Last week, when sharing Amazings NY's missive to Mets management regarding their decision not to renew a longstanding season ticket commitment, I mentioned that if anyone wanted to weigh in from the other end of the spectrum, I'd be happy to offer their thoughts to our readers on why they will be happily purchasing a ticket plan in 2010.

Well, somebody took me up on it.

Danny Abriano of Rational Mets Musings wanted us to know that he is indeed down for another 15-gamer. He and his dad were Saturday ticketholders in Loge at Shea from 2001 to 2006; a friend then picked up his father's spot for the last two seasons at the old place. It was, in his telling, all good. Citi Field represented a bit of a seating shock (Section 527, Row 2) and Saturday in the new park meant one-third of the games he was buying became weeknights, but Danny decided the revised arrangement wouldn't be a hardship so, now with two friends, he went with the flow.

You can read about the ups and downs he experienced in Citi's inaugural year at his blog, but here's the money passage where 2010 is concerned:

We will keep our ticket plan. And like the days I spent at the ballpark with my father from 2001-2006, the three of us will go to the ballpark together to cheer for the Mets. We'll sometimes get there early to tailgate a little, head to Shake Shack for a burger and then settle into our seats. Every time we attend a game, we'll have our momentary escape from our jobs and our love lives and any nonsense that may be going on at the moment.

We'll enjoy the day or night, enjoy each other's company, and hope the Mets win. We'll do those things because that is what being at a baseball game is all about. It's not a place to bicker over nonsense (like the rotunda or the media's controversy du jour). It's about enjoying the ballgame. If there are 2 strikes on a batter and Johan is in his delivery, we'll stand up and cheer (the fairweathers behind us can complain all they want). If one of the Mets drives in a run, we'll stand in unison and slap hands and beat the hell out of each other in celebration. Unlike tons of other Mets fans who have been canceling their tickets in droves, we will be there. And come April, we'll be filled with optimism just like we are every season. That optimism will likely turn to sadness and disappointment sometime between April and late October. But if it doesn't, oh what a season it will be.

There are plenty of good reasons to withhold your business from the Mets this offseason. But there are plenty of people who have perfectly valid reasons for continuing to patronize them…or maybe enable them. Whatever path one chooses, here's wishing Danny — and the rest of us — well in the pursuit of baseball happiness.

As the wind whips off the Hudson next Wednesday night, December 16, find warmth at the River in Hell's Kitchen where Chris and Will from Blue & Orange will be hosting the Hot Stove Huddle. Scheduled guests include SNY.tv's Ted Berg and, as breaking news permits, Newsday's Ken Davidoff. It starts at 7:00 PM and sounds like more fun than the Winter Meetings.

Big-time spoiler alert. If you want to take the test that I'm about to write about, don't scroll too far down from here just yet, because I'm giving away a whole bunch of answers.

Otherwise, go ahead.

The test in question is something I'd heard of but had never bothered to investigate until I was too intrigued by the topic at hand to give it a whirl. It's called a Sporcle. What the hell is a Sporcle? Its home page describes its tests as “mentally stimulating diversions”. They give you a category, they name some parameters, they give you a set time to name as many as you can.

Then you want to do it again.

I try to avoid mentally stimulating diversions, lest I become any more diverted from whatever than I usually am (or, god forbid, get mentally stimulated), but I was sent too good a link the other day to pass up:

Can you name every player to play for the Mets in the 1980s?

Given enough time, sure. For example, in my lifetime, I have no doubt obsessed on each of the (Sporcle said) 153 men who played at least one game as a Met between the beginning of the 1980 seasons and the end of the 1989 season. Even the ones whose tenures blinked if you missed them have come up in my voluminous research (a.k.a. Met-ally stimulating diversions). There's no telling when one name or another among all 153 has or will come up in my thinking.

But that's not how Sporcle is played. This Sporcle gave me precisely 14 minutes to name as many as 153 Mets from the '80s as I could. These happened to be fourteen minutes during which a Stouffers meal I had stuck in the microwave was dinging that it was done and Stephanie was attempting to hold a brief conversation with me. I politely ignored both as I thought to myself, “Mets who played in the '80s…Mets who played in the '80s…”

I had fourteen minutes but I can't say I used each of the 840 seconds efficiently. My mind wandered. It also kept circling back to names I'd already named. I kept wishing Sporcle came with a pause button so I could turn off the stupid microwave timer. By the final 1:00, I just sat and watched the clock knowing there were names to be named that I was not going to name right now.

