To Jeff Wilpon The Mets Are Just A Laughing Matter…

That charming headline appeared in a May 29th Daily News article by the rabble-rousing Filip Bondy

You may remember that Jeff Wilpon showed up at Citi Field and made a rare public appearance during a pregame ceremony for Mariano Rivera, who threw out the first pitch, and eventually the last. That was the day that the Mets COO gave up on the season and let the future HOF closer know about it.

The title caught my eye like a mangled raccoon on Interstate 94, but as I wasn’t able to read it until days later. I tried to hold my preconceptions in check, but it looked like Jeff may have put his foot in his mouth again. Or maybe not… Here is what he actually said: “Wish we could see you in the World Series,” Wilpon told Rivera. “But I’m not sure that’s going to happen.”

For Mr. Bondy, this is tantamount to throwing in the towel, giving up, abandoning hope and tucking tail, only one problem … that’s not really what the words say. “I’m not sure that’s going to happen,” doesn’t mean it won’t … or can’t, or even will not … Correct me but don’t those words mean that Jeff WIlpon isn’t certain the 2013 Mets will make it to the World Series?

On what planet is this a revelation? Is this not what any rational person might say under the circumstances? Am I actually coming to Jeff Wilpon’s defense? What kind of warped alternate reality have I just stepped into? Cue the Twilight Zone music.

For Mr. Bondy these comments were outrageous, an affront to his own lofty standards for spirited competition. He never even thought about giving up when he was on the chess team back at the University of Wisconsin (Badgers never surrender!), or maybe it brings back all those ugly memories in H.S. when the jocks would make Filip cry “uncle” between an atomic wedgie and a swirlie. You may recall, this is the same “Flip” Bondy who spent a year in 2004 with the “Bleacher Creatures” in Yankee Stadium and who wrote the following in 2010 as he was gearing up to cover the ALCS:

“Ryan’s no-hitters aside, this ALCS represents one of sports’ great historical mismatches, 40 pennants versus zero. The Yanks should win this series just by throwing their pinstriped uniforms onto the  field and reading from a few pages of The Baseball Encyclopedia. If only Bud Selig would agree to waive a few silly postseason rules, the Bombers might send their Scranton/Wilkes-Barre roster to Arlington for the first couple of games, make this a fair fight.”

Of course the impossible to beat Yankees lost that series the same way they recently lost four games to the Mets, shocker.

Now lets pan back a little ways to 2008 and look at a different quote by a different NY Journalist.

“The Yankees are absolutely down two stars this season, Jorge Posada and Hideki Matsui. They still have enough big names and big contracts in their batting order and that is why it is almost bewildering that, at this point in the season, it is so difficult picking an offensive MVP for them. Right now the closest to that, the player doing the job you expect him to do, is the guy hitting between Jeter and A-Rod, Bobby Abreu.”

“But the biggest offensive disappointment in town, as much of an under-producer as any big name or big ticket or big player either New York team has, is Carlos Beltran.”

The above  was written by Mike Lupica in August of 2008. Lupica never seemed to appreciate Beltran and it is believed his attacks may have had at least something to do with Carlos’ brief media blackout after his difficult first year in NY. To read Lupica on Beltran you’d think the guy slept with his wife or stole his lunch money or failed to treat him with the customary reverence media royalty demand. I never quite understood the unceasing vitriol directed at a guy who by all accounts was a great player (the best center-fielder the Mets have ever had) and a decent human being.

Maybe Lupica was upset that Beltran didn’t end up in pinstripes? Who knows. Maybe Beltran brushed past Lupica in the clubhouse on his way to the restroom just as Mike was trying to ask a question? Hard to say, but, beyond the questionable beef stir-fry at the player’s buffet, what was clear was the one man campaign Lupica went on to try and destroy an athlete’s reputation. None of the accusations that Lupica leveled against Carlos were true, not the selfishness, or the lack of leadership, or the absence of passion, or the surly listlessness, in fact, to anyone who knew Beltran and had actually watched him play, they were categorically false.

Or how about Lupica lumping Beltran in with Castillo and Perez (two bonafide lumps) during the whole Walter Reed fiasco, even though Beltran had a more than legitimate reason than them not to attend? This didn’t prevent Lupica from throwing in a nasty little innuendo:

“All athletes worry about their next contracts when they get close to the end of their current ones. It is why Beltran wanted to get back on the field, even in his current diminished capacity, hoping he would look better than he has before his walk year, worried about what happens to him when he comes to the end of his $100 million contract a year from now.”

Lupica once called Beltran “as much of a free-agent disappointment as any big hire the Yankees or Mets have ever made.” Remember, this is a guy who had a 7.5 WAR in 2006 (only Pujols had a higher WAR a 5.1 WAR in 2007, and a 7.1 WAR in 2008 and who by almost any and all measures more than earned his salary over the course of his contract. Carlos remains one of the greatest players ever to put on a Mets uniform, and this is how he is treated? Unbelievable you say?

