Why do I get nervous when the Mets play the Braves? I guess it’s because it’s quite possible the Mets could wake up Monday morning to a 2-4 record. That’s just the way it goes when the Mets play the Braves. Since 1998, the Mets have been the Braves’ whipping boy.

During the Bobby Valentine era, the Braves stuck it to the Mets many times. Bobby Cox could not stand Bobby V and took great delight in beating him at every opportunity. In ’98 the Braves thwarted the Mets potential wild card berth. Compared to last season it was a mini collapse but a collapse never the less. During the final series of that season, the Mets could not get a single win from the Braves to clinch the wild card. While Cox chuckled in the locker room, razor blades and shoe laces had to be removed from Valentine’s office in Turner Field.

The Mets barely won the wild card the following year, 1999. They almost blew it again but were able to tie with the Reds forcing a one game playoff the day after the season ended. The Mets won and returned to the post season for the first time in 11 years. To make it interesting, the Mets met the Braves in the NLCS only to lose in 6 games when Kenny Rogers walked in the winning run in extra innings. Down 3 games to 1, the Mets fought valiantly in game 5 in the rain. You remember. That was Robin Ventura’s famous grand slam single. In game 6, Al Leiter imploded and all looked lost. The Mets fought back though and at one point, thanks to Mike Piazza, grabbed the lead. But the Mets bullpen couldn’t hold it. Back and forth went the lead until the game was tied in extra innings then the walk. So the Mets endured another slap in the face from Cox and company.

In 2000, the Mets wrapped up the wild card again. Ironically the Mets clinched it against the Braves. For once, the Mets were able to do something positive against that team. Everyone assumed the two clubs would meet in the NLCS again. But something strange happened. While the Mets defeated the Giants in the first round, the Braves lost to St. Louis. Even by winning the Mets kind of lost because they no longer had to slay Goliath. It was done for them. The Mets made it to the World Series that year, the last time they have been there. Of course they were defeated by their other nemesis, the Yankees.

In 2001 it was the same old story again. The one highlight against the Braves was Mike Piazza’s now famous homerun that defeated Atlanta in the first game back in New York after the World Trade Center attacks. The Mets struggled most of that season but then made a push for the wild card at the end of the season. Once again, it was snuffed out by the Braves who toyed with the Mets bullpen in a weekend series during late September in Atlanta.

The Mets slithered away to the lower echelons of the division for the next several years getting their faces beat in by the Braves whenever they met. Then came 2006 and for the first time in what seemed like forever, the Mets beat the Braves in the season series. More impressive was the fact that the Mets stole the division from Atlanta who owned it for 14 seasons. Last season the Mets split the season series with the Braves, neither team making the playoffs.

So what’s my big fear? Are these the same Mets that got pounded by the Braves for so many years? After all, the Mets handled Atlanta pretty well the last couple of seasons. So what am I so fearful of? Bobby Cox, Tim Hudson, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Chipper Jones, Yunel Escobar, Brian McCann, that’s what I fear. Oh, and Ruben Gotay too who should still be on the Mets. Maybe I am a bit snake bit but the Braves, in their house, are always tough for the Mets. The history is in their heads, it has to be.

This weekend and perhaps the first series at Shea against the Phillies will be a better gage for how good the Mets will be. The Mets won two of three from Florida, an inferior team compared to Atlanta and Philadelphia. This time next week, we’ll have a better feel for this Mets club. Then we’ll know. Is it really a new season or just business as usual?