Can't anybody here play this game?

Through a glass, darkly: Growing up in Newark, a Brooklyn Dodger fan in a Yankee neighborhood, Spring Training was always the advent of 'next year.' Almost always, the previous season had ended in a Yankee World Series win and a heart-breaking Dodger loss, and the rallying cry of the Brooklyn faithful was 'Wait 'til next year.' And hope sprung eternal.
It was beautiful. There was no trade scuttlebutt, no salary negotiations, no ownership or management folderol. There was only baseball, the Dodgers and the Yankees. God would press a re-start button, and the same exact team that lost in October would take the field for revenge... or not.

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Those were the days, my friend.. and they are surely over, dead and buried, never to return.This is what's left:

From the middle of last summer onwards, what passed for buzz inside CitiField was some sort of vague sense of doom. It had to do with the jailed Ponzi Schemer Bernie Madoff, but no other details emerged. It didn�t seem to make much sense; the Wilpon family had insisted it had not suffered greatly at the hands of the ultimate financial snake oil salesman, and all evidence backed up their assertion. Now it becomes clear that the owners were in trouble not because Madoff had stolen their money, but because he hadn�t. They are the defendants in an extraordinary billion-dollar suit that claims they knowingly pocketed the profits from a kind of privatized Enron disaster. While the action is headed to mediation by former New York Governor (and former Pittsburgh Pirates farmhand) Mario Cuomo, it has already paralyzed the team�s finances and threatens to continue to do so for an indefinite period.

Which explains why the Mets, when still vaguely competitive last June and July, added no payroll. Which explains why the bullets were not bitten on the statues that replaced Luis Castillo and Ollie Perez. Which explains why, when another bat was needed, the Mets could reach only for Mike Hessman. Which explains why men named Wilpon did not take the fall in October.

Jason Bay and Carlos Beltran are enigmas. Jose Reyes is at the critical step, forwards to greatness or backwards towards underachievement. Ike Davis and Josh Thole are dedicated and gifted players who may not bring enough power to their respective positions. The second baseman could be a Rule V draftee. There isn�t one starting pitcher who isn�t weighed down with a huge question mark (Mike Pelfrey�s head, Jon Niese�s endurance, Johan Santana�s shoulder, Dillon Gee�s inexperience, the overall health of Chrisses Young and Capuano, and the likelihood that R.A. Dickey actually found himself last season at the age of 35). And the bullpen? You don�t want to know about the bullpen.
Keith Olbermann