THE great thing about baseball is the report card doesn’t lie. The record you have is the record you deserve.

The 9-12 Mets went into this season with obvious holes, holes management refused to recognize: another right-handed hitter, a power pitcher, a center fielder – c’mon guys, this is the majors, this is New York, you’ve got to have a center fielder – and a much-needed sounding board for the Latin players, specifically a psychologist for Armando Benitez.

By the way, the fact your closer needs a psychologist is a bit troublesome. A closer has to be your rock. Not rocked. Benitez came in last night and managed to get a save in the Mets’ 4-2 victory over the Astros, but the frigid Shea crowd booed him unmercifully. He said afterward that working extra in the bullpen with pitching coach Vern Ruhle got his mechanics and his fastball back, but Benitez will never fully get these fans on his side again. He has lost their trust.

“The booing doesn’t bother me,” he insisted. We’ll see.

This also was the night center fielder Roger Cedeno mercifully had his job taken away and was booed with the same kind of fury.

Even on a night the Mets win, the fans were angry.

You can be sure Steve Phillips’ days are numbered. Phillips is the architect of this team and he has to suffer the consequences, but you cannot give the Wilpons a pass because they endorsed every move made by their GM.

The bottom line is that the organization has made too many bad decisions the last two years, with Cedeno at the top of the list. It’s frightening to think the Mets actually thought Cedeno could play center field, something that had opposing scouts laughing out loud.

Assistant GM Jim Duquette is the GM in waiting and Duquette seems like a reasonable choice; in fact, a number of players whisper that he is the perfect man for the job because, unlike Phillips, his ego does not get in the way. But ownership should never let the inmates run the asylum. That is the quickest way to baseball ruin. Remember, they are ballplayers, not GM-selection committees.

What the Mets really need is the most basic baseball commodity, yet the most difficult to come by these days when the suits have invaded the game and ownership is overrun by business executives who think they know how to run a baseball franchise.

The Mets need a man who knows people and who knows baseball. They need someone at the top to evaluate talent, combined with street smarts. A perfect candidate would be Giants GM Brian Sabean, but Sabean cannot leave San Francisco without the permission of ownership and Peter Magowan knows he has a good thing going and will not let Team Sabean get away.

And let’s face it, if you were Sabean, would you leave the beautiful streets of San Francisco to come work at Shea and trade in a waterfront view of McCovey Cove for a view of the “Grote Garages” – the too numerous car repair shops beyond the outfield fence? No, I didn’t think so.

Mets management has never learned to bottom feed, that is to take the best players from the weakest clubs, which is one of the strengths of the Yankees. That is why the cross-town rival juggernaut is again humiliating the Mets. Jeff Weaver and Mike Mussina would have been pretty good acquisitions by the Mets the last few years. The Mets didn’t have the foresight to take advantage of those situations.

The Mets now, however, could use the Yankees to their advantage. Considering the rift between the Tampa group and the New York group, there might be some unhappy Yankee campers at the end of the season.

People like Gene Michael might be available. Hey, the Mets could do a lot worse.