How about Murray Chass and Mike Piazza? One man’s tenacious obsession with another man’s back acne may very well have resulted in Piazza not entering the hall as a first ballot inductee. The personal and relentless focus on one of New York’s good guys was weird and creepy, and for what? In the end it seemed Murray’s one man witch hunt was more about Chass demonstrating the power of his pen and less about the ethics of PED use. Chass had this to say in a recent post on his blog following this last ill-fated HOF vote.

“When I worked for The New York Times, I tried more than once to write about Piazza and steroids, but the baseball editor said I couldn’t because his name hadn’t been linked to steroids. I can link his name to steroids, I countered, but I had to wait until I started this Web site to talk about Piazza’s acne-covered back, a generally accepted telltale sign of steroids use.”

Didn’t matter that the accusations were largely based on one observation of some acne which may very well have been caused by Mike’s chest protector straps. Didn’t matter that Piazza had an on and off again history of problems with acne since High School, nope, all that mattered was that Chass was certain that Piazza was a roider, judge jury and executioner.

Lets go even further back in our little insidious chronology to February 1977 when Tom Seaver blasted M. Donald Grant for not doing more to improve the team. Later that summer, with a contract agreed upon in principle on the table, Seaver called Grant and demanded a trade after an article by Dick Young came out in which Young commented:

“Nolan Ryan is getting more [salary] now than Seaver, and that galls Tom because Nancy Seaver and Ruth Ryan are very friendly and Tom Seaver long has treated Nolan Ryan like a little brother.”

For Seaver the personal nature of the comment was “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” he would not tolerate his family being dragged into the fray. Young faced numerous conflict of interest allegations in the press and was vilified by the fans who were aware of his close ties to Grant and McDonald, and the fact that his son-in-law worked for the Met front office.

The day after the trade, in a rare direct assault on a fellow member of the press, Maury Allen of the New York Post responded, “It is Young who forced the deal, who urged Grant on, who participated strongly in the unmaking of Tom Seaver as a Met.”

The wolf spider is known for a particularly peculiar practice, they will very often devour their own young.

You can’t walk into the Met clubhouse without feeling it. The tension is thick and palpable. I couldn’t help notice on the occasions when I was present that there was visible consternation among many Mets players at having to negotiate the press gauntlet, starting most prominently with Terry Collins who seemed acutely agitated and perturbed — even after a win. It was painfully obvious that this team did not like or trust the press. Their words were measured, their inflection flat, their demeanor extremely guarded.

I’m not saying the N.Y. Press should act like a bunch of obsequious homers pandering to a less than informed home crowd as you might see in some other cities. I’m not saying they shouldn’t continue to hold athletes who play in N.Y. to a higher standard. N.Y. is a tough place and New York’s news-media establishment is the one of the most prestigious in the world. If you can make it in N.Y. right? But there’s a difference between holding players to a higher standard and petty character assassinations.

When you contemplate the ubiquitous nature of the N.Y. media, the brightness of the big city spotlight, and the intensity of the fan base, playing in N.Y. is hard enough, we don’t have to make it any harder by subjecting these kids to the megalomaniac rants of self-declared kingmakers holding who knows what grudges against an organization and it’s players. Bondy has openly admitted his dislike of the Mets dating back to 1969 when they dashed his Cubs’ hopes. Seriously? He’s upset because the Cubs lost? That’s like holding a grudge against a bear for pooping in the woods.

It’s hard enough to play in the Major Leagues and it’s hard enough to do so in New York, but when the press becomes it’s own story, adding to an increasingly difficult set of hurdles that young often foreign born players have to overcome, you almost get the sense they are spiting their own just for the hell of it, because they can, and because negativity sells. Circling like sharks at the slightest inkling of controversy ready to destroy lives and careers because they believe it to be within their purview and part of the dog-eat-dog terrain. Meanness for the sake of meanness. Whatever it takes to break a story or make a mark.

I only was in the car long enough to hear his opening monologue, but you know what? He was dead on.

Look, Valdespin is a jerk – he’s an immature bench player who constantly finds himself on the wrong side of the headlines. But he’s our immature bench player.

It’s not about race, it’s not about having it out for a kid who doesn’t deserve it – it’s about the entire team being an utter disaster. If somebody wants to inject race into this issue, they are missing the point and doing a disservice to anybody who has ever dealt with real race issues.

You know, everybody wants to pin the failure on Sandy. That’s fine, everybody who hates him will always hate him. But the truth is, Sandy Alderson cannot magically turn Ike Davis, Jon Niese and Lucas Duda into the players we all thought they’d be. He cannot turn Ruben Tejada into a kid who can handle big league pitching when pre-Jose Reyes, Tejada was pegged as the future 2B. So you cannot even use the Reyes dismissal as an excuse. The players have to perform.

