The Post’s Steve Serby chatted with the 27-year-old Mets shortstop about his impending free agency, his Mets highs and lows and much more.
Q: Why do you love playing in New York so much?
A: I feel like I’m playing home here, because you’re going to have fans from everywhere. A lot of Dominican people live here around New York. It’s made me comfortable. I love the fans here because they’re going to be in the stadium with a lot of energy.
Q: If you were the general manager of the Mets, would you sign Jose Reyes?
A: (Leans back and laughs) Hard question to answer. I’m not in his mind. I don’t know.
Q: I’m appointing YOU as the general manager — would you sign Jose Reyes?
A: (Laughs) Don’t put me in that position. It’s hard to answer . . . I mean . . . I don’t know.
Q: It’s yes or no . . .
A: (Smiles) But I’m not the GM, you know? I’m Jose.
Q: Mets fans call the radio stations and talk about not wanting you to leave.
A: They just want me here, because they know I play the game the right way, and I try to give you everything that I have to this team, and to put a good show on the field. I’m the guy who plays hard every single day so I think the fans like that. When you give 100 percent every day, everybody’s going to like that. They see me healthy now. . . . This year they see the real Jose Reyes.
Q: Carl Crawford signed a seven-year, $142 million deal with the Red Sox. Does it have to be seven years for you? Could it be less?
A: Right now I don’t think about that. I’m not a free agent yet (laughs). It’s gonna be after this year, so I don’t put that kind of thought in my mind. I’m just gonna continue to put up good numbers and help this team to win a lot of ballgames.
Q: If the money was close, would you take a little less to stay here?
A: That’s too soon to say. We need to wait and see what’s going to happen in the future.
Q: When the owner (Fred Wilpon) apologized to you over the speakerphone Tuesday in Chicago, after saying you wouldn’t get Carl Crawford money, what did he say to you?
A: To be honest with you, I don’t remember exactly because I put that one in the past right away. I said, “I don’t have any problem (with) what you said. I’m here to play baseball. I don’t worry about it. I’m cool.”
Q: Why wouldn’t his comments bother you?
A: Why? He’s the boss, so he can say whatever he wants to. He’s our boss, I’m an employee. It’s no big deal for me.
Q: Do you feel bad for him at all?
A: For what he’s been through, yes, because we are family. Whatever he’s been through, we’re feeling too, because we’re part of this team.
Q: Why would you pay to watch Jose Reyes play baseball?
A: Just because of the way that I play the game. I play the game hard, with a lot of energy, with a lot of passion.
Q: Do you think the best of Jose Reyes is yet to come?
A: I think I’m still getting better. The injuries slowed me down a little bit, but now I’m feeling good. I feel 100 percent. I think I’m still getting better because I’m still 27 years old.
Q: What players would you pay to watch?
A: I love to see Derek Jeter, Albert Pujols, Hanley Ramirez, those kind of guys, just because of the way that they play the game. Jeter is like the player I love the most to watch play.
Q: Why?
A: He’s a guy who’s going to give you 100 percent every single night, no matter how he’s feeling. He always tries to do everything that he can to put his team in good position to win a game. That’s good for a young player to see.
Q: Players in other sports you’d pay to watch?
A: I love to see LeBron James. I went this year in spring training, they played the Knicks in Miami.
Q: He didn’t want to play for the Knicks.
A: That’s how it is. But we got Carmelo Anthony now. He’s good, too.
Q: How important is it to you to have a chance to win a World Series?
A: You dream for that. That’s why you’re here. It’s hard when you watch the other teams in the World Series in your house, watching those games. . . . It’s kind of painful. [In] 2006, we were so close.
Q: Favorite moment as a Met?
A: When we clinched the playoffs, ’06 — when Cliff Floyd grabbed that last out in left field.
Q: Other favorite Mets moments?
A: When I hit my first grand slam in Anaheim. My first home run in the big leagues was a grand slam. That’s something that I never forget, for sure.
Q: Worst Mets moment?
A: Last year when I went to spring training 100 percent ready to go and then I have to shut it down because I have a thyroid problem. I had to spend like 20 days in the house without doing anything baseball-wise.
Q: Was that scary?
A: Scary for a little bit, but the doctor told me, “Don’t worry about it. It’s a virus. That’s going to go away.” But at the same time, you still worry.
Q: When Mets fans began chanting “Jose, Jose, Jose, Jose” when you came to bat?
A: I don’t remember exactly when it was the first time, but I think it was ’06 they started to that. It was great. Every time that I go to the batter’s box and the fans chant “Jose, Jose,” I feel like I need to do something special for the fans. That’s something that I like a lot.
