All the Mets fans I am talking to are really negative today (again, turn off the radio).
So let me ask you – here’s a magic wand, what is it exactly that you want to do?
1. The Jerry Manuel Argument
So you don’t like the Santana to Putz to K-Rod plan? Fine. What’s your plan? Should Santana just throw 140 pitches in April? If Santos gets a hit yesterday he wins the starting catching job. He didn’t. Suddenly Castro is Gary Carter.
Now that Jerry is gone, who would you like to manage the team?
2. Omar must go!
Who would you like to be the general manager? Who is this genius that is going to turn things around? Tony Bernazard?
3. Let’s run David Wright out of town!
Let’s all turn on David Wright! I guess you’d rather Tatis start at third all weekend? Should we trade Wright and get his crappy all-around game out of here? Which brings us to…
4. This team will never win!
Call WFAN right now and declare that these guys will never win. Fine. How do you want to fix it now that you are the GM. Beltran has a no-trade, Delgado is a pending free agent who is slightly injured. I guess you want to trade Reyes or Wright…and what is it you hope to get back for them?
While you’re making this deal, and running Wright out of town, please look up the names Pat Zachry, Dan Norman, Steve Henderson and Doug Flynn.
I’ve yet to run into a Mets fan who has an idea about any of these questions.
Everyone needs to calm down and stop the negativity before you get what you want and see Reyes and Wright traded for prospects in a complete overhaul as part of the Midnight Massacre II. (which I don’t think could happen with a new stadium)
Seaver stormed back to his room and rang up Mets public relations director Arthur Richman. “Get me out of here, do you hear me?” he bellowed. “Get me out of here!” He then told Richman to call Mrs. deRoulet’s daughter, Whitney, and inform her that the contract deal was off. “And tell Joe McDonald everything I said last night is forgotten.”
For McDonald, it was a difficult time, as well. Two weeks earlier, with the Mets mired in sixth place at 15-30, Grant had ordered McDonald to fire his hand-picked manager, Joe Frazier, and replace him with Joe Torre, who was winding down his career as the Mets’ backup first baseman. McDonald didn’t particularly like Torre and definitely didn’t think he was ready to manage. Now he was being ordered to do something else he wanted no part of: Get Seaver traded.
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the Reds’ offer was clearly the best: Zachry, a lanky, 6-5, 25-year-old righthander who had been 14-7 with Cincy in 1976, would be plugged into Seaver’s spot in the rotation; Flynn, a slick fielder who was blocked by Pete Rose with the Reds, would immediately become the Mets’ second baseman; and Henderson, batting .326 at Triple-A Indianapolis, would fill the Mets’ center field void. Norman, who had hit 17 homers in AA ball in ’76, was also regarded as a genuine prospect, but from the Mets’ standpoint, the righthanded-hitting Henderson, who combined speed and power, was the key to the deal.
..
As for the Mets, the “Midnight Massacre” plunged them into their darkest era. They would finish last in 1977 and would lose 95 or more games in each of the next three seasons under Torre, who would be fired after a 41-62 record in the strike-shortened ’81 season.
Attendance at Shea plummeted and the Mets would not have another winning season until 1984.
There you have it Mets fans. Let’s keep booing until they “break up the core!”
