When I heard that Jose Reyes was going to be a Miami Marlin, I was just as irate as Squawker Jon was. In fact, I wrote this article for a business publication talking about how Jose Reyes is Bernie Madoff's most recent victim. It's ridiculous that a team in the biggest market in the country, with a successful cable network, is acting like somebody in line at the dollar store, thanks to all the money they invested in what turned out to be a Ponzi scheme.
It's long past time for Frugal Freddy Wilpon and his idiot son Jeff to be on their merry way, and have to sell the team and let the Mets have a real owner. Heck, as problematic as George Steinbrenner could be at times, there was no doubt that he loved the New York Yankees. I don't know if Fred Wilpon has ever been a Mets fan. From making Citi Field into the new Ebbets Field, to his derogatory comments to Jeffrey Toobin in that New Yorker interview, Wilpon is the embedded Brooklyn Dodgers fan.
You know, people say that rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for U.S. Steel, or Microsoft, but I say that rooting for the Mets is like being the frog in the Scorpion and the Frog allegory. You may know the story -- the scorpion begs the frog for a ride on his back across the lake. The frog is afraid to take this passenger, but the scorpion says that he wouldn't sting him, because it would doom him both. Then the scorpion stings him anyway, they both start to drown, and when the dying frog asks him why he did it, the scorpion says that doing so is his nature. That's the Mets for you. How dare any fan expect them to re-sign their homegrown hero after they cut payroll this year. It's in their nature to sabotage their own team, and decrease attendance and fan interest, by letting Reyes walk. Good grief.
Anyhow, when Squawker Jon and I started writing this blog, way back in 2006, the Yankees and Mets looked to be close to being on even footing. And in fact, the Mets went further than the Yankees did that year, nearly making it to the World Series. Ever since then, the Metropolitans are on a downward spiral. And it was all fun and games to make fun of the Mets 2007 collapse, and 2008 collapse, and the Castillo dropped pop-up, now it's getting just plain sad.
And it's taken an important trash talk dynamic out of Subway Squawkers. I have had to pull my punches bigtime, because I didn't want to look like a bully beating up on Squawker Jon's Mets. For example, I had a great trash talk line prepared tonight, about how the Mets ditched a closer named Francisco with anger-management issues, only to pick up another closer named Francisco with anger-management issues. But if I really unleashed it, I would look like I was part of the 1% beating up on the 99%. Bummer.
So I actually want the Mets to get better, so mocking them won't make me look like a big meanie. It's up to you, Bud Selig. Time to do what you did to Frank McCourt to your buddies, Fred and Jeff Wilpon. They have to go. The future of the Squawkers depends on it!
What do you think? Tell us about it!
You got that right. The name of this whole story should be ''The Revenge Of Bernie Madoff,'' and we should learn from it that sports teams should be owned by the public, and not by snot nosed ''entrepreneurs,'' whether they own shipyards, buildings, hedge funds, or whatever. Big real estate wankers and baseball putzes do not make good owners, not even good fans.
ReplyDeleteThe cure to what's happening now is to boycott Citifield and the Mets and let the Wilpons go completely bust so that they'll be forced to sell the team, and the public should pressure the mayor's and the governor's offices to get them to force the ''owners'' to sell the team to the public. If they’re named the ''New York'' anything, the city and the state have a vested interest that should be paid attention to, especially since the public paid for umpteen percent of the stadium anyway.
These guys are not baseball people to begin with, they're big real estate dinks and baseball twits who are sticking it to the fans by trading away the heart of the team: Beltran, Reyes, and probably Wright next, and anyone else that they can get a few bucks for to get themselves out of the hole that they put themselves into by ''investing'' with an obvious fraud like Madoff, who was offering profit rates seen only by financial and real estate grifters to begin with. If you're so stupid as to invest with a guy like him, you're not smart enough to own a baseball team either, certainly not at the expense of the team and of the fans.
Now that they've ruined the Mets, perhaps they'll take a nice long walk off a short pier.
'' Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.'' ~Oscar Wilde
jim crawford
Westwood NJ
You got that right. The name of this whole story should be ''The Revenge Of Bernie Madoff,'' and we should learn from it that sports teams should be owned by the public, and not by snot nosed ''entrepreneurs,'' whether they own shipyards, buildings, hedge funds, or whatever. Big real estate wankers and baseball putzes do not make good owners, not even good fans.
ReplyDeleteThe cure to what's happening now is to boycott Citifield and the Mets and let the Wilpons go completely bust so that they'll be forced to sell the team, and the public should pressure the mayor's and the governor's offices to get them to force the ''owners'' to sell the team to the public. If they’re named the ''New York'' anything, the city and the state have a vested interest that should be paid attention to, especially since the public paid for umpteen percent of the stadium anyway.
These guys are not baseball people to begin with, they're big real estate dinks and baseball twits who are sticking it to the fans by trading away the heart of the team: Beltran, Reyes, and probably Wright next, and anyone else that they can get a few bucks for to get themselves out of the hole that they put themselves into by ''investing'' with an obvious fraud like Madoff, who was offering profit rates seen only by financial and real estate grifters to begin with. If you're so stupid as to invest with a guy like him, you're not smart enough to own a baseball team either, certainly not at the expense of the team and of the fans.
Now that they've ruined the Mets, perhaps they'll take a nice long walk off a short pier.
'' Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.'' ~Oscar Wilde
jim crawford
Westwood NJ
The Mets' story is getting to be like Karl Marx' view of history: Repeating itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. As you pointed out in that article, Lisa, it was NEVER Fred Wilpon who took a joke franchise and made it champions, it was Wilpon AND Nelson Doubleday AND Frank Cashen. Whereas when it was Freddy the Freeloader and his son making the decisions, well...
ReplyDeleteBut let's clear one thing up: Jose Reyes is getting more money from the Marlins than he'd be getting anywhere else, except the Yankees, the Red Sox, and MAYBE the Phillies -- none of whom showed any interest, at least not publicly. Whoever can be counted among "the victims of Bernie Madoff," Jose Reyes is not one of them. He might be one of the few people who benefits from the whole Madoff schmeer.
Hey, great post Lisa! I couldn't agree more with your thoughts. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteLooks like I was wrong: There does seem to be another team willing to spend big money on a player with the alleged talent of Jose Reyes: The Angels, who appear to have signed Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson. So much for a Cardinals-Rangers rematch in the 2012 World Series!
ReplyDelete