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.