2
2011
Take Me Out To The Ball Game
An article by Former Writers
I always love to see the Mets own the back pages of our local newspapers, but this wasn’t exactly what I wanted to see this morning. Kind of sad actually.
For all those who are saying that Fred Wilpon and Bernie Madoff are not involved in the Mets business just check out Page One of today’s New York Times – right in the center is a picture of “Fred Wilpon, the principal owner of the Mets, with Bernard L. Madoff at Shea Stadium in 1995″
Now that we are learning just how entwined these two men were, perhaps the public will realize the seriousness of their association.
Unfortunately, for now, Fred has tarnished his reputation and Bernie has lost a son just in the past few months. It’s time to turn this over to the authorities and get on with the business of playing baseball.
My first memory of baseball is being carried on my Dad’s shoulders into Yankee Stadium His enthusiasm for the game, became mine, too. I followed the Yankees, because they were Dad’s team, but when a National League team – The New York Mets – came along and built Shea Stadium, I was there, too.
Baseball is a wonderful game, as Nuke LaLoosh says in “Bull Durham”…
“Baseball is a simple game – you throw the ball, you hit the ball and you catch the ball – and sometimes, it rains”.
So, let us come out of the bitter storms we’ve been socked with over the winter and lets enjoy our sport again.
It is a wonderful game and all we want to do is bask in the fun and excitement of it. That is all we ask.
Only 12 days until pitchers and catchers report… Play Ball.
About the Author: Former Writers
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do you care about baseball, or do you care about financial scandals?
I care about baseball, and the Mets are involved in a financial scandal something that is far beyond my interest, but important for the future of the Mets team.
Both need to be written about, the Mets are more than nine men on the field playing a game.
I care about baseball, and the Mets are involved in a financial scandal – something that is far beyond my interest, but important for the future of the Mets team.
Both need to be written about, the Mets are more than just nine men on the field playing a game.
i care about financial scandals that cut met payroll in half, and those involving guys i am going to give money to every time i buy a ticket.
not so much the other ones.
then you are in luck, since payroll has not been but at all.
it is however, in the general manager’s words, “significantly higher” than where they would like to be.
i’m expecting the cut to come in 2011, unless selig gets his s**t together and kicks these jerks to the curb.
i didn’t realize until today that they were instrumental in bringing other investors into the scheme.
i can almost forgive someone for not looking too deep into what was going on when it came to themselves. but involving others is sha-dy.
if payroll ever gets to 70 million we’ll talk. sooooo fed up with this payroll bullshite. payrolls don’t win, farm systems win. I would rather the Mets have a payroll of 110-120 million and be in the upper echelon of farm systems than be 150-160 million and be 26th in baseball. The money needs to be going into the draft, not over-the-hill past-their-prime or no-prime-at-all free agents. Anytime any of this payroll garbage comes up I’m just going to say Texas Rangers.
I’ll say it three more times…
Texas Rangers
Texas Rangers
Texas Rangers
texas has had one good year in the last twenty, and it coincided with the team finally getting sold by their bankrupt owner. the angels have had the top payroll in that division over the last 10 years, and they have a WS and the most division titles too.
keep saying it, you’re proving my point.
having a top 5 payroll increases the likelihood of making the playoffs. the mets unfortunately are the exception, not the rule.
Having a top 5 payroll certainly enhances your chances but many of the Rangers top players last year weren’t really making the huge bucks.
Feliz, CJ Wilson, Hamilton, Cruz, Kinzler, Andrus, Guererro, Murphy, Lewis and Hunter.
In other words they acquired or brought up these guys and THEN added to them with the Lee’s, Molina’s ect.
Texas also has 20 prospects rated in the top 20 of the league in which their playing, meaning that their recent success is sustainable, primarily because they won’t be “forced” into making a bad signing because “well who else were they going to get to play at x y or z position.”
i get it, but i wouldn’t want to have the “success” that texas has had over the last 30 years.
plus, as bad as the wilpons may be, they don’t come near george w bush as my all time least favorite owner.
that’s right, i said it.
if payroll ever gets to 70 million we’ll talk. sooooo fed up with this payroll BS. payrolls don’t win, farm systems win. I would rather the Mets have a payroll of 110-120 million and be in the upper echelon of farm systems than be 150-160 million and be 26th in baseball. The money needs to be going into the draft, not over-the-hill past-their-prime or no-prime-at-all free agents. Anytime any of this payroll garbage comes up I’m just going to say Texas Rangers.
