Mets ornament of the day: David Wright, Pedro and a soon-to-be-jinxed Santa

The Mets had their annual Christmas party today. This has known to be a jinx to the player wearing the Santa suit, and know to be a very good day when Anna Benson showed up in her now infamous elf costume.

So today we have a Forever Collectibles version of what the day is like, with Mets players David Wright and Pedro Martinez posing with Santa.

Is this a since-departed teammate posing as Santa, or the read deal? We just don't know. He does seem to friendly enough with both players.

This St. Nick is dressed for the occasion, ditching his traditional red coat for his black Mets alternative jersey. And David is ready for action, wearing his glove.

This was the first of a series of “Celebration” ornaments from Forever, though the rest ditched Santa in favor of a third player. Or given the history of bad things happening to Mets who played the role at the party, perhaps everyone just thought it was safer to leave the costume behind.

Mets ornament of the day: Pedro Martinez, quirky and fun

I read Thursday that Pedro Martinez has retired.

I confess that this surprised me, because I thought Pedro Martinez has already retired. I mistakenly came to this conclusion because Pedro hasn't pitched since he lost two games against the vile team that must not be named in the 2009 World Series for another team that must not be named.

To be honest, I had blotted that entire World Series from my memory. I pretend it was canceled, just like the 1994 Series, but for a better reason.

I prefer to remember Pedro from his days as a Met, making each start an event even when it was apparent towards the end that his physical gifts were fleeting. If only he'd stayed healthy in 2006. I might have been able to add a World Champions ornament to the tree.

But I do have an unusual Pedro Martinez ornament. I found it online, and I've never found anything like it.

Detail issues abound, like the road wordmark on a white home uniform. But the manufacturer managed to work in Pedro's necklace.

Not complaining, mind you. It's quirky and fun, just like Pedro.

Pedro Martinez, Kim Richards and Lord Stanley have something in common

High school seniors get to march wearing cap and gown, but fifth-graders here leave elementary school by running through a gauntlet of parents and vengeful siblings armed with water balloons, Super-Soakers and Silly String.

My youngest made this adventurous trek today, which means I am old, with children in middle and high school.

But it also disrupted my attempt at a morning posting of the Deezo Friday Five.

1) Don Zimmer beware, because Pedro is back!

We don’t know for how long, but I was pretty happy when he made it into the fourth inning, which is better than his first start this season.

And the Mets even scored 9 runs for him, which they pretty much have to do since Pedro have up three runs before he left and the bully allowed the Giants to start tacking on runs in the ninth.

If another couple batters have circled the bases, you know Pedro would have thrown Scott Schoenweis right to the ground. And we know he’s good at it.

2) My son is about to turn 16, and we’ve been trying to prepare him culturally, at least in the ways of the cinema. My wife is responsible for the high-brow stuff, and the extreme low-brow, which usually involves bad dubbing and plastic monster costumes.

I’m in charge of classic guy movies, like "Caddyshack," that guys must be able to recite or risk becoming social outcasts.

So far we’ve watched "Major League," "Animal House" — don’t worry, I made him cover his eyes during that part — and most recently "This is Spinal Tap."

I knew this important information was sinking in after church last week. We have two praise bands. One of younger folks, and one of, well, folks who are not. The band of people with, um, more life experiences played last week and thought they were rocking out, to at least the extent that they do rock out.

In the middle of this praising and mild rocking, the son leaned over and said, "They’ve got them turned up to 11."

I was so proud.

3) Lord Stanley is back! Hockey is a worthy off-season diversion, but I lose interest the moment spring training starts. I don’t pay much attention in the spring unless the Islanders are in the playoffs, which means I haven’t paid attention for a long time.

But the locals are all excited about the Red Wings winning the Stanley Cup again.

I have to say I was worried about them after the Penguins tied Game 5 with 34 seconds left and winning in triple overtime. I told a co-worker the goal that tied the game was their "Buckner Moment."

He was not amused. And I have to tread lightly because they are already distraught over the Tigers, who I suspect were printing up World Series tickets in March.

4) Kim Richards is back! Like every guy who grew up in the 1970s, I had a crush on actress Kim Richards, star of seemingly any Disney live action movie that didn’t have Dean Jones in it.

Dean = comedy, Kim Richards = serious.

It doesn’t appear that Kim has worked much in recent years -- the dreaded "Hello Larry" curse -- so I was pretty excited to see that she was signed to appear in the "reimagining" of the Witch Mountain movies. Apparently Ike Eisenmann is coming back, too. But I don’t care about him.

I don’t hold out much hope for the rest of the movie, which has Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Cheech Marin among the stars.

