How easily can your convictions be swayed? Is it possible that you can be so incredibly passionate about a particular important issue one day, and then a week or two later you find yourself waning and teetering, and before you know it you’ve done a complete 180 and flip-flopped on your previous firmly held conviction?
Are you the kind of person who is easily swayed? Or do you stand firm on your convictions and would need an avalanche of convincing evidence before you give even one inch?
Please take a look at parts of an email I received from a reader on Monday.
“I guess what I’m saying is that given the fact we are now poised for a great run of championship caliber baseball beginning in 2015, maybe we should start acknowledging that the Wilpons have brought us to what could be the greatest era of Mets baseball.”
“Don’t you think you should start cutting the Mets owners some slack and admit that they have brought the franchise to a point we’ve all been hoping for?”
“Who do you think signed off on the Carlos Beltran and R.A. Dickey trades? Who do you think was most responsible for bringing Curtis Granderson and Michael Cuddyer to Flushing? Lucas Duda, Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Jenrry Mejia, and a bunch of other players we are now counting on, were all here already while Sandy Alderson was running errands for Bud Selig and running San Diego into the ground.”
“You could do whatever you want but I think it’s totally unfair of you to keep ripping ownership, an ownership mind you, that has brought this franchise to the brink of greatness.”
This email was very long and wordy, so I only used parts of it. You would all know who the writer was if I mentioned his Disqus ID, but my intent is not to embarrass him or any of your own opinions. As the only true Mets Fan Site, we welcome all points of views from our community. You already know this.
That said, I’m curious as to how many of you share this reader’s sentiments and have begun to warm up to Mets ownership?
As you know, there’s a Met fan who is on a quest to put a couple of “Sell the Team” billboards right in full view of Citi Field and the 7 Train platform. A year or two ago I would have guessed that the $5,000 he needed to raise would have been amassed in as quickly as 2-3 days. But with three weeks gone and one week left it looks like it’s not going to happen.
After posting his interview, no less than 10 other Mets bloggers, podcasters, and one beat writer, contacted me and asked me if I had gone nuts? Why I asked? What’s changed? Did I miss something? Their mixed responses were confusing to me.
It makes me wonder if there’s been a seismic shift in how most fans now view ownership. I read some of the comments on the interview I conducted with this fan and was surprised at how many previously known anti-ownership fans were softening up no differently than the reader who emailed me.
I almost feel as though I’m alone on an island these days and that I’m the one who is out of touch…
The truth is that despite my optimistic view of the team and my expectations for a bright future, my feelings toward ownership haven’t softened one bit.
I just can’t ignore all the tribulations that the team I love has endured since the Wilpons wrestled away full ownership from Nelson Doubleday.
Maybe I’m just being stubborn. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Or maybe I’m just astute enough to realize that what team ownership does and what the front office is doing represent two different dynamics that have nothing to do with each other aside from funding and creating the operational budget.
Or maybe it’s easier for me to separate the team’s performance and my feelings for that from the team’s ownership.
I really don’t know what the answer is, only that I know my feelings toward ownership have not swayed one bit in recent weeks or months.
Even though I believe the Mets are on the verge of some exciting and competitive playoff caliber baseball, I am as resentful against ownership today as I was in 2009.
What about you?
