Well, I finally finished the seventh and final edition of Harry Potter, and already I’m starting to wonder what life will be like without that once-every-two year fantasy novel fix. As a way of transitioning back to real world, or at least the real sports world, I’ve decided to use all that I’ve learned from Harry Potter to blossom into a greater Mets fan. Some of the things I’ve learned:

1. There’s good and bad in everyone, and everything - Harry is the imperfect protaganist. He isn’t the best or the brightest student at Hogwarts, he was often socially awkward, and he had to learn to trust the ones he loved most, and not push them away. The series is not about “Harry the hero,” but about an average boy who grows into a hero by making the right decisions. Often, Harry failed to see the good in people, and it almost led to his demise. Potter thought his father was inherently good, and Snape inherently evil - it didn’t quite work out that way. As a lifelong Met fan, I’ve come to the realization that I have no right to hate the Yankees, the Braves, or even Roger Clemens. Sure, all Mets fans are sick of the Yankees always stealing the spotlight, just like Ron was sick of Harry. Rivalries will always develop in sports, and it’s all in good fun. But the important thing to remember is that we aren’t fighting wars here. When the final battle ensued at their Hogwarts school, most wizards united against and overcame the evil dark lord, who failed to see that absolute power was not more desireable than the greater good. Though I love baseball as much as anyone, and I’m dying to see the Mets win a World Series, I refuse to let it lead to developing mortal enemies. So the next time you hear a “Yankees S-ck” chant at Shea, just remember there are more important battles to fight than starting wars over personal allegiances.
2. Have some faith in you leader- Metsblog.com sells a t-shirt that reads “In Omar We Trust.” I think we’d all be wise to follow the advice of the shirt. One of Harry’s personal anguishes in book seven was that he almost lost faith in the deceased Professor Dumbledore’s character and leadership. Harry often wondered whether Dumbledore was as wise and sincere as he previously thought him to be, and grew increasingly frustrated when he had to piece together Dumbledore’s plan to defeat the dark lord. We should reach the same conclusion that Harry does, and show the same patience and loyalty that Omar Minaya deserves. He has made good trade after good trade. He has robbed teams of untapped talent (Oliver Perez for example) and pushed all of the buttons at precisely the right time. As fans on our couch, we often think we know it all. The truth is, there are a lot of factors in personnel decisions that as fans, we never thought to consider. If Minaya can’t land a front-line starter by the end of July, there just might not be one out there. Everyone loves a juicy deadline trade, but sometimes the best ones are the ones you don’t make. With Milledge starting to blossom, and Alou, who can fall out of his bed in the morning and hit a line drive, on his way back, there’s plenty of offense to go around. Let’s trust in Omar, and Willie too. They have the team’s interests at heart.
3. Enjoy Shea while it lasts- I think most of us take a look over the Centerfield wall at the new CitiField and beam with excitement, as well we should. It is going to be a beautiful modern ballpark. Let’s face it, Shea’s a dump. A severly outdated Stadium that probably wore out its welcome a decade ago. But Shea is still the park we all grew up in, where all of us became Met fans. Everyone has memories at Shea, and I suspect we will all miss the suprising hospitality and cheerful nostalgia that the tacky blue monstrosity brings us every time we go through the turnstile. It was only when Harry was leaving Hogwarts did he most appreciate the school that was his only home. Shea has been our only home as Mets fans, and time is running out. Cherish it.
4. Age is overated- Harry Potter has taught us that young people can do incredible things, and can mature right before your very eyes when afforded some responsibility. The Mets are young at some positions, and aging at others, but I think we’ve learned from Dumbledore’s incredible strength and Harry’s incredible courage that as baseball fans, we shouldn’t worry so much about age. After last year, I doubt anyone will be happy with anything less than a World Series appearance, so maybe now is not the time to worry about the future. The Mets have enough bats to carry them once Beltran and Delgado start to hit again, and arguably have the best starting rotation in the National League. This team has enough talent to win it all. We’ll worry about ages in the off-season. In the meantime, let’s trust Gotay and Milledge, and see what they can do for us.

It’s been a fantastic road trip, and with the Mets consistently hitting, I think the club will begin to pull away from the pack in the NL East. Hopefully Glavine will get his 299th tonight, so we can all stop hearing about it. I expect an easy and convincing sweep over the sinking pirate ship.

