Wow did I ever have a weird dream this morning.

I'd gone back to sleep for a little bit, but it was a couple of hours until game time, and that must have been weighing on my mind, because I dreamt a whole baseball game in my head. And not a good one.

You know how lots of dreams begin with some kind of real-world event that you're still wrestling with? That's how this one started: It was Oliver Perez and Jeff Suppan, just like Game 7 of the NLCS, only this time Suppan was on some other team and it wasn't for the all the marbles, it was just a game like any other. And Suppan pitched terribly, but Oliver pitched even worse -- one of those classic O.P. messes where you wind up looking through your fingers while Willie steams in the dugout. And then when they finally took him out, no one else could pitch either. Not Sosa and not Joe Smith -- and get this, they both got pounded by Gabe Kapler. Yeah, Gabe Kapler. I knew I was dreaming because Gabe Kapler's retired and managing in Single-A for the Red Sox somewhere, but in my dream he was bashing Met pitchers like he was Pat the Bat.

And the Mets couldn't hit at all. Well, they could but it kept not mattering. I started keeping track because it got so crazy -- in my dream, they got the leadoff man on in the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth -- and hit into double plays in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh. I know, insane, right? And then in the eighth, I dreamed Guillermo Mota came in to pitch for the other team, and he was overthrowing and stalking around the mound and being Guillermo Mota, and it was clear the Mets were about to pound him and take the lead again, and I briefly thought this was turning into a good dream, only Luis Castillo grounded out to first and Brady Clark tried to go home for some reason and was out and then Mota walked two guys and Delgado came up with the bases loaded and flied out and we got nothing. Oh, it was infuriating. I had to remind myself it was just a dream, the way you can do sometimes without waking up. (Yeah, Luis Castillo. I keep dreaming about him -- remember the dream I had this winter that we resigned him to a four-year deal even though he's a terrible hitter with no range and one working leg? Man, I'd take a dozen bad dreams like this morning's instead of having that one be true.)

Oh, and David Wright got a Gold Glove and then looked horrible even on routine throws. I know, ironic right?

Anyway, finally I woke up and it took me a minute to realize it really was all a dream, and there was no game today, just this inexplicable two-day break before we play the Nats. Which I'd been thinking was weird ever since the schedule came out, but thank goodness. Because if a game like this really happened, I think it would frustrate me to the point of insanity.

22: Tuesday, August 19 vs Braves
While it is fairly common knowledge, ladies and gentlemen, that Shea Stadium has hosted many a megastar concert in its 45 years, those who are Mets fans above all else probably have a slightly different ear for the music they've heard at Shea, particularly since 1980 when our audio/video crew began picking out just the right selections for just the right moments, either to celebrate victory or inspire one. All through this series, the Shea Stadium Final Season Countdown Like It Oughta Be is going to salute the musical acts who provided the soundtrack to some of Shea Stadium's most memorable seasons.

First up, to remove number 22 from the right field wall, we have an internationally renowned group whose career leapt up and howled for success with the release of what some would call a novelty hit at the turn of the century. Call it what you will, it sounded pretty good emanating from Shea's loudspeakers as the 2000 Mets won dramatic game after dramatic en route to the National League pennant that October.

Please let out your loudest woofs for Isaiah Taylor, Rick Carey, Marvin Prosper, Omerit Heild and Herschel Small. They asked the musical question, "Who Let The Dogs Out?" The answer was the Baha Men.

21: Wednesday, August 20 vs Braves
Why, ladies and gentlemen, do some songs resonate in the public imagination when others, no matter how hyped by the powers that be, simply fall flat? It's a great mystery of the music business and the same could be said of the tunes that get teams and their fans going.

No song ever seemed to have the positive effect on the goings on at Shea Stadium like the one we honor tonight. Its lyrics and accompanying video have nothing to do with baseball, not even remotely. Yet from a DiamondVision diversion came a rallying point for two of the best clubs in Mets history, the diehard Mets of 1985 and their world champion successors of 1986.

It was just a novelty hit built around some public domain clips. But given the frenzy it touched off here in its day, the novelty never wore off where "The Curly Shuffle" was concerned. To remove number 21 from the right field wall, we have invited to Shea, for the first time, those masterminds whose homage to "comedy classics on late night TV" made the Mets a prime time smash in the mid-1980s. Please welcome nobody's stooges: Peter Quinn, T.C. Furlong, Barney Schwartz, Tom "Shoes" Trinka, Rich Gorley and Vincent Dee, better known as the Jump 'N' The Saddle Band.

20: Thursday, August 21 vs Braves
Baseball is fun, ladies and gentlemen, but it is also business. We don't refer to the deals made in the executive suites and offices of Major League organizations, but rather to the transactions that count the most in the only bottom line to which any fan pays serious attention. We're talking, quite simply, wins and losses. The best business to be in, of course, is winning.

In their division championship season of 2006, the Mets took care of business quite effectively for six going on seven months. And when they got their business done, there was no better soundtrack by which to celebrate a job completed to satisfaction than that first recorded by a group of Canadian rockers in the 1970s. It fit the vibe of the Mets to a tee as they took the National League by storm two years ago and we play it to this day after just about every win.

We refer, of course, to "Takin' Care of Business" by Bachman-Turner Overdrive. And to put our countdown in overdrive as we have every day this year, we welcome the members of BTO so they can remove number 20 from the right field wall on this day: Randy Bachman, Fred Turner, Randy Murray and Blair Thornton. Gentlemen, if you would...take care of some Shea Stadium business.

Numbers 25-23 were revealed here.