By Mike Berardino

updated 9:08 p.m. ET Oct. 1, 2006

Shawn Green knows what it's like to be on The List.

The two-time All-Star outfielder played more than 1,500 career games before he finally removed his name from The List. His 2004 Dodgers weren't dazzling, but at least they finally got Green to the playoffs.

"Even though it was brief — four games — it was nice getting a chance to play in October," Green says. "Some guys are fortunate when it comes to the playoffs. Guys on the Yankees make the playoffs every year. The rest of us really appreciate getting the opportunity because it doesn't come very often."

Thanks to a late-season trade that sent him from the Diamondbacks to the Mets, Green is heading back to the playoffs. Better still, he's going with longtime friend Carlos Delgado, who happens to top The List these days.

He has made two All-Star trips, hit 407 home runs and played more than 1,700 career games in the big leagues, but the Mets first baseman never has experienced baseball's postseason.

"I guess I haven't been in the right place at the right time," says Delgado, 34.

He just missed the playoffs at the start of his career with the Blue Jays, arriving in Toronto for one end-of-the-year regular-season at-bat in 1993. It took him until 1996 to stick in the majors, and by then the Jays' back-to-back World Series titles were a distant memory.

Delgado missed the playoffs by four games in 1998 and 4 1/2 in 2000, but that's the closest he got in nine seasons with the Blue Jays.

A's catcher Jason Kendall (1,539 games) and center fielder Mark Kotsay (1,278) also will play in their first postseason games this October. That means three of the seven longest playoff droughts are about to end.

That leaves Jeromy Burnitz at the top of The Soon To Be Revised List. The Pirates outfielder has played in 1,691 career regular-season games, easily outdistancing Brewers infielder Jeff Cirillo (1,535).

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Diamondbacks infielder Damion Easley (1,512) and Rockies first baseman Todd Helton (1,417) round out a top four nobody wants to make.

"Every athlete will tell you that's the reason they play — to have the opportunity to win," Delgado says. "Kendall is a great player, and he's going to have that opportunity as well. It is cool."

Green, who came up through the Blue Jays' minor league system with Delgado, says both men assumed they would make regular trips to the postseason. That it turned out otherwise only makes this opportunity sweeter.

"It's not (escaping) The List so much as I'm happy for Carlos to get a chance to experience October," Green says. "He is the kind of guy that you'd expect to be in the playoffs every year. He's got the leadership, the personality. He's a clutch player. He just unfortunately was in the AL East for so long."

In 2005, Delgado left Toronto as a free agent and had a choice between the big-market Mets and the spunky Marlins. He chose the Marlins and fell six games short of the playoffs.

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Then came Fire Sale II. The Marlins looked around for a place to dump the remainder of Delgado's $52 million contract and found the Mets willing to take it.

Now, at long last, one of the game's premier sluggers is headed to the October stage with an excellent chance to make it all the way to the World Series.

"Am I happy? Yes, I'm happy," he says. "I'll be happier on October 3 when the (playoffs) actually start. And hopefully I'll be even happier by October 29 when the World Series ends, and we'll be celebrating."

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