My final total was 113 of 153. That sounds pretty good, I guess, but I considered the rules relatively forgiving. I didn't have to list them in any particular order. When I typed in a name, it would appear on a line next to a number signifying how many games that Met played for the Mets in the '80s. Also, if a last name happened to be shared by more than one '80s Met, you got credit for all of them with just one name. Thus, if one of the first guys you thought of was a Gold Glove first baseman, you were automatically filled in for a relief pitcher of fleeting familiarity.

I'm happy to report there was no real I could just kick myself! omission on my part. I managed to name each of the first 44 on the list, from the Met who played the most games for them in the '80s to the Met who played the 44th most. I was also satisfied to come up with plenty of Mets the less than obsessive fan would classify as obscure. There are no obscure Mets, just those who don't often reveal themselves. I got almost three-quarters of the list. I'm not ashamed either for missing who I missed or for knowing as many of them as I do.

What piques my interest in this Sporcle is who I missed. When your clock runs out on Sporcle, your missing answers are automatically filled in. I wondered immediately why those forty didn't leap to mind. I wonder why they remained out of my grasp for a full fourteen minutes. Why were they provisionally more obscure than their 113 decade rostermates?

I'm not sure, but I'm going to try to figure it out right here, right now. What follows, in the order they were listed by games played as Mets during the 1980s, are the forty I missed and why, maybe, I should have thought of them.

Kelvin Chapman The only Met from the first column I didn't name. I think of him as an overmatched 1979 Met, not as a useful 1984 (or less useful 1985) Met. I know a Mets fan named Kevin Chapman, but couldn't think of Kelvin Chapman.

Pete Falcone The Oliver Perez of the early '80s. It was said he had concentration problems on the mound. I used to look at frozen concentrated orange juice and figured it was beyond the comprehension of Pete Falcone.

Junior Ortiz He was going to be the long-term post-John Stearns answer when we got him at the trading deadline in 1983. The other trading deadline acquisition of note that season was a Gold Glove first baseman. Later another catcher supplanted Junior Ortiz in making us forget Stearns. Still, I just mentioned Junior Ortiz in snarky passing last Friday. This is what happens when I take a few days off from blogging.

Tom Hausman Borderline inexcusable. I mention Tom Hausman prominently in my book, at least as prominently as anybody has ever mentioned a 1980 Met middle relief stalwart in any book.

Jerry Morales I'm in love with the Jerry Morales story! The Jerry Morales story is Joel and I go to a game in 1980 and we agree our seats are so good that we can see everything except for a ball that's hit into the right field corner. Soon enough, a ball is hit into the right field corner, and the rightfielder — Jerry Morales — doesn't dig it out until about 1982. Forever more, the right field corner is known as Jerry Morales Territory.

Gary Rajsich One night in '82, Gary Rajsich walloped a three-run homer off Bruce Berenyi of the Reds and made an incredible catch. Months later, a guy I knew said, “I was at the Gary Rajsich Game,” and I knew exactly what he meant.

Mark Carreon I never really bought into Mark Carreon as any kind of answer to any kind of role on the Mets and was always forgetting he was on the bench. Not surprised I forgot him here.

Claudell Washington Three home runs in one game against the Dodgers. That should be enough to get you remembered in a fourteen-minute span.

Mark Bradley I took a crummy picture of him with a 110 camera at Al Lang Field in 1983 before a game that was ultimately rained out. Later in the season, Tom Seaver, according to Howie Rose, stood on the mound with his hands on his hips and stared at Bradley after Bradley did not exactly charge an extra-base hit. Seaver would tell Rose he didn't remember it, but if he did it, he shouldn't have.

Dan Norman Had no problem naming the other three members of the Seaver Four. Perhaps Dan got left out here because he peaked on June 15, 1977, when he was still no more than a scouting report.

Mike Cubbage More a scowling interim manager than a pinch-hitter at the end of the line in the mind's eye.