Q: What do Mets fans say to you when you walk around in Long Island?
A: Right now, they say, “Don’t go nowhere. We want you here. . . . I love watching you play,” stuff like that.
Q: Maybe we should get Sandy Alderson and Fred Wilpon to walk with you.
A: (Laughs).
Q: How long did losing to the Cardinals (in the 2006 NLCS) stay with you?
A: A couple of months.
Q: Really?
A: Yeah, because we were so close . . . to get to the World Series, I mean, that’s the main event.
Q: How do you explain the way 2007 and 2008 ended for the Mets?
A: Baseball’s crazy. You never know what’s going to happen in baseball.
Q: June 10, 2003, your major-league debut in Texas?
A: When I got outside, I said, “Wow. This is unbelievable, this is so big, so different than the minors. I had the opportunity to play against Alex Rodriguez. He was playing shortstop. It was kind of an amazing feeling.
Q: How good of a shortstop was he?
A: One of the best.
Q: Your first hit came that day.
A: First at-bat, right away, against (John) Thomson.
Q: Single?
A: Single to right field. And then later in the game, I got a double, from the right side.
Q: First game at Shea Stadium?
A: Was a little nervous. My first game was against the Yankees in the Subway Series.
Q: Why did you stop dancing?
A: I do it sometimes.
Q: What did you think when people called you a hot dog?
A: I don’t know why people called me that, because I do that for my team. I don’t do that for nobody to get (ticked off) and stuff like that. I do it for my own team. If you look around the big leagues, how many players dance? A lot. It’s not only me, I don’t know why people focus on what I do so much, because in 2006 when we were winning, nobody said anything, I was still doing the same thing.
Q: The Mets-Phillies rivalry?
A: I love it. Just the way the people are going to be in the stands — there’s always going to be fights in the stands. They don’t like each other — and our stadium or their stadium is always going to be loud.
Q: Why are you always so happy?
A: (Laughs) That’s the way I am since a little kid. I think I have that from my father. My father is the guy who always smiles. When I get mad, I get mad for a couple of seconds, and it goes away quick. I’m in the big leagues, I have to enjoy it. Not everybody has (the) opportunity to play in the big leagues (so) why do I have to be mad?
Q: Your mother?
A: She’s kind of quiet. . . . She loves to cook for me.
Q: Best thing she cooks?
A: White rice, chicken and beans. Oh man, unbelievable. So I’m going to bring you to my house one day and you’re going to taste it.
Q: Does your wife (Katherine) want you to stay a Met
?
A: Yeah, she don’t want me to go nowhere. We live here for a long time.
Q: So if your wife was the GM of the Mets, she would sign you?
A: (Laughs) I don’t know about that!
Q: Your 6-year-old daughter (Katerine)?
A: She knows too much (laughs).
Q: Your 4-year-old daughter (Ashely)?
A: She don’t like people to bother her too much. She just wants to be able to play, you know what I mean?
Q: Your 2-year-old daughter (Joselyn)?
A: She’s in love with me. I’m in love with her too, I mean unbelievable. She always wants to be around me.
Q: You’ve built a field in your hometown in the Dominican Republic?
A: The field that we had before, where I used to play, wasn’t good at all. So for me to be able to give that to the little kids there in my hometown, that was huge.
Q: What was the field like that you played on?
A: Not too good . . . a lot of rocks. But we feel good because that’s the only stadium that we have there, but now, they’re more comfortable.
Q: So when you go there, is there another Jose Reyes on that field now?
A: A lot (smiles). Everybody wants to play shortstop (and) second base there in my town. Everybody wants to be like me, so that’s good.
Q: Are there kids that remind you of you there?
A: Yeah . . . I got a cousin (Luis Reyes), he’s playing in the Dominican Summer League.
Q: The Mets drafted him?
A: They signed him as a free agent. When I was his age, he looks like me.
Q: You like to record reggaeton music in a studio in The Bronx. Are you a good singer?
A: I try (smiles). I try my best. I’m doing good, you know, for a baseball player.
Q: Funniest Met?
A: (Pitcher Tim) Byrdak. He always has something to say.
Q: Best dresser on the Mets?
A: Beltran . . . I don’t want to say me (smiles).
Q: Do you think Jose Reyes and New York are a perfect marriage?
A: (Laughs) Probably yes.
Q: Because?
A: Everybody wants to be here in New York, no doubt. This is a perfect town for me right now. But I don’t know if it’s going to be like that in the future. For now, yes.
Q: A message from you to all the Mets fans who want you to stay here.
A; (Laughs). That I don’t have that decision, but I love to stay here. I continue to contribute to this team and to put on a good show for the fans.