Guest post: Mets need to hire a baseball person

A guest post from Charles:

Recently The Mets Police site has brought up some interesting scenarios.

We, as Met fans have plenty of time to dream and dare I say think about what things could be like. Sadly we have more time then fans of the other team in town when it comes to putting our thoughts towards creating a winner.

In business, its a lot easier mapping out a plan, then actually executing it.   Thus when things go awry and fail the first instinct for many is to want to bring back what worked in the past.

As the Mets have faltered this season many have taken the path of looking to the past in hopes of creating the future. This is normally the incorrect road.  Many fans and scribes have pined for Bobby Valentine. Bobby V can help us again !
Bring back Bobby!  But what seems to have been forgotten is how Bobby was shown the door and the hard feelings management had when pointed that way.

If memory serves me right the sports talk shows were screaming for the end of the Valentine era. Of course we all know Valentine was eventually dismissed under strange circumstances, after Fred Wilpon had a meeting with both Al Leiter and John Franco.  The Valentine era produced something other eras hadnt. It produced a winner that did get the Mets into the playoffs and eventually the World Series ( dont worry, Im not going there, thank you Timo Perez).

What was important about that time weather you were a Valentine supporter or not was that the team had a direction. There was a clear and structured path that was being going on in Queens. It was Bobby V’s team. It was the Mike Piazza, Robin Ventura, Edgardo Alfonzo and others.  The Mets had a identity.

In sports just as in business we must form a plan with a path. Its a commitment to doing things a certain way. Growing up the plan that everyone looked at and said, whoa was the Baltimore way. Oh those might O’s stocked with great pitching, good defense and a strong hitting. It didnt produce a championship every year ( Weaver still complains about
69) but it did produce a solid franchise.

As the 80s approached the other franchise that everyone spoke of was the Cardinals. Perhaps no other team built their team so solidly around their ballpark then the birds from St Louis. Speed, defense, speed, pitching (they walked no one) and timely line drives. Once again everyone clamored to do things the “Cardinal way”.

Recently Mets Police has brought up the idea of stealing an exec or two away from the New York Yankees. The Yankee way. But lets take a look at the Yankee way. They had an aggressive owner who spent tons of money on building championships and let everyone know that. When the late, George Steinbrenner, was suspended from the game, the Yankees had an excellent front office that decided to build from within. Gene Michael lead the way and despite being
reminded all the time from Steinbrenner ( “thats my money, your spending Michael! ) The Yankee brain trust developed a plan and stuck to it. It would lead too, well we all know what it lead too.

What I do believe is needed is something we have not seen in many years with the Metropolitans and that is a plan. A clear direction. My own personal thoughts (wishes, dreams!) are of course not important ( we’ll save that for when Shannon brings out of the bullpen again). What the Wilpons need to do is hire a baseball person. Someone, not a just a general manager but a President of Baseball Operations who answers only the Wilpons.

This is something the Wilpons may not be very comfortable in doing. Its going to take Fred speaking to Jeff not as a Father but as a business man. Jeff can still call himself COO or something that makes everyone know he’s still the owner or the son of the owner. In fact he can call himself whatever he wants, short of a former minor leaguer player ( sorry I had to stick that in).

Flashback: When Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon hired Frank Cashen to rebuild the Mets:

Cashen: I have cant have any interference. I have to run things my way. Understand?

Doubleday/Wilpon: Yes,we understand.

Cashen: Are you sure?

Doubleday/Wilpon: Yes, your way, we wont get involved.

Cashen ( as he was leaving ) : Are you sure you both understand, its my way.

This isnt easy for some owners, they think they know better, think of your boss, most bosses without a doubt believe they know more then the people they are hiring to run their business.  The problem here is that the Wilpons have tried doing it there way.

There hasnt been much of a path and when there did seem to be a path, there was always something or someone becoming a problem along the road.

Sometimes a big problem.

It has all lead to a terrible case of dysfunction.

This isnt a piece against looking over at the Yankees and trying to lure an exec or two away but its more about the Mets finding their own way. Finding a strong President and then letting that man or woman run the team from top to bottom.

We deserve to have a winning franchise. We pay top dollar, we support, we buy, we root, we feel heartache.

Notice I didnt say, a world championship. I said a winning franchise. I wish I could remember the great coach in my own life who once told me, “that you cant have a championship every year, but you can have a winner”.

A winning franchise, a winning feeling and a clear business path.