Carlos Diaz He was quite the lefthanded specialist in 1983. Some days of the week that would be enough to make me think of him 26 years later. Some days, not so much.

Jeff Innis The Mark Carreon of the bullpen. He pitched a lot, but I never remembered he was here. Holds the inactive record for Met who pitched the most games without pitching for anybody else. Had a most pronounced sidearm motion. And I still forget him.

Ronn Reynolds Everybody's got a few of those prospects who you're sure is the guy they have to give a shot to even though you have no reason to back that assertion up. Ronn Reynolds was one of mine. I still have no reason to back it up, but he didn't play enough to make me back down.

Jerry Martin Ohmigod, I hated this guy. Nothing personal. All business. But ohmigod, I hated this guy.

Charlie Puleo Kind of a latter-day Mark Bomback in that in 1980 Bomback was unknown but more effective than anybody else on the staff for a while. Puleo's latter day vis-à-vis Bomback was 1982. He was 5-2 by Memorial Day. Also, he was traded for Bomback. Later he was traded for Seaver. By then Puleo was 9-9, Seaver was an injury-riddled 5-13 and Bomback was done.

Ed Glynn The Flushing Flash! That's all.

Tucker Ashford To shake up the 6-15 Mets in early May 1983, the Mets called up two minor leaguers. One was Darryl Strawberry. One was Tucker Ashford. I'm pretty sure Strawberry was the first or second name I typed for the Sporcle.

John Pacella The hat! That's all.

Wes Gardner During SNY's recent airing of Don't Stop Us Now, the 1984 highlight film, I was reminded of what high esteem the Mets held their first groomed-to-close closer. Wow, what crummy scouting.

Jose Cardenal Cardenal's name crossed my mind during this exercise, but I consigned him to 1979 and out. D'oh! in that the main reason I remember Jose Cardenal was that we let him go in 1980 and finished next-to-last. The Royals picked him up and he played in the World Series for them that very year. Like I said, D'oh!

Jeff Musselman I just bitched and moaned about the trade that brought him here a couple of months ago. I consider it more an indictment of Musselman than my memory that he didn't occur to me again.

Phil Lombardi Came over from the Yankees in the Rafael Santana deal and seemed not at all the prospect he was cracked up to be.

Bruce Bochy The size of his head and his helmet was all that came to light during his severely limited 1982 Met tenure. I hear he went onto manage some teams on the West Coast.

Greg Harris The ambidextrous guy!

Rick Anderson The only 1986 Met I didn't name. Uncle Andy didn't make that year's World Series roster either.

Kevin Kobel Name occurred to me, but I placed him exclusively in 1979, when a letter from a four-year-old appeared in the Mets yearbook proclaiming the lefty as the kid's favoritest player ever, or words to that effect. By forgetting his 1980 (7.03 ERA), I feel I did both Kevin and his Kobelphile a historical service.

Lou Thornton As a pinch-runner, Lou scored the winning run in what was a huge pennant race game in 1989. Then he just kept running until he was gone.

Rusty Tillman His would be a great name in a children's book. Alas, he performed more like a real-life Kerry Jerome Tillman.

Julio Machado Ohmigod, I LOVED this guy! The first thing he did was brush back Tom Pagnozzi. Then he struck him out. Then he was convicted for killing somebody. But I LOVED this guy!

Tom O'Malley Did nothing as a Met in the '80s. Hit a big pinch-homer as a Met in the '90s.

Wally Whitehurst Some players give you hope. The ascension of others depletes it.

Bill Latham Those awesome 1985 Mets came out of the gate 5-0. Bill Latham started the sixth game.

Jeff McKnight It would take too long to explain why here, but earlier this year I wrote song parody called “Stuck With Jeff McKnight” to the tune of the Starland Vocal band's “Afternoon Delight”. It began as such: Gonna tweak the roster/But not do it right/Gonna purchase the contract/Of Jeff McKnight. Pretty much describes the Mets' player procurement philosophy from 1989 to 1994.

Juan Berenguer I knew a guy during his frequent callups who couldn't come close to pronouncing Berenguer. “Beren-jower” he always said. That guy grew up to be Mike Francesa. (No he didn't, but that pronunciation drove me up the freaking wall every time.)

Craig Shipley He's Australian.

