6
2011
Happy 25th Anniversary, Mookie… BTW, You’re Fired!

As we reported yesterday, fan favorite Mookie Wilson was fired as the first base coach on Wednesday by Sandy Alderson who does plan to reassign him to another job in the organization.
Mookie, of course, is one of the most beloved and most popular Mets players in franchise history, but the timing of his dismissal couldn’t have been worse. It was 25 years ago this month, that Mookie Wilson hit the fabled ground ball that would trickle through Bill Buckner’s legs in Game Six of the 1986 World Series. The rest, as they say, is history.
Oddly enough, that famed baseball that Mookie hit and was once owned by actor Charlie Sheen, is now up for auction on eBay with an asking price of $1 million dollars.
I love this team so much, but I learned a long time ago that it doesn’t really matter who’s running the ship, they never seem to get things right when it comes to recognizing and understanding Mets history. Believe me though, Steve Phillips, Omar Minaya and Sandy Alderson are not the first. Many players from that original 1962 team and both the 1969 and 1973 teams went through the same kind of slights and insults in the seventies and eighties… Just ask Tom Seaver, Cleon Jones and Yogi Berra.
We love you Mookie!
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 24 | 18 | .571 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 20 | .535 | 1.5 |
| Phillies | 20 | 23 | .465 | 4.5 |
| Mets | 16 | 24 | .400 | 7.0 |
| Marlins | 11 | 32 | .256 | 13.5 |
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good bye mookie, we’ll miss ya….
on another note, there’s report that the colorado rockies will make a big push to acquire 3B david wright from the mets… i’d send him and bay for cargo if need be..
I don’t want Wright traded, but that said, if he is traded, Pomeranz, is not in the deal, it will not be a good one.
drew pomeranz is a good pitcher, tall and throws hard.. i can see the mets liking the kid, but it’d be interesting to see if david will be shop around this year or maybe next… he can get us good pitching but the more i think about it, the more i am starting to think to let’s wait till next year, they’re moving in the fences, that can provide a huge lift to some players, especially david who seemed to be phsyched out by the dimensions of the ball park, and who wouldn’t be, with that being said i’ll wait to see if next year he has a good season and see where the mets go from there in terms of trading him, but if he is traded this year, i can live with
I would hate to see Wright traded but if the Mets are going to do it right now isn’t a good time. The Mets (if they were to trade him) would be better off getting him to sign an extension and then trading him next year maybe midseason or after the season is over. He would have had a full season back from his broken back and with the fences moved in will probably have better power numbers. That would make him much more attractive in the trade market. Right now his value is lower because of his poor year and the injury he had.
I would bet that any extension would have some kind of no trade protection involved. But, you never know.
I admit I may have a mistaken impression of how good Cargo was this year 9and can’t get to stats right now), but getting him seems like it would be a steal, right? or is he not quite as good as I am thinking?
And taking bay also would be too much to hope for.
anyway, not wanting to stir up the trade DW debate again, but I will say that IMO if they trade him, it better return ML ready help at a position of need (and ideally some pitching!), and not just some lower level (but highly rated) prospects.
then again, I even said last year that the team needs to make a decision (either that they had enough to try and plug in pieces and make a run now, or that they didn’t and needed to rebuild), and then go 100% with the plan. And not waffle around, trying to cover both ends.
was able to look up stats.
No way I could ever see the Rockies doing it, but hell yeah if they offered up Gonzalez for Wright the Mets would have to jump all over it.
Yeah, I don’t seeing Colorado trading Tulo or Cargo. I doubt they would part with Chacin. De La Rosa is coming off a big injury. It would have to be for some almost there prospect (Pomeranz!!!) and maybe Street(?)… And to me, that would be a start plus they’d have to add in another piece or 2 or 3.
I unfortunately do not know enough of their system to know what could come back. Most of their other players at the major league level are decent or OK, but nothing worth trading Wright for.
My poor, poor Metsies always with the poorest of timing. Being you bought it up, what was the biggest difference when the Mets forced Cleon Jones to apologize publicly, from when Jeff Wilpon forced Omar Minaya to apologize publicly to Adam Rubin? Especially when Rubin actually did speak to Fred about a job.
I don’t see how this has anything to do with disrespecting history or being a black eye? If anything, he only had the job in the first place because of history!
It also seems like they want to keep him around in a different capacity, which is nice. So why is it some kind of crime if they decided he was not right for the 1B coach job now?
People love to blow up insignificant happenings into some kind of great scandel when it comes to the Mets.
