The New York Mets think they are so smart, but they are really so dumb. The Mets, playing a late-season version of the major league service time manipulation game, cheated shortstop Ruben Tejada out of a day on the major league roster when they recalled him from the minors in September.

While other minor leaguers they called up at the same time joined the Mets immediately, the Mets told Tejada to stay in his New York apartment and they would let him know when they wanted him at Citi Field. What they really meant was they would …

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There is no other organization like the Minnesota Twins. On the same day, Sept. 30, the day after the season ended, that the Chicago Cubs fired their manager, Dale Sveum, after a second losing season in his two-year tenure, the Twins extended the contract of their manager, Ron Gardenhire.

The Twins had just completed their third consecutive losing season under Gardenhire in his 12-year tenure, a development that might have prompted other organizations to change managers. Not the Twins.

In the past 27 years, they have had two managers, Tom Kelly preceding Gardenhire. In that same period, the other 29 teams, some of which did not exist that entire time, employed 250 managers, according to research by Elias Sports Bureau.

Treating the other 29 teams as if they all played that entire time, they have averaged …

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If I am guilty, as charged, with demonstrating disdain for the stats patrol (notice I didn’t say geeks or nerds), I blame their arrogance for prompting such feeling.

My dictionary defines arrogance as “disposed to making claims to unwarranted importance,” and that describes the vast majority of statistic zealots who inundate me with critical e-mail.

There are no two ways with the stats patrol. It’s either their way or no way. No method other than theirs can be right. Those who don’t accept their numbers can’t possibly know what they’re talking about.

Mention intangibles, and those who aren’t dictionary challenged might know that an integer is a number but an intangible?

Only numbers count with the stats patrol. If it’s not a number, it doesn’t …

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