Mike Bishop I think it's fair to say that if I had gotten 152 of the 1980s Mets, Mike Bishop would have been the elusive 153rd.

Rick Sweet I had outsized hopes for this guy. Just play Rick Sweet every day, I urged George Bamberger through the television. Bambi didn't listen and, you'll notice, he's not our manager anymore.

Blaine Beatty Aaron Spelling wanted to name the John Forsyth character in Dynasty Blaine Beatty, but it didn't test well, so they went with Blake Carrington.

Tom Edens What gets me is I got Don Schulze and I got the “other” Bob Gibson, but I didn't get Tom Edens. In the summer of 1987, they were all the same pitcher. Of all forty I missed, Tom Edens is the one whose omission actually bugs me the most.

I don't hold against Billy Wagner his sudden rediscovery of his inner Brave any more than I'd fume at Brian Schneider at this point for remembering what a Phillies fan he'd always been. This is what ballplayers who aren't Chris Coste do when they go to a new ballclub. They find a reason to have always wanted to be where they suddenly are. I'm sure Billy comes closer than most to meaning it when he says stuff like, “I remember Bob Horner hitting four home runs in a game.”

Billy wasn't quite 15 then and not actually on the Braves when Horner's four homers went to waste in an 11-8 loss to the Expos in 1986, so I don't know whether he hung Atlanta starter Zane Smith (4 IP, 8 ER) out to dry the way he did Oliver Perez when Ollie gave up a ton of runs against the Pirates in '08. Perhaps there's a school paper somewhere in Southwest Virginia with a damning quote along the lines of:

Zane Smith honestly has got to step up and know that we've just used every guy in the bullpen the night before. He can't come in and come out there and decide that he doesn't have it today, and so be it.

That's actually what Billy said on April 30, 2008 about Ollie after Ollie didn't have it. Kind of turned me against Wagner based on my concept of what a teammate should be. Not that Ollie wasn't particularly Ol-ful that day, but there's a difference between taking it up with your starter and taking it to the press.

Wagner would now and again spout off like that. Part of his roguish charm, I guess. There's a lot to sort through in the Billy Wagner Met legacy, some of it that was helpful to the greater cause, some of it that was less so, yet seeing him rematerialize as a free agent this winter brought to mind one particular image:

When Billy Wagner first got here.

There was an eleven-day period covering late November and early December 2005 when most of our problems were solved. We traded for an established first baseman with power. We obtained a catcher with legitimate offensive credentials. And we signed one of the best closers in the game.

Delgado. Lo Duca. Wagner. It was fantastic. It has to represent the best eleven-day period any Met hot stove has ever cooked up. In three significant swoops, the Mets weren't so much made over as successfully built upon, which made it an all the more incredible feeling. We went from a pretty good team with five pillars from 2005 — Pedro, Floyd, Reyes, Wright and, despite a lousy introduction to New York, Beltran — to a potentially very good team with eight pillars. All it cost was a barrel of money; four minor leaguers who were never missed; Mike Jacobs; and one first-round draft choice (which the Phillies received as compensation for losing Wagner and turned into top pitching prospect Kyle Drabek, a kid there's no guarantee the Mets would have taken had they kept the pick).

I don't know if it was a plan, but it sure sounded like one. Better yet, it worked like one. Thanks in large part to contributions from that trio of acquisitions, the Mets raced off to their fastest start ever in 2006, 10-2 with a five-game lead on April 17. After twelve games, Delgado had five homers and 14 RBI; Lo Duca was batting .368; and Wagner notched four saves. Two other off-season finds, Xavier Nady and Duaner Sanchez, were sizzling as well. The Mets never looked back from that launch of launches and 2006 became, in the best sense of the phrase, 2006.

