Joy (For Once) in Metsville

It's been a long year for Mets fans. Scratch that, it's been a long three or four years for Mets fans. Stop me if you've heard this one before, but it's all been downhill for us since that fateful night at Shea Stadium in October 2006.

Since then there was the collapse of 2007. Then there was the bullpen meltdown of 2008. Then there was the injury fest of 2009. Let posterity show that I'm not being dramatic -- it's really been that bad.

And so, when Jose Reyes went down with thyroiditistitis (or whatever the hell it was), it just seemed like another typically dreary moment in what's become a long, sad chapter in Mets history.

Any hope we'd let ourselves have for the 2010 season was diminished. Hell, we didn't stand much chance to begin with, but if guys like Reyes weren't healthy, then we didn't stand any chance at all.

They said when he went down that he would be out for 2-8 weeks. A "2-8" week diagnosis for the Mets is typically a euphemism for 3-4 months, but Jose Reyes is no ordinary Met. For Reyes, a "2-8" week diagnosis usually means wait 'til next year, I don't care how innocuous the initial injury may seem.

If it sounds pessimistic, it's just how our minds have been conditioned. On the team side, 2006 was so long ago; 2007 (choking away the division to the Phillies), 2008 (the Phillies winning it all), and 2009 (the Mets completely sucking, the Yankees beating the Phillies in the World Series) were all so recent. On the individual side, no one needs a refresher on Reyes' personal injury history (his nickname isn't Mr. Glass for nothing), nor is much refresher needed on the injured list from last season.

It's a potent mix. Add it all together and the worst case scenario can't help but dominate the way we see every situation involving this team.

And then came the news yesterday.

The news yesterday that Reyes' thyroid had returned to non-gigantic proportions doesn't exactly provide recompense for the past three years, but it does offer some small gleam of hope that maybe this year, the worst case scenario won't be the one that wins the day.

Chances are it's just a small, fleeting victory and not the harbinger of some cosmic change in our karma, mojo, or whatever you want to call it.

I wouldn't bet the mortgage on a magical year of Mets baseball. But with Reyes back and hopefully on track for Opening Day, at least the team figures to put on a hell of a lot more entertaining a show than if we'd had Alex Cora out there every day (no disrespect to Cora).

Or at least a blogger can dream.

- A.F.O.M.G.