I hope I don’t lose my good standing with my fellow Mets fans after I tell you about my day today.

As I have told you guys, I am a big time Boston Celtic fan, since I was kid watching Celtics on the Game of the Week with Chris Schenkel and Jack Twyman on ABC. So when the C’s are in town I try to get to both the Garden and Meadowlands to catch them live (I watch every game on TV with the NBA Package as well) and I make it a point to get to the arena early because unlike any other sport, when you go to a basketball game you can get up close and personal with the players.

So as my son and I line up under the basket on the Celtics end of the arena (not where my seats were by the way, much to my son’s disappointment, we were in Section 420 where there were a lot of Celtic fans )  I got to say hi to Craig Dickerson of CSN-New England, who is the Kevin Burkhart of Celtic telecasts and I get a wave from Tommy Heinshon and Mike Gorman ( I wanted a Tommy Point by the way) so the day was off to a great start. I was wearing my Celtics t-shirt with RUSSELL 6 on the back because Bill Russell is not just the greatest basketball player and Celtic who ever lived, he is one the greatest figures in team sports but I digress, as Kevin Garnett came on the court I shout out to KG and pound my chest right at my heart and point to him and KG returns the gesture and I’m beaming like I just got asked to the prom. My son, as he usually gets when I engage in a PDA over a sports figure, takes a few steps back and mutters “That’s enough fanboy” .

So now as I basked in my bromance with KG and the C’s, I hear a commotion coming from my right close to the where I’m standing. A big cheer goes up and when I turn to my right, standing next to me is Joe Girardi the manager of the New York Highlanders. So what do I do? What would you do?

We both looked at each other and all I could do was put out my right hand and say “Hiya Joe” and shake his hand. Then my son did the same thing. I did feel kind of funny I mean what’s the odds of me, my kid and Joe Girardi standing side by side at MSG? Nice man that Joe G.

Right after that Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg stood next to me as they were at the game filming a scene for a movie they’re doing (the same on that Derek Jeter played a homeless guy in) and my son said “Dad look it ‘s Will Ferrell” and I said “whose the fanboy now”?  I didn’t shake Ferrell’s or Wahlberg’s hand as I couldn’t care less about those two, they don’t hit game winning baskets in OT to beat the Knicks like my guy KG!

 

  “Larry Bird is not walking through that door, fans. Kevin McHale is not walking through that door, and Robert Parish is not walking through that door. And if you expect them to walk through that door, they’re going to be gray and old. What we are is young, exciting, hard-working, and we’re going to improve. People don’t realize that, and as soon as they realize those three guys are not coming through that door, the better this town will be for all of us because there are young guys in that (locker) room playing their asses off. I wish we had $90 million under the salary cap. I wish we could buy the world. We can’t; the only thing we can do is work hard, and all the negativity that’s in this town sucks. I’ve been around when Jim Rice was booed. I’ve been around when Yastrzemski was booed. And it stinks. It makes the greatest town, greatest city in the world, lousy. The only thing that will turn this around is being upbeat and positive like we are in that locker room… and if you think I’m going to succumb to negativity, you’re wrong. You’ve got the wrong guy leading this team.”

 

This is the kind of Rant I want out of my Manager of the Mets the self pro-claimed GANGSTA’ I want him to tell everyone that “Darryl Strawberry, Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter are not walking through that door”. I want him to tell the media, fans and his players to shut the fuck up about who isn’t here and worry about who is here. I want him to order his players on the field today in Milwaukee to take infield as I don’t give a rats ass what time they got into town after last night’s embarrassment. I want him to call out which ever sniveling veteran it was who went crying to the papers whining that “A deal would send the message they want to win and will do what it takes to helps us” and let him know the he and the rest of the 25 man roster needs to grow some balls and get their heads out of their ass on defense. You want to give teams 5 and 6 outs and inning? Babe Ruth couldn’t saved your sorry ass.

 

Does this team need a slugger DUH!? But if you think by obtaining Adam Dunn, Adam LaRoche, Nick Johnson or the new flavor of the week Mark Teahen is going to make a difference then you’re blinded by the J-Man smoke screen. This team’ piss poor play is a direct reflection of the manager in the words of the great Bobby Valentine, “Proper preparation prevents piss poor performance” and this latest piss poor weekend is on Jerry Manuel.

 

J-Man is starting to show cracks in his amour. He moans and groans about the team keeping its head above water, and trying to stay in it until the injured get back it seems it had got D-Wright to get his back up when he said he didn’t know about treading water that he plays every game to win. You have Gary Sheffield saying “Management is going to take care of what they think we need, people shouldn’t think we come in here and do double takes at the lineup every day. We should have what it takes to win and we should be doing better, if they got a bat it would be great and everyone would applaud it. That doesn’t mean it should be necessary”

 

Exactly that goes back to players not coming through the door.

 

Maybe Omar should take some time from burning cell phone minutes to go straighten out his manager and let him know if he can’t handle this adversity there’s a guy in Japan who thrives on it.