I know really Randolph wants to win, just like the rest of us. I know he is a man of strong conviction, a man who believes in a steady, unwavering focus. A man who believes that every season has it’s ebbs and flows. A man who trusts the adages that patience is a virtue, everything evens out in the end, and yes, that talented teams eventually right the ship.

But something has got to give.

Willie should be admired for his unwavering loyalty, his incredible sense of faith in his veterans, his ability to not let public opinion phase him, no matter how strong or how vicious the talk radio airwives have been.

But enough is enough.

At some point, Randolph has to realize that the Mets have a real problem here. The Met’s horrid hitting with runners in scoring position has become a mental epidemic, and while staying the course can work in some instances, it is clear this problem isn’t going away.

the first question that needs to be asked is why Jose Valentin is still put in the lineup, and Ruben Gotay is not getting four at bats every game. Sure, Valentin fooled me last year, when he suddenly went from barely being able to swing the bat to suddenly scoring homeruns out Shea. The more I see Valentin, the more I’m starting to think it was a fluke. Gotay may not prove to be an offensive juggernaut in the long run, but he is lightyears ahead of Valentin, who at the moment, is an automatic out.

When you are having trouble producting runs, you have to keep going to your hot bats. It’s mind-boggling that Randolph has let blind -loyalty get in the way of winning. Though I respect Willie’s opinion, at some point you have to get out of your own way. After all, its been widely rumored that the Rick Down firing and Franco demotion had Omar written all over it.

Willie can’t be blamed for the woes of Beltran, Delgado, and Lo Doca- nobody believes that. But it’s way too long for a third of your lineup (and most of the Met’s offensive power) to be in a prolonged slump.

Delgado and Beltran have always roller-coaster rides at the plate- they can look clueless for a month, and then carry teams on their back for two weeks. However, time has run out. The Braves aren’t going away, and the Met’s schedule is only getting harder. The Mets simply can’t keep putting this much pressure on their pitching staff.

This kind of lack of run production frustrates the starters, humbles the bullpen, and taxes the entire staff as a whole. You have to give your staff some blowout victories, where starters can throw strikes and roll outs, and the bullpen can regain some momentum. Willie is not the problem, obviously- but he has to do more to fix it. Isn’t that what a baseball manager is paid to do?
A baseball manager just simply can’t be passive in the midst of an underachieving ballclub. You can count on your hand the number of games a manager wins and loses each year because of in-game decisions. The truth is, a manager is only worth as much as he can get his team to play for him. Whether Willie has to bench some players, jumble the lineup, or start a bunch of rookies, as a manager he has to do something to change the thought process and the vibe of the team, or else you are doing little more than collection a paycheck.

There is a scene in Bull Durham where, Kevin Costner, who plays the part of Crash Davis, is asked by his frustrated minor-league manager for advice on how to break the team’s slump. “Yell at them,” Crash says.

While the manager in the dugout of those guys in the Bronx has never been a great baseball strategist, he has survived longer than any other Yankee manager because he has found a way to get his men to play for him, no matter how much controversy or distraction infiltrated the locker room.

Maybe it’s time Willie took a lesson from his mentor.

He was steps away, watching, when Endy Chavez made the catch. The one that should have sent the Mets to Detroit, en route to their first title since 1986. He could only turn and stare when Yadier Molina singlehandedly sucked the air out of Shea Stadium with one mighty swing of the bat in the ninth inning of Game 7.  And we all know where Carlos Beltran was when Adam Wainwright dropped a nasty curveball over the outside corner of the plate to facilitate a jubilous Cardinals celebration amidst the deathly silent Mets faithful. Beltran was doing the same thing we all were doing - watching. Helplessly.

Beltran went 1 for 4 on that chilly October October night, and scored the only Met run in that devastating defeat. But  the ducks on pond he left on base in the ninth is what he’ll be remembered for.  More than the three homeruns he hit that series, the cannon throw that nailed Eckstein at the plate and saved Game 1, his .396 average and 11 homeruns in the playoffs, and his two Met walk-off home runs.

As a team, the Mets have been putrid with runners in scoring position and two outs, undoubtedly the most clutch opportunity in a baseball game. Jose Reyes is hitting .211 in those situations. David Wright .175, Paul Lo Duca .171., Carlos Delgado .194 Yet these are our heroes. We don their jerseys, join their fan club websites, and bow down to their bobbleheads. Yet Carlos Beltran has never been revered, or even appreciated. This is the man who was booed before he even took a swing in 2006, the guy who is fervently trashed on talk radio the entire offseason. The player who almost turned his back on the city after they clearly showed no disdain for turning their back on him.

