It feels like too much time in between the time the Mets sprayed champagne in the visitor’s clubhouse at Wrigley and Tuesday night’s first pitch of game 1 of the World Series. I hope the Amazin’s magic doesn’t get lost in the layoff.

Even if there was no schedule rigidity for TV, I guess the earliest the Series could have started was Sunday given it wasn’t until Friday night that KC finished off their series. So you do what Terry’s done and say we could use the time off.

Before it was clear who would come out of the AL, Met fans didn’t seem to be too choosy about their next opponent. I preferred the Royals given the scariness of the Toronto lineup and the advantage that seems to come with a dome but then that stat surfaced on KC’s superiority on making contact vs. plus-94 heat. I actually most feared the Cubs, Cards and Pirates going in. When the Mets made mince meat of the Cubbies like they did, the prevailing theme here in Queens has been “there’s no stopping us.”

There was a little bit of a debate about which way to go with the rotation. I would have preferred to reset – and go back to Jake, Thor, Knight, Matz in that order but it’s not a big deal that Terry’s using the Knight to open things.

I’m happy for Howie who finally got to yell into a live microphone that his Mets won the pennant. I’m also actually happy for Francesa – who is a Yankee fan – but has been a huge believer in what was being built by Omar and then Sandy when the cries of cynics were the loudest. Mike’s been so spot-on so many times about the Mets when he easily could’ve gone sour or distant on them – especially against the backdrop of the switch to WOR and the corresponding difficulty of getting Met players to come on the air with him.

A lot of people from outside New York have asked me what the city’s been like during this great Met run. It’s actually not that crazy given the way this place works. It’s so busy and so diverse and people are just trying to get to where they’re going and then back home. I mean, my day-to-day has been fun because people I interact with know I like the Mets and so there’s been a lot of congratulating and discussion of the previous game’s highlights. The Utley takeout of Ruben got things really wound up in the papers and Murph’s theatrics have kept things spooled really tight.

I don’t have cable so I mainly listened in bed and went to the bar for a couple of the games. The Series is on free TV so that’s good. I’ll be in Lexington, KY for the three home games but will watch with Cardinal fan Jeff D. No prediction on outcome but Met fans have great faith in the rotation.

-The announced attendance at Madison Square Garden for Sunday night’s Flames/Rangers game was 18,006 which is what they say it is for every game. I went with double-L and sat up in section 417 in the last row of the blue seats. It was the quietist “sellout” crowd I’ve ever been in. You could hear a pin drop for the entire first period and a half of the contest. Our view of the near net (the one the Rangers shot at in the first and third periods) was blocked by fans of normal height seated in front of us. A TV monitor bolted to the support beam/flooring for the sky bridge above us showed the game broadcast but the feed was about a second and a half behind the live action which made it an unhelpful visual aid. I got the tickets via the team’s resale site. No mention was made of the obstructed view. It probably should be. The seats cost about quadruple what you’d pay for a similar seat at an Islanders game. Sixteen ounce plastic cups of beer were $11.50. I really like Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi and so I was glad to see him blast one home on the end of the ice we could see. Kevin Hayes set up the first Blueshirt score with a dazzling behind the back pass. Former Blackhawk Antti Raanta was solid in net for the Rangers. Hopefully, Raanta plays a lot to spell Hank so he’s fresh and healthy for the Cup run. This team is ridiculously loaded with talent. Mats Zuccarello is a pleasure to watch. He’s back from that frightening injury sustained in the Penguin series last spring when he got hit in the head with a McDonagh slapper. One other small knock on the Garden. Why not just let the escalators run downward after it’s over? The fact you have to walk down a dozen flights of stairs that smell like piss to exit the world’s most famous arena after a one-billion dollar renovation is ridiculous.

-Talk about burying the lead. Today’s front-page Times story about US concerns that Russia is exploring ways to sever and sabotage deep-sea cables critical to world commerce waited until the very end of the piece to drop in this little nugget. “Russia is also building an undersea unmanned drone capable of carrying a small, tactical nuclear weapon to use against harbors or coastal areas, American military and intelligence analysts said.” That’s great. Yeah, we’re gonna lose internet and oh by the way…