This might be an understandable baseball move but the Mets (like usual) have done a horrible job with their PR. Firing Mookie Wilson right now is just dumb. Its the 25th anniversary of the last Mets World Series win. The guy just went through a death in the family. Mets fans are already pissed off at the team for years of poor management on all levels. Adding to the pile right now isnt a good idea. The Mets need to really work on their public relations, they have generally done a really really bad job at it and need to improve. They could have done this to Mookie during the offseason when not many fans are paying attention and it would have barely been a blip on the radar. The Mets would have gone into the new season with a new first base coach and fans wouldn’t have been mad. Doing it now just makes fans ticked off even more than they already still are about a horrible season.
Are many fans really paying attention now?
mostly just the ones that obsess about stuff like this!
except all teams clean up the coaching staff now (well, other than the ones in the playoffs!). It’s more unfair to keep a guy hanging if he is going to have to find a new job.
I just don’t see this being a big deal (saying they want someone different for 1B coach, but hope to keep Mookie in the “family”)
“They could have done this to Mookie during the offseason when not many fans are paying attention and it would have barely been a blip on the radar. The Mets would have gone into the new season with a new first base coach and fans wouldn’t have been mad. Doing it now just makes fans ticked off even more than they already still are about a horrible season.”
Isn’t this the offseason for the Mets?
“I love this team so much, but I learned a long time ago that it doesn’t really matter who’s running the ship, they never seem to get things right when it comes to recognizing and understanding Mets history”
I don’t totally understand this. Is it your opinion that because Mookie was on the 86 Mets he should remain 1st base coach? What if its not the best thing for the 2012 Mets?
Don’t get me wrong I agree that this franchise has a poor record at honoring the past, but I am not totally sure how that is relevant to re-organizing a coaching staff?
As for the Wright “rumor” I think you can go back several months where I wrote that Colorado would be a perfect fit for him because he’d have a guy like Tulo who is the face and he can just be who he is a solid complimentary guy like Matt Holliday is to Pujols for example.
But, while I think Cargo has a great swing, he UNLIKE Tulo has proven that Colorado is a large reason for his success. People like to think if you play in COL its a given your numbers are inflated but if you look at Tulo a .597 SLG to a .510 SLG over the last 3 years isn’t that much of a difference.
Look at CarGo though
2011 Home: .331 avg, .401 obp, .597 slg 16HR 60RBI
2011 Away: .252 avg, .317 obp, .440 slg 10HR 32RBI
2010 Home: .380 avg, .425 obp, .737 slg 26HR 76 RBI
2010 Away: .289 avg, .322 obp, .453 slg 8 HR 41 RBI
So Alex, if you want CarGo that is fine but you’re getting Road-CarGo… not Home Cargo.
If they deal Wright to Colorado they are better off doing it for young arms
I kind of agree with you, Jessup. Just because somebody achieved greatness here 25 years ago doesn’t mean they should be here now. It was my major point regarding Backman becoming manager.
Maybe the Mets can do like the Orioles did with Boog Powell, give Mookie a concession stand and let the fans come by and say hi.
jesseP,
i am fully aware of his home splits, trust me i know, but we have a major hole in LF, i rather have a young LF like cargo than have bay anyday, also, we have players who can give us a good production at 3B..
I was assuming they use him in CF, which is a bigger hole (I assume that since you managed to trade Bay in your scenario, they would be sliding Duda over to LF and finding a replacement for RF). Unless you want to keep pagan too (though he could be better suited to RF anyway).
I think Cargo played ~30 games in CF this season.
still not likely to happen, but fun to talk about.
Alex you have to also remember though… CarGo is signed through 2017 and from 2014-2017 he’s making as much as Bay would. And in all honesty Bay’s career was more worthy of the $ the Mets gave him than CarGo’s right now.
CarGo is young yes, but he’s clearly a product of his environment and when a young player busts and makes way too much $ he becomes Vernon Wells.
If Wright were to be traded the prospects would likely outweigh the “now”
jesseP, his defense is better, again, he’s younger, he can do much more than bay at this point, is pure fantasy i know, but i think if something like that was to happen, we can have 3 powerful lefties in the lineup with davis, duda and cargo, with cargo being our Carlos Beltran 2.0 imo… i am certainly it won’t happen, but we can always dream right…
Technically Wilson was not fired. His contract expires at the end of October. So he is really just being re-assigned. And besides that, do you really want coaches around simply for sentimental reasons if there are valid reasons why they should be replaced? If his work with the outfielders was unacceptable this year, as has been indicated, do you keep him around simply because he was a memeber of the teams’ last Championship season? No. Was the timing of his re-assignment bad from a sentimental point of view? Yes. But you don’t run teams or win championships on emotion, you have to make decisions that are in the best interest of the team long term, even if it’s unpopular with the fans. I love Mookie Wilson as much as anyone, but if his work was subpar then the change was needed. At least they’re offering to keep him within the organization and not putting him out on the street.