5) This week’s hidden iPod gem is another song that took me years to track down, largely because I didn’t know that it’s actual title was "Bird’s Fly" or that it was performed by Icicle Works. The only lyrics I could understand was "We are, we are, we are" and "Whisper to a scream," which sounds really cool. The glories of the Internet allowed me to Google those words and "lyrics" and finally had enough information to track it down.

The video is better than the recent hidden gems. But note that the lead singer is strumming his guitar when there are only drums in the song

Willie Randolph, the tribe as spoken.

This past season of Survivor was the best in years even though Parvati pretty much flirted her way to $1 million without contributing to anything in any way that I could see.

Then it had me thinking. What if we could combine my two favorite shows – Mets baseball and Survivor – into one. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could have "Survivor – Flushing?"

Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez is like Jonny Fairplay, who has the rep and the cool nickname – and seems to make only a cameo appearance in the season.

Brady Clark would be like Mikey B, who got voted off during one of the first episodes and I forgot all about him until the reunion show.

Aaron Heilman is like Chet, the guy who kept getting his butt kicked week after week and somehow kept hanging around. Aaron, take note. Eventually everybody got tired of Chet’s whining and sent him packing. And unless you want to be playing in New Orleans in July – shudder – you’d better get your act together.

Pedro is like Jonathan — a great player and good leader who was ejected early because of an injury.

Nelson Figueroa is like James, who was just happy to be there and was in over his head, sticking around so long that even he was surprised that he was still there. You just know he’d hand off a fake immunity idol to Jorge Sosa, like James did to Eliza.

No Met is as stupid as Erik, who was tricked into giving away his immunity necklace.

And speaking of the immunity idol, Willie Randolph has been managing like he’s had the thing in his back pocket. Realistically, I think he played it to keep his job after last season’s collapse.

Willie, if you lose two of three to the vile Yankees this weekend, and you see the players chatting together on the beach, rest assured they are going to write your name on the next ballot.

The tribe has spoken. It’s time for you to go.

On happier note, let’s get to the Deezo Friday Five.

1) I loved the pink bats and ribbons players used on Mother’s Day to bring awareness to breast cancer. My daughter and I went to see the West Michigan Whitecaps, who were going to wear pink jerseys. The game was rained out, but they didn’t announce this until we had already had our fill of Bosco sticks and the gift shop. They handed out pink T-shirts with the ‘Caps logo on the front. Only problem was the back listed the date as "Mother’s Day, May 11, 2007." Oops. The game has been rescheduled for May 26, and the team promised correctly dated shirts.

2) Holland, Mich. is a city about a half-hour from here, and you know you’ve crossed the border when you see each yard has either a decorative wooden windmill or statues of two Dutch kids bending at the waist and puckering — but not actually kissing, because you wouldn’t want to encourage such racy behavior. Don’t get me started. I was making fun of this at work, and my wife pointed out that such abuse was being hurled about by a guy who has a Statue of Liberty lawn sprinkler. I replied that the issue shouldn’t be whether or not I have one, but why everyone else doesn’t have such a glorious display.

3) The Home Run Apple lives. Apparently Jeff Wilpon took reporters on a tour of Citi Field and confirmed there would be a place for the beloved apple in centerfield. While it might not be THE apple — which looks a little worse for wear, though we certainly can’t blame Carlos Delgado for that — a sparking new one has the potential to be very cool.

4) The Ebbets Field Flannels catalog is always a fun read because of the obscure minor league teams they choose for jerseys, caps and T-shirts. I was very impressed to see them come up with an Alaska Goldpanners jacket. That’s a short-season team usually stocked with college players — including a young Tom Seaver. That nugget led me to purchase a Goldpanners cap though the team years ago. The team hosts the famous Midnight Sun Tournament, played overnight, without lights.

5) Last week’s hidden iPod gem has a hit, so I thought I’d hit shuffle and see what else came up. There is absolutely no reason why Sniff ‘n’ the Tears’ "Driver’s Seat" should be as good as it is. The lyrics make no sense whatsoever, the drummer sounds like he’s playing a different song and the other instruments drop in and out as if a middle schooler with ADD is deciding who plays when. I love it. A quintessential one-hit-wonder track.

Pedro, Drooper and the Friday Five

Deezo's back, so the Deezo Friday Five feature probably goes back to its rightful owner. But I don't think Dan minds if we still have a little fun, especially after the events of the week.

1) Pedro Martinez. Pedro's back, and wastes no time boldly pronouncing that he dominated in the steroid era without resorting the the juice, which we can now always call "Rocket fuel." No word on whether Pedro's wife has ever used HGH.

