It happened last year, too. This idiotic, knee-jerk, question posed to angry and frustrated fans and talk-radio hosts. Dump him or keep him? Even some newspapers are now involved. Not just with the Mets, either, but with every team that fails to whatever degree.

One smart Mets fan I spoke to on Monday was in the typical mode: “Dump them all; clean house; start new, the core needs to be changed.”

The problem with all those ideas is this: You can’t just dump people without getting replacements who are, at the very least, as good. Actually, you don’t “dump” a player unless you’re getting somebody you think is better.

So, those of you who don’t want David Wright or Jose Reyes anymore … there are probably 30 teams who will be happy to take them off your hands. Carlos Delgado is old, but if you buy him out, somebody else will surely sign him for a lot of money and you’ll be stuck trying to find a first baseman who’s going to hit 30 homers and drive in 100.

And if you just want Carlos Beltran out of your sight, I’m sure the Yankees would give you every outfielder in their system, plus a few prospects and cash for him.

Blame those core guys all you want, but the fact is that the Mets’ lineup has five holes in it including the pitcher There are the four stars and pretty much zippo. There is no reasonable production from left field, right field, second base and catcher. They got by when Damion Easley and Fernando Tatis stepped up surprisingly and had solid seasons. But when those two afterthought guys, bench guys, got hurt, there was nobody left. You CANNOT win with four guys in your order hitting, and they can’t hit every day, and it becomes impossible for them to hit when the opposition knows there are so many outs around them, and when the pressure is on them when they come around to bad every two or three innings.

Besides that, we all know injuries are no excuse, but if they’d had Billy Wagner or John Maine the last month, don’t you think they’d have won two more games and they’d be in decent shape heading into a series with the Cubs? You bet they would be.

Of course, that’s not holler-and-scream rationalization. Not when “Dump ‘em all” is preached by so many and keeps so many radio/TV guys employed, not when fans want their anger to decide the future of a franchise, want people held accountable, want heads to roll. So, if you want to get rid of Beltran, call Brian Cashman.

Maybe I should have done a George Costanza and done the opposite, which would have given me a 10-6 record with last week’s picks instead of 6-10. Or maybe I should have taken a bye week. Or even better, a Plaxico Burress two-week vacation.

At any rate, with my 6-10, and Sam’s 8-8, we are tied for the season at a pathetic 22-24-1.

WEEK 4

JETS (-1 1/2) over Cardinals
Broncos (-9) over CHIEFS
Browns (+3 1/2) over BENGALS
JAGUARS (-7) over Texans
SAINTS (-5) over 49ers
Falcons (+7) over PANTHERS
Vikings (+3) over TITANS
Packers (+1) over BUCS
Bills (-8) over RAMS
RAIDERS (+ 7 1/2) over Chargers
COWBOYS (-11) over Redskins
Eagles (-3) over BEARS
Ravens (+ 5 1/2) over STEELERS

3 p.m., Saturday, Sam says:

As I sit and watch the Mets try to cling to their season, it occurs to me that they’d be in much worse shape if they had Carp  or I making their decisions for them since it’s pretty clear we’re not the best at predicting success. That said, I have confidence – this is the week I turn it around.

JETS (-1 1/2) over Cardinals
Broncos (-9) over CHIEFS
BENGALS (-3 1/2) over Browns
JAGUARS (-7) over Texans
SAINTS (-5) over 49ers

PANTHERS (-7) over Falcons

TITANS (-3) over Vikings
BUCS (-1) over Packers
Bills (-8) over RAMS
Chargers (- 7 1/2) over RAIDERS
Redskins (+11) over COWBOYS
Eagles (-3) over BEARS
STEELERS (- 5 1/2) over Ravens

It’s a day before NFL predictions are due, but it seems like as good a time as any to go on the record with what you think wil happen with the Mets over the last few days of the season. Here’s one man’s predictions:

Tonight: Bad rain in the area delays the start of the game until nearly 11 p.m., but since the Cubs are leaving town and the Mets will almost surely need the game to count in the standings, officials refuse to postpone it outright. With an announced crowd of 51,000 but actual attendance of only about 940, the Mets get a halfway-decent outing from Pedro, Rich Harden only goes five innings in a playoff tuneup and the Mets get after the Cubs’ bullpen for a 7-4 victory. Meanwhile, the Phillies are off and the Brewers beat the Pirates.

