Mets owner Jeff Wilpon tried to do his best George Steinbrenner imitation regarding his team’s failed season. But his disappointment doesn’t ring true…
By now, Mets fans have grown used to having Fred and Jeff Wilpon as the principal owners of the team. Most are reconciled to the father/son duo and their lack of baseball astuteness, together with their unwillingness to part with dollars in their pockets, even though they are benefactors of a large-market ballclub.
The Wilpons are second-rate owners of a first-rate team.
We ignore them, but every once in a while, one of them rears their ugly head, and we feel compelled to be outraged again.
Such was the case when I came across an article that appeared on SNY-TV’s website. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I saw the headline: “It Hurts Watching Those Games On TV Right Now”- words uttered, presumably without shame or irony, by Jeff Wilpon.
As though he was slamming his fist on the table, Wilpon added he feels “unfulfilled”…
Sorry, but Jeff Wilpon doesn’t get to feel “unfulfilled.” Mets fans can and do, but not you, Jeff. Are we to understand you’re just getting around to watch a few Met’s games on TV?
Where were you when Brodie Van Wagen presumably came knocking at your door, begging for a few bucks to trade for another left-handed power bat to the lineup at the trade deadline?
Mets Fans Don’t Believe Ten Games Over .500 Is “Nice”
More compelling, where are you now as your general manager is tasked with hiring a new manager, fixing the bullpen, deciding on Zack Wheeler, negotiating the arbitration abyss with nine players, and hiring (again presumably) a new coaching staff?
Ten games over .500 you label as “nice”. It’s not nice, it’s a failure that’s felt by every Mets player in the clubhouse, as well as every one of the fans who clicked the turnstiles at Citi Field.
Jeff Wilpon feels the pain now, while Mets fans felt it every day up to and including the final series sweep of the Atlanta Braves and Pete Alonso‘s 53rd home run.
After this, the 25 men in the clubhouse cleaned out their locker, said their good-byes, while making plans to try and forget it all. Where were the Wilpons then?
And why weren’t they among the players promising to themselves and each other next year will be different – telling their employees they’ll ante up to improve the team?
The Wilpons need to turn off their TV’s that recorded yesterday, concentrating instead on today and tomorrow. Brodie will soon be knocking on their door again, asking not for a handout but for the resources he needs to improve the team.
It could be expensive, and if the Wilpons want to not only sound like an irate George Steinbrenner, how about ponying up so Brodie can do the job you hired him to do?
The Mets don’t need much. The nucleus of the team is there. But Zack Wheeler is worth around $80 million for four years. Anthony Rendon and Gerrit Cole more. But there’s Dellin Betances the Mets can sign for less to fortify the bullpen. Why go on…Mets fans know this if the Wilpons don’t.
Brodie – Sic ‘Em
You can call this a rant if you want. But until the Wilpons are called out each and every time they misstep saying anything that goes against the grain of their paying customers, the Mets culture will remain stiltified. Grudgingly, the team will win anyway.
Major League Baseball (MLB) sees the Mets as a viable franchise. They will not interfere. The Wilpons are smarter, for example, than Bill Veeck. They will not send a midget up to the plate, and they will not launch a bonfire of disco records in center field.
The Wilpons will continue to do what they do. A better route for Mets to go is to raise the pressure on Brodie Van Wagenen, forcing him to change the course of the Mets organization and to confront the Wilpons, something no GM has dared to do.
The size of Brodie’s already overstated ego might like a challenge like that – he’d be the hero of all Mets fans, and I wouldn’t put it past him to try.
Author’s Note:
You’ll understand some of this is satire and wishful thinking. But there’s a grain of truth in there as well. What say you?
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.
