I became an I in '00 primarily based on dissatisfaction with local politics here in the State of Oklahoma. Wasn't so much a reaction to what was going on with Bush/Gore etc... Republican's here are very liberal with regards to economics (lots of things like subsidies to sports facilities and other foolish things) so I did that. I wouldn't say things have changed a whole lot in those regads, but I think they will out of necessity soon...
The Mets have always been an interesting team. I was a big Darryl Strawberry fan growing up....did you know that he committed to attend Oklahoma State University originally, and would have batted clean-up behind Robin Ventura? That would have been some team! BTW congrats on your Cy Young winner...Dickey is a fine pitcher.