The Mets Police

Behold! A gateway to your own past if you wish. All that you knew has been altered.

As Mets fans we have been blessed to have this current dynasty after all those years in the desert.  This team is stocked, and as exciting as the recent run of championships has been, I think the future is just as bright.  Let’s take a look at the three key moves that have led to this run, and how close the Mets were to being stupid and missing out on all this fun!

November 2015: Mookie Betts for Matt Harvey

Coming off the 2015 World Series run, this was a bold move, that incredibly, laughably,  fans at the time hated.

Matt had given up his arm to the Mets, and the Mets knew it.  The Red Sox were desperate for pitching, and wound up getting completely fleeced.  The Mets knew they had enough pitching in Syndergaard,  deGrom, Matz and Bartolo Colon and they sure  didn’t miss the 4 games Harvey won in Boston.  Harvey bounced around to Anaheim, Oakland and Baltimore, and we have one of the All Time Mets.

A decade later, with #50 destined to hang in the Citi Field rafters some day, it’s hard to imagine life without the Most Popular Met.

March 2022:  The Mets sign Freddie Freeman

Another bold move.   This one  reminded me of Hundley and Piazza.  In Todd Hundley, the Mets had a fan favorite slugger who came around when the team was down.  But when an even better player became available in Mike Piazza, it was a no-brainer to upgrade the decision.

Similarly, as loved as Pete Alonso was, it was a no-brainer to go get an MVP caliber player to play first base when one was available, and Freddie’s  2023 MVP season proved the Mets were right.

It’s a shame that the DH wasn’t around for 2022, or Pete could have stayed…and the Mets did “sell low” that March, not getting all that much back for Pete, but in the end, how can you be mad about taking the Braves best player away and getting an MVP and a few World Series runs out of it? (Not to mention the monkey getting off Buck Showalter’s back for never winning a ring.)

In the past, the Mets would have listened to the fans and held on to Pete, and they’d probably be scraping by for a wild card.

Steve Cohen goes all-in on Ohtani

This is something that wouldn’t have happened under the Wilpons.  We were told that Ohtani wanted to play on the west coast, or that he didn’t like the cold (is NYC THAT cold?  (It is 67 right now in Tokyo as I write this).  There was no way Ohtani would come to New York, so why even bother checking to see if that was true.  A builtin excuse for the Stupid Cheap Wilpons.

Steve was having none of that, and this was the dream of Uncle Steve come to life.  Our beloved billionaire owner picked up the phone himself, and blew Ohtani away with a deal that man couldn’t refuse.  Now, baseball’s brightest star is in Queens, and it’s been great for the sport, not to mention another World Series run this October and this great Subway Series we are having.  $900,000,000 in deferred salary sounds like a lot, but the franchise will easily appreciate by that much in the meantime.  Steve knows you have to spend money to make money, and spend money he did.

The Stupid Cheap Wilpons would never have done that, and we’d likely be sitting home watching the Dodgers or someone in the World Series.

What a great time to be a Mets fan!

Time has resumed its shape. All is as it was before. Many such journeys are possible….let me be your guide.

Yankees-Dodgers.

Some of the best players in the game.

Extra Innings.

A Walk-Off Grand Slam 10th inning lead change.

 

Well, for baseball, that’s the script.  We’ll see how much Baseball Is Back after that one, but this is the shot in the arm the sport actually needs.

I’m not sure baseball has solved its problem of late starts and games too long – I understand the game went to extras, but I actually fell asleep 3x after the 7th inning (woken up by Joe Davis) and even fell asleep in the 10th inning.  Fortunately I woke up to see the bases were loaded and there were 2 outs, so I did catch the grand slam and Joe’s meh call.  (Better than Gary Cohen doing his John Sterling impression, nowhere near as good as Jack Buck’s Kirk Gibson call.)

Also, can someone explain Ken Rosenthal to me?  I’m sure he’s lovely and The Baseball Mafia seems to love him, but I don’t get him as a TV personality.

Anyway, baseball was back for 4 hours – tonight should be fun.

 

Look, there’s only one The Franchise, and he has a statue. Let’s not start getting nutty here.

NJ.com reports:  There is a petition circulating the internet calling for the Mets to put up a statue of former catcher Mike Piazza in front of Citi Field around the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and his home run.

