New York Mets

Ever since their first game on April 11, 1962, the New York Mets have been the quintessential underdog.  For the majority of the team's history, the organization has not been expected to win a lot of baseball games. 

Despite the losing trend that has haunted the Mets, they have always had—and continue to have—one of the most passionate fanbases in all of sports.

Yes, there have been periods of dominant New York Mets baseball in their 48-year history. 

Call him what you will, for Jose Reyes goes by many names.

Jose the Nuisance: A pest in the eyes of the Phillies, Marlins, and beyond.  It seems that teams don't like to see Jose be Jose on the field or in the dugout and hold some sort of grudge against the New York Mets when their teams meet on the field.  Is it jealousy, envy?  We're not sure, but he sure isn't Armando Benitez's favorite player.

As most have us Mets fans know by now, Jose Reyes is expected to be on the disabled list for an overactive thyroid when the season begins, but now it appears, according to the team, Reyes will be replaced with 20-year-old Ruben Tejada, who played in Double-A last year, this according to the New York Daily News . 

Tejada batted .289 last season and hit five homers in 488 at-bats in the minors but claims he'll be ready to play in the bigs.

I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but somewhere along the line I began enjoying Major League Baseball's offseason more than the regular season itself.  Something about being a Mets fan from November through March is encouraging.  At the start of every season the Mets are "the team to beat"...and then all of a sudden the season starts. 

Mets fans are constantly given a false sense of optimism and are cursed with an old New York tradition of "waiting 'til next year."

Just hours after the news about Jose Reyes' pending stint on the DL filtered down to the players at Tradition Field, it was business as usual as spring training continued in earnest.

There wasn't too much of note coming out of the 8-2 defeat to the Boston Red Sox.  But here are a few pieces of information to consider when you're looking to whet your appetite now that today's game with the Twins has been rained out.

Starting Pitching

Take yourself back to that fateful Thursday October night in 2006 when Flushing was the center of the baseball world, Shea Stadium was filled to capacity and the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals battled in the seventh and final game of the National League Championship Series.

And the debacle continues.

It was confirmed yesterday that Jose Reyes will be out for two to eight weeks with what the Mets are describing as a “hyperthyroid.”

Ok, fair enough.  No one wants to mess around with a thyroid problem.

The issue here is not Reyes’ ailment, but the way in which the Mets have yet again brought their fans on a bizarre seesaw ride over the past week and we are still left asking what in the world is going on with Jose Reyes.  

It hasn't been the best of springs thus far for the New York Mets.

After being one of the most disappointing teams in baseball in 2009, the Mets and their fans hoped to ring in 2010 with a fast and furious start to the Grapefruit League. It hasn't happened, however, as the Mets have had to deal with many of the same issues this year that plagued the team last season.

Two weeks ago, Hall of Fame great Sandy Koufax worked with a few of the Mets' pitchers.

Koufax, a longtime friend of Mets owner Fred Wilpon, often makes this annual trip to Port St. Lucie to pass on his wisdom.

This year, it felt as if this visit by Koufax was the only hope Oliver Perez had left.

Perez, coming off a disastrous, injury-plagued year, is healthy and confident. Mets ownership is counting on Perez to win 15 games, but few in the game or the stands believe it.

As news of Jose Reyes thyroid issue hit the press this morning, the prognosis was the Mets shortstop would miss 2-8 weeks.  Fans who lived and died with this team over the past year knew it was going to be at least two months before Reyes played again.