2011 has been a tough year to be a fan of the New York Mets. The year is closing on a note which can be said to be, well, not high.
It seems as though just when things cannot get any worse, ownership surprises us and shows how wrong we can be.
Recently, the NY Times supposedly acquired a sheet which purported to list a package of goodies which would be offered to potential new part-owners of the royal blue and orange, should they decide to pony up a check in the low eight figures. Among these were a parking space, a special business card, and most inane and ridiculous of all, time with Mr. Met. Yes, time with a mascot. This writer is still waiting for the Sidd Finch moment here, when we find out that this was a cleverly designed hoax. If it is real, what does this say about ownership of our favorite team?
It says that, in addition to being on the ropes financially and facing the young Mike Tyson on his very best day, they truly are among the more out-of-touch owners in all of sports. If the Wilpons really believe that captains of business and industry may be swayed by a parking space, a business card, and sports’ most bulbous-headed mascot, we really are in far, far deeper trouble than we have imagined.
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Despite all of this, TRDMB’s readers continue to exhibit their exemplary loyalty and, this writer’s occasional appearance in the comments section notwithstanding, also display a rational civility that is sorely lacking at many other highly-trafficked sites.
Visiting Metsblog or the Star Ledger these days is akin to wandering into a whinefest for which there is no cheese large enough to serve as an accompaniment. Alderson’s a liar, we are the Royals, the Wilpons made all their money on Ponzi schemes, and on and on and on.
Not here though. Despite the differences in viewpoint among the readers, civility and respect still are the coin of the realm here. Stick and Ceetar may remain certain that we are just a few months away from Johan’s resurgence and Duda’s top ten MVP finish, and with just a few breaks, we surely will be in that postseason race. Darknova and Fong may be just as sure that the Met dark ages have just begun. TRS and Rusty might not be as optimistic as they once were, but the newcomer to TRDMB is always struck by the cool tone and respectful inclusion of all which have made this site’s community so very different for nearly three years now.
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Stick, MF4D, Fong, Haz, NJTex, Wanny, Dark, Gategem and the rest of the diehards are all owed a great holiday thank you from the folks behind the scenes here—for your loyalty, wisdom, and most of all, your maturity, which is so often lacking at so many other Met sites.
To this writer’s generally more level-headed colleagues Rusty, TRS, Dirty, Will, Mr. N, MRose, Prismo, Paul, Peter, and the rest, a warm and sincere thank you goes out to you as well, for keeping this place alive during the darkest offseason in recent memory.
Met fans who enjoy commiserating with other diehards know they have a home here. A home which has now developed a serious base and some seniority, as it approaches its fourth season of chronicling the unique marathon which is a baseball season.
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2012 does not hold out a lot of promise for most fans; indeed it could be a year of historic weakness for the Mets in many ways. But as this writer has felt for quite a while, this offseason and coming year will be the true nadir; an organization which has over the last 50 years seen the most dizzying highs in 1969 and 1986 accompanied by lows among the lowest in sports in the early 1960s, 1977-1983, and 1992-1993, may be approaching a year which will put another low point on the very up-and-down graph which charts the Mets’ history.
Regardless, at this time next year, the Wilpons will either have weathered the Madoff storm without having to pay a nine figure settlement and they will be once again readying to increase payroll as the promising group of young minor league pitchers approaches maturity, or Fred and Jeff will be going off into that good night, even if the team has been pried from their cold, broke hands. The status quo of the NY Mets having an $80-90 million payroll, filling the roster with dreck, and basically giving up cannot and will not last. Brighter times will begin after 2012, one way or another.
Regardless of the horrors 2012 might hold for the Met W-L record, it will get better. The early 1960s begat 1969, 1977-1983 begat 1986, 1992-1993 begat 1999-2000, and the recent and still-unfolding disaster will eventually be looked at as the precursor to the next great era in Met history.
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Regardless, we can all be thankful for a site which will give us a place to vent, a place to find kindred spirits, a place to laugh and learn as Rusty continues to guide us through a never-ending Met history lesson as we learn of the current eating habits of a certain retired first baseman, a place to learn new perspectives from the interesting work of Mr. N, a place to be challenged by the excellent writing and thoughts of Paul Festa, a place to come every Sunday to answer the Sunday Question from Will, and once the season begins, a place to come during and after the game to spend time with rational and respectful Met fans who have become friends.
