In a Race to Get Reyes

With all due respect to the author of the post "Colorado Dreamin'", you gotta be more than a mile high if you think there's any chance in hell the Rockies would get (or even pursue) Jose Reyes. Or that a high profile superstar, having played his entire mlb career in New York, would have the slightest interest in leaving the Big Apple to chill out in Denver during his prime years as a sizzling shortstop who'd be forced into playing second base for a mid-market team and for an almost exclusively white, middle-class, family-friendly fanbase in the Rocky Mountains.

No way!

Jose Reyes needs to play for their division rivals, the San Francisco Giants.

               The race is on!

The photo of Reyes below, probably taken during or after another Amazin' defeat at some point over the past few years, clearly shows him longing for the West Coast ... and the chance to play loose and free baseball once again, this time with the Misfits -- the 2010 World Champs -- playing for fun, and playing in front of those unmistakeably wacky fans, in the coolest city in the country.

Reyes would be a much better fit with the misfits

San Francisco's eclectic mix of deadheads, deadbeats, southpaws, transplants, and various Bay Area bizarros needs the electricity and exuberance of a player like Reyes. It would set that stadium on fire. The ground would tremble like it was 1989.

The triumphant return of Profesor Reyes and his bigscreen, between-inning, Spanish language lessons would only be the beginning. Beard-growing challenges, psychedelic play on and off the diamond, The Freak and a Kung-Fu Panda at his side.

Now that's a wonderfully strange brew I'd like to get drunk on for the next few years.

But let's get out of the sky and back to the diamond. Other than Omar Vizquel (from '05-'08), have the Giants ever had a cool and/or good shortstop since their move to San Francisco? Don't say Royce Clayton. Or the likeable Shawon Dunston, who never played more than 90 games in any of the three seasons he played by the bay. Simple fact is, the Giants historically need a cool shortstop as much as they immediately (and desperately) need one.

And the thought of bringing old teammates back together, Beltran and Reyes -- two great players plagued by unfortunate injuries -- warms the heart of any baseball fan who sympathizes with those who love(d) the Mets.

In Queens, Reyes was "the face of the franchise" as the fella says. The Mets would be crazy to let him go to this new Miami team. But if he wants to head West for the Golden Gates of Unlimited Devotion, then they'd really be doing something great for the country of baseball by thanking him for what a long, strange trip it's been, and wishing him well.

Sorry, New York, this race is a steal-your-face.