MLB

Mets’ remaining games are meaningful, after all

ABOUT three hours before the Mets’ 4-2 loss to the Marlins last night at Citi Field, a Mets contingent that included GM Omar Minaya, David Wright and former Mets Ron Darling, John Franco and Rusty Staub squeezed into a small room for a dedication ceremony.

The room, stocked with pictures and other memorabilia, will stand as a tribute to James Raymond Plummer, a devoted Mets employee for nearly five decades, who passed away in June 2008.

After Minaya talked about the love the man called “Plum” showed the Mets family, Plum’s son Jonathan stepped forward and sounded like someone not only acknowledging his father, but sending a message to the entire organization.

“His life was about perseverance and servicing people,” the 28-year-old from Fresh Meadows said. “And it doesn’t matter whether you’re winning or losing. When you’re winning you’re still servicing people and when you’re losing you must still service people.”

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No doubt Carlos Beltran was thinking along those same lines as he returned to the Mets’ lineup last night for the first time since June, despite that fact only three weeks remain in the regular season. No one would have blinked had Beltran called it a season because of a bone bruise in his right knee. The injury-riddled Mets are nearing the end of what Beltran himself described as a “terrible” year. And this is an era where athletes tend to think more about self than team.

Yet, Beltran has been resilient in his rehab effort to get back on the field regardless of how many games remained. And if you think he was motivated by a sense of obligation stemming from his big contract, you’d be wrong.

“I don’t feel obligated,” said Beltran, who missed 70 games because of the knee injury. “I’m doing what I have to do. I went to rehab. I rehabbed myself. I made improvement. That’s why I’m here. This is my job.”

So he went back to work, going 1-for-4 with a double in the sixth. Vowing “to play the game the way it’s supposed to be played,” he made a sliding catch in center field in the eighth.

Jerry Manuel, the still-smiling Mets manager, was more than happy to pencil Beltran into the lineup last night, happy at least one of his star position players had returned before the schedule was totally cooked.

The MASH-unit Mets haven’t had much to cheer about when it comes to injuries, which is why Manuel said of Beltran, “You have to applaud him for the effort that he’s put forth in trying to get back at some point during this tough, tough year.”

Manuel must have a little James Plummer in him, too. Instead of brooding about what might have been had Beltran, Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado and all the others not gone down with injuries, Manuel is already thinking about 2010. Some people might question his job security after such a miserable 2009, and deservedly so. But through this mess he still sees a championship in the Mets’ future, a future that must include Beltran.

“As difficult as this has been, we still feel that it’s an on-going process to get a championship,” Manuel said. “How long is that going to take? Obviously, it’s going to take a lot longer than we anticipated. But it’s still part of the process of trying to get ready to win championships here.”

So maybe these games are meaningful after all. Regardless of whether you’re winning or losing “you’re still servicing people,” the young man in the suit said in honor of his late father. It’s a message that shouldn’t be forgotten.

george.willis@nypost.com