Tom Seaver was and had been the best pitcher in baseball for almost 10 years. In addition he had almost no physical problems that made him a risk for the Mets.

With the coming of Free Agency, mediocre pitchers who had a good year were suddenly getting close to three times what Seaver was getting. Tom Seaver asked that he be given a contract extension with escalating salaries so that he would be paid what he was worth.

Grant was an old timer who would have made a good Southern plantation owner with slaves and he treated his players as if they were his to play with. In those days writers like Dick Young were on the payroll and he began spewing all kinds of b.s in the NYC papers. when it came to the attention of the non involved Payson/ Whitney heirs they offered Tom Seaver exactly what he asked for but the Grant/ Young tirades turned on the heat and brought Tom’s family into the matter……At that point Seaver wanted out of NY and Grant was happy to trade him away…..

M DONALD GRANT WAS AN IDIOT WHO DID NOT SEE WHAT WAS COMING

Before you make a comment….you should know the facts….THE WHOLE AFFAIR and the subsequent trade was known as the Midnight Massacre and still the worst day that longtime Met fans remember.

For many of us, it’s not a question of extending David’s contract or not but the motives behind the overall personnel moves made by the front office – are these genuine moves believed (right or wrong) to strengthen the club on the field, whether in the short-term or long-term, or is priority being placed on what is better for the owners themselves (at least in the short term) due to their still unknown financial stability or unstability (with rebuilding as a smoke screen).

Sandy Alderson is very prudent when it comes to finances and, as many might or might not know, he had no interest in becoming the Mets GM but applied for it at the bequest of Bud Selig. With the Wilpons always willing to spend whatever they thought would take to bring home a winner and suddenly turn to the complete opposite of Omar to that of Sandy it is not off-base for many of us to suspect the financial stability of the Wilpons was and still is taking precident over the building up of the team (and Selig urging Sandy to apply for the job leads to the speculation about Bud Selig’s role in the actual affairs of the team as well).

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-02-02/sports/27738554_1_mets-gm-wilpons-payroll

Also, just because one team gives a long term deal to a similar player does not mean the Mets have to. What if that Zimmerman deal becomes a disaster? Does one team making a bad decision give you an excuse to make the same mistake?

My two cents worth!

He deserves to finish he career as the 1st homegrown talent to start and finish with NY Mets.
He should be the face of the franchise as they move forward with the new up and coming arms in system and I believe presented the chance he will deliver in post season.

Congratulations on passing the Straw Man David!

You understand I was only talking about the past week and that I was commenting more about this being a young team that can come quite down on itself very easily without one or two take charge guys? They did play awful the last two games in Atlanta and throughout the entire Giants series.

Was not referring to a lack of desire or not playing hard – just that their self confidence appeared low at this point and that often results in uninspired play which is not unusual; we’ve seen this with many a team many a time over many a year.

Hopefully one or two hitters will start to get hot which is all the team really needs to get it’s spark back. And hopefully we won’t need to have this friendly discussion this time next week.

LGM.

Although none of us like to admit it, baseball is a business.

While people are dissing on Jose for lack of loyalty, cant the same be said about Mets management? Loyalty goes both ways.

Rather than continue this going in circles i’ll just leave it at that I will have to agree to disagree and move on.

Hopefully the Mets can in time do enough for you to change your opinion about them and by the same token I hope the Mets don’t show me anything to make me agree with yours.

Have a good one.

LGM!!!

But the Mets did not make any such an offer and that is the bottom line. Jose had nobody to deal with as far as the front office was concerned. If there were negotiations and the Mets offered a fair contract and Jose still walked, that would be an entirely different story. In fact, I wish such an offer was indeed made so we can see how sincere one is about loving playing in front of the fans and living in the city.

I’m not suggesting at all that the team doesn’t want to go out and win, but I do mean that their confidence is low and that they are quite down on themselves, resulting in uninspired play. According to the American Heritage College Dictionary, uninspired means “dull” whereas inspired means “motivated”. When any of us is depressed, it is hard to be motivated. The same goes for athletic competition. How often have we heard of a depressing club house?

I think these kids will snap out of it but without some veteran leadership to help keep them more at a steady level they are also going to be suseptable to many ups and downs instead.

Jose was willing to negotiate a deal before the 2011 season started, the Mets didn’t want to. He said he didn’t want to negotiate during the season…was he supposed to take a low ball offer in the middle of one of his beat seasons?

But yes, the Mets knew what they would/could spend on Jose…Jose got offered more from the Marlins…but why should we boo him for that?

Alderson never showed any real interest in signing him. What Five year deal did the Mets offer him? They hinted they might give him an three year deal with incentive biased options…Jose got a better deal, no real counter offer, so he took the deal.

Can you really blame him for that?

To be fair, John, Wright ahsn’t been put to the test yet. Lets see what he does when free agency is looming, rather than a team option.

Sorry but describing the team as uninspired, lack of effort and losing attitude I view as selling the team short. Like I said your not watching the same team I am if that is your description of this team after 17 games.

I remember the first post I made I called myself Joe D., not realizing the monicker already belonged to you and someone called you a hypocrite and your answe was “that wasn’t me be somebody else”. LOL

Oh, if only they did indeed not own the team.