Is the Daily News kidding?

Look, I understand its sports editors are addicted to the crack pipe of Yankee BS. I understand that every series with the Red Sox blots out the sun. I understand that there is a perception that the Yankees losing to Tampa Bay is novel. I understand that Phil Hughes being called up was a milestone. I understand that Phil Hughes nearly pitching a no-hitter was quite noteworthy. I even understand, in a twisted way, that George Steinbrenner not firing Joe Torre and Brian Cashman qualifies as a development.

But last night the Yankees didn't play. They were rained out. The only thing that happened on their beat was the dismissal of someone on the training staff, the director of performance enhancement. That sounds kind of shady, like he was the in-house dispenser of pills to (allegedly) Jason Giambi. But he was just the guy in charge of stretching or pulling hamstrings or something. And because Hughes came up lame and because a bunch of his teammates recently did the same, the strength & conditioning dude was axed.

And that, not Oliver Perez's 10 strikeouts versus the Marlins, is what covers the back page of today's Daily News.

I give up. It's a losing battle. The 2007 Mets are universally recognized as one of the best teams in baseball. The 2007 Yankees, who are likely to recover to some extent from their poor start, are still in last place. Yet in "New York's hometown newspaper," it's 1961. It's 1927. The Mets don't exist, at least not in any manner comparable to that of the Yankees.

I thought it was an abomination last Sunday when my edition of the Times had nothing — nothing — on the Mets in its sports section. My edition wasn't the earliest but it wasn't the latest. It was the one distributed to most of Nassau County Sunday morning. Usually in those situations you can depend on reading one of those stories that was obviously written to fill the gap in between, why this player is doing so well or why that player is in a slump, something featureish. But there was nothing. Saturday had been a huge sports day and the Mets, whose heartstopping comeback versus the Nationals ended after deadline, got bumped. I didn't like it, but I understood that choices needed to be made.

But this? The guy in charge of stretching is scapegoated? That's what gets the majority of the back page? Not the Mets' win over the Marlins, not the Devils' playoff loss to the Senators, not something about something that actually happened yesterday? The dismissal of Marty Miller, whom nobody outside the Yankees' clubhouse or the Miller household had ever heard of, is judged the biggest New York sports news of Wednesday?

Disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful.

Listen, I get it. I get that Cashman firing a strength coach symbolizes Steinbrenner throwing his weight around and that more heads could roll and shape up or ship out and...blah, blah, fricking blah. This is the same dull, pointless story we've been fed as "news" for years. Decades. An actual event would be "Yankees go about their business quietly." Everything else is white noise.

What do the Mets have to do? Win a lot? Play exciting baseball night in, night out? Run nip and tuck with their archrivals for first place? Send compelling stars out on to the field every day? They do that. Hell, David Wright was accommodating enough to fall into a deep struggle at the plate, which was bad news, but news with a tinge of controversy nonetheless.

But no. The Daily News does not care to cover the defending division champion, contending Mets as if they're a defending division championship or contending for another one. The editors of that newspaper's sports section choose not to shine a light on the fine work their Mets reporter Adam Rubin does on a regular basis (Roger Rubin filled in yesterday) nor play up the interesting Met sidebars by Sean Brennan or the worthy columns written about this team by excellent writers like Lisa Olson. Most days of late, the Mets are reduced to a red snipe in the lower right-hand corner of the back page. Today they made it all the way above the name plate. PEREZ & METS SINK FISH AT SHEA is there in a little box. YOU'RE FIRED! With angry Boss' blessing, Cashman pulls plug on strength coach accompanying a picture of a testy Steinbrenner takes up most of the available space. The ratio of pages devoted to the two teams inside the paper is similar to what we see on the back.

I've long enjoyed buying the Daily News and reading it from cover to cover, continuing to do so even in this Internet age of ours. Suddenly, however, I find a surfeit of quarters in my front pocket.

Buttons are all over my floor, each of them having bust from pride at the news that both the National League Player of the Month and the National League Pitcher of the Month for April are New York Mets. It's a monthly double not seen in these parts since Gary Carter and Dwight Gooden were kicking it old school in September 1985.

