There has been something that’s  been troubling me for some time during the 2007 Mets season. It has little to do with pitching rotations, bullpens, lineups or trade rumors. It’s one of those little irksome itches that annoys until you scratch it. I’ve held kept my silence for fear of scorn from Mets fan brethren, but I cant keep my silence hold my tounge any longer.

It’s time we shelve Bachman-Turner Overdrives’, Taking Care of Business; the song belongs to 2006. Don’t get me wrong, it was a magical season and a long awaited return to postseason play and I loved all of it (save for one inning). Like The Doors’ LA Woman, it was a victory song apropos for it’s team in it’s time, but like that year’s highlight video Amazin Again (complete with an Office Depot Commercial jammed in between the video’s open and the season chronicle featuring, you guessed it, Talkin` Care of Business) it’s time to shelve the song along with your highlight tapes and DVD’s of 69,86, 99, 00 and 06 as the 2007 season is well underway..

Sure this may be more or less the same team as last year minus an Oliver, Trachsel, Floyd, Bradford and a few others. Dont want to nix Bachman Turner Overdrive and change artists, fine, BTO’s You Ain’t seen Nothing Yet is a perfectly acceptable substitute. That one seem too cheesy? Let it Ride is an adequate substitute as well. It’s a new year, it’s time for a new song. (as long as it isn’t written for the Mets as some hokey rap song incorporating players names in it’s lyrics.)

You may be hanging me in effigy as a Met-heretic or phrasing a clever biting insult to write in my comments section for suggesting the song be taken out of rotation, after just cheering Shawn Green’s walk-off homerun to the tune after Monday night against St. Louis , the elation still fresh in your heart. My apologies, but the time to play BTO’s ditty was eight months ago, not earlier this week.

Hey, I’ll admit, last October, I downloaded it from Itunes; turned it up when it came on the radio in my truck and hummed it at work. But no matter how hard you fantasize about the 06 NLCS, Molina’s ball still lands over the wall in left; Beltran’s bat still sits on his shoulder. Let’s put away Takin Care of Business before it loses it’s meaning. Next time your in a bar and the song comes on the jukebox, share a knowing nod with another orange and blue clad patron, take a moment to reflect on who had “The Strength To Be There” on a late October night and let a slight smile cross your face (then look away; you don’t want to give that dude the wrong idea.).

My intent is not to pour salt in collective wounds yet to fully heal.  I contrived many Kenny-involved humiliating vengeance against Rogers at the hands of the Mets for his indiscretions exactly 7 years to the day the 06 Cardinals became National League Champs. I don’t like the way 06 ended either, but 2007 is in progress and baseball’s proverbial Christmas is only is only five more months away; it’s time to throw out last year’s tree.