NL East: Mets 1 game behind
Wild card: Tied

Friday: Mike Pelfrey walks 9 batters, lasts four innings and the Mets get five hits off Marlins starter Chris Volstad and his relievers. Pelfrey’s arm falls off in the clubhouse, making for an even more somber mood following a 6-1 loss. Brewers beat the Nationals but Cubs beat the Phillies.

NL East: Mets 1 game behind
Wild card: Mets 1 game behind

Saturday: Disastrous rain again. The Mets toy with a Sunday doubleheader but try to wait it out, again pushing first pitch all the way back until the late evening. Brandon Knight spot starts and gets through three innings, only to give up four in the fourth. Carlos Delgado then spurs a six-run Mets sixth with a three-run homer and the Mets bullpen somehow hangs on, with Luis Ayala loading the bases in the ninth before getting a strikeout to end it a 7-6 win. In Philly, the rain also makes for a long day but Jamie Moyer is nasty as usual and Phils win again, 3-1. Cubs beat the Brewers though, with Ted Lilly looking good in his playoff tuneup.

NL East: Mets one game behind
Wild card: Tied

Sunday: Oh, Sunday. The last day. The Mets throw Santana, the Brewers throw Sabathia and the Phillies throw someone (it’s TBA right now). Mets and Brewers win, Phillies lose and – seriously – we’ve got a three-team playoff!

Monday: Mets vs. Phillies in Philly to decide the NL East. Mets lose when Ryan Howard hits two home runs and drives in five. That means …

Tuesday: Mets vs. Brewers in New York. Sabathia can’t pitch and the Mets manage, once again, to get something decent from Pedro before his arm joins Pelfrey’s in the lunch room of the home clubhouse. Mets win the wild card, and immediately fly to Chicago the next day to begin the division series against the Cubs.

How’s that sound Mets fans?

CARP SAYS:

I see a scenario in which there is a rainout and the Mets have to play the Cubs on Monday. Chicago won’t use anybody of note because the game means nothing to the Cubbies, and the Mets win. But I don’t know if that will be enough to get them into the playoffs without one-game play-ins against the Phillies and/or Brewers.

You just know it will come down to the excruciating last pitch with the Mets—and when I say excruciating, I mean it really is torturous to watch them in the late innings, even if you have no rooting interest, and I don’t—and if it does come down to that, I don’t expect the Mets to survive.

Indeed, the only way I see the Mets getting in is if they tee off on some woeful pitching and put up six, seven, eight runs. Or if John Maine comes out of the pen and does a Mariano Rivera impersonation.

So it was leaked last night that the Mets are about to give Omar Minaya a four-year contract extension … which means it’s already done, but the announcement will come after the season.

Do you think he should be coming back?

On the con side there is last year’s collapse, and this year’s high-wire act down the stretch; there is the Luis Castillo signing, the Willie Randolph firing and the mess of a bullpen.

On the pro side, obviously, are all the players Minaya acquired—Pedro Martinez, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado and Johan Santana, in particular. Those guys put the Mets back on the map. Amazin’ly to me, some people still don’t like Beltran. Man, I can name about 25 clubs, including the one across town, who would love to have a switch-hitting, power-hitting, run-producing, base-stealing, strong-defensive center fielder like Beltran.

The Santana deal will be a bonanza for the life of his contract—and theYankees sure wish they had pulled that trigger, don’t they? Imagine Santana’s record with Mariano Rivera closing for him?

I don’t think you judge Minaya by what happens over the next five games, but rather by what he’s done since he was hired as GM, and I think that is mostly, largely, positive. But he has to fix the bullpen, first and foremost, this winter.

The Mets are in a tough spot in several aspects. Most obviously, they can’t trust anybody in their bullpen to hold a lead and their offense doesn’t score enough runs often enough for the bullpen to not be a factor.

And so another disaster looms, certainly it does in the minds of the naturally-pessimistic Mets fans.

But the Amazin’s are in a tough spot, too, when it comes to saying goodbye to Shea on Sunday. Unlike the Yankees, who conveniently fell out of contention early enough to make last Sunday’s farewell an extravaganza, the Mets may not know going into Sunday, or conceivably going into a playoff game Monday, if it is their last game, or if there will be postseason baseball at Shea.

The hard part is, what if the Mets are eliminated Saturday and then Sunday becomes the final act? How to they celebrate the end of Shea at the last minute? And are fans going to want to celebrate anything one year after Tom Glavine’s final act of the 2007 meltdown, followed by another September swoon that was punctuated one day earlier?

12 p.m., Sam says:

Frankly, I’m not so sure the Mets are in a tough spot at all. To me, saying goodbye to Shea Stadium isn’t nearly the ordeal that a sendoff to Yankee Stadium was, so there shouldn’t be too much agita over whether the ceremony is proper.

