“……Just to let the readers of this blog know, I do not know Wally Backman so I am not trumping a name out of friendship. And I certainly do not like the idea of championing a person who had legal, financial and alcohol-related issues in his past, a brew that led to Backman being hired as Arizona’s manager on Nov. 1, 2004 and fired four days later when a bunch of this information surfaced.

“But here is a bunch of stuff I do believe:

“1) Backman had the reputation as an excellent minor league manager. A scout I respect said, “His teams played hard. You could tell his players respected him. And he had a feel for running a game.”

“2) He is desperate to manage. One item that has kept the Mets attached to Randolph is a desire not to pay him through next year not to manage. I think that is a horrible reason to stay with a guy if you don’t want him to manage. But here is the thing about Backman: I think he is so desperate to manage that he would accept a deal to just finish out this season for a pittance to prove that he is not the guy with that backlog of problems and can handle himself in this job. In other words, it would not cost the Mets much to replace Randolph.

“3) At a time when Met fans hate the current team, Backman is remembered fondly as an energizer of the Mets’ last champions in 1986. It probably does not hurt that he walks in with a solid relationship with the two main analysts on SNY, former teammates Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez.

“4) He is fire. And this team badly needs some.”

Considering that they’re the best team in baseball right now, you’d thing they’d get a little more respect. Rays Pride.

Look at it this way…Other than Wright (who is just playing okay). Who from last year’s team is doing well? I’ll tell you…NO ONE!

Santana, Church and Schnieder (the newbies) have been the enjoyable ones to watch, and now with Church out, the offense is lame at best. I’m trying to stay positive but it’s certainly not easy. It is a constant struggle for me to watch them and to feel like they have a chance.

With Alou and Church not playing last night’s line-up did not have one player over .281, unless you consider the new kid Evans. It had five starters with batting averages below .261. WOW that does suck! The Marlins on the other hand had everyone above that except for Jones and Jacobs. Every team the Mets play right now has more offense. Shoot my 13 year son’s travel team has more offense than the Mets.

It is very hard to stay positive when you have this kind of play from guys making millions…

Delgado – I’ve supported you as much as I possibly can. I’m just sick and tired of the strikeouts and pop ups. Meaningless solo shots, with a bad batting average. Not much at 1B either.

Castillo – Another one I’ve stuck up for, and should now apologize for. When do you not run out a ground ball on a potential double play? I’ve seen this 3 or 4 times in the last week or so. Slap hitting is okay when you do all of the other things well and bat close to .300. Otherwise it doesn’t mean much.

Beltran – Seems to be just going through the motions. No spark, not a care in the world. To not even get a secondary lead off of first and then not run on a ground ball is pathetic. Too many long, lazy fly outs. Never comes through in the clutch. Just what you want out of your cleanup hitter.

Reyes – (Who I now refer to as Chicken Little because he reminds me of a chicken with his head cut off), is boneheaded on the bases, and scary on defense. Considering his complete lack of plate discipline he really should not be a leadoff hitter. “Most exciting player in baseball” Sure if you want to consider never knowing what kind of stupid move he is going to make. There are four or five better shortstops in the NL alone. By the way he should have been charged with another error last night.

Pitching: The Mets theme for pitching seems to be to walk the first man of each inning, or at least walk one an inning. I don’t even want to talk about pitching. That will send me off on another tangent.

I know it’s early, but I really don’t want to here that crap. The Mets do suck right now, and something got to give. They are 6.5 back and getting spanked by everyone else in the NL East. Including the Nats. The Mets are not in the top ten in any offensive category other than stolen bases. They are ranked 22nd, 23rd, 24th or worse in almost all categories, and that was with a healthy Church, Alou, and Pagan. Do you want anymore proof of mediocrity?

If they are not going to get rid of Willie then I SAY BRING ON SOME NEW LIFE. Once again, can it be any worse?

No it isn’t.

Not unless Wilpon wants to pay me for my services.

Any love I had for this current crop of players died with the final game of 2007. I’m strictly a “for the uniform” fan until the last of these chokers is gone

And you know what? I couldn’t be happier. My GTA4 instead of the Mets plan is wonderful.