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Greg Prince and Jason Fry
Faith and Fear in Flushing made its debut on Feb. 16, 2005, the brainchild of two longtime friends and lifelong Met fans.

Greg Prince discovered the Mets when he was 6, during the magical summer of 1969. He is a Long Island-based writer, editor and communications consultant. Contact him here.

Jason Fry is a Brooklyn writer whose first memories include his mom leaping up and down cheering for Rusty Staub. Check out his other writing here.

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The Longest Offseason Ever

OK, quick quiz: If I told you that the Mets had just swung a deal in Nashville (they haven't), and included a link where you could find out the details, what would be your emotions as you clicked through?

If you chose “anxiety,” “despair,” “dread” or a similar word as your answer, welcome to the 2007 offseason.

I mean, honestly. Somehow the Collapse of Sept. 30 has only grown since that terrible day, slowly becoming an avalanche wiping out everything in its path. I thought the excision of Tom Glavine, whom any sane person knew could never wear blue and orange again, might cure it. It didn't. I thought the simple passage of time might do it. It didn't. And this offseason of discontent certainly hasn't done it.

I don't know if Lastings Milledge will be the next Manny Ramirez, Rondell White or Alex Escobar. None of us do. But I do know nonsense when I hear it, such as when Omar Minaya stammers that he's improved the pitching staff by adding an old catcher who can't hit and a platoon corner outfielder. Omar referenced the Kris Benson trade in counseling patience, and in doing so accidentally touched on the probable reason for Lastings' exile: off-field issues. But there's a big difference between the Benson deal and the Milledge deal. We all knew Kris Benson's probable future, because we'd seen all too much of his present: At the time (in what may be, for other reasons, the most-trafficked post in Faith and Fear history), I compared him to “a bath that took 20 minutes to fill at the end of an exhausting day and was lukewarm the second you got into it — not so cold that you pulled the plug, but not warm enough to keep you from repeatedly dunking your knees until you realized you were enduring what you thought you'd be enjoying.” Benson was an overpaid, brittle, eminently replaceable journeyman — his mouthy wife may have been the reason he got run out of town, but his essential uselessness was the reason I didn't care about seeing him go.

Did Milledge have his own off-field issues? Sure, from “Bend Ya Knees” to getting suspended to stupidly waking up the moribund Marlins. When it comes to baseball mores there's a thin line between exuberance and obnoxiousness, and you could usually find that line by locating Lastings and then moving a couple of steps back. Granted. But he was also 22. He had demonstrated enticing ability on a big-league ballfield, he was cheap, and his future was yet to be written. How that kind of player yields a no-stick catcher and a corner guy who needs to stop listening to Bible thumpers is absolutely beyond me. If Omar turns around tomorrow and trades Estrada and Church as part of a package for Erik Bedard, I'll quiet down fast. But do any of us really believe that's coming? Or does the Milledge deal smack of the bad old days, of a hypersensitive ownership that would rather have a mediocre team of controversy-free nobodies than the occasional back-page blowback of a team with an actual personality? This feels like the dismantling of the late-80s teams, like the dead-ass early 00s squads where everybody was whispering in ownership's ear. Milledge is gone, Lo Duca is gone, and I have trouble believing that what we're witnessing are purely baseball decisions.

What's next? What will Omar return from Nashville with? And what will he pay to get it? Will Carlos Gomez and Mike Pelfrey and Philip Humber — all far too young to write off in my book — vanish from our ledger? With Santana, Bedard, Haren and the others seemingly out of our reach, what retread with a dull present will their futures be sold for? (Think that's pessimistic? If I'd told you Milledge had been traded to the Nats for two players, would Ryan Church have been in the top five players you picked? And would you have ever guessed Brian Schneider?)

At least there's the free-agent market. Come on down, Livan Hernandez! Plop your indeterminedly-aged body between whatever's left of Moises Alou and Luis Castillo, the oldest 32-year-old in baseball. Luis is here for the next four years — at which point he'll be playing second base with a walker. Seeing how you're supposedly under 50, Livan, I'm sure we've got at least two years for you too. (Seriously: When we sign Livan Hernandez, just kick me in the head so I'll be in the proper frame of mind to react.)

