Down Go The Mets, Down Go The Mets

The SEVEN
6 December 2011

I.  Yes, Virginia...

There is a Santa Claus and he's bringing some awesome NBA basketball on Christmas Day...Knicks-Celtics, Miami-Dallas and much more.  Finally...the rock...has returned...to the court!

Of course I was neither present nor privy to the details of the marathon 15-hour final negotiating session that yielded the agreement between the players and owners, but I gotta believe they could have done the very same deal a month earlier and come away with an easy 72-game season as opposed to the 66-gamer that is to be the 2011-2012 NBA season.  

That said, I'll take what we got - but I must say this before the first shot is taken:  I don't want to hear anyone with anything negative to say about the eventual winner in June, in the manner that some people subsequently dissed the Spurs after their 1999 lockout-shortened season championship.  Besides the fact that the Spurs won three more titles within the next eight years - which made any criticism of their '99 title totally invalid - all of the teams played under the same rules and same conditions, as will be the case this season.  May the best team win - and if not, congratulations to the winner.

II.  Giants Deja Vu?

A few years back the New York Giants played a late-season game against a heavily-favored undefeated team, and wound up almost winning while giving the undefeated team their toughest game so far.  Several weeks later, in the Super Bowl, the same Giants  - led by Eli Manning, Plaxico Burress, and David "Catch It Against My Head" Tyree - pulled off one of the major upsets in NFL history in defeating the New England Patriots.

This past Sunday the Giants played the previously-unbeaten Green Bay Packers, and wound up losing on a last-second field goal.  Obviously the Giants won't be playing Green Bay in the Super Bowl as they are both in the NFC, but could that scenario repeat itself in the NFC championship game?

III.  We Were Family

I wonder if at any time during the 72 days they were officially brothers-in-law if Lamar Odom tried to recruit Kris Humphries  for the Lakers?

IV.  Not 1, Not 2, Not 3...

Now that Jose Reyes has taken his talents to South Beach, shouldn't he too get a key to the city?

V.  Basement, Please

For those of you outside of the New York City area, the New York Mets have a crazy fan base, one that will support the Mets to no end...if they respect the product.  Case in point:  they drew well in their early years even with an horrible team on the field, in part because they were horrible and lovable at the same time.

But then they won in 1969, which changed their landscape with the fan base forever.  No longer was it good enough to be the lovable losers; a certain level of productivity is now expected for fans - especially within hard economic times - to part with hard-earned dollars.  That productivity is expected on the field as well as upstairs.  So when the suits upstairs let Reyes, the best home-grown infielder and one of the most exciting players in team history, walk without even tendering an offer to him, that sends a message to the fans that we are blowing off 2012 and quite possibly the foreseeable future. The fans, in turn, will undoubtably vote with their wallets against going to see a team that is worse and duller, in the way that I did after 1990 upon the departure of Darryl Strawberry.

VI.  Am I My Brother's Keeper?

Unlike in the Bible, in this case it was Cain who was slain, or at least his presidential ambitions were killed.  I was kinda hoping he would stick around - and in my opinion, he really didn't have to "suspend" his campaign.  I mean, he didn't leave his wife when he had an affair, nor did he leave sick wife #1 for mistress and sick wife #2 for mistress.  Might as well stay in.

VII.  Association Fee

At any rate, the GOP field is down by one, which will make it that much easier for my friend who is not supporting President Obama but does not know the  Republican candidates to get a grasp of where they all are.  He has floated the idea of not voting at all, which I don't consider at all valid; given that which African-Americans have gone through in this country - in relatively recent years, no less - just to have the right to vote/drink in non-segregated fountains/eat at southern lunch counters, etc., my belief is that not voting dishonors the memories of people like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Rev. Jim Reeb, Medgar Evers, and so many others whose names we will never know who gave so much so that we would be able to take advantage of our constitutionally-promised rights.

One could say the question of whether or not to vote is like living in a condominium.  Condo owners usually pay an "association fee" to the owners association, which is then available to be used for the common good of the membership.  I know every owner isn't jumping for joy when it is time to pay that fee, but that is what you do to remain in good standing within the organization.  

In a sense, we here who are citizens of the United States are like joint owners of the U.S. condo.  None of us - even the 1% - own the entire thing, but we all have a stake in maintaining our property - and one of the things that comprises our "association fee" and keeps us in good standing is participation in the political process through voting.

If my dude doesn't vote I can't banish him to the North Pole, and I imagine that if you miss a payment to the condo association they won't banish you there, either - but you certainly  ought not try to complain if you don't like the lights they put up.