Mike Celizic

The headline on a Sunday story on New York Newsday’s Web site sounds like a statement, but it’s really nothing more than wishful thinking: “Mets ready to put collapse behind them.”

Talk about surprises. What else can they say? “Mets ready to find new way to choke?”

When last we saw the New York Mets, they were carving out a bit of unhappy history for themselves, becoming the only team ever to blow a seven-game lead with 17 games to play. It was as awful as awful gets, with the only good thing about it being that it made fans forget about 2006, when all the Mets did was blow the NLCS to the Cardinals.

Every team reports to camp with its bags packed full of hope and optimism. But there’s not a team in baseball that’s under more pressure to deliver on its promise than the Mets.

You can argue that’s not true, that the Tigers, Mariners, Dodgers, Cubs, Red Sox, Yankees, Indians and any other team you care to name is under the same pressure. But let’s be honest here. The Mets are the proud owners of the third-highest payroll in baseball. Their general manager, Omar Minaya is supposed to be the smartest guy to draw breath since Einstein. Their line-up is packed with power. And now they’ve subtracted the ancient Tom Glavine from their rotation and replaced him with Johan Santana, a two-time Cy Young winner.

These guys have to get to the playoffs — there’s no fall-back position on that mandate. And, if they get there, they’re going to be called failures if they don’t also make it to the World Series.

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Not even the Yankees are under that pressure. Hank Steinbrenner, who’s taken over baseball operations from his father, George III, has been saying since the end of the 2007 season that the Yankees are rebuilding and aren’t demanding total victory this year.

While the Red Sox are expecting great things again, they won the World Series last year for the second time in four seasons; if things don’t work out, that glow isn’t going to evaporate. And the other teams that hope to contend have a bit more perspective — forced on them by harsh experience — than to start singing the win-or-else song.

The Mets don’t have those luxuries. For three years now, they’ve been built to win — now. And for the past two seasons, when they’ve faced their moments of truth, they’ve been found lacking in ways that go a lot deeper than one starting pitcher.

Santana’s a great acquisition, but he’s hardly an iron-clad pennant guarantee. We remember him for his Cy Young seasons in 2004 and 2006 when he was probably the best pitcher in baseball. But last year he was just 5-7 in the second half of the season and 15-13 overall. His ERA on the season was 3.33, which should translate to sub-3.00 in the National League, where there’s no designated hitter to contend with. But in the second half, it was 4.04, 0.7 of a run higher.

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