Although it was just an exhibition game, if the Mets’ Citi Field debut is any indication of what’s in store for us this season, this is the year we’ve been waiting for.

Livan Hernandez looked much better than a 5th starter, the offense put up a few runs, and the 8th and 9th innings were handled by JJ Putz (nice hustle to cover first!) and K-Rod (who looked positively SICK!) exactly how we’ve envisioned them doing so- we may just have a bullpen we can trust to not blow 30 games.

I can’t help but think that it’s going to be a truly memorable season- this time for good reasons!

So I turn on SNY to catch a little of the Mets’ exhibition game against the Red Sox, their first game in the new stadium (which, btw, looks even more awesome on TV than it did in pictures- or in person from the outside), and what do I see trailing across the ticker at the bottom of the screen?

“Mets sign OF Gary Sheffield”

My first thoughts were, “how much did Omar overpay this time?” and “I didn’t realize Sheffield was Latino.”

So I went over to the computer to check it out, and according to the good people on Metsblog (snazzy new WordPress theme you have there, Matt), the deal is that Sheff will have to work for his playing time and that he’s only guaranteed $400,000. They say he’s regarded by former teammates not as a clubhouse cancer, but as a good teammate.

After taking all of that in, my next thought was, “welcome to Flushing, Mr. Sheffield!”

Seriously, how bad a deal can this possibly be? Not Mo Vaughn bad. Not Moises Alou bad. And not as bad as signing Pedro for his asking price could wind up being (of course he could also wind up being worth every penny he winds up getting; you just never know with Pedro anymore, which is a shame because I would have loved to get another season out of him almost as much as I would have loved to have seen Piazza on the 2006 roster).

If Sheff’s not committed to winning, he gets his $400k and his walking papers. If he is, though (and I can’t imagine anything else being the case), all I can say is that I’ll definitely be looking forward to seeing him come up in the late innings with ducks on the pond.

He’s sitting at 499 career homers- what better way to ingratiate himself to the Flushing Faithful than to hit #500 in a Mets uniform?

We shall see…