It’s been years now, and as Steve Somers might say, from us here to you there, thank you TRDMB readers for continuing to make this site one of the truly special places in the Met universe.
May all of you have the healthiest and most wonderful of Happy New Years in 2012.
17 comments
TRS86
12/28/2011-12:35am at 12:35 am (UTC -4)
Nice job. I am still ready for baseball to get going and like always I still think the Mets can surprise some people this year. Why not hope? Hey I just noitced in your bio that you like George Jones? Just when I thought we had little in common!!!
Anonymous
12/28/2011-12:39am at 12:39 am (UTC -4)
Thanks TRS!
I listen to all kinds of music, and listen to less country than rock/jazz/rap, but I LOVE George Jones. Love him. He is one of my handful of top music heroes. His 1970s stuff especially is among my all-time favorite music by anyone in any genre. The Possum rules. I have even seen him live twice!
We do have a lot in common.
Anonymous
12/28/2011-2:36am at 2:36 am (UTC -4)
The possum is certainly authentic and one of a kind. Amazing he didn’t do himself in long ago
And thanks to you and the other fine authors here for your time and efforts in giving us many worthwhile topics to discuss. I still often think of our discussion long ago at that other site where I posed the question “if musicians were starter’s who would your 5 man rotation be”. That dialogue with you, RJ, Fong, and others is still one of my fav blog moments. Probably went in my case file to get me booted from over there, no sense of whimsy whatsoever.
Have a Happy New Year’s and better times will be ahead with 2012 just a stop over in the reconstruction.
Anonymous
12/28/2011-1:08pm at 1:08 pm (UTC -4)
Ever read George Jones’ autobiography I Lived to Tell it All? Easy read, and he is SO open about his life. One story kind of gives up what kind of a wastoid he truly was—he was in a car with Waylon Jennings, Waylon driving, and George broke out some blow and Waylon started screaming that he couldn’t do that in the car–now, when Waylon is screaming at your behavior, you know you cannot get much lower!
Haz, I vividly remember that question of yours about the musician starting rotation, and I remember that being one of the most fun internet things I ever was involved in. I cannot remember it all, but I remember Kurt Cobain was in my rotation; cannot remember if he was number 1 or 2 though.
Happy holidays my friend!
Anonymous
12/28/2011-1:39am at 1:39 am (UTC -4)
Well, the only thing certain is, you never know. Hell, last year some of the more vocal posters were ranting about Sandy giving up on a season where they were in the playoff hunt. And this very same posters (yes, I am talking about at other sites!) were swearing before the season began that the team was hopeless.
No, i don’t expect them to dominate on their way to the playoffs. Nor do I really expect them to pull off a Diamondback like run this season. But yeah, they could outdo last year. The team does still have some talent.
so, a few decent breaks (health, a guy or 2 having a surprise year) and they can be a .500 team, and once you break .500, you just aren’t that for from being in the playoff race.
Sorry, i just don’t think that, even as configured today, they are a 60-65 win team as some other people seem to.
Anonymous
12/28/2011-1:46am at 1:46 am (UTC -4)
70 wins. Tops.
Darknova306
12/28/2011-2:32am at 2:32 am (UTC -4)
Well stated all around, Kong. Realistically, some players will rebound, some will regress, there will be some level of injury (you can never rely on a team being 100% healthy all season, just doesn’t happen), and it will all add up to a team around 74-77 wins. If some guys rebound and get traded away to dump their salary, then we could be looking at worse.
In the end, this is another developmental year, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the young guys do in their continued development. I fully expect there to be a month early on, like this past year, where the rotation pitches over its head and people start thinking playoffs, just to be let down by the realization that the team is still actually terrible as they regress to their real level. Also, this is going to be a brutal year in the NL East. It’s quickly becoming an extremely tough division.
Love my team, love this site, and can’t wait for baseball to start again. Cheers!
Anonymous
12/28/2011-2:52am at 2:52 am (UTC -4)
well, the “trade everyone with a pulse that can bring back any sort of prospect” option is certainly out there, and of course that could screw things up prediction wise.
But honestly (and yes, I am asking this as a serious question), how much regression can they do? Who on this team had a “WTH” year that they could significantly regress from? Murphy’s BA? other than that, Ike was out, none of the SPs had an up year, Wright sucked, catching sucked, Bay sucked. The pen isn’t even here any more.
literally the only guy penciled into the mix that had a good year was Duda, and he ain’t regressing.