2) We know celebrity deaths come in threes. The loss of Shea Stadium's famous Sign Man, was the first, followed by Roy Scheider, forever in need of a bigger boat. In sixth grade, I was all about the shark.

3) and we recently learned about the passing of Drooper from the Banana Splits on Jan. 17. OK, tehnically it was the voice of Drooper, Allan Melvin. Drooper's the lion on the bottom with the sweet '60s shades. Snorky never spoke, just so you know.

4) The fans vs the favorites gimmick -- and our new DVR -- has me excited about "Survivor" again for the first time in years. Producer Mark Burnett must not have been thrilled to get villian Jonny Fairplay to come back, only to see him bail in the first show.

5) Buses. Congressional hearings seem to entice people to throw other people under the bus. You need a flow chart to properly figure out who has Greyhound treadmarks on their backs. And I can't figure out where the cliche came from, since I don't know of a real person actually tossed under a real bus.

30 years after the infamous day

Betrayal.

That the best way to describe how I felt 30 years ago Friday, June 15, 1977 — known in Mets circles as the Midnight Massacre.

Complete and total betrayal.

I was 13 at the time, seventh-grade turning into eighth. My little world revolved around the Mets, and specifically, Tom Seaver.

It seems silly today. We know so much more about the athletes as people that we know better than to consider them role models. Well, except for David Wright.

But back then I was all Mets, all the time. I had the Seaver posters, the puzzles, the Mets T-shirts with the heat-transfer 41 on the back. The autographed photos from when I met a bunch of players at an appearance at the Sunrise Mall hung on my wall like trophies

The autographed photo Seaver himself sent me was — who are we kidding — is a treasured heirloom, along with the baseball card I sent him, figuring he’d like to have one. He signed that and sent it back, too.

When the kids in my class grew their hair long, I wanted mine to be only as long as Seaver’s.

You know that I am loyal to an absolute fault. Once I’m on your side, I see only the good and will defend to the death.

You also know that people say I’m unabashedly optimistic. My glass isn’t just half full, it’s half full and I’m sure there’s a lot more where that came from.

I like to think that those traits serve me well, most of the time. But when I crash, I crash hard. And I crashed hard June 15, 1977.

Most of the kids in my school had turned Yankee by that point. The team had been to the World Series in 1976 and had jumped heavily into the free-agent pool with Catfish Hunter and Reggie Jackson. Even their stadium was like new, thanks to the Mets’ hospitality for two seasons.


I would have no part of it. You don’t change teams, and, most of all, you don’t go Yankee.

Junior high-schoolers, of course, are a sensitive lot. I took all kinds of abuse for my blind loyalty.

I can’t say I closely followed the business side of baseball at 13. I remember being aware of the grumbling between Seaver and the front office. I assumed they’d work things out because, well, they all worked for the Mets and only good people would run the Mets.

I remember the commotion over Seaver’s June 12 complete game victory over the Astros and the speculation that it might be his last game as a Met. I remember dismissing that notion entirely. Surely, they’re not going to trade Tom Seaver. He’s Tom Seaver! Who could they possibly get who is better than Tom Seaver?

And I remember lying on the floor watching the 11 p.m. Channel 7 news on June 15 with my grandmother, listening in complete and utter horror, then slamming my hands on the carpet.

When you are 13, the world is a small place. I did not see the big picture. I saw the part that pertained only to me, and I took this very personally.

How could they do this to me? I’ve defended these people, taking all kinds of abuse. And this is how I get treated? You trade my hero for one guy I’m aware of — Pat Zachry — and three others who I don’t even know exist? This hurt, and it hurt bad.

The next day I read about the other trades the Mets pulled off that night, sending Dave Kingman to the Padres for Bobby Valentine and Paul Siebert and Mike Phillips to the Cardinals for Joel Youngblood.

But I was already numb. It’s like backing over the squirrel you just ran over, as if it could inflict more damage.

As an aside, the fact that I could be this distraught over a baseball trade is proof at how good I actually had it and how little I actually had to worry about in life. Thank you, Mom and Dad.

It took a long time to recover. I tried to anoint Pat Zachry as my new favorite player, adopting No. 40 as my new number on anything I had that had a number. But as the Mets also learned, Pat Zachry was no replacement for Tom Seaver.

I even started wearing caps without any team affiliation, tired of the abuse from Yankee fans as their team went on to win back-to-back championships. I was actually ashamed of my Mets.

