Mets spring training: Wilpons speak!

As spring training approaches, the Mets are meeting expectations head on.  Expectations being that there are none.  David Wright isn’t too thrilled with ownership’s response to the underdog mentality according to Peter Botte of the Daily News.  Mike Puma of the Post gave Met fans the news they DIDNT want to hear:  Fred Wilpon has no intention of selling the team.  Adam Rubin of ESPNNY gave us the transcript of the 22 minute press conference that ownership had with beat writers and reporters alike.  Tyler Kepner of NY Times writes that perhaps the Mets can view the Wilpons as their version of Howard Spira, the gambler who was paid $40,000 by George Steinbrenner to spy on Dave Winfield which led to his suspension and stewardship being taken over by executives who managed to keep the core of a championship team together.  

I have never said I questioned the Wilpons devotion to the Mets.  As twisted and as corrupt as their ideal is, they love being the owners of the Mets and treasure the position they are in.  They care about baseball and we can’t question their desire NOW when they were spending over $100 million for a good part of the last decade.  But the constant with holding of information and trying to make everyone look like fools for suggesting that the Wilpons are in a bad state financially when everyone knows that to be the case makes people NOT like you.  Its bad press I get that, but at some point you have to face the reality of the situation which is this:  the New York Mets ownership situation, as murky as it is, has to be truthful.  Just tell fans that you are struggling and are trying to make a better product in a different way.  That the uncertainty of the Madoff litigation is forcing you to address baseball needs in a more frugal manner and until they know exactly what they are on the hook for, if anything, they can not make long term commitments and while it was tough to see one of the faces of the franchise go, they HAD to because they were mired in this rut.

Why not thank Jose for years of service and sticking with them?  Why not tell David Wright that they are being held hostage by this situation?  Why continue to lie to the public that suddenly you decided to address the needs of your club by cutting $50 million in payroll and acting like it was a baseball decision?  Why talk like you had a $100 million offer to Jose Reyes when you NEVER made a public offer to him?  Why take a helicopter to a Miami Heat game when everyone is watching you?  These are things that idiotic people do, not ones who made their fortunes through hard work and the like.  These are the kind of things that make fans mad at you.  And more importantly, these are the things that make fans not come.  When Opening Day comes, I wonder how many cardboard cutouts of fans they will have to make the crowd look more full than it is.  I wonder how much noise will be created by the PA system to make it sound like a crazy atmosphere.

Sadly all it will take is for wins to be produced.  I love our manager.  Terry Collins deserves to manage a winner and I hope they renew his contract.  He has elements of Bobby Valentine except the front office prior to this one stripped the Mets of any depth they may have had.  There are too many IFs to this Met season and that’s what worries me.  A last place finish isn’t only realistic its almost a given.  Do YOU expect anything to go right for the Mets after all the years of it NOT?  The season is long and its cruel because its long.  But hope springs internal, never let it get out though.