Way more guys that are more likely to have a rebound/breakout year than there are regression candidates. Oh, they could stay the same of course.
Anonymous
12/28/2011-1:12pm at 1:12 pm (UTC -4)
Happy happy to both of you!
Dark, I agree—I love my Mets no matter how bad it gets; I just want to see hustle on the field, which I believe we saw a lot more of in 2011 than the previous two years.
Stick, I guess for me, while much of what you say is true, I cannot help thinking that, pretty much without question, Reyes, Beltran, and KRod were our most productive and valuable players in 2011, and they have not been even remotely replaced. So even if the kids improve and Bay and Wright come back a bit, I just do not see the offense of Reyes and Beltran being replaced, and I do see the pen as being somewhere between adequate and incendiary.
But I will be watching!
Anonymous
12/28/2011-3:31am at 3:31 am (UTC -4)
I too keep waiting for the Sidd Finch moment. I’ve stopped calling the Wilpons search for partners as an ownership partners search and started calling it a “loanership” partners search. It’s absurd if they truly think they’ll find saavy business people who will pony up that kind of money as a loan veiled as minority ownership partner.
Anonymous
12/28/2011-8:00am at 8:00 am (UTC -4)
I believe the History Channel has indentified Sidd Finch as an Ancient Alien.
MetsFan4Decades
12/28/2011-5:17am at 5:17 am (UTC -4)
Great post, Kingman. Has it been three years plus, already? Time certainly flies when you’re having fun, or more factual as die-hard Met fans…suffering together.
Wish I could believe things have to be better this upcoming season but I don’t think the climb back up has quite started yet. I see the 2012 season as one big question mark as the state of the Wilpons and Met finances hang at the edge of a cliff – possibly with no parachute. I just don’t see how the Wilpons hang on but it remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, fans should go into this season with low expectations for finishing above last, IMO. At least we’ll have the young’uns development to track – such as Duda and Tejada, while keeping an eye on the 4 arms plus bats on the farm. I mean at some point it has to start looking better, right? Right??
I want to wish all a very Happy and prosperous New Year.
LGM!
Anonymous
12/28/2011-1:10pm at 1:10 pm (UTC -4)
Happy holidays MF4D to the First Lady of really not just TRDMB, but hell, the whole Met blogging universe!
You are truly one of the best people here, I am glad I know you, and I wish you and yours the very best in 2012.
Anonymous
12/28/2011-7:58am at 7:58 am (UTC -4)
Thank you Kong and another well written article.
And I wish all my fellow Mets fans a Happy New Year.
Anonymous
12/28/2011-1:09pm at 1:09 pm (UTC -4)
Thank YOU GG for reading and for your unique perspective. Still remember when we first “met” here you kindly schooled me about Casey Stengel’s wisdom in handling the Yanks’ 1950s pitchers!
Anonymous
12/28/2011-4:59pm at 4:59 pm (UTC -4)
Some quotes by Stengel:
“Being with a woman all night never hurt no professional baseball player. It’s staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in.”
“All I ask is that you bust your heiny on that field.”
“Don’t cut my throat, I may want to do that later myself.”
“Don’t drink in the hotel bar, that’s where I do my drinking.”
Referring to the Mets’ rookies Ed Kranepool and Greg Goossen in 1965, Stengel observed, “See that fellow over there? He’s 20 years old. In 10 years he has a chance to be a star. Now, that fellow over there, he’s 20, too. In 10 years he has a chance to be 30.”
Some quotes about Stengel:
“He’s one of the smartest men in baseball, in business, in anything he’d try.”– Edna Stengel, Casey’s wife
“He could fool you. When Casey wanted to make sense he could. But he usually preferred to make you laugh.”– Yogi Berra
“I don’t think anybody could have managed our club like Casey did. He made what some people call stupid moves, but about eight or nine out of ten of them worked.”– Don Larsen
Warren Spahn, who had briefly played under Stengel for the 1942 Braves and for the 1965 Mets, commented: “I’m probably the only guy who worked for Stengel before and after he was a genius.”
Adam "Prismo"
12/29/2011-1:18am at 1:18 am (UTC -4)
Nice job on this Kingman, happy holidays to all.