When I was 17 years old, I was stopped by a particularly belligerent Bayonne cop because a tail light was out, and then when he found I didn’t have the registration handy enough for him, he said that I was “fugged up as Hogan’s goat”.

Not being Irish, I never really understood how insulting the cop was trying to be. Who was Hogan? Was he an idiot? And what about his goat? Maybe Hogan was okay but his goat was just a mess.

Notwithstanding the fact that I never fully appreciated the depths of this insult, and probably never will, the imagery has stuck with me, and I think of Hogan’s goat whenever somebody does something totally stupid or for a person who seems oblivious to everything and everyone around him.

Do I have to even say it? You know who I’m talking about, right? Is Jose Reyes Hogan’s goat or what? Here’s a guy who runs like a deer. When you look at Jose, you think of the FTD logo, the winged foot. He can hit a baseball too, when he’s not trying to hit a home run.

And he can play that shortstop position like all the greats you can think of, Omar Vizquel, Luis Aparicio, Ozzie Smith….Jose could play with any of them. He’s got great range, quick reflexes and a gun for an arm.

You could almost say he’s a five-tool guy, hits for average and at least some power, has a great arm, runs really fast and has great fielding ability. With a smile that would light up old Broadway, he delights us when he cruises around the bases like lightning, or makes a stop deep in the hole and then guns that runner down with that bazooka.

He’s probably good in the clubhouse too, he certainly helps to light up the dugout. He’d probably be considered a good team guy too as he’s the first to congratulate a teammate. You could even add that to his credentials. What personnel guy would turn down Jose Reyes? He’d have to be deaf, dumb and blind.

It’s that sixth tool he’s really missing. Like the Wizard Of Oz’s scarecrow used to sing….if I only had a brain.

Ah well, he is who he is. A fatal flaw, that last one though.

When he hits a double that should have been a triple if he hadn’t admired his long drive for so long out of the box, or, even worse, when he then gets caught between 2nd and 3rd base to singlehandedly destroy an inning, you just shake your head.

After all, there he was again on third base, dancing down the line, trying to entice that balk, and he very nearly did. But, alas, it wasn’t to be and the Mets lost again to the Braves, giving them the three-game series, seeming to prove once again that they’re the tougher team, the team that doesn’t beat itself.

Besides, he wasn’t alone to blame for the loss. If you were looking to assign the horns to anyone (there’s that goat again), you could give them to Putz, or even to Beltran, or anybody else who didn’t perform, as long as you except Fernando Tatis and Gary Sheffield.. They were really terrific in defeat.

But, for those who believe that winning is the only thing, those folks are beginning to realize that truth can sometimes wear a wry face…or is it just their crooked eyes? Can they be right in their perception that the Mets always lose when Reyes throws an inning away?

Some are now thinking of potential trades for Reyes. For Reyes sets the tone for this Mets team, and the tone is all wrong. He’s the leadoff hitter, the spark plug, but seemingly more often than not, he’s a fouled spark plug, one that shuts the whole engine down.

It’s beginning to become an old story too. How many years does a team have to lose before a realization sets in, the one that says you might win with these guys, but the odds are against it. A loss to the Phillies was almost acceptable, if only because that team has a lot of talent, and they are acknowedged to be a tough team, a team with hard-nosed guys, whatever that means, a team with that elusive edge.

But the Braves do not qualify. The Braves don’t have nearly the team that Philadelphia has, nor do they have the talent found on this Mets team. They don’t have good pitching and they don’t have the same quality lineup. They’re a team that the Mets should beat.

And, too often, the finger can be pointed to that crazy leadoff hitter. If he had only not gotten caught, if he had run coming out of the box, if he hadn’t overshot the bag with that slide, if he hadn’t juggled the ball, and on and on and on.

It’s interesting too that Jose’s problems can’t really be addressed in the same manner that you might address another player’s flaws. Jose has proven that over the years, certainly with Willie Randolph and not so much with Jerry Manuel only because Manuel is shrewd enough to recognize that Reyes cannot perform as well under pressure, or at least he has not performed well under pressure in the past.

Some of you might now ask, “But isn’t that what it’s all about?” And you would be right. Unless this fouled spark plug can somehow be fixed, the Mets may never win a pennant, never mind a World Series.

It’s my belief that the change in Jose will come, but it is a change that will have to occur from within. He has to realize himself that he has not played on a winner yet, and has to accept his own responsibility for that fact.

Mets fans can hope that this required introspection doesn’t happen years down the road after he’s been traded for players of lesser value and even less fun.