“No matter what we’ve done, we have gotten very little credit for it. Now that we’re in first place, we won’t get any credit until we finish the job.”BOBBY VALENTINE

CHICAGO – The Mets have made great strides in the past few years, exemplified by Friday’s nudge into first place, and Bobby Valentine wants them to be recognized for the accomplishment.

Before yesterday’s game, the Mets manager was askedabout his team’s temporary ascendancy to first place in the NL East, and he was unsparing in his words of defiance that the Mets deserve more credit than they have been getting, and that those who called for his dismissal have missed their mark.

“It’s obviously been a progression of non-recognition,” Valentine said before the 17-10 loss to the Cubs, which, coupled with the Braves’ 8-6 win over the Phillies, sent the Mets back to second place. “No matter what we’ve done, we have gotten very little credit for it. Now that we’re in first place, we won’t get any credit until we finish the job.”

Valentine was clearly speaking about the team as a whole, but he also addressed some personal attacks against him, both recently and over the years. Those attacks include suggestions that he can’t take a team to the playoffs, that players and other baseball people hate him and free agents would never sign here, and most of all that he should be fired as manager.

But yesterday he was reveling, if not gloating, in the team’s success. On the verge of being fired June 6, Valentine has taken a team with only one All-Star (Mike Piazza) to first place in the NL East and since June 2 they have had the best record in baseball (35-15).

“It was a dog team for three years and has continually gotten better,” he said. “It was a good team since Day One of 1999 and that’s a fact, not perception.”

Perhaps Valentine is looking for a pat on the back from ownership, or a convincing vote of confidence from his general manager, or just some recognition of a job well done. Some think maybe Valentine has been vindicated for taking the Mets this far after hearing so much about how he has managed more games than any other person without making it to the playoffs.

“I don’t buy into vindication,” he said. “I know what I can do. I give my best ever day and some days that’s not enough. But most of the time in my life it has been very good.”

For years, Valentine has been criticized for not making the playoffs with the Rangers. Now, with that possibility squarely in sight, he was asked if he felt some vindication, or if that big ugly monkey that was written about him was off his back yet.

“I don’t care about that stuff,” he said. “I don’t care about vindication or monkeys, or monkeys who write about vindication … A month ago there were articles written calling for my head to be fired.”

Considering the seriousness of his tone, Valentine was asked if he wasn’t having fun this season. But for this manager, who has an unsurpassed passion for the game, this is his work, not play.

“I don’t understand fun,” he said. “Fun is at the end of the season when you’re skiing or spending time with your family or socializing with friends. This is a big-time job to think you can go and have fun, not in the clubhouse and in this office. Enjoy it? Yes. But I’m not sure you’re supposed to have fun.”

When it was suggested that it is, after all, just a game, he would have none of it.

“It’s semantics that this is a game,” he said. “It’s a job. It’s the silliest thing in the world to think it’s just a game. It’s a major competition, in major spotlight with major expectations. It’s called the Major Leagues.”