Some users on Reddit don’t agree with the proposal.

“No,” one person wrote. “It was a great HR but I don’t want to think about 9/11 every time I go to a game. It was traumatic enough when it happened.”

“Not appropriate and kind of insulting to people who died or lost family members that day,” wrote another. “And I say that as a huge Piazza fan. It was a special moment but it doesn’t deserve a statue. Let’s not make 9/11 about the Mets.”

I personally have the very unpopular opinion that the home run is the most overrated home run in the history of baseball.  I watched that game that night and felt nothing.   I wasn’t over the shock.  If it meant something to you, that’s fine, but I think it was just another home run.  What if Mark Johnson or Desi Relaford had hit it?

On the statue front, let’s not get crazy.  We put a Piazza statue then we will start looking for excuses for a David Wright statue (of what?) and we’ll have an Endy Chavez and one of Matt Harvey with a bloody nose and we’ll have watered the entire thing down – kinda like Al Leiter being in the Mets Hall of Fame for some reason.

Now, if you guys wanna make a state of THIS, I would be on board.  Fans could be reminded that the SS doesn’t like them as they enter the stadium.

By the way, first of frequent reminders that Steve Cohen is now in Year 5 of the 3 to 5 Year Plan to win the World Series.

At Steve Cohen’s introductory press conference he said:

“I’m not in this for a short-term fix.  I don’t want to be good one year and bad three. I want to be good every year. That’s the goal, and the team I want to build.

“If we don’t win [a World Series] in the next three to five years, I’d consider that slightly disappointing.”

Slightly?  Steve, I will consider this MAJORLY disappointing.  We could have kept the Wilpons around to not sign Ohtani and to win the third Wild Card.

Let’s all go back in time to when the fans through out the Uncle Steve nickname.  If I told you then that on January 1, 2026 the Mets would have won ZERO rings, you would be surprised, wouldn’t you?  If I told you Ohtani hit free agency and supposedly Steve didn’t even pick up the phone to try and sign the guy (Can that possibly be true???)

So no more excuses.   We’re in Year 5 of the 3 to 5 year mission.  It’s Ring Or Bust.   Steve can be Slightly Disappointed if the 2025 Mets don’t win it all, but it’s a massive waste of potential.

 

This season was a failure.

(OK calm the hell down and notice the title of this article and go read this one and then come back.)

If you look at it, the failure begins with Steve Cohen’s seeming unwillingness to call Ohtani’s agent.  What kind of WannaBeGeorgeSteinbrenner doesn’t even TRY to get Ohtani.  Well, Ohtani is in the World Series and the Mets aren’t.

The Mets won the THIRD Wild Card.   What are you going to do, hang a “NLDS Championship” banner at Citi Field?   That’s kind of lame.  Just let it be a nice unexpected summer, but it doesn’t deserve to make the wall.

How do I define success?  Win the World Series (while nicely dressed.)

It took me about an hour last night to remember what happened between the Braves doubleheader and the Phillies series.  Oh yeah, a three game series against the Brewers.  The one in which Pete Alonso got jammed but he’s such a giant that the ball happened to barely make it to the smallest part of the park and a legend was made.   It wasn’t exactly Carlton Fisk.

I believe it was Anthony S (@RealMetman) on twitter who last week used the word “gimmick.”  The 2024 Mets were a gimmick team.   Sure we made weiner jokes, and the Grimace was fun, and I’m not sure anyone who isn’t on the Mets actually gave a hoot about OMG but whatever.

It seemed like after August 1st every other team decided to be inept.  No matter who the Mets played, the opponent was unable to play 9 innings of baseball (see the Braves weekend and the Brewers and Phillies series for  good examples).   So the Gimmicks somehow kept going, scaring by on tape and glue and luck, inept opponent bullpens, and Pete Alonso getting jammed.

Then the Mets ran into Ohtani and the Dodgers.

The whole point of having Steve Cohen was to sign the premier Free Agents, wasn’t it?   We weren’t supposed to play Moneyball while David Stearns looks smug.

Did the Mets win the World Series?  No.   It’s another failed season.    This list is getting long.

1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994*, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024.

Oh, and just to kick you in the shins Steve –  Brand Y across town, they are in the World Series.