In your face, Mets fans! Your favorite bunch of "lovable losers" have managed a sports collapse of epic proportions. Never has any team, in any sport, given away such a sizable lead to exit the regular season with no hopes of trying for a championship.

    When the Mets put away the Braves on Sept. 12, the Phillies were at best sucking wind. The Mets had a seven-game lead with 17 games to go, and every indicator was looking like the Queens from Flushing were due for a division championship.

    But as the above calendar counts, the Mets began an astronomically improbable slide that — as impossible as it may seem — could have been averted all the way up to, and including, the last regular-season game of the year.

    Alas for Mets-lovers, it was not to be. No division, no wild card, no postseason .... no nothing!

    As someone who lives outside of the N.Y. market and cheers for the Braves, it makes the sting of no postseason for my team a little more bearable. While the Braves were surging  for a hopeful (and ultimately fruitless) bid for the wild card spot, the Mets were spiraling out of control and diving head-first into the dumper. Fantastic, indeed!

    Now you, too, will have to find someone else to root on for the next few weeks. As I know that many of you hate the Yankees, can I suggest that you get behind the Cubs for once? They haven't had anything to be too happy about since early on Oct. 14, 2003, when a certain fan managed to grab one that Moises Alou likely would have caught.

    Besides, you and I both know that the Mets don't deserve a chance at the big one. Would you rather choke now, or bite the big one in a week or so? Face it: it was over a long time ago . . . .

    Go Cubs!!!