Maybe we'll come back to Earth, who can tell?

The Mets' magic number to clinch the National League East championship is down to one. They will surely clinch this weekend. Now, their clinching has been a foregone conclusion since about the middle of June. Also, the Mets were in the World Series as recently as 2000. Fans of serious long-suffering franchises have every right to scoff at Mets fans who act like this is a long time coming. There are plenty of reasons to view this as a less than dramatic event. Still, it's going to be a lot fun.

Even though the Mets have been to the playoffs twice in last seven season, they haven't won a division title since 1988. In 1999 and 2000 they had to play second fiddle to the Braves. Now they've emphatically put an end to the Atlanta's historic run of regular season excellence. Granted, that happened a couple of days ago, but it won't really be time to celebrate until the Mets officially claim the title for themselves.

That lengthy drought featured many bad teams and painful moments. The 2004 season may not rank as the worst. But the speed of the team's turnaround has been remarkable. In July of 2004, the Mets had a bad, old major league team and they gutted their farm system for no good reason. Afterwards, the team needed a lot of help just to be competitive and those in charge seemed exactly the wrong men for the job. That the Mets have gone from this seemingly hopeless situation to division champs in just two years is nothing short of amazin'.

I've had plenty of criticism for Omar Minaya's individual moves since he took over as general manager. And he keeps doing things which defy logic (Shawn Green, take a bow). But there's no question he's done a lot of things right. To take the mess of 2004 and build a team that may win 100 games with a mix of veterans and young stars isn't easy, regardless of the team's budget. Jose Reyes and David Wright blossoming into two of the best players in the game has certainly helped. But after some of the guys who've occupied Minaya's office in recent years, the fact that neither one was traded away for the proverbial bag of balls is worth applauding.

Once the Mets clinch, we can get back to worrying about the playoff roster. Will Steve Trachsel really get a start? Could someone please play well enough to take Shawn Green's spot in the lineup? They're not going to wear the black hats in a home playoff game, are they? All good questions. But for one day, we can just be happy. The Mets are about to be the champions of the National League East.