It all made sense then. Omar Minaya made sense then. Between the end of '05 and the start of '06, he had jettisoned some solid veteran performers from the year before, the kind I was convinced would have gotten two-year contracts or three-year extensions from previous regimes. Mike Piazza, Mike Cameron, Kris Benson, Marlon Anderson and Roberto Hernandez were among the jettisoned. A case could have been made to have kept any or all of them, but Minaya cut cords sentimental and otherwise. Sense trumped sentiment. Julio Franco was a Minaya favorite and Endy Chavez had once been Met property, but bringing them in for '06 made sense. Even where it seemed debatable (starter Jae Seo for reliever Sanchez), deplorable (Benson for Jorge Julio and John Maine) or largely inconsequential (Darren Oliver, Chad Bradford), it all clicked. Omar's most useless pickup, it seemed for the first month of 2006, was flailing pinch-hitter Jose Valentin. By June, Valentin was as valuable as anybody, taking over at second base and filling the last glaring gap on the field and in the lineup. Just about every addition Minaya made worked and just about every subtraction Minaya made worked.

What happened to that general manager?

I have no idea, not really. We know there was an ill-fated cab ride that sent too many dominoes tumbling, and we know some guys aged better than others. We know that the wizardry of 2005-06 was not repeated the following winter, when trusting Omar became an ever dicier proposition, and it has yet to be reconjured. Omar was a free spender with decent judgment of the obvious when he got here, signing Pedro and Beltran in '04, but he was an absolute baseball genius the second year. There was Delgado just before Thanksgiving, Wagner just after it and Lo Duca not a week later. There were also those smaller moves. What followed was a divisional romp and the appearance of the Mets being set for years to come.

Then Omar Minaya became, in the worst sense of the phrase, Omar Minaya. Not every subtraction was a bad idea; not every addition was a disaster by any means. But the ratio grew frighteningly out of the Mets' favor, and Omar the Alchemist wasn't in residence any longer. He revealed himself an increasingly clueless Met GM…or a Met GM whose clues led him down ever more futile paths. Thus far this winter, we've been led to Alex Cora, Chris Coste and, now, 38-year-old, seven-team catcher Henry Blanco. Blanco will join a backstop scrum that encompasses Coste, Omir Santos, Josh Thole and, for all we know, Junior Ortiz. Then again, Henry Blanco can't be much less effective than Brian Schneider was as a Met. If he is, there's not much point to his existence.

There will be more players to whom the GM leads us before the 2010 season commences. Some will actually inspire confidence, a commodity yet to emanate from Flushing. We know from Cora. We have a sense of Coste from his frequent visits. And Blanco…well, that guy's been around, hasn't he? Omar, according to Adam Rubin's book, tried to sign him for 2005, but Henry turned him down. As did Craig Counsell. Undeterred, Minaya went out and nabbed Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran.

Talk about your Plan B's.

Meanwhile, in December 2009, Billy Wagner's a Brave, which is fine. Carlos Delgado may or may not get a one-year Met reprieve, which may or may not constitute wishful thinking on the part of both parties. Paul Lo Duca's a former big leaguer who wants another shot somewhere, which appears improbable, but good luck to him. Y'know, a couple of days before Wagner appeared on TV trying on the uniform of his new team, I caught a moment of Lo Duca decked out in the uniform of his old team. MLB Network was running an All-Star Game marathon over Thanksgiving weekend. When I saw they were airing the 2006 contest, I tuned in. I was briefly excited because I remembered how six Mets made the N.L. squad that year. Pedro didn't show because of an injury and Reyes, voted in at shortstop, was sidelined, but the Met presence was formidable nonetheless. As the game was about to get underway, they set the defense: Beltran in center, Wright at third, Lo Duca catching.

Ichiro Suzuki stepped in to lead off. Paul Lo Duca was clearly visible behind the plate. Paul was hitting .302 at the time. He'd finish at .318. The Mets were in first place by twelve games, exactly where they'd wind up at season's end. That was three years ago.

Like I said, I only caught a moment of it. I couldn't bear to watch anymore.

As the Mets go about their alphabetical roster restocking — Alex Cora…Chris Coste…Chuck Cottier? — they'll have to do it without five of their longtime ticketholders. A Mets fan and FAFIF reader sent us the note below the other day explaining why he and his friends will not be renewing their seats.

In the meantime, edited only for clarity, here is the story of Amazings NY and why you won't see them regularly at Citi Field in 2010.

First off, I never blogged or used the Internet to voice my opinion before. Maybe you can run this on your blog if you see fit.

