It's Mets For Me: Off-Beat, Tangentially Relevant Mets Ruminations

Off Base Since 2005! Mets commentary from the counter-intuitive to the unintuitive and all the intuitives in between. ** "Through the use of humor and gross inaccuracy...a certain truth can be gained." Rob Perri ** (pester me at:itsmetsforme@gmail.com or follow me @itsmetsforme on twitter)

Friday, December 25, 2009

I Don't Gotta Believe


















Christmas sucks for Mets fans and Jeff Franchise is here to prove it.


I am here to reminisce about that wonderful winter of 2001, when Jason Bay had yet to be traded from the Mets and when dreams took wing. Those were the days of $95 million payrolls, when Steve Phillips played rotisserie baseball before it was cool, the days when the Mets would back away from any player with a back problem, and that was our biggest problem.
http://static.thehollywoodgossip.com/images/gallery/brooke-hundley-steve-phillips-girlfriend.jpg
Obligatory Steve Phillips' mistress photo.

The interwebs were just catching on in the sports world, and people still read the beat writers on the NY Post webpage. I remember clearly salivating over the prospect of Juan Gonzalez joining the Mets. Oh, what an offensive contribution he'd make. Plus, Juan's friends were saying things like:''Juan has never wanted anything more in his life than he wants" to be a Met.

The Mets thought it would be easy. After Juan Gonzalez said he wanted to join them, the Mets figured they would make the best offer, Gonzalez would take it, and their supersized lineup would have even more meat. Last night, the Mets learned, the story was too good to be true.

Of course, Juan Gone, probably high on the steroids at that very moment, bent Steve Phillips over and took Texas' offer instead. Phillips, who was probably fucking an intern at the time, didn't even really want Gonzalez. Stevo recovered nicely and put together the 2002 Mets, with Mo, Roberto, Jeromy, and Shawn Estes, who went 75-86, a record good for 5th place.

Flash forward to the waning days of the Omar Minaya regime. Minaya has done everything short of trading Tom Seaver to bury this franchise, and during this hot stove, most likely his last winter as a big league GM, he's taking the cautious route, with his cell phone thumb lodged securely in his ass. Of course, Omar's inactivity is arguably a good thing even though the Mets have more holes than a thing that has a lot of holes, since this market is dominated mostly by players that will be overpaid because of the weak competition, and since Omar not doing anything is a good thing. But I still feel some nostalgia for the time when the representatives of free agents would have their friends spread lies in the media about wanting to be a Met.

There's still plenty of time for things to get worse. There isn't a Metsfan alive who wants Benjie Molina's fat ass to don the Orange and Blue, and there are a few dead who don't want Omar to go to two years on the contract. Even if the Mets land Bay, widely seen as the suboptimal choice, they will probably end up bidding against themselves since all of the big players seem to have moved on.

But hey, Kelvim Escobar!!

So Happy Holidays!! Try not to think about the Mets!

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10 Comments:

  • At 2:04 AM, Anonymous cver said…

    Nice post - thanks for the nice present!

     
  • At 10:59 PM, Anonymous Jason said…

    This is a great sports blog you have here man. It’s a very good read. I have a sports blog myself but I specifically cover the New York Giants. I’ve been a fan all my life and it’s great writing about them. I would like to exchange links with you to help spread some traffic around. It can’t hurt us, it’s a win/win on both sides.

    Please let me know if this is possible. Take care and keep up the good work.

    Jason
    GIANTStalk.com

     
  • At 12:52 PM, Anonymous jdon said…

    Buck up, IMFM. I fyou think it is bad now, just wait til April. Has a GM ever been fired in January?

     
  • At 2:48 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    minaya isnt as bad as bloggers (who are inherently negative people)make him out to be. Short memories forget that the santana deal was a coup, beltran's been a stud after his first season and the maine deal was a steal. If the phils had lost howard rollins werth and hamels last year, the braves or fish would have won the division. minaya's biggest f up was how he handled that psych job bernazard. wait to see what the 25 man roster looks like in 10 before passing judgement.

     
  • At 4:58 PM, Anonymous jdon said…

    there is a thread running through the blogs, funded, I think, by Minaya himself. Santana was not a coup. The Yankees and the Sox bailed once they managed to scare each other off Santana. The Minny GM was left with his dick in his hand. That is not a coup. That is dumb luck. Beltran tried to bail for 20 million less to the Yanks. They turned him down. Ollie Perez WAS a coup. He managed to get Ollie to accept 36 million for 3 years when nobody else was offering ANYTHING. He gave Castillo double the years and triple the money of his closest offer. Puh-leeze.

     
  • At 7:35 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    jdon your post is nonsensical and proves the negativity point. who cares who passed on santana. minaya got him for nothing, gomez being the best and he can't hit. in your venacular, he placed bill smith's dick into smith's hand. people make their own luck and their own mistakes cashman/pavano; coletti/a.jones. minaya had to overpay for beltran to turn around a floundering franchise, which he did lest you forgot 2006. perez wasnt a good sign but neither was lowe. perez was hurt but if he wins 15 this year he looks like an ok sign. Minaya isnt the best but he's not totally inept as bloggers paint him. BTW i'm not a minaya apologist, just a lifelong mets fan who watched a real whorish gm don grant run a top 5 all time righthander out of town. its all relative my friend. and if i had my druthers i'd bring frank cashman back (hernandez for neil allen)

     
  • At 3:39 AM, Anonymous jdon said…

    any gm could have made the deals you talk about. steve phillips or al harazin could have. there were only four teams with enough money to pay santana. omar does not have a plan, does not build a strong second tier roster, and knows zero about pitching. are you content to go down the line with him in your vanguard? I too would bring frank cashen back, by the way. but I think it is sad that the only executive hire this team has made since the cashen era that I would put any stock in was bobby valentine. you really don't think perez is winning 15 this year, do you? be as positive as you please. I do not think it is a matter of being positive or negative. just look at what is happening for what it is. we are in deep doo doo.

     
  • At 1:01 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Jdon, please tell me you're kidding when you say Steve (I hope he dies a horrible death) Phillips could have made the Santana deal. Omar's made his mistakes, like everyone else. I dislike Phillips as much as any Mets fan but for all the mistakes he's made & how much he handicapped our team, in the late 1990s, Phillips assembled a Mets team made up of stars, such as Al Leiter, Mike Piazza & Robin Ventura. He also drafted David Wright (who he almost traded away in 2002 for Jose Cruz Jr.), Scott Kazmir, Lastings Milledge & signed José Reyes who he almost traded away in the Escobar/Alomar deal. He's the same idiot who loved acquiring aging & ineffective players w/ large contracts such as Mo Vaughn, Roberto Alomar, Pedro Astacio, Mike Bordick, Bobby Bonilla, Rickey Henderson, Kenny Rogers, & Jeromy Burnitz. He traded Jason Bay & of course my all time favorite, laid the ground work for trading Kazmir to the Rays for the wrong Zambrano in 2003

     
  • At 1:04 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    With that being said, Omar's made his share of mistakes as well. Some teams just hide them better. You think Brian Cashman doesn't have his. See Drew Henson, Kai Igawa, Fat Toad Irabu, Randy Johnson, etc.. The Yanks just spend more to cover them up & the Mets don't.

     
  • At 9:36 AM, Anonymous Lawn Care Fort Myers said…

    First time reading this blog thanks for sharing.

     

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