AM I READY?

My bracket's nearly busted. The temperature nearly hit 70 today. Many other years, this weekend is the start of the baseball season.

But I'm glad it's not...because I just don't feel ready.

I mean, I have my fantasy rosters drafted and the starting lineups are just about set. I have the notebook for the 'New Baseball Pool' set up, just waiting for Week 1 picks to be entered. I'm looking forward to the newspaper and Sports Illustrated baseball previews in the next week. So logistically I'm all set. It's mentally, I think, that I'm not.

And I think I know why.

It's this late start. For months, I've known that it was nearly a full week into April before the Mets would take the field (when it counts). And almost halfway through the month when they opened up the new stadium (I guess it could be worse - the Yankees' new stadium doesn't open until the 16th). So I guess I adjusted my mental state to account for all that.

Now, let's not confuse 'not ready' for 'not excited'. It's weird, though, this year - I really am more excited about the place than the event. I can't wait for Opening Day at Citi Field to see the stadium, and to go back all summer long, rather than to see the Mets play. Maybe that will change when I see the team in uniform for the first time (it probably will), but right now I'm excited for different reasons than I usually am.

I haven't even made season picks this year...which is too bad, because I'm in a non-homer mental state, and I might nail the picks.

Maybe I'll get around to that since it's still a while before we see any action that counts.

TWEET: So, I'm on Twitter. I have to credit The Wife - she thought it might be a good way to draw some traffic to the site. So since I want to get back into the everyday blogging life I've abandoned recently, I'll try whatever it takes to get some people to read. So if you're on Twitter, follow me. It's johnnymets. Not quite sure how it works, but I'll even follow you, too. When the season starts, I might be able to 'Tweet' more often than blog...so that might be a nice little add-on feature. We'll see what develops.