I first started to have second thoughts about the Wilpons as baseball owners when I head Jeff being interviewed by Mike Francesa the winter before Citi Field opened. He was emphasizing how the Mo Zone was going to create excitement with balls hit in the gap that could go for triples along with playing balls off the tricky fences. My thought was “this isn’t baseball”. But that was that. When the ticket prices were announced, I figured I would just go through Stub Hub. On TV when they began highlighting all the stores and restaurants and I realized more emphasis was placed on the commercial aspects. A friend of mine, who is an architect, went to a conference there and said it was a nice convention center. That is different from being described as a ball park.

After the park opened we began hearing about the problems with the outfield. I thought it was from the folks sitting in the stands behind left. Mets VP Howard went on the radio and said fans were not used to outfield seats in fair territory. It was only when we sat in section 525, a little past third base, when we were aghast about how much of left was out of view (because of the restaurant underneath, which is not the case in right field). Then everything else seemed to fall into place as to why a friend of mine said he felt like a “second class citizen” at Citi Field. Those exclusive entrances, only one escalator to the top, etc. And unlike Shea, where there were escalators galore and it was easy getting to the upper deck, at Citi it felt like a long trek. What was the final blow was having a season ticket holder throw out the first pitch. Of course, that is a perk for paying through the nose but it still felt like these people were being made more important than us.

So my thoughts were the Wilpons were willing to spend all they could on the team (wisely or not) but didn’t give a damn about the average fan, only those with money to burn. Even from a business perspective, that is poor management. But now we’re stuck. A smaller ballpark means higher prices due to less seating. They knew that. They knew the type of park they were designing. They wanted to max out profit as far as they could, even by shutting out us fans without that money to burn. That is why I have no sympathy for them now now that they are in such financial straits.

P.S.: I think most, perhaps almost all, Mets fans were unjustly down on Castillo. He owned up to his dropped pop fly against the Yankees and was a gamer in my view.
P.P.S.: I think most, perhaps almost all, Mets fans were unjustly down on Omar for the signing. As I’ve said often in the past, Omar was caught in a vise in which there was more teams — Mets, Astros, White Sox — than good guys at 2B. He took a reasonable course of action in my view and avoided re-signing Kaz and getting Luis.

That’s the only reason he didn’t ship Jose off during the middle of the season like KRod and Beltran. Jose was by far the most popular of the three and it would have been the last straw with the fans – as it has now become. Am sure Sandy would have preferred securing another prospect for the “rebuilding” of the team if it wasn’t for that.

And I have to believe as devastating losing a half billion dollars can be, the Mets would have been in bad financial state no matter what. The Wilpon plan of charging fans through the nose and making it un-affordable to so many and thus shutting them out, along with the ill will they caused by treating fans sitting in the upper deck as steerage sealed that fate.

I remember his first game at Shea, the crowd gave Louis a standing ovation when as he stepped up to the plate that first inning. Fans, however, got frustrated with his play, not recognizing that he took strikes more than other players because he was a good two strike hitter and had a high OBP. It also helped wear down the pitcher for the later innings. But then age caught up with him. He was already on the way down that night in 2007 and simply could no longer play up to the standards he had in the past. He wasn’t bad but was a step slower in the field, his OBP became lower, etc. Yet, because of his contract we had to play him despite his declining skills and thus he became the whipping boy for the fans.

A three year contract at that stage of his career due was an offer from Omar that he could not refuse. But Louis tried his best and did not deserve the fan’s wrath. He still gave 100 percent which was more than could be said about some of his team mates.

Castillo came over here and played hard and he played hurt. He tried to do the things he could and didn’t try to do what he couldn’t.

The guy couldn’t even get off the ground without doing a pushup his knees hurt so bad. It wasn’t so much him, it was the thought process in resigning him. Why would you sign a 32 year old to play 2B for four years even if he didn’t need knee surgery on both knees in the off season? And how is someone supposed to get in shape when their off the feet most of the off season?

Why would you sign him without even exploring a trade or waiting for the non tender list or rule 5 draft.

The number of second basemen in the entire history of the game that play well after age 32 is almost infintismal and it’s not like we could have reasonably expected Valentin to go on forever either which really begs the question, why didn’t we address 2B before the 2008 off season and not gotten painted into a corner?

If the answer is to wait until the off season for every need then that’s what your going to wind up with, no different than Church and Schneider or Greene.

This team wasn’t really in a position to give away or not take back 1st and 2nd round draft choices because the talent base wasn’t there to support it. Not for everyday position players, not for the bench, not for the pen or backups either.

We were always limited to “whoever was available.”

Would you waste your talent and energy with a team that is pretty far from vying for a championship?

Still, I hate his frickin’ guts in that silly Marlins hat!!!

Careful running down that first base line, Jose, can be brutal on the hammies.

Up until then, I had heard how hard he was trying and how much time he spent working with the youngins’. When he was dropped, he was a little cranky, but that was probably just his pride talking.

The fact is, Castillo was old and physically unable to perform at a level required of a starting 2B. That doesn’t make him a bad person. Just a bad player.