I later learned about the role Daily News columnist Dick Young played in getting Seaver traded. He became the designated villain, since my blind loyalty prevented me from fully blaming the team. Proving that I can’t let go of a good grudge, when Young died in 1987 I laminated his obit and hung it on the fridge — and didn’t even have the excuse of being 13.

The years have brought wisdom. I see that Seaver was better off with the Reds, who were coming off a World Series win.

And I now know that the people running the Mets after the death of Mrs. Payson — mostly Chairman M. Donald Grant — were too old-school to handle the sport’s new realities.

I started getting a clue. Even in my blind loyalty, I could see that having a real donkey as the team’s mascot and trotting him out before games was a bad, bad idea and showed me that these people had no idea what they were doing.

But it’s a tough lesson for a 13-year-old.

I kind of got over it. I healed a lot when Seaver was brought back by the new regime in 1983, and even more in 1985 when the whole family got to witness his 300th win.

My son has never embraced a team or a player like I did when I was his age. Sometimes I’m disappointed, but when I think of a day like the one 30 years ago on Friday, I realize it’s probably for the best.

I know the game has changed and players tend to move around more than they used to. But whenever a Barry Zito or Pedro Martinez signs a big-money deal with a new team, I wonder if there are 13-year-olds out there who just lost their hero.

Mets in the All-Star game? Typically a mid-summer bummer

The 1986 NL team was stacked with Mets, but it didn't turn out well.

I love the All-Star game. I dare say it’s my favorite game of the year to watch.

It’s awesome to see all those great players in one place, and my favorite part is when the players are introduced. It’s especially fun to see our Mets representatives get their due.

But the sad truth is that Mets players tend not to do especially well in this national spotlight.
Of we’ve had some spots of success.

Jon Matlack was the winning pitcher and co-MVP of the 1975 game. Lee Mazzilli had a big home run in the 1979 game. Tug McGraw won the 1972 game, and Sid Fernandez claimed a save in 1987. Dwight Gooden striking out the side as a rookie will be an all-time memory.

But it goes downhill in a hurry.

The 1986 game in Houston was supposed to be a celebration, and our four starters took the field in fancy white spikes. But Doc took the loss, Keith Hernandez was 0-4 and Gary Carter was 0-3.

Only Darryl Strawberry, with 1 hit in 2 at-bats, and Sid Fernandez, with a 3-strikeout inning, allowed us to leave the Astrodome with out heads held sort of high. Almost, becase the MVP was a pre-bat-chucking Bat Chucker, haunting us even then!

The 2003 game at New Comiskey Park was a complete disaster, and our player didn’t even make it into the game. Armando Benitez, who probably would have been voted least-popular Met that year by fans, was somehow tapped to be our sole representative, making it pretty rough to cheer.

How much did we dislike Armando at that point? It was his last appearance as a Met – shipped to the Yankees, of all teams, for a trio of stiffs named Jason Anderson, Anderson Garcia and Ryan “Anderson” Bicondoa.

Mike Piazza appeared in six games as a Met, hitting a horrible .154 over those games. Sadly, that uncharacteristic weak stick is among the leaders of our multiple-game players.

Carter won an All-Star game MVP while on the Expos, but hit .143 in his three appearances as a Met. Still, that’s better than Keith Hernandez’ .125 in three games.

Jerry Grote was hitless in his two games, and Edgardo Alfonzo was hitless in two at-bats in 2000.

Slugger Todd Hundley? Not in 1996, when it was 0-1 in his one game. He was named to another team, but was hurt.

Dave Kingman and Willie Mays have very little in common, other than that they were both hitless as Mets in All-Star Games.

Even our hero, Tom Seaver, fell short of his studly standards in the last two of his six appearances as a Met. He gave up three runs in the 1975 game, though he was redeemed by teammate Matlack.

But before you bail on the Mid-Summer Classic, here are some positive things. David Cone, Bobby Jones, John Franco, Tom Glavine and Frank Viola pitched shutout innings t innings.

Lance Johnson was a surprise starter in 1996 and ended up playing almost the entire game, getting three hits in four at-bats, including a double.

Cleon Jones made the most of his one game, getting 2 hits in 4 at-bats in 1969.

Bud Harrelson, our light-hitting shortstop, pounded a robust .400 over the 1970 and 1971 games.

I was optimistic that out six players named to this year’s team would help the Mets redeem the short-comings of the past. Then Pedro’s hip went sore, Jose Reyes got spiked and Glavine pitched on Sunday.

Maybe David Wright’s impressive performance in the Home Run Derby is a sign of good things to come. And I’m pretty sure he won’t go Benitez and end up on the Yankees by the end of the week.

Finally I'm fashionable

It appears that my wardrobe is suddenly fashionable, possibly for the first time in my life.

