The Mets need a new public face.
Here we are on another random Tuesday and once again the flagship station of the Mets is moderating the discussion with fans where all agree on one thing: the Mets look like idiots.
Maybe they aren’t idiots but they look like idiots. That’s their problem?
Our problem? Choosing how we spend our disposable income and limited free time.
If you’re passionate enough to be reading some blog like this, you’re never going to just quit on this team. You may become less motivated to buy tickets or spend a sunny Sunday in front of the tv. Long term that hurts “the Wilpons” which is ground well discussed.
I propse the Mets need a new face. I will call this person “director of baseball operations.”. Maybe someone ha that title now, again not my problem and the title doesn’t matter.
This person’s job: be “the buck stops here” guy. It probably should be Dave Howard but Dave has no credibility with me until he admits there are obstructed views.
When you think “the Wilpons” do you get happy or mad? What if I say “Omar?”. “Dave Howard” “Jay Horwitz”. All these names have been tainted in the minds of the fans.
It might bot be fair, but perception is reality and selling the dream is what gets people to spend money.
Give us a new face. On metablog Cerrone recently mentioned when Steinbrenner was percieved as a maniac. Gene Michaels came in and righted the ship. 10 years later George was a NYC folk hero. Winning will do that.
Find someone who is media savvy without being too slick. Someone who can field the call from Carton. Someone who can be percieved to be the good guy who is bringing team history back. Someone who can admit the obstructed views exist. Someone who can say that he is reviewing the team’s medical staff.
I’m just a fan like you. I’m not a baseball insider or a beat writer so I don’t have a list of names for you.
What I do have is an ear to the ground. I understand the fans because I am one. I’m telling you Mets, the wallets are closed. Show me someone new, I don’t trust any of you with “my” team. Yes you own it, but guys like me pay for it.
You are selling the word “believe” again this year. Give me someone I can trust.
Shannon, You’re absolutely right about this. Without an effective voice or face, the Mets look like they’re out of control, even if they are not quite as out of control as they look. But your post makes me think of their missed opportunity with the slogan. Wouldn’t it have been incredible if this year’s slogan was “ya gotta trust?”
It is an excellent point, and one I have been asking as well for some years. Unfortunately, the Wilpons have never been comfortable with people who speak plainly, nor have they ever shown the inclination to hire a fully independent “baseball guy” like Stick.
Almost every single person in their baseball operation is a crony, or a Wilpon apologist, and even some of the really good ones owe the Wilpons for hiring them in the first place.
Until the Wilpons display personal accountability for the mess they have created, and start over with that one guy, who will build a baseball department with qualified individuals, only then will change start to occur.
Until then, it’ll be the same old cycle of 1-2 good years, followed by ineptness.
The truly ‘innovative’ leaders are few and far between. And hard to identify. I don’t think, barring finding someone that’s truly a whiz at this type of thing, a new face will help more than temporarily. Maybe they could’ve done this in October and put in a little ‘hope’ for us this offseason, but it wouldn’t change anything once the season started. The new face would just become tainted. But most people have short memories and whoever is leading this team when it next wins will likely be forgiven all past sins.
A nice little protest in front of the Let’s-Try-to-Sell-Tickets-to-African-Americans-Who-Root-for-the-Bronx-Team…uhmm…I mean the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, complete with the burning of of 97-cent StubScalper tickets and a plane with a banner reading “NO MORE LOUSY BASEBALL!” circling Wilpons Folly may make ‘Lil Jeffy up his Ritalin and hire a real GM and Director of Player Development.
KJS I think that’s unfair. There’s plenty of reasons to debate the Rotunda (and wouldn’t a Seaver statue out front or some Mets videos looped in on the vid-loop have helped), but I can’t agree with your comments between the words Let’s and uhhhm.
I don’t think so, Shannon, as much as I wish I were wrong. I have a very cynical view of the Mets marketing. David Newman told me the Mets were openly seeking “multiculturalism like the Islanders organization” in 2008. And quite honestly, since the George Foster days, the Mets were unfairly tagged as being a “racist team.” It stuck—most people of color who tend to go to Mets games are Carribean or dark-skinned Latino. No tragedy, but we’ve even seen Spike Lee jump over to the Evil Empire. Don’t be suprised to see the Mets try to see if Wang can give it a go—there’s a major Chinese presence in Flushing, and there’s no reason the Wilpons won’t try to tap into it as ticket sales plummet. This is as old as the hills—my favorite was when the Brooklyn Dodgers renamed a Native American “Goldberg” to try to capture the large Jewish immigration population in Brooklyn.