It was Beltran who made the catch on Saturday, charging up a hill he spent countless hours practicing on and making a diving catch with his back to home plate in order to save the game for the Mets. It was Beltran who got the game-winning single in the bottom the seventeenth that ended the excruciating stalemate and sealed a much-needed Mets victory just hours before the All-Star break. Sure, the game as critical as Game 7, and the moment not as critical as Chavez’ leaping grab, but the heroism was equivocal.

The Mets offense has been in many collective slumps this year, and Beltran has not been immune from the sickness. It was the Met offense, collectively, that cost them a World Series title last year, and a bigger lead in the National League East this year. Meanwhile, Mets fans continue to thank their lucky stars for Jose Reyes and David Wright, but vow eternal frustration with their centerfielder. 

Fans will say he is overpaid because he took the contract that was offered to him, that he doesn’t care because he runs with a gentle, graceful gait, and hits with a steady disposition. They refuse to embrace him because he shies away from the locker room microphone, and say he is soft for complaining about soreness after he runs into a wall to make another game saving catch.

 Reyes and Wright will continute to be adorned by the media, and Beltran will be content with blending in, breaking out of slumps,  gracefully diving up hills and running into walls, dominating All-Star games, and proving, as he does by the end of every season, that he is the best player on the field, offensively and defensively- whether or not the court of public opinion ever sides in his favor.

When Carlos Beltran starts his third consecutive All-Star game this year, he’ll once again be gracefully representing the city that so often yearns to chastise him.

Somehow, I doubt Paul Lo Duca is losing any sleep over being edged out of the voting race for the starting catcher position for next week’s All-Star Game by Russell Martin. I get the feeling the Met’s backstop (both on and off the field) could use the day off.

 Besides taking more than his share of foul balls off the foot, bruised fingers off curveballs in the dirt, and slumps at the plate, the Mets catcher never seems to escape the brunt of the New York sports media-frenzy.

Last year it was a disgusting tabloid peak into Paul’s personal life, thrusting his off-the-field relationships in the public eye and provoking many to snuff their nose at Lo Duca.

This year, in addition to a few altercations with opponents and umpires, Lo Duca is stuck having to explain himself again, this time for almost being categorized as a racist as a result of a poor choice of words about his teammates’ proficiency to speak english.

Yikes. I think it’s time to give the man some space.

It’s true that Lo Duca puts himself into many of these situations by being the unabashed, hard nosed, inconspicuous leader in the clubhouse. Lo Duca will never duck as few questions as he does inside fastballs, and is always accessible and congenial to the media. For that he should be rewarded, not chastised.

If the rest of the Mets clubhouse, who know Lo Duca as well as anyone, knew Paul’s intentions well enough to not have a problem with the catcher’s comments, then maybe it’s time to drop this non-story.

Perhaps Lo Duca proved his point with his media boycott, even if he doesn’t hold out for the rest of the season. When Paulie doesn’t speak, the off the field stories become a lot more mundane.

Let’s celebrate the Mets catcher for what he is, not make a caricature out of him. The gritty, personable backstop of the Mets has been nothing but the backbone of this team since his arrival. Maybe the fact that his words could be misinterpreted is more of a red flag to the subject of the questions.

Paulie, enjoy your All-Star break. I hope we are back on speaking terms again soon.

We may be seeing more of Ramon Castro in the lineup for the next few days, and not because Willie Randolph or Omar Minaya had anything to say about it.

With Paul Lo Duca’s doing his best Jack Nicholson in the Shining impression in his shin guard flying outburst last night, he probably will have to serve a suspension of some sorts, which means Castro will finally get some much needed at-bats. It’s about time.

After Castro struck out while innocently wandering into Lo Duca’s 02 count, all Chewy did was stroke a ninth- inning double and chug home with the winning run to end the game long stalemate against the A’s. With Endy Chavez on the DL for quite some time, there’s no question who the Mets best bat off the bench is. It’s Castro, even though the guy looks like he is running in quicksand.

The Met’s backup catcher hits as a starter, hits as a backup catcher, and hits a pinch hitter. He can handle the pitching staff, and plays with an enthusiasm that lights up the entire Mets dugout. With how tense the Mets lineup has been, it’s a crime that a bat like Castro’s is wasting away on the bench, simply because the Mets only carry two catchers.