We are a syndicate of five lifetime Met fans related through blood, marriage or friendship who have been season ticket holders since the early nineties when our paychecks finally allowed us some disposable income. Our full season 4 seats steadily improved over the years. In the past decade we added 2 more seats for half a season. Over the years we had a few additions and subtractions to the group, [but] the core never changed. We went together, we went with our own families. If no one went we gave the tickets away. Sold a few. There were no worries.

It was a sweet setup. For a couple of grand a year, we went when we wanted and had a blast. There were good years and bad years, but we were certainly part of the “Flushing Faithful”.

This year [2009] everything changed; to keep our seats, the prices quadrupled. The seats were so expensive that we could no longer treat them as whimsically as we had in the past. We had to commit to games well in advance, we would sell the seats we weren't using. We could not afford to give them away as we always had (apologies to friends and coworkers who had benefited). Then the season went south; OK I understand a team can have injuries, but look at the Yankees and Phillies, they finished the season with essentially the same teams as they started the season (losing Chien-Ming Wang was more likely a blessing than a curse). Were these Met injuries a freak of nature or did this uncover a team of poor design? Probably both. But this is a discussion for another day.

It was a hard team to watch. Not because the team was losing. We're Met fans, we have agonized over losing seasons before. Sloppy play at every level (Ryan Church missing third base, Luis Castillo dropping the last out against the dreaded Yankees). This time was different. There were no prospects to root for. They put Daniel Murphy in a position to fail, as opposed to most teams which take care to place rookies in a position to succeed. Watching washed up mercenaries are hardly a draw. Remind me how Sheffield fits into our future? Fernando Tatis? Livan Hernandez? Where were the players to root for? Luis Castillo makes me ill. He is the only non-Yankee in the 2009 Yankee highlight reel.

Was it incompetence or was the team disingenuous as they communicated the injuries to the fans? Either way it was pathetic and another example of ownership and management's disregard for their fan base. The new stadium is beautiful, and a great tribute to the Brooklyn Dodgers and Ebbets Field. Another slap in the face to the lifetime Met fan.

So our season ticket renewals came in two weeks ago. They are offering our seats to us at a 6.5% discount to last year. The same seats we could not sell for half their face value for the last three months of the season. The Mets have put their fans in a position to carry all the risk. There is little upside to the seats with their nosebleed prices. Did they offer a credit for last years dismal showing? Of course not. Where is the goodwill? The Mets have left their season ticket holders out to dry.

The Mets will have to wake up to some cold facts: This is no longer the maiden season in Citi Field, that the Mets lost 92 games last year, they are not a likeable team, and the Met fans endured the team choking in September the two preceding seasons. Any young New York baseball fans are going to naturally gravitate to the world champion Yankees. We are living through the worst recession of our lives and Bernie Madoff and his buddies will not be there to keep demand up for high-priced tickets.

So our syndicate after 17 years is not going to renew any of our 6 season tickets. The lack of goodwill on the part of the Mets has morphed into ill will on the part of these season ticket holders. Interestingly, I have a handful of season ticket holding friends, all of whom came to the same conclusion.

My fear is that there will be a Knick-ization of the Mets. My dislike for the Knicks' ownership, management and players has led me to attend a total of one Knick game in the last ten years. I am someone who at one time watched every Knick game. So the precedent is there and it scares me.

I probably don't speak for everyone, but I would rather root for Mets who came up through the organization, than the high-priced mercenaries who never live up to expectations. Yes I'm talking to you Pedro, Oliver, Luis…let's rebuild a farm system. Trade high priced players at the trading deadline for prospects when we're not contending. Have you seen the Atlanta organization? They have 5 legitimate top starters: Jair Jurrjens, Derek Lowe, Tim Hudson, Tommy Hanson and Javier Vazquez. The Florida Marlins have an exciting young core with Hanley Ramirez, Dan Uggla, Chris Coghlan (NL Rookie of the Year), Jorge Cantu (100 RBIs). Josh Johnson and Ricky Nolasco both had more than 190 strikeouts and Chris Volstad has looked spectacular at times. The Phillies have gone to the World Series the last two years. Are we looking at fourth place in the NL East?

I urge the fans: Do not renew, do not buy tickets. Let the Mets carry some risk, let the Mets show some goodwill to their fans. Trust me, you will be able to buy the tickets on the secondary market at half the price. Once you renew, if prices drop, you won't see it.