Word is that the Mets will have their ceremony following the game on Sunday, which I think is a bad decision. They should shorten it to a reasonable length and do it just before the game that day, thus eliminating the possibility of an angry mob booing some former Met simply because they’re angry about the current team blowing another shot at the playoffs.

A nice video tribute, a speech or two honoring the World Series teams and that’s it – that’s what Shea Stadium needs to say a proper goodbye. Do it before the last game, then let’s move on—to the postseason, the Mets hope, or alternatively, to one more long winter and a nicer new stadium right next door.

No. 61, by the way. A fitting number on the final day of Yankee Stadium.

I’m in the dilapidated Stadium press room around noon, and I’m feeling two things. I’m filled with memories and reminiscence. And anger.

I’m still angry that they’re tearing down a perfectly good—perfectly historical—stadium so that they can make more money … tons more money … from many of those much richer than we, obviously, across the street.

They could have put a fraction of the cost of the new stadium into refurbishing the old stadium, expanding it outward to fit food concourses and restaurants and whatever, putting in new luxury boxes, and saved the actual hallowed ground.

But, no, the Steinbrenners will make untold millions, of not billions, in the new park, and that is the absolute bottom line. The idea they’re doing it for us, who won’t be able to afford a ticket—you watch how the prices skyrocket after the inaugural season—is ridiculous, not believable and delusional.

That’s how I feel. How do you feel?

I hate to brag, but my mediocrity was good enough to beat Sam’s dreadfulness last week.

My picks were 8-6-1, while Sam went 5-9-1. For the season, I lead 16-14-1 to 14-16-1.

I’m having a tough time picking the Giants by two touchdowns, but I think this team is one that wants to be great and more important, to be considered great. If that’s the case, you have to blow out the Criminals, er, Bengals, at home. Right?

The Jets are walking into an angry place to play a good team in San Diego, which was ripped off by officiating errors last week. I pity the Green.

So here are the weekend’s picks:

WEEK 3

GIANTS (-13 1/2) over Bengals
Chiefs (+5 1/2) over FALCONS
BILLS (-9 1/2) over Raiders
TITANS (-5) over Texans
PATRIOTS (-13) over Dolphins
BEARS (-3) over Bucs
Cardinals (+3) over REDSKINS
Panthers (+3 1/2) over VIKINGS
Rams (+9 1/2) over SEAHAWKS
49ERS (-4) over Lions
EAGLES (-3) over Steelers
BRONCOS (-5 1/2) over Saints
COLTS (-5 1/2) over Jaguars
RAVENS (-2 1/2) over Browns
Cowboys (-3) over PACKERS
CHARGERS (-9) over Jets

10:47 a.m., Sam says:

Last week was a mere stumble along the path to success. This week I’m back on track, for sure.

GIANTS (-13 1/2) over Bengals
FALCONS (-5 1/2) over Chiefs
BILLS (-9 1/2) over Raiders
Texans (+5) over TITANS
PATRIOTS (-13) over Dolphins
BEARS (-3) over Bucs
Cardinals (+3) over REDSKINS
VIKINGS (-3 1/2) over Panthers
SEAHAWKS (-9 1/2) over Rams
49ERS (-4) over Lions
EAGLES (-3) over Steelers
BRONCOS (-5 1/2) over Saints
Jaguars (+5 1/2) over COLTS
RAVENS (-2 1/2) over Browns
Cowboys (-3) over PACKERS

Jets (+9) over CHARGERS

So, tonight my dad, two brothers and I are making one last trip to Yankee Stadium (as fans – I’ll be there Sunday night working). Frankly, considering the amount of attention the closing of the Stadium has received, I was expecting ticket prices to be astronomical for any game on this homestand and we were prepared to pay way over face value when we bought our tix on StubHub.

Instead, the prices for tonight’s game against Chicago and for most of the games, it seemed, other than Sunday’s finale, were very reasonable. We bought upper deck seats for about a dollar over face value and there were plenty of seats for under face available.

This seemed strange to me, though I guess it’s understandable. The Yankees have been playing so poorly that much of the juice has been lost from this “dramatic” homestand. If there was even the faintest hope of a potential playoff-spot rally, tickets would surely be more in demand, but with the Yankees so far gone it just seems like less people are interested in making one final trip to the Stadium before it closes.

