You can count me among the tweetin’ Twitterers (or is that the Twitterin’ tweeters?) now: http://twitter.com/MikeVacc

*******

Here is an important picture to keep in your mind if you are a Jets fan: that first pass that Mark Sanchez threw against the Ravens exactly one week ago tonight.

Here is another important picture to keep in your mind: the smile on Sanchez’ face — the kind of ear-to-ear beauty that only an NFL rookie can wear, because it doesn’t take too long for linemen and linebackers to pound the grin off your face — that he wore after that remarkable on-the-run touchdown strike to Chansi Stuckey in the second quarter of Saturday’s game with the Giants.

It shouldn’t be too difficult to adapt to this bi-polar outlook, because that’s really what you’ve had as a Jets fan if you’ve followed the team with any kind of regularity, a good-news/bad-news existence which ought to be good practice for following a kid that, it is clear, is going to provide uplift and agida, sometimes in the same game. Or quarter. Or series. Or play.

The good: Brett Favre, gritty veteran with an ageless gun. Chad Pennington, savvy winner with a knack. Vinny Testaverde, gunslinger with a heart of gold. Ken O’Brien, pinpoint passer with a good head on his shoulders. Richard Todd, heir apparent to Joe Willie. Joe Namath: proprietor (and deliverer) of The Guarantee.

The bad: Favre the relic interception addict; Pennington the noodle-armed frustrater; Vinny the star-crossed riverboat gambler; O’Brien, the beaten and battered shell of himself; Todd, the heir apparent to the older Joe Willie; Namath the boodied shell of himself.

And now Sanchez, who has shown more than enough good to prove that the Jets, whatever happens from here, were right to target him, right to acquire him, right to elevate him to a starter so early in the process and, now, right to push him forward as one of the permanent faces of the team. And who, as a rookie, will provide just as much angst because there is a long enough history at work here to say he will experience growing pains, the kind that will likely cost the Jets a game or two this year (and if that game or two costs the Jets a playoff spot … well, such things as developing young QBs come at a cost).

Jets fans have never been the most patient lot, and it’s understandable since this is a franchise now entering its fifth title-free decade. But the kid has shown enough, for now, to warrant a little emotional investment here. Easy to say now, I know. Tougher when it’s the fourth quarter in three weeks against the Patriots, at home, when Mark Sanchez is Your Guy and Tom Brady is Their Guy.

Will he be worth the hassle? Half the fun is finding out, isn’t it?

*******

You know, they may not exactly be Jerry Rice and John Taylor and Dwight Clark, but the Jets of Stuckey and Clowney and Cotchery do have what has to be the most mellifluous receiving corps of all time.

*******

Can someone please explain to me why Carlos Beltran is even thinking of playing again this September, and why the Mets are even thinking of allowing that? What, neither party will rest until there’s a complete blow-out of a ligament there?

*******

I admit it: I have a hard time getting excited about any set of rules, for Joba or anyone else, that ends a starting pitcher’s workday after 35 pitches. But I have a hard time arguing against it, because we simply don’t know if that’s the trick or not.