There seriously must be something brewing in the New York water supply and it’s having a mind numbing, logic nullifying, neuron destroying effect on it’s resident billionaires. How else can you explain the actions- or non-actions- of New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon to not right his sinking ship by tossing General Manager Omar Minaya and Manager Jerry Manuel overboard at this point?

Or Knicks owner James Dolan for his quizzical attempt to re-hire former head coach Isaiah Thomas as a consultant to the team, considering his first run with the Knicks went so swimmingly.

Photo courtesy of Metstradamus

Arrogance and stupidity be damned, this tag team of New York business power brokers seem to have cornered the industry market on head scratching moves.

If the Latin term, “Fortes fortuna adiuvat – Fortune favors the bold – describes New York life, then these men are living the dream; too bad it’s giving it’s resident’s and fans all the subsequent nightmares.

The soap opera that is the New York Mets- seem to be making the days of our lives- ahem- drag on like a never ending bad cliffhanger. With each loss the Mets are falling further and further out of competing. I don’t even dare to say contention at this point since contention implies the potential to overcome and succeed.

No, these gears my friends, are grinding ever so slowly to a disheartening halt, that no injection of a fresh face from a trade or even the cut of player such as Oliver Perez or Luis Castillo could possibly remedy. In fact, the team overall is finally healthy, notwithstanding the usual aches and pains here and there. Yet still they’re sinking and in serious danger of becoming the most expensive irrelevant professional sports franchise outside of Madison Square Garden.

I’ve said all year long that the Mets are the most consistently inconsistent team in Baseball. Take David Wright who I applauded for having a potential MVP quality season no less than a few weeks ago. Since the All Star break Wright has returned to his early season inconsistent self, striking out at alarming rate. His second half .198 batting average is coupled with another power outage- only 3 round trippers and a pathetic 12 RBI and 28 strikeouts in just 96 at bats.

The Mets technically went into this spiral just before the All Star game losing 6 of 10 leading up to the midway classic. Skeptics figured for some time that the team was in need of more than a trade here or there but hindsight is always 20-20. We’ll never know what effect a trade would have had on this team at least psychologically. Having support from management on up does play a role in how a team performs no matter how players want to stoically play it off.

Unfortunately when you couple the inability or desire to make a trade for ANY help along with the gradual decline the team has undergone- and sprinkle in some of the most idiotic managerial moves from Jerry Manuel- it shouldn’t be a huge surprise where the Metropolitans are right now.

To add insult to injury, Francisco Rodriguez decided to go all Fight Club on his father-in-law, getting himself arrested at CitiField for punching him with an order of protection placed on him as a chaser. I guess Darryl Strawberry should finally be happy now that someone on the team is showing a nasty streak, aren’t you? Disgraceful.

All the while we have Mets ownership tight lipped as ever except for the praise Fred Wilpon expressed for both his son and COO Jeff Wilpon and Omar Minaya for the job’s they’ve done. I’m not sure a pat on the back is what this dynamic duo needs or better yet deserves. Perhaps what irks me most is the flippant way Fred Wilpon responded to a question from a reporter of the New York Post when asked if Omar Minaya will continue in his position. His response-

“Will the sun come out tomorrow?”

Later as Wilpon tried to make his escape from the Post, he was asked about how his son Jeff is doing- leading to this gem of a response.

(As to how Jeff Wilpon is doing) “Excellent…everybody knows that.”

Why do I feel like Danny De Vito in the movie Twins when he meets Schwarzenegger for the first time and is told that he’s his twin brother- and De Vito says wryly,

“Well obviously. The moment I saw you I thought I was looking in the mirror.”

This is the type of self delusional mentality the Mets have come to, a similar fate that has been prescribed to the New York Knicks and it’s Chairman, James Dolan who recently saw fit to make an attempt to re-hire former head coach Isaiah Thomas as an adviser.

Yes the same Isaiah Thomas who was embroiled and found liable along with MSG of a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him by a former New York Knicks executive- costing the team $11.6 million in damages. The same Isaiah Thomas who’s vast knowledge of basketball- did little to pull his team out of the depths of irrelevance and failure.

If one can make a true comparison to both the Knicks and the Mets it’s that both teams have made questionable long term commitments to players- turning contracts into franchise paralyzing albatrosses.

Luckily for the Knicks they’ve finally come out of the dark with those contracts. As for the Mets, the gifts will keep on giving for a few more years to come.

It goes to show you that money doesn’t buy you common sense. I’m a believer in loyalty and there’s no question that both the Fred Wilpon and James Dolan have that in spades, but there comes a time that all soap operas get canceled.

Here’s to hoping for cloudy Seattle days in Salem…I mean Queens.