You have to understand that I'm not the most adventuresome dresser. We had a discussion in the office that my many khaki Dockers were the type O blood of men's clothes because they go with everything -- at least all the dark-colored polo shirts I wear. I wore a shirt with a pattern one day and the newsroom was abuzz.

But according to the New York Post, my outside-of-work wardrobe, assorted Metswear, is now hot, hot, hot. Mets merchandise is now among baseball’s best-sellers. And David Wright has bumped off Derek F. Jeter as the most popular player for T-shirts and jerseys.

This shouldn’t be a complete surprise. The Mets have long had the best-looking uniforms in the game, just ahead of the Cardinals and Dodgers.

But I suspect this means a lot of demoralized, bandwagon-jumping Yankee fans are realizing that life is better on the Queens side of the street. Or maybe they’re trying to infiltrate.

I’ve long been a jersey-lover, and I mean the apparel, not the state. And Mets gear always maintained a large presence in my closet.

Now that I have a baseball room, I have a special rack to display my jerseys. I’ve searched for both authentic and game-worn, when I can find and afford them -- and I don't spend a lot of money on these things. I stay away from the cheesy replicas on principle.

I get them from various sources; including a family-owned business that always have a booth at the National Sports Collectors Convention. You know the jerseys are legit because they have all almost all the players, including the scrubs and coaches. And I favor the srcubs and coaches because they’re affordable and they’re more likely to fit me, since I only buy jerseys I can wear.
Here are my favorites, at least the ones from our beloved team.

1) 1969 Mitchell & Ness Tom Seaver home flannel. (Authentic replica)
This was an anniversary present, and it was expensive, but before these things got stupid expensive. I wear it on special occasions. When you are with my company for 10 years, they shoot a photo of you and make a little plastic cut-out that is displayed in the cafeteria. To prevent them from all looking the same, you’re supposed to be doing something that shows who you are or what you do. Naturally, I’m wearing the Seaver jersey and holding a big red apple.

2) 1991 Barry Lyons warm-up.
This is kind of a strange thing. It’s a pull-over with a short zipper. The player’s name is stitched into the back, but the number is on the sleeve. The classic NY logo is on the chest. And for some reason, there are pockets sewed into the sides.

3) 1986 home (authentic replica)
I don’t know if there is still a Gerry Cosby store on Long Island, but it was jersey Mecca when I was a kid. This was my first real jersey, and Mom sewed the 1986 patch properly on the racing stripe. I proudly wore this when I was attending the University of Missouri at the height of the Mets-Cards rivalry. And I was wearing it when I proposed to my wife. Would she have said yes if I was wearing a cheesey replica instead? We'll never know.

4) 1992 Eddie Murray home (authentic replica)
It is the button-down version of the racing stripe jersey. And I was thrilled when Mets acquired the surly slugger because I could finally put my own name on a jersey. I have the 1993 version, too, with the disastrous addition of the tail under the team name. Now that Metstradamus has labeled it “the wardrobe of failure” I don’t wear it much.

5) 1997 Mel Rojas road batting practice
I got this from the team store, and there’s two reasons I can’t wear it much. The first is that it’s autographed, which makes it hard to wash without ruining the autograph. The second is that it’s Mel Rojas instead of Cookie, who I like. It’s a weird jersey, made of a satin mesh that seems too thin. And the letters are gray on a blue jersey, so they don’t stand out much.

6) 1997 Rick Trlicek home batting practice jersey
I like this one better. Trlicek had cups of coffee with the team in 1996 and 1997. The high number makes me think this one is from spring training. The home version is just so much brighter than the road BP jersey, and Trlicek, while not especially successful, is no Mel Rojas.

7) 1999 Mercury Mets “Turn Ahead the Clock” Night (authentic replica)
For one infamous night, most teams wore futuristic versions of their uniforms. Some were awesome. The Mets versions were not. Other teams had bright colors and their logos blown up to cover almost all the chests. For reasons unknown, the Mets decided to become the Mercury Mets, with a silver symbol for the planet taking the place of the NY on the cap, and a black and gray jersey featuring the symbol floating above the planet’s surface. It’s so horrible...that it’s kind of cool.

8) 1993 Bobby Bonilla road (Authentic replica)
Kind of a double whammy here. It represents both the wardrobe of failure and the player who personified the era. But I found it on clearance at the outlet store for Manny’s Baseball Land in Florida, which was like Cosby’s South but with much, much cheaper stuff and sales clerks that were actually nice. I was wearing it to a spring training game one night, and it turned out I was sitting a row in front of Shawn Abner – he was trying to make a comeback – and some other Mets minor-leaguers. Abner was mocking me for wearing a Bonilla jersey, and we all got to talking and had a nice conversation throughout the game. At one point Abner, who was loud and kind of obnoxious, went to get more beer and one of the other players said to me, “Can you believe the Mets wasted a No. 1 pick in the nation on that goofball?”