I’ll say it three more times…
Texas Rangers
Texas Rangers
Texas Rangers
Could not agree more Chris. When you look at the kind of ancillary money Omar doled out compared to what Sandy is paying out it’s staggering. Alderson spent about 7 this year because 90% of the payroll had been tied up by his predossesor.
Speaking strictly of the smaller type deals Schowenweiss got 10M, Alou 15M, El Duque 15M among others. Add that to Wagner’s 44M, Pedro’s 54M, Beltran’s 80M UFC-Rod’s 36-54M, Beltran’s 118M, Johan’s 138M, Bay’s 80M, not to mention Perez 36M or Castillo’s 24M or the 60M paid to Delgado it’s really a staggering amount of money Minaya had to play with. Truly staggering.
If anyone is under the illusion that the Mets budget is not primarily related to the exorbinate amount of money spent over the last 7 years. They are crazy.
Francis,
Now you are coming around to it.
500 out of 1500 accounts.
Pay a big Bil or you go to jail.
desi: hey freh, you gotta lah ah essplainin to do.
I think the situation calls for the expertise of a frequent poster from last year, ‘baby al’. The baby man had the Wilpons pegged. I hope he posts a lot again this season.
My question to Martin: Why can’t someone care about both baseball and financial scandals?
because one has nothing to do with the other. this is a new york Mets fan site, not a financial scandal blog. No one gives a F about the Wilpons and their problems. I have my own financial problems.
Your mistake Chris. The Wilpons finances have a great deal to do with the product they’re willing to put on the field. You seem to be the only person who thinks it doesn’t. Many stories that have recently been in the press contradict your view. If you don’t want to concern yourself with the Wilpon’s, hence the team’s finances, it’s your right.
Despite feeling a tad misled by the title “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” only to have the 1st thing I read to be about Madoff. It’s good to see you finish writing at least a little bit of a happy Mets memory from your youth.
I have lots of happy memories from my youth with my Dad who was a great sports lover – but I couldn’t ignore the picture in the New York Times on Page One of Fred Wilpon and Bernie Madoff at Shea stadium in 1995 and the story that went with the picture. I don’t post links to newspapers, but you could and should look it up.
However, now that so much of the Madoff/Wilpon/Katz relationship has hit the headlines, I’m ready to move on.
It’s less than two weeks until Spring Training, and if you live in the NY area as I do, where today we went over 30 inches of snow on the ground, I’m content to leave the M/W/K relationship to the authorities and start ‘thinking baseball’. OK?
Fine by me. Oh and my screenname will give u a hint of where i live.
I was very good in geography – I live on the other side of NY state – in Connecticut. My screen name came from ‘Bull Durham’ of course.
CT represent!
I’m curious….
If the Mets had won the WS a couple of times since ’06, or maybe just last year, would there be this much outrage from the fan base over the Wilpons?
Just wondering if the Madoff issue wasn’t the straw that actually broke the camel’s back. It’s just been one thing after another every year since Beltran took strike three. Very little happiness in Met land.
Both of those questions are almost unanswerable – what I’m going to do now is look toward Spring Training at Port St. Lucie and the team – it’s their turn to get into the spotlight and shine.
Somehow I feel that this will turn out to be a good year for them.
Join me?
I am already on public record as predicting them to win the WC, so I am with you on the good year idea.
and 1,000% about needing to get actual game action started, and soon.
they’re going to win a toilet ?
actually sounds about right.
as much as people say “anything that gets a title” to justify Cuban, or attila the Hun, as the owner, i think they still would complain.
Me, I care a lot about the team. Little about the owners. The owners having issues is just not that big a deal to me, and getting new owners will not change my relationship to the team.
srt, great point. it would be guilt more than outrage, but you are sooooo right.