Get Depressed

Yesterday the inevitable happened.

With their 100th victory of the season, the Yankees clinched their first AL East division crown since 2006. Last week they locked up their first playoff berth since... 2007 (2008, of course, was the first time they had missed the postseason since 1993).

Give the Yankees credit, they came into last offseason a flawed team and from ownership to management they had a plan to return to glory.

There was little art to that plan; it consisted primarily of signing every premium free agent they could find. C.C. Sabathia. AJ Burnett. Mark Teixeira. The Yankees did what they had to do.

The Mets, on the other hand, did very little. They made pains to shore up their most glaring flaw, the bullpen, which everyone at Omar's bagel shop knew was the undoing of the 2008 team. But unfortunately the fans at Omar's morning bagel joint didn't clue him in to the other holes that would end up getting exposed, fast, in 2009.

Like the fact that Mike Pelfrey wasn't ready to be a No. 2 starter. Or that Carlos Delgado couldn't be relied on to duplicate his 2008 season. Or that you can't simultaneously with with little to no production from the catcher, left, and right field positions (no disrespect to Jeff Francoeur, who's done a whale of a job since coming over from Atlanta).

I want to say the Mets made no effort to get a gold glove caliber slugging first baseman like Teixeira or balked at signing a credible No. 2 starter like Derek Lowe (let alone another front line guy like Sabathia) because of Bernie Madoff, but that doesn't square with everything we've seen from Omar, Jeff and co. the last few years.

When his tenure began, Omar said his goal was to turn the Mets into a latter day Atlanta Braves. When people thought of that year-in, year-out National League club that was always in the playoffs, he wanted people to think of the Mets.

Loaded with young superstars like David Wright, Carlos Beltran, and Jose Reyes, and backed financially by the largest payroll in the NL (which figured to expand due to the team's television network and new stadium), it seemed very likely that the Mets could make good on that promise. When they erupted for 97 wins in 2006, it seemed certain.

But no, here we are five years into the Omar regime and we have but that one champagne-soaked campaign to look back on. We remember it fondly, yes, but it was not the herald of a new age for the Mets. It was just a temporary respite from the gloom, and each year, the memory of 2006 grows a little more faint.

Acrosstown the Yankees celebrate their latest division title. From ownership to management to the clubhouse, theirs is an organization with a commitment to winning.

Indeed, the 9-year Yankees 2000 Curse has never been as imperiled as it is this year. It's a horrible prospect, but it's earned. The Yankees did the things they had to do to build a contender.

As we look ahead to 2010, who among us is confident the Mets will do the same?

- A.F.O.M.G.