9) 2001 Robin Ventura alternate road (Authentic replica)
Found this one really cheap on eBay. It’s my one black Mets jersey. Ventura was such a classy guy, and it’s my souvenir of those magical 1999 and 2000 seasons.

10) 2005 Pedro Martinez All-Star game batting practice jersey (Authentic replica)
This was on clearance because, as you know, Pedro was selected for the team but didn’t go to the game. I love the All-Star Game, and this one in Detroit so I was able to hang out at the FanFest all day and check out the action around the yard and clean up on some last-minute souvenirs.

I have several more, but these are the favorites. And they even go with khaki Dockers.

Forget Kazmir, I'd rather have Pedro, Delgado and first place

I'm going to say something loud and bold: I'm glad the Mets traded Scott Kazmir.

I firmly believe that the much-maligned deal is the reason the Mets are in first place today.

And stories like this one by Lee Jenkins of the New York Times send me right over the edge. Here's a sampling:

Kazmir Deal Is a Debt the Mets Still Owe

"Four out of every five days, the Mets are a resurgent franchise, flush with charismatic leaders and bankable stars, hailed for their progressive thinking and bold strategy.

"But on the fifth day, when Scott Kazmir takes the mound for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, everything the Mets have accomplished comes temporarily undone. No longer are they the team that leads the National League East. They are only the team that traded Kazmir for damaged goods named Víctor Zambrano.

"The trade was bad enough, with Kazmir possibly bound for the All-Star Game and Zambrano out for the season because of elbow surgery. But add to the package all the teasing, tweaking and public flogging the Mets have endured, and maybe it really was their worst deal since they sent Nolan Ryan to the Angels for Jim Fregosi in 1971."

Jenkins makes some good points later in the story, but I absolutely reject the scenario he lays out here.

Nothing becomes undone and the team is still in first place. And why are they in first place? That's easy. It's because Jim Duquette traded fireballing prospect Scott Kazmir to the Devil Rays for sore-armed starter Victor Zambrano.

Follow me here. It was a horrible trade. Potentially the Ryan-esque blunder to which Jenkins makes reference. A certain "What in the heck were you thinking?" deal.

And that's the key. It made people like owner Fred Wilpon, or whoever helps him call the shots, wonder what exactly were they thinking, and who is making that kind of decision. It was a wake-up call, showing that something was seriously wrong with the Mets organization.

You have to know that something is wrong before you can get help from the doctor.

As soon as the season was over, Wilpon hired Omar Minaya away from the soon-to-be-moving Expos to be general manager and put him in control of baseball decisions.

Once Omar took the helm, he made some key decisions:

1) Allowing old but popular pitchers John Franco and Al Leiter to walk, and both moves were heavily criticized. The fact that neither lasted the season with their new teams proves Omar knew what he was doing. But also, it came out later that each of these guys had the ear of people making decisions and had a hand in decisions to send certain players and even a manager packing. There's no way to prove it, but I think if the Duke was still around, so would be Leiter and Franco, aging and ineffective.

2) Signing Pedro Martinez. It was openly assumed that Pedro would be returning to the Red Sox. But much was made of Omar's speaking Spanish and recruiting right in Pedro's living room It didn't hurt that the Wilpons opened the coffers to exceed any other offer, but think it is safe to say that without Omar, there would be no Pedro at Shea.

3) Signing Carlos Beltran. Everyone, and I mean everyone, had Beltran ticketed for the Bronx. But after Pedro came on board, people started taking the Mets more seriously. Again, a seven-year deal worth more than $100 million brings a lot of seriousness. But we also hear about Omar's passionate recruiting trips to Beltran's home in Puerto Rico. I think we can say that without signing Pedro, the Mets would have had no chance at Beltran.

4) Omar went hard after Carlos Delgado, and would likely had got him had Delgado's agent not been a goofball and then-new-Marlin Leiter not have dispensed some bad and bitter advice to avoid the Apple. But because Omar had made the big signings that year, he was able to hold on to prospects that he was able to dangle in front of the fire-selling Fish and finally get Delgado at Shea this year, and later catcher Paul Lo Duca.

