FRANK VIOLA (Getty Images)
Johan Santana removed the weight and the wait of being no-hit free for the Mets and their bedeviled fans.
After June 1, 2012, the Mets’ nation no longer could rally around the half-century-long blight. So as a public service to those who are not happy unless they’re miserable, we offer the next absence that does not make your heart grow fonder:
Frank Viola won 20 games for the 1990 Mets. In the two decades since, 49 different pitchers have reached 20 wins a total of 68 times. None are Mets.
Tom Glavine leads the majors having won 20 games five times in that span — all, of course, before he became a Met. Santana, Mike Hampton, Jose Lima and Scott Erickson all reached 20 since 1991, but before they became Mets. And David Cone, as he had done for the 1988 Mets, was a 20-game winner for the 1998 Yankees.
The Yankees have had six 20-game winners since the Mets last had one: Cone, Roger Clemens, Mike Mussina, CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte twice. Atlanta, as you might suspect, has had the most with nine: Those five by Glavine, plus one each for Greg Maddux, Russ Ortiz, Denny Neagle and John Smoltz.
But don’t think the Mets are alone in this 20-win desert. The Rockies (Ubaldo Jimenez) and Rays (David Price) have had 19-game winners, but never someone who attained 20. But Colorado did not begin play until 1993 and the Rays until 1998.
The longest droughts date to 1978 for the Padres (Gaylord Perry) and the Expos/Nationals (Ross Grimsley). The Orioles go back to 1984 (Mike Boddicker), the Brewers to 1986 (Teddy Higuera), the Reds to 1988 (Danny Jackson) and the Royals to 1989 (Bret Saberhagen).
But the Mets have not done better than a 17-game winner in this period, with Al Leiter turning that trick in 1998. The only team that has not had someone win 18 or more games longer than the Mets is the Expos/Nationals, who last had it done in 1985 when Bryn Smith won 18 games. The Brewers, Royals and Reds have had someone reach 18 wins once from 1991-to-the-present and each has a Met tie: Chris Capuano (2005 Brewers), Kevin Appier (1993 Royals) and Pete Schourek (1995 Reds).
Of course, this long National (League) nightmare may end his season. R.A. Dickey has a major league-leading nine wins. If Dickey were to reach 20, he also would become the first knuckleballer to do so since Joe Niekro in 1980.
And, if Dickey does reach 20, maybe then we can see if David Wright could do something about that, um, MVP deficiency the Mets have.
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If the season ended today, the Mets likely would have a top-five finisher in each of the four major awards: Terry Collins for Manager of the Year, Wright for MVP, Dickey (and maybe Santana) for Cy Young and Kirk Nieuwenhuis for Rookie of the Year.
This is antithetical to their history. The Mets are among the least decorated teams in the sport.
The Manager of the Year award, for example, began being handed out in 1983. No Mets skipper has won it — not even Davey Johnson when the Mets reached 108 victories in 1986. He finished second that year and in 1984, and Willie Randolph finished second when the Mets had the best record in the NL in 2006. Randolph lost out to Joe Girardi, whose Marlins had a losing record in his only season managing the team before being fired.
Retroactively, you could see the distaste for Bobby Valentine among an electorate that is supposed to put its personal biases aside. While the Mets’ manager, Valentine finished fourth twice, fifth once and sixth once between 1997-2000. I continue to believe his work in 1997 to get the Mets to 88 wins was the best managing job I have ever seen. Go look at the names on the roster and consider that no Met received a vote for Cy Young or Rookie of the Year and the only Met to get any kind of MVP consideration was Edgardo Alfonzo, who finished 13th. We know the kind of flawed team he took to a wild card and ultimately the NL title in 2000 (votes are due before the playoffs).
As for 2012, this could be the first time since 1994 that the Mets have players voted upon in all the major categories. That year Dallas Green finished fourth in the managing vote, John Franco seventh for Cy Young and 20th for MVP, and Bobby Jones eighth for Rookie.
The last time the Mets had personnel in the top five was 1986. Johnson was second for Manager, Kevin Mitchell third for Rookie, Gary Carter third for MVP (with Keith Hernandez fourth), and Bobby Ojeda and Ron Darling finished 3-4 for the Cy.
The 1984 season was the best the Mets ever did across the board finishing first or second in every category. Dwight Gooden was second for the Cy and won the Rookie of the Year (Darling was fifth). Johnson was second for Manager and Hernandez was second for the MVP.
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Nieuwenhuis is not having the kind of season you normally associate with being in play for an award. But, at present, the NL Rookie of the Year for 2012 looks like this: Washington’s Bryce Harper first followed by, well, this is why Nieuwenhuis is in play. Arizona’s Wade Miley is having a nice year. But, really, this is not going to look like 2006 in the NL when the star-studded voting went this way: Hanley Ramirez, Ryan Zimmerman, Dan Uggla, Josh Johnson, Matt Cain, Andre Ethier, Prince Fielder, Takashi Saito, Russell Martin, Scott Olsen, Anibal Sanchez and Josh Willingham.
If Nieuwenhuis can get into even the top five it would represent the highest finish by a Met since Jay Payton was third in 2000. Now the rookie vote tends to omit youngsters who come up midway through a season as, say, Wright did in 2004. So it may be too large of a leap to equate minimal rookie impact with the Mets’ problems in the recent past, notably the lack of depth offered from the system. Still, Kaz Matsui finished sixth in the NL Rookie voting in 2004, and the only Met to get a vote since then was Ike Davis, who was seventh in 2010.
Since Payton finished third, every NL team except the Mets has had at least two players finish in the top five.
Consider this, Strawberry and Gooden won in consecutive years (1983-84) and that began a streak of seven seasons in which a Met was in the top six: Roger McDowell (1985, sixth), Mitchell (1986, third), Randy Myers (1987, sixth), Gregg Jefferies (1988, sixth) and Jefferies again in 1989 (third) because he did not have enough plate appearances to lose his rookie eligibility in 1988.
Since then, however, this award has been a wasteland for the Mets. Jones was eighth in 1994, Jason Isringhausen fifth in 1995, Rey Ordonez fifth in 1996, Payton third in 2000, Jose Reyes and Ty Wigginton tied for eighth in 2003, then Matsui and Davis.
In other words, hey Zack Wheeler, Mets fans are waiting for you.
QUIZ: Only two current Mets have won one of the three major player awards (MVP, Cy Young or Rookie of the Year). Who are they? (Answer below).
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QUIZ ANSWER: Johan Santana won the AL Cy Young in 2004 and ‘06. Jason Bay won the NL Rookie of the Year in 2004.
joel.sherman@nypost.com