ABSTRACT:

IT is more than just baseball when the Astros and Mets play each other. It’s also about family, friends and feuds, all of it meshing together to give us the kind of excitement that we’ve seen this week at Shea and last September in Houston.

It starts from the respective general managers, who once worked with each other and extends to several players and coaches who once called Shea Stadium home, but now want nothing more than to beat the Mets when the two teams meet. It is both business and personal.

Carl Everett, Tim Bogar and Bill Spiers always want to prove the Mets made a mistake by letting them go. …