The way I see it, the Mets have two options. They can keep sending up the likes of Easley, Franco, and Newhan in key spots, or they can instantly improve the bench by making a simple move. They can find a third catcher, either in the system or off of waivers, that can handle a pitching staff, so their best hitter off the bench can finally get some at-bats.

The Mets bench, which has been a strength in recent years, has been mediocre at best. Does anyone have confidence in the current crop of inexperienced youngsters and over-the-hill veterans? Castro has been hitting, and more importantly getting clutch hits, for three years, even when the rest of the lineup is struggling. I suspect you’d only get more of the same if he got more AB’s. He is anything but a liability defensively, but lets face it, the Mets aren’t hurting on defense.

The Mets have been searching all year for the late inning spark off the bench.  Instead of adding another bat on the trade market and coughing up some more Kazmirs, all Randolph has to do is look right under his nose. Find a third cather, and the Mets will find some more wins.

This kind of game is getting really tough to take. Granted, the Mets lineup was facing the ace of all aces in Johan Santana on Tuesday night, but this chronic anemia that this not-so-amazin offense is suffering from is making Met games tough to watch.

Remember the show Married with Children, where shoe salesman Al Bundy would come painstakingly close to happiness, only to be hit with a cold dose of reality by the end of the half hour? Well, watching Met losses this week has been like staying up late for an episode of Married with Children. You watch the show because you are rooting for Al to succeed, whether by winning a million dollar lawsuit or running away with Vanna White. In your heart of hearts, you know every episode ends the same, with an unhappy Bundy realizing that he is an aging man with a disfunctional family, yet the show was popular partially because we always rooted for Bundy to defy the odds nevertheless.

This is what Met losses have come to, one long inevitable, nine-inning demise. Anyone who has been following the Mets lately knows as soon as any opponent gets a multiple run lead, the game is over. Yet, like a train wreck, I couldn’t get myself to change the channel. It’s like one, long, painful, slow death, three out of five nights a week.

You see, when the Mets suffer, I suffer. Food doesn’t taste as good, it’s harder to get up for work in the morning, and seven o’clock Eastern time is just not as exciting as it was a month ago. A month ago, nothing could go, nothing could go wrong. The Mets bring up Sosa, and he quickly grabs six wins like they were pieces of candy on the ground that had just fallen out of a pinata. Shawn Green and Moises Alou get hurt, and the Mets plug in Endy Chavez, who can do no wrong in this town. The wounded Yankees limp into town, and the Mets stomp all over them for two days, laughing all the way. Even when things went wrong, adversity seemed to roll off the Mets backs like freshly shaven hair buzzed from their heads.

Now, 6 losing series later, line drives are falling into the oppositions gloves, and killing rallies. Every time a Met pitcher is in a big spot, it seems that the other team’s slugger comes up bigger, and belts a momentum changing homerun. The other team’s pitcher, no matter who he is, seems to always be ahead of counts, and we are regularly treated to dugout shots of gloves being thrown and more F-bombs than an Andrew Dice Clay standup. When did it reach this point?

It obvious the Mets are trying, and maybe too hard. Remember when all was going well, and every inning was like a coiled spring of unlimited run scoring potential? It didn’t matter where you were in the lineup, any Met could smash a tape-measure homer or two run double. Then you would take a glance into the Mets dugout, and whether or not the Amazins were up or behind, we’d see a jubilant dugout with Jose Reyes dancing or working on his secret homerun handshakes, Carlos Delgado smiling and chatting away, and even the occasional Pedro Martinez appearance. Sometime along the way, the dancing stopped, and the smiles faded.

I know tomorrow is an off day, and I know Willie Randolph has this thing about staying even-keeled and keeping everything routine, but I get the feeling things are just too tense in the Met clubhouse, and you can’t play winning baseball that way. So maybe Willie should use tomorrow to work on his dance moves, and march into the clubhouse Friday, boombox over the shoulder, and start that dance party up again. It will probably never happen, but maybe it should. When nothing else is working, it’s time to start thinking outside the box, a la Bobby Valentine and the fake mustache, post ejection routine. Hey, a little dancing couldn’t hurt, right? It worked for Emmit Smith…

Either way, something has to give. Atlanta and Philadelphia won’t keep losing forever, and even though we trust in Omar, you never know if the right trade will come along to put a jolt into this putridly woeful offense. I have a feeling the slump-buster lies within the current roster, but even if I’m wrong, at least I can go to sleep tonight knowing we won’t have to sit through another stale loss tomorrow.