I’m a masochist.  I just figured that out.

Prior to last night’s game, we were made aware that since the Braves won their game in the afternoon, that the Mets’ tragic number (magic number, only backwards) was zero. Thus making the rest of 2011 futile.  For them at least.  In upcoming days, they’ll be playing the Braves (wild card leader), Cardinals (wild card contender), the Phillies (who always like to beat our ass), and the Reds (whatever).  The season is certainly not over for the top two teams in that list, and they’ll have something to play for.  So the Mets need to show up at least for the other teams that need to round out their season.

Yet, we’re all a bunch of masochists.  We know exactly what we’re getting ourselves into season in, and season out.  I’m not sure I’d want it any other way though.  All of us make our schedules around the baseball season.  Hell, I even recently told someone in an interview that I had to back out of a business trip because it conflicted with Opening Day one year (true story).  I know that I want to go to as many games as I can, since I am going to miss baseball in the offseason.  I always do.

And before they make a move, before I am even guaranteed a slot to a good team or a good year, what happens?  The 2012 schedule gets released!

And….I’m already planning out where we’re going to go on our road trips next year.  Sigh.  The cycle continues. (And I might be doing a dual-Canadian trip next year, for hockey and for baseball.)

Perhaps not all though…

My friend Steve Keane at the Kranepool Society wrote a very real post yesterday about the state of the Mets, in his Diary of a Mad Mets Blogger.  He raises some interesting issues, some of which I have agreed with earlier in the season, about the sacred cows of David Wright and Jose Reyes.  Seems that there is a faction of people who stop going to games at the end of the season (and I hear it and see it, being connected in the interwebs and all), but then dare say they won’t set foot in the stadium again if the Mets don’t keep Reyes and Wright.  Well, which is it?  Can we have it both ways?

Look, my philosophy at this point is that nobody is untouchable, not even Wright, not even Reyes, as much as I’d like to keep them around.  Sure, we’d love to dump Nick Evans or Jason Bay and get someone like Stephen Strasburg in return, but let’s get real: that aint happenin’. Steve suggests that we are wise to play our cards close, and that ultimately, if it comes down to getting our draft picks by offering Reyes arb and walking, so be it.

But it raises a question, and it’s a good one at that.  So, now what?  I guess we have no choice in the matter but to ride out the season…and I will look forward to planning my road trips for 2012.  Why not?  It will be better than me dreading the 8,000 different “What Happens To Reyes” posts I’m going to be reading from now till he decides what he’s doing.  After all, I ask for it each season.

I’m a Mets fan.  I’m a masochist.  It goes hand in hand.