Thus, the question is raised: If not Yankee Stadium, what place IS worth a final look? I think I’d want to go to Fenway one more time before it’s razed (whenever that is) and I’d also want a look at Madison Square Garden before it’s moved or substantively changed. Beyond that, I can’t think of too many other places that carry the sort of stature and history that would draw me.

Can you?

CARP SAYS:
You’re right. There aren’t many places remaining that deserve a nostalgic last visit, because they’ve all been torn down. Having come from hockey for so many years, I had the bittersweet pleasure of finals visits to such cool places like the Boston Garden, Montreal Forum, Chicago Stadium and Maple Leaf Gardens.

I would definitely want to see Fenway one final time before they eventually take it down—though you have to admire the owners in Boston for doing everything possible to keep it up and running, as opposed to the greed-driven Steinbrenners.  Wrigley Field might be another.

Other places? I’d like to ride the wrecking ball when it hits Shea, and I’d love to push the plunger when they implode Nassau Coliseum.

But on Sunday I’ll be fighting tears, I guarantee, when I walk out of Yankee Stadium for the last time.

Normally I would be applauding that there will be an actual old-style baseball double-header today at Shea. Two games, back-to-back, single admission. A ticket gets you in for both games.

But I’m not applauding for two reasons. One, it’s obvious that the only reason this isn’t a day-night split double-header is that Fox TV has the rights to the 4 p.m. game. So that game couldn’t be moved. Hence, the only way to split the double-header would have been to have the first game at noon, or the second game after 8 p.m.

The other complaint about this twinbill is that surely there were people with tickets to Friday’s rainout who were to be attending Shea for the last time before it closes. Maybe life-long fans who planned to see the place one final time.

Now they may not get a chance to see Shea, because their tickets will be exchanged for other tickets based on availability, and in a pennant race in the final weeks of the stadium, there doesn’t figure to be a lot of availability. That stinks.

Anyway, I’m starting my last week of vacation. I’ll check in a couple of times during the week, hopefully with NFL picks Friday. Sam will carry on without me somehow. I’ll be back for the finale at Yankee Stadium.

Sam beat me last week by going 9-7, while I went 8-8 against the spread. Incidentally, I stretched my streak to five—going back through the entire postseason last year—straight games in which I picked against the Giants and they won.

As for the Jets … count me out as one of those people who now say they are the team to beat. New England remains the team to beat. The Pats aren’t Super anymore, and they’re not going anywhere near undefeated. But they still have the best coach, one of the best defenses, and a team that relies on the sum of its parts. Yes, Tom Brady is irreplaceable. But I think this is a team more adaptable to subbing, even for a Brady, than any other, and I think the parts that remain are still better than all of the Jets’ parts combined. PS, Belichick would never be caught in a situation where he didn’t have a backup placekicker ready for an extra point or a short field goal. Never.

Another PS: Matt Cassel played the entire preseason with the first team, and the opener. So it’s not like he’s being thrown in there last minute.

So here we go.

Week 2

Giants (-8 1/2) over RAMS.
Patriots (+1 1/2) over JETS.
CHIEFS (-3 1/2) over Raiders.
Bills (+5 1/2) over JAGUARS.
VIKINGS (+2) over Colts.
Falcons (+7) over BUCS.
Titans (+1) over BENGALS.
BRONCOS (+1 1/2) over Chargers.
Saints (even) over REDSKINS.
LIONS (+3) over Packers.
PANTHERS (-3) over Bears.
CARDINALS (-6 1/2) over Dolphins.
BROWNS (+6) over Steelers.
49ers (+7) over SEAHAWKS.
COWBOYS (-7) over Eagles.
Ravens (+4 1/2) over TEXANS.

11:47 a.m., Sam says:

Well, Week 1 in the books and I can’t say the one-game victory over Carp is what I was looking for—I’m more into complete dominance. Here’s hoping this week lives up to the expectations. On to the picks …

Giants (-8 1/2) over RAMS.
JETS (-1 1/2) over PATRIOTS.
CHIEFS (-3 1/2) over Raiders.
JAGUARS (-5 1/2) over Bills.
Colts (-2) over VIKINGS.
Falcons (+7) over BUCS.
BENGALS (-1) over Titans.
BRONCOS (+1 1/2) over Chargers.
Saints (even) over REDSKINS.
Packers (-3) over LIONS.
PANTHERS (-3) over Bears.
CARDINALS (-6 1/2) over Dolphins.
Steelers (-6) over BROWNS.
SEAHAWKS (-7) over 49ers.
COWBOYS (-7) over Eagles.
TEXANS (-4 1/2) over Ravens.