Alex Rodriguez et al. is one of several groups interested in buying the Mets. Say what you want about “A-Rod”, but his passion for baseball is unquestioned.
Alex Rodriguez, it’s safe to say, did not blink an eye when ESPN announced salary cuts to anyone making more than $500,000 due to the impact of the coronavirus on revenue.
He’s in it because he chooses to be in it as a commentator for the sport he’s had a passion for since his teenage years with the Seattle Mariners, but surely not because he needs the money.
According To Sportscasting, During his playing career, Alex Rodriguez earned a bit over $450 million in salary.
His paychecks didn’t end when he stopped taking the field, though; thanks to a deferred payment plan, the Texas Rangers will be sending him checks until 2025. He’s also on the books for both ESPN and Fox, which keeps the cash flowing.
Toss in the estimated net worth of his fiance, Jennifer Lopez ($450 million), and the power couple can quickly retire for the life of comfort and ease on an island of their choice.
But each is driven by their success to reach an even higher plateau, which in this case is to purchase a highly valued, though poorly handled baseball franchise – the New York Mets.
The Wilpons Are Selling – But What Comes Next
Fans of the Mets and the city of New York have been cheated and demoralized by how Fred Wilpon has “run” the Mets organization. Cheap, stupid, devious, a baseball neophyte, they are all adjectives that appropriately apply and widely reported on during his tenure.
The sale of the Mets, now described as imminent, is a once in a lifetime opportunity to re-brand the organization.
What must emerge from the sale is another positive force among teams in the Big City to inject a culture that breathes life, and above all else, a winning attitude into a flailing Mets franchise.
Alex Rodriguez has talked the talk and walked the walk. He’s been on the big stage since he was a teenager. His resume is long and varied.
He’s made mistakes along the way, and while his method of atonement for his sins has not pleased everyone, it might be best to listen to those who knew him best.
“There are three things that I can say. He loves baseball, and he’s a guy who works hard and a guy who loved to win. He was a great teammate”.
“For me, he was one of the best teammates I’ve had and a guy who helped me when I first came up, and I appreciate all of the things he’s done for me.” (Robinson Cano) (The Sportster)
Criticism of Alex Rodriguez, when it did come, was sourced in the spoiled context of a Derek Jeter, who felt threatened by the presence of A-Rod as a potential challenge to Jeter’s place as the “Face of the Yankees”. We are told the two split their differences, but jealousy toward A-Rod has always left its sting.
Alex Rodriguez – Prescribed Medication For A Flailing Franchise
Alex Rodriguez’s intellect and passion for the game of baseball has never been questioned. He’ll talk baseball day and night with anyone, but he is exceptionally at his best when communicating with his peers.
A-Rod mainly attracts the attention of young players.
They are not so much interested in how to hit a curveball as they are with picking his brain to learn how to develop a smart routine designed to keep them in the game, Often, even to the point of what to eat for breakfast and lunch before a game.
Alex Rodriguez, as the principal owner and “Boss” of the New York Mets, will not bury that desire to assist his players whenever and wherever they need his counsel. Players will not stand to attention when he enters the clubhouse as they did when the stiltified and stoic Fred Wilpon paid an infrequent visit.
A-Rod: Adept At Measuring Talent
Above all else, though, Alex Rodriguez will heavily engage in the talent evaluation process during the College Draft, trades, and salary negotiations. Put it this way.
Alex Rodriguez would have recognized a player’s downward trajectory and never have approved paying Jason Bay $66 million over four years to patrol left field.
Ditto Oliver Perez, who, after the Mets decided to overpay him with a new three-year, $36 million contract, he instantly became the most useless, if not player, in baseball.
It’s All About Changing The Culture And Brand Of The Mets
The competition between the Mets and Yankees has served the city of New York well over the years.
But in recent years and except for one brief interlude in 2015 when the Mets made an appearance in the World Series, the back pages of New York newspapers (unwittingly) have been focused on the ineptitude of the Mets organization.
Whether it’s the awkward and inhumane treatment of Mickey Callaway’s firing.
Or, the ineptitude of vetting Carlos Beltran’s ties to the cheating scandal in Houston that led to his dismissal, the Mets organization has always come up short when compared to the efficiency of their cross-town rivals.
Alex Rodriguez: It’s All About Changing The Culture
That culture must and can be altered – and an infusion of money, like the $10 billion Steve Cohen proposed to bring to the table, has little to do with the change.
Money can’t buy you love, and it can’t buy players and personnel who get the meaning of what it means to be a New York Met.
Alex Rodriguez, merely by his presence, passion, and will to win, has the best chance of anyone among the current well-stocked “businessmen” bidding to buy the team.
Fred Wilpon can give a damn about that, though, and therefore it’s incumbent on Mets fans and journalists to exert the same kind of pressure on the Wilpons that’s been thrust on them before to – please – sell the team.
I won’t hold my breath, but a parting gift from Fred Wilpon and company to Mets fans and the city of New York would be a gesture that helps to erase a flawed and tainted (Bernie Madoff) legacy of failure as trusted owners of a major league baseball franchise.
Hand it over to caretaker the likes of Alex Rodriguez, who will never run a team he owns into the ground…
Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.
