they all got shipped out.

The Mets have a new manager I never heard of.
They just signed a long reliever I never heard of.
Underwhelming.
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Now I find myself playing a mental game:

Name one position in the Mets lineup, offense or defense, that is really secure.
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C: Travis d’Arnaud tries hard. Kevin Plawecki is big. The Mets are bringing Jose Lobatón into camp, as a non-roster catcher. Adds up to – what?
1B: Dominic Smith showed some power but other times looked like the second coming of Mo Vaughn.
2B: Nobody has mentioned Weeping Wilmer Flores, who is what we Brooklyn fans used to call “The Peepul’s Cherce.”  
3B: Asdrubal Cabrera aged five years last year. Jose Reyes is unsigned.
SS:  Amed Rosario showed youth and flash. But Ron Darling or Keith Hernandez were often saying (but nicely): “Oooh, he shouldn’t have done that.”
LF:  Yoenis Cespedes was dragging in the first television spring exhibition. He kept breaking down. I suspect that football physio from Michigan only made Céspedes worse. Maybe terminally.

Ray Ramirez, not his fault, had to escort Cespedes all too often

​CF:  Juan Lagares is altering his swing for more power. Three years ago he looked like Curt Flood. What went wrong?
RF:  Michael Conforto was having a streaky year. Then he got hurt.
Pitching: Jacob deGrom. The best we have. Thor better stop lifting those freaking weights, or maybe it’s too late. The Dark Knight needs to leave Gotham City.

None of this is any consolation at the onset of bleak winter.

I cannot imagine watching this team, even as distraction from unpleasant subjects I will not mention.

I am happy for pals like Big Al, like Marty. Very happy.

But I am just asking: in the grand tradition of my home town, with all those gift packages heading to Yankee Stadium, would it be so terrible if something happened to, um, fall off the truck?