I’m sorry but guys like them mean more to the failure of the Mets than guys like Collin Cowgill or Anthony Recker.

The “plan” was that next year could be a big turning point, but that can’t be true when the guys you are counting on are playing in various level of mediocrity. Ike Davis is an embarrassment. He’s not a star 1B, he’s barely a big league 1B and that changes everything. Spare me this idea that come June he’s going to show up again. Too little too late.

Jon Niese is proving he’s a #2 on a bad team, #3 on a good one – and Duda is proving he truly is one dimensional.

You pair that with the fact Terry Collins who I do like mind you, is more of a minor league instructor than a big league manager. His handling of Valdespin was a “teaching moment.” At this level, the education should be complete. The best example of this is – when David Wright would have gotten beaned last year, Collins wouldn’t let him go out there. He said he knew he’d get hit and so he took him out. He did the reverse with Valdespin. Not because Valdespin is Dominican – because he thinks its his job in the major leagues to educate Valdespin and he forgot that this is a big league club and not a collection of kids.

I think Valdespin is an over hyped bench player, but it’s my job as a fan to think that and shake my head at his antics. It’s not the Manager’s or his teammates job.

Who is the most liked Met player in the clubhouse? I truly don’t know – but lets just say it’s Justin Turner. What if the Pirates decided rather than plunk Valdespin, they were going to hit Turner? What would the Mets players have done? Turn and wag a finger at Valdespin or react to the Pirates? In the major leagues when you want to get your point across to a player, you bench him and talk to him. You don’t air your dirty laundry and you certainly don’t send him out to get beaned.

The screams are becoming louder than Wally Backman needs to be the Manager. I love Wally Backman – he’s my favorite all time player because he was my first favorite player. But he is not the guy for this team. The Mets need an outsider. They need somebody who hasn’t been here, who hasn’t been a part of this dark cloud that has hung over the franchise for the last 7 years. I do not know who that is yet. Part of me is hoping that Mike Scioscia is the guy, and the other has me imagining what would happen if Don Mattingly became available.

Not only was there no MRI or X-Rays but days later Santana was playing catch, getting ready to make his next start.  So much for prevention and recovery I guess. Also once again a New York Mets player was hurt and his injury was misdiagnost. We saw this time and time again in 2009.  Remember when Jose Reyes injured his calf and wound up having surgery on his hamstring?

The Mets also tried to downplay the injury, using CATCHER Jorge Posada as an example.  The last time I checked Johan Santana is not a position player, he relies on his arm to help this team!  They didn’t mention that Mark Prior and Chien-Ming Wang had this surgery recently and have yet to make one pitch in 2010.

Remember last year how Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran were going to return to the Mets after the all-star break but never did? The Mets once again tried to trick us fans into thinking that Santana would be back for 2011 by saying “Santana will be throwing in April.”  First off the language is misleading, throwing is not pitching.  Secondly it is highly likely that Santana could miss 2 years or worse case scenario never pitch again!  Obviously the Mets were trying to bamboozle us to buying tickets to Mets Tomb Citi Field.

The Mets haven’t made the post season since 2006 and it’s clear why: this organization is a poorly run organization and until they learn from their mistakes they will never get anywhere!

Alex Cora’s single in the sixth inning was the only hit the Mets had tonight, as the Yankees came so close to pitching the first no-hitter at Citi Field… For the second day in a row!

What I found most puzzling is that after getting shutout by Burnett at Yankee Stadium on June 16th, I expected the Mets to come out swinging, and instead they were still clueless and inept even after they got a good long look at his stuff a week ago.

Read it and weep…

The Mets lineup featured four players hitting below .250. Gary Cohen mentioned in the broadcast that the Mets starting lineup had a combined 21 homeruns, while the Yankees had 76. We are clearly overmatched by them.

In the last three games against the Yankees, the Mets have been outscored 29-1.

Sadly, Omar Minaya reiterated before the game that they will not be making a deal for a big bat.

Tim Redding started the game and he did battle Burnett for five innings after allowing a solo homerun to Nick Swisher, but it all came crashing down in the sixth inning when Redding allowed four hits on four consecutive pitches with the back-breaker being a three-run homer by Jorge Posada.

Not only did the Yankees maul us, but the Yankee fans mauled us too. This idiotic Yankee fan not only interfered with what looked like a certain catch by Wright, but he pounded his chest and taunted Wright after the ball was deflected to the ground. Yankee fans have no class…

The Mets are now 1 1/2 games out of first as the Phillies won 10-0 tonight.

Livan Hernandez will be on the mound as the Mets look to salvage the last game of the series tomorrow.

Okay here goes… Lets Go Mets!

There… I said it…