Omar doesn't get credit for David Wright or Jose Reyes -- or the blame for Kazuo Matsui -- but I'm pretty comfortable in giving him all the props for Pedro, Beltran and Delgado. And without that trio, I think we're still looking up at the Phillies and the Braves.

So that's the trade: Prospect Scott Kazmir -- and a lot of cash-- for Pedro Martinez, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado. I'd make that trade all day, every day.

And Kazmir's in Tampa Bay, where he'll never hurt us. And in four more years he'll reach free agency and will flee Tropicana Field for a deep-pocketed team -- like the Mets!

And by the way, Nolan Ryan would never have become a mega-star in New York. And we went to the World Series without him in 1973 and beat him in the playoffs in 1986.

Help ESPN get it right

The people at ESPN got loose with a little survey listing the 10 best living pitchers. Allegedly the network asked it’s baseball analysts, announcers, writers and other contributors to compile the rankings.

Apparently they had to restrain Verducci and Klapisch because while there are only two Yankees on the list, Jeter isn’t one of them.

Oh sure, Jeter’s not a pitcher. You think that would stop those guys? "It’s the intangibles, man. He makes all the pitchers better." Whatever. Anyway, here’s the Jeter-less list:

1) Bat-Chucker
2) Tom Seaver (Yes!)
3) Sandy Koufax
4) Bob Gibson
5) Greg Maddux
6) Bob Feller
7) Randy Johnson
8) Pedro! Pedro!
9) Steve Carlton
10) Juan Marichal

What a crock. There are only two Mets on the list. And I suppose we must thank the influence of Mark from the awesome Mets Walkoffs for getting that many on there. But not even he has enough pull to do this properly.

Since he can’t, we will. Now, for your enjoyment, is the proper list of the top 10 living pitchers.

1) Tom Seaver
He is way better than Bat-Chucker. Seaver never gave up six runs in the first inning of an All-Star Game. And he is the closest we’ve ever come to a unanimous Hall of Fame selection, so I’m not the only one who thinks this way.

2) Pedro Martinez
Pedro is so good that Yankee fans claim to have fathered him. You’ve heard that "Who’s your daddy?" chant. They wish. And he threw Yankee mascot Don Zimmer to the ground when it just needed to be done!

3) Tom Glavine
You know Glavine’s going to Cooperstown. I figure that one night he woke up in a cold sweat realizing that he was going to have a Braves cap on his Hall of Fame plaque and needed to get the heck out of Atlanta. Oh, it took Tommy some time to adjust to being in the Apple. But he’s back on track and all is good. And if No. 300 comes in a Mets uniform, that Hall plaque sure will look better.

4) Dwight Gooden
Koufax gets a lot of run because he had four nice seasons before his arm fell off. Well Gooden had four amazing seasons before he had kind of an injury. Of sorts. A self-inflicted one, to be sure. Ah, but 1985 was something to behold.

5) Jerry Koosman
Koosman never got the respect he deserved because he was in Tom Seaver’s shadow. Considering we’ve already anointed Seaver the greatest living pitcher, that’s not bad. He even missed out on a Rookie of the Year award — he was 19-12 with a 2.08 ERA for the last-place Mets in 1968 — because some kid catcher from Cincy put together a decent season. Kooze was so good that he won 20 with the Mets in 1976 when M. Donald was actively trying to screw up the team. Then he went and did it again with the Twins in 1979, which was really impressive. Plus, he’s got one of the coolest autographs.

The former Tidewater Tides cap, worn here by both Gregg Jefferies and Nolan Ryan

6) Nolan Ryan
The ESPN anti-Mets bias was clear on this one. The guy was on the All-Century Team, pitched seven no-nos and is well atop the all-time strikeout list. And none of it would have happened had he not had that great foundation of pitching for the Mets in the early years of his career. The Hall of Fame must have known the Yankee-lovers would have screamed had he been given a Mets cap on his plaque in Cooperstown. So they got a little sneaky and gave him an old Tidewater Tides cap. Only real diehards like you and me know this. But see for yourself.

7) John Franco
Johnny’s the greatest left handed reliever, with 424 career saves. Sure, he usually started the ninth by walking the bases loaded, then got a strike out and double play to get the save. But nobody ever said such things had to be pretty.
8) Al Leiter
It’s a sad story. Al started as a Yankee, escaped and got two rings and tossed a no-no before he staked his claim as a Met. Al pitched well when and he apparently moonlighted as our assistant GM and clubhouse lawyer, which is one of the reasons Scott Kazmir is wearing a Tampa Bay uniform. Then, like so many of us, Al suffered a relapse, seducing Carlos Delgado to become a Marlin instead of a Met then finishing his career as a Yankee.
9) Frank "Sweet Music" Viola
The fact that this Hempstead native managed to survive those early 1990s teams with his reputation in tact alone qualifies him. We endured Vince with his fireworks, Sabes with his bleach, Jeff Torborg with his professional wrestler son ...and Frankie still managed to win 20.