Congratulations to Jose Reyes and John Maine on their respective honors. Johnny we tipped our cap to a few days ago. Jose we are always kvelling from. The best part about Reyes? Other than he's 23 and still learning? It's that we make no bones about him. He's not our secret weapon. He's our trump card and we deal him straight from the top of the deck. When you can put Jose Reyes on the table and still have the "heart of the order" coming up, that's something else.

As we speak, Jose Reyes is among National Leaguers...
• Tied for first in runs
• Tied for third in hits
• Tied for sixth in doubles
• First in triples
• First in steals
• Tied for twelfth in runs batted in
• Ninth in walks
• Ninth in batting average
• Eighth in on-base percentage
• Eleventh in slugging percentage
• Tenth in on-base percentage plus slugging percentage
• Most double plays turned by a shortstop
• Highest zone rating among shortstops (gets to a lot of balls)

Then there's the Jose factor. You've seen it. We've all seen it. It's the way Reyes's speed, slashing, slugging and smarts can change any given game in the Mets' favor, how he creates ordeals for the opponent and nightmares for pitchers. They fear him in the other dugout, even the other clubhouse. Sports Illustrated, in a story this week on the three N.L. East shortstops who are redefining the position (Reyes and two other guys), describes the Braves watching last Tuesday's extra-inning affair between the Mets and Rockies, the one Endy Chavez — player of the millennium — won with the drag bunt. Tim Hudson, Pete Orr and Jeff Francoeur weren't worried about Endy. They were dreading the ever improving Jose.

"They're pitching to him!" Francoeur reported to his teammates. "Oh, man, this game's over. All he's going to do is chop one on the ground and beat it out."

Actually the Rockies wound up walking him intentionally after Jose worked the count to three and one. Either way he got on base and the damage was in the process of being done.

Colorado pitcher Josh Fogg told SI the best you can hope for versus Reyes is damage control: "You've got to be cognizant of him, but you can't let yourself get in such a funk that you make bad pitches to the next guy...Him standing on second might not be the worst thing. I can see him a little better at second base at least."

Maybe Jimmy Rollins and Hanley Ramirez are impact shortstops somewhere in the vicinity of Jose Reyes' level, but do either of them — or does anybody else — get a bigger kick out of the game? One look at Jose validates the Crash Davis cliché about being happy to be here. Nobody has ever appeared more gleeful on a baseball diamond, not even the willing targets of Morganna the Kissing Bandit. Some players smile. Many players think. Who else pulls off both with Jose's brand of élan?

I'm thrilled the rest of baseball is sitting up and taking notice of the most unique Met of them all. We have some extremely talented and able players but they have comparable counterparts on other teams. Nobody has another Jose Reyes (except, technically, for the Binghamton Mets). He is at the very least the co-signature player of this franchise, 50% of the foundation of the new ballpark.

Around a year ago, Mets Weekly profiled Stitches, the Whitestone-based company charged with embroidering names on the backs of Met uniforms. The owner of the establishment invited viewers to come have a look at where and how David Wright and Pedro Martinez get their jerseys done up. Those were the only names he mentioned. He wouldn't have been the only one to choose those two.

When I saw this segment repeated after the season, I thought how much and how fast things had changed. At this time in 2005, Jose Reyes's name only arose long enough for him to be berated for not walking enough (ESPN.com's Rob Neyer infamously referred to him as "one of the worst everyday players in the majors"). At this time in 2006, Wright and Martinez were the above-the-marquee players in these parts and Reyes was still grappling with getting on base.

Then came the balance of '06, the explosive road trip way out west, the soccer-style serenading, the All-Star vote, the cycle, the three-homer game, the inside-the-parker, the Silver Slugger, the Japan tour...everything. When Fox was hyping the NLCS last October, they advised us to tune in for Albert Pujols and the Cardinals taking on Jose Reyes and the Mets. Not Carlos Beltran, not David Wright, but Jose Reyes. Like Jackie Martling always wished he could, Jose Reyes had gone national.

Now he's gone to the head of the class in the National League. Well done young man.

Bask in the excellence that is Jose Reyes via the lens of photographer Gary Sparber. He shoots Mets games and occasionally sends us the results. Lots of good stuff from Wednesday's win.