Joel Sherman of the New York Post says the Mets are in the perfect position to take back control of New York from the Yankees.
“You may remember how they were going to be carried back into the warm embrace of this city by Generation K. It was an idea that so frightened George Steinbrenner he demanded after the 1995 season the Yankees go with a kid shortstop in 1996 just to show they had a farm system, too.”
Sherman contends that it is not far-fetched to believe New York can be a National League city again. He cites the Mets’ deep and promising pitching, the return of Matt Harvey, and the emergence of Travis d’Arnaud and Lucas Duda
First of all, how about we get to .500 before we start waving the pom-poms? The Braves and Nationals are both on pace for 90 win seasons. To catch them the Mets will have to win 90 games too, or in other words they’ll have to go 45-22 the rest of the way.
Secondly, where are the star attractions in the lineup? David Wright is in the golden years of a great career. Curtis Granderson is also on the wrong side of 30. He cites Lucas Duda and Travis d’Arnaud based on what? A nice three week stretch?
Furthermore, Sherman completely ignores the biggest problem with the Mets and the one thing that blows a 50 foot wide hole in his theory – the Mets owners – and specifically Jeff Wilpon who pretty much holds and pulls all the strings now.
It was easy to own this town with a great farm system busting at the seams with talent. But lets not ignore that Frank Cashen went after megastar power like Gary Carter and Keith Hernandez and added savvy veterans like Ray Knight and Bobby Ojeda to complete the puzzle. That 1986 team was easy to love. They were exciting to watch. They had a roster full of personality that sucked us all in.
Maybe some day we can own this city again, but it will take more than Loyalty Pledges, Free Shirt Fridays and Huey Lewis and the News. And we’ll have to do a lot better than Chris Young for $7.5 million and trading off every star player we can’t afford to keep including our own homegrown All Stars.
Why don’t the Mets start off small and try to steal their own town of Flushing back from the Yankees before reporters start floating the notion that New York can be a National League town again? How about that for a start?