10) Jesse Orosco
Jesse’s glove from the end of Game 7 has yet to land, and Orosco is probably still pitching somewhere, getting that one tough out. You don’t appear in 1,252 games — that’s the most ever for a pitcher, folks — unless you’ve got something special. It can be noted that Orosco worked undercover to sabotage the 2003 Yankees, pitching 4.3 innings over 15 games — think about that for a second — and posted a 10.38 ERA before they caught on to him.

Now that’s more like it!

Hmmm. In scanning this list, it appears that each of these players spent some time with the Mets. A coincidence, I assure you. It’s not like I had Doug Sisk and Mel Rojas on there.

Maybe ESPN will approach people who know what they’re talking about before they compile such a list again.

Pedro's a head-hunter? Good!

Apparently Nationals outfielder Jose Guillen is all worked up because our man Pedro Martinez plunked him a couple times Thursday night. It appeared that way because Guillen headed toward the mound with his bat after dusting himself off.

As if that’s a bad thing.

Sure, Pedro’s inching up on the all-time chart for hit-batsmen. But he's just sixth among active players, with 119. Make that 122, because he nailed Nick Johnson on Thursday, too. He’ll need a similar performance in his next start to catch Greg Maddux, who is next on the list with 125.

Blogger Ryan O’Connell of Always Amazin' might be saying this with tongue in cheek: "Pretty funny how Pedro has drilled Guillen five times in 40 appearances over their careers. I've been a fan of Pedro's since he entered the league, so it's difficult for me to imagine disliking him. But he must just enrage players and fans of other teams. How can a guy with such pinpoint control drill so many hitters (30th all-time)."

Ryan, who does an excellent job, is either being funny or missed the point. Pedro drills these guys because he has pin-point control. I suspect he knows exactly where he is throwing. You crowd the plate, and Pedro’s going to let you know that’s his turf.

I got excited about hit-batsmen when I was part of a simulated league on What If Sports. In the league, you get to pick players from any era to form a team, even multiple seasons from the same player. The computer then simulates games.

Naturally, I had an entire rotation of Tom Seavers from various years. And I grew frustrated when the cyber-Seavers kept drilling batters in the simulations, usually multiple times in a game. Sometimes he’d even get ejected.

I objected, because it’s not like Seaver had a rep for being a head-hunter. But after a while we relented and began to appreciate the noggin-knockers, even cheered for such things when they happened in games, both virtual and in real life.

Of course, Dodger Hall-of-Famer Don Drysdale is the patron saint of head-hunters. Double-D’s 154 hit-batsmen doesn’t even put him in the top 10 all-time. But while some of these modern guys grumble that it’s a part of their job, Drysdale seemed to actually enjoy sending batters into the dirt.

"Don Drysdale would consider an intentional walk a waste of three pitches," Mike Shannon once said. "If he wants to put you on base, he can hit you with one pitch."

And Hall-of-Famer Orlando Cepeda said, "The trick against Drysdale is to hit him before he hits you."

Sadly, we can’t root for the active leaders in the category. Randy Johnson, who was cool before he went Yankee, leads with 168 batters drilled and several photographers.

Roger O’Batchucker is next with 150, with about 148 of them being Mike Piazza. Another Yankee, Kevin Brown in next with 139, though I’m not sure if he should even be on the active list.

Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield is next, and he’s no fun because he’s not actually trying to hit people — he just can’t control where the knuckleball is going. And Maddux, well, he doesn’t throw hard enough anymore to cause a bruise.

So that leaves Pedro as the defacto active leader.

As far as Mets go, Al Leiter leads all-time with 63, followed by Seaver, 52; Jerry Koosman, 49; and Doc Gooden, 41.

Sadly, our single-season leaders owe more to control issues than menace. Gimpy armed Pedro Astacio nailed 16 people in 2002, and there’s a three-way tie for second place. Kevin Appier drilled 15 guys in 2001, Nolan Ryan nailed 15 in 1971, and it must have smarted to be on the receiving end of one of those bullets.

Then we have Victor Zambrano hitting 15 batters last year in an attempt to win our hearts.

As for batters wearing targets, our man Carlos Delgado is third among active players, getting bonked 139 times. Poor Carlos. Curious, however, that the top 10 also includes three Yankees — Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi and Derek Jeter. Now why would anybody want to hit them?