Friday I caught snippets of the official press conference at Citi Field, as well as interviews on WFAN and ESPN. Sandy Alderson carried himself pretty well and said things that I expected and even some I didn’t.

I have to admit that my confidence in Sandy grew a bit when he said the Mets can be an iconic team, should be an iconic team and will be in the near future. Francesca chuckled at the notion and Michael Kay said “He’s already selling the team.” I expected nothing less from those two “personalities”, but they get paid to be Yankee lovers, and Francesca is just a (insert your custom derogatory remark here).

Regardless, I think Sandy has the kind of attitude you need to bring to the table and obviously shows his military background. Ever talk to a true Marine – there is no such thing as failure.

I know that’s not going to bring home a championship alone, but I dig that kind of attitude. I also felt good about Alderson pretty much throwing everyone’s opinions out the window about his choice for a new manager. He wants a fiery manager at the helm, but one who uses information and makes smart moves. Sure, go to your gut once in a while but don’t depend on it.

I was a little perturbed when his final statement of the conference was there would be no real spending in the off season. The visions of Cliff Lee and Carl Crawford started to fade away in my head and I began to already write of 2011. But when you take off the “Mets Fan” goggles and put on the Alderson thinking cap, you realize why it’s going to have to wait until 2012.

We don’t have any flexibility in spending and we need to free up all the “DEAD” money and make some moves in the 2012 off season. Yes, we don’t have Yankees money – no one does – but look at who is in the Series this year. That was his point exactly.

He’s not looking to depend on free agency to build a great team, he wants to grow it himself. He also wants to keep the homegrown talent around and make the necessary changes to the team as he sees fit. He didn’t have a straight answer about Ollie and Castillo, but he’ll figure it out. Even if we’re stuck with them next year, it’s not his fault so you have to give him a pass.

Alderson has a proven track record and created winners. He also has the pleasure of a pretty large payroll behind him and the largest of his baseball career. All in all I think we may start to see some pretty good years ahead in the New York Mets organization.

But who’s going to be manager?