Sunday diversion / is it baseball season yet?

no joy for Met fans (of course), but some solace
Forgive me, not for talkin’ baseball (to be encouraged 365 days a year) but for picking at a scab of New York Mets fans. They won’t have the reigning Cy Young award winner to root for next year, as the custodians of baseball’s pit of despair decided this month that R. A. Dickey and His Magic Knuckleball were worth more to them as bait for young talent than actually, you know, on the mound at Shiti Field. They own te team, so they can do what they want (and they might turn out to have made a good bet), but this one has to sting for Met fans.

As my Met fan friends can attest, I am not a fan of the local expansion team. But you have to respect what Dickey did this year, not just in game results but how he carried himself. In his age 38 season in 2012, in his first year with the Mets in 2010, and for loving the game enough to persist in giving it a shot year after (unsuccessful) year.

As I say, the trade robs Met fans of at least one hopeful game a week in 2013, but may yet turn out to be for the best for the franchise. I assume they are already aware of Dickey’s classy farewell letter in the New York Daily News, but all baseball fans should appreciate it. Indeed, even football fans should. Read it, then weep if you must, or simply wish him well in his 2013 dreams to torment the Yankees. A class act should always be applauded.

Pitchers and catchers in 44 days! Happy new baseball year!

© Sandy Mattingly 2012