I'm a Met fan. I've been through plenty of lousy seasons. I've seen a couple of Septembers turn to ash in the final days. But I've never seen an offseason where I found myself bracing for a punch in the gut every time I saw my team's name on the Web. The solution to this, as with so many of life's problems, is for baseball to hurry up and return, even if it's only the sublime pointlessness of spring training. But we just got the first snowfall. It's not even Christmas. And I find myself scared to think what will come by the time we get to Valentine's Day.

8 comments to The Longest Offseason Ever

  • Anonymous

    The current regime, had it been running the Mets 40 years ago, would have traded Tug McGraw to the Reds for Pat Corrales and Vada Pinson. Sure McGraw is 23 and a lefty, but he hasn't looked good as a starter, he's a bit of a free spirit (brings his dog to camp!) and his brother was a troublemaker.
    In retrospect, I'm surprised Darryl Strawberry wasn't traded to the Braves for Rufino Linares and Biff Pocoroba in 1982. Linares can split time with Danny Heep and Pocoroba's a real catch & throw catcher.

  • Anonymous

    Gentlemen,
    Maybe I'm mellowing in my rapidly increasing old age, but for now, I'm intent to wait and see rather than jump the gun to condemn. Impressive moves? No way. Precursors to more moves at or following the winter meetings? I sure hope so.
    We went so long in the regular season with only one healthy catcher at a time, and now we have three on the roster? And haven't shored up any part of our pitching staff? How bizarre, how bizarre.
    Honestly, I don't dread the next move Omar makes. “Intrigued” would probably describe it, like watching a ten-year old twist a Rubik's cube and wondering how the hell he's going to get that whole side the same color if he keeps doing what he's doing. Now, whether these deals, recent and upcoming, make Omar an idiot savant, or just a plain old regular idiot, remains to be seen. I'm remaining, to see it.
    Football's fine, but as a less-than-passionate Jets fan, I'm now reduced to calculating how many NFL teams can end the season at 8-8, and force the “best net points in conference games” tiebreaker. (The answer is is seventeen. You could look it up.) For better or worse, give me the 2008 MLB season. And make it snappy.

  • Anonymous

    I'm with this guy, right down to identifying myself as a Jets fan but never actually watching them.
    I don't like the Milledge deal much at all — though not because I think Milledge was destined for greatness but that Schneider can't hit and we don't need any more of those guys.
    I've also become oddly fascinated with Omar's idiot savant qualities, know what I'm sayin.

  • Anonymous

    If you watched them, you might not identify yourself as a Jets fan. I inexplicably watch them every week and have done for I don't know how long. And they pretty much have always sucked. Deep down, I must really despise myself.
    (And Jace, still hatin' on my boy Luis?)

  • Anonymous

    Actually, I think my favorite Omar-ism of this torturous, mainly fruitless offseason so far would have to be:
    “How have we addressed pitching? I think our defense makes our pitching better.”
    Yeah. Keep telling yourself that. Me, I think “getting better pitchers makes our pitching better,” but what do I know? I thought Brian Bannister for Ambiorix Burgos was a bad deal.
    Huh? Oh. Right. Yeah. Back to you, Omar.

  • Anonymous

    in its way, my jets fanhood is a lot less explainable than my time with the mets. football is not as compelling to me as baseball, and the jets have certainly never shown an ability to build and sustain a playoff-caliber squad with realistic aspirations for the world championship. i root for the jets — often at my own expense in the weekly football pools — but cannot recall the last time i expected anything from them.
    whereas the mets, well, you know. they break my heart on an all-too-frequent basis.

  • Anonymous

    I'm sure Luis Castillo is a wonderful person. My only objections to him aren't personal, but baseball-related: namely, that he's an old, fragile, punch-and-judy hitter with no range. The only fundamental difference between Luis and Eckstein or Matsui is he found a team dumb enough to give him a four-year deal.

  • Anonymous

    I haven't been this disappointed with this team in a very long time…