For the ones who aren't jerks; for the ones who didn't just find out about baseball; for the ones who honestly understand what a gift this is; for the ones like the men in their fifties I ran into outside of Shea after the last Sunday game between us in September 2007 who were too beset with anxieties over potentially blowing the Wild Card to even suggest they had a shot at winning the East despite having just swept the team in first place; for the real fans who have earned it over 28 years by being true and without being jerks...to them I say congratulations.

For the rest of us, there's A. Bartlett Giamatti in cardboard concerto.

For the rest of us, there's farewell to the old and welcome to the new...designed to be the greatest ever built for baseball.

For the rest of us, there's the lingering hypothetical we can always imagine went our way.

For the rest of us, it's Let's Go Next Year. It can't get here fast enough.