Looking Forward

One of my biggest complaints over the last couple of years has been the Mets lack of any overall plan or philosophy. I have consistently said that this team's problems are so much deeper than what we have been forced to watch on a day in day out basis from the big league mess. The reality is that the Mets are not a one big signing away team and they have refused to acknowledge that, instead just plodding along year in and year out acting as everything would be OK. The awful truth is that there has been a flaw in not only the make up of this team but with the entire way the organization is run; and watching the front office refuse to acknowledge it has been just as frustrating as watching the team's dreadful play. It is for that reason that I am excited about the hiring of Sandy Alderson. While I know I will not be ecstatic about his manager and do not anticipate a premium product to grace the filed at Citi Field in 2011, it is extremely refreshing to hear things like "building from the ground up", "a focus on player development", and "the implementation of an overall organizational philosophy." I have said all along, that I have no problem if the Mets don't spend money this year, as long as I believed they were going to focus on fixing the fundamental problems and rebuild their infrastructure; something that I had no hope for up until a week and a half ago.

Unfortunately, it is hard to even share in that small sense of enthusiasm with fellow Met fans, many of whom have become so negative that they choose to rip down any sense of optimism that I wish to express. While I completely understand where these fans are coming from in their stances of "refusing to ever go to a game again" or their criticism of everything even this new, one week old regime does or says, the fact is that I am finding it to be trying on my soul. For five years my baseball life has become stapled with devastation, disappointment, and just an overall tainting of my soul. What has made this even worse is that these feelings are compounded by CONSTANTLY reliving these emotions in conversations with my Met fan brethren. Frankly, I just can't take it anymore. So, as we begin this new era, I choose to look forward and hang on to something positive. I choose to be hopeful.

Being Blue

Below is a brilliant analysis of the political equivalent of being a Met fan. It is a guest post from "Marms" who is one of only a small handful of real under 40 year old fans of the team from the Bronx fans- meaning he has a sense of his team's modern day history pre 1996, which is rare for most of his brethren, nor does he support the marketing of pink hats.

Following these last elections I began thinking that being a Democrat must be a lot like being a Mets fan. Both "teams" are constantly assaulted by corporate rival who run a tighter more efficient ship. Both teams have a history of being unable to build upon their success. Both teams are filled with lively characters who often can't get out of their own way. As I ruminated on these similarities I came up with the following comparisons:


Obama / Omar:

Both came into power riding a wave of feel good optimism at a new and brighter future. Once in office, both men did some positive things but ultimately failed after a series of miscalculations and half measures undermined the bases confidence in their leadership. In addition, both men have been unfairly accused of making decisions based upon their ethnicity and country of origin.

Bill Clinton / Bobby V.

The charismatic, seasoned veteran whom the base loves and would love to have back. Kept at arms length by a front office that resents his charm, intellect, and ability to get things done.

David Wright / Harry Reid

Skilled, polished, dull, predictable, corporate insiders who tries to maintain cordial relationships with all his opponents. Although in a position of leadership he is seemingly incapable of lighting a fire under his fellow teammates or base.

Jose Reyes / Nancy Pelosi

Do they help? Do they hurt? Are we better off with them, or does their baggage come with too high a price? There is no denying that when they are on, they are productive, but no one riles the opposition more and questions linger over how much heart they truly have.

Blue Dog Dems / Jeff Wilpon

The meddling interference with the overall plan, the total lack of understanding of what the base wants, the constant need to “play it safe”, the grandstand “pay attention to me” attitude, all present in Jeff-W and the BDD.

Joe Biden / Fred Wilpon

The elder statesmen have done great work on the fringe (fighting to end the war / Building Citifield) but both still cannot escape controversy, have been accused of having lost touch with the base, and have put their foot in their mouths on multiple occasions.

Alan Grayson / K-Rod

Competitive, hot tempered, tough on enemies and teammates, passionate. Both men have exhibited erratic and foolish behavior that has (and may have) cost them a place on the team.

Jimmy Carter / Keith Hernandez

Both of these former leaders are clearly unimpressed with the current regimes and have been known to offer straight and unfettered criticism, while at the same time reminding the base of what it was like to play real hardball back in the day.

Ted Kennedy / Carlos Beltran

Once great titans, the impact of their deaths has been felt deeply by their respective teams.

Vetting Sandy

Considering all the speculation on Sandy Alderson being the front runner for the Mets vacant GM Position, I have been doing some vetting on the man. Below is an article that was posted on "Ducksnorts", a Padres blog site, by Geoff Young.

Chatting with Sandy, Part 1

Chatting with Sandy, Part 2

Yes He Does

Graham Womak at "Baseball Past & Present" poses the question, "Does Keith Hernandez Belong in The Hall of Fame?", citing:

"Hernandez was a five-time All Star, 11-time Gold Glove winner, and ranks among the best first basemen not in the Hall of Fame. He has the most Gold Gloves of any first baseman all-time, ranks third in career Wins Above Replacement for non-enshrined players at his position, and in his prime, was perhaps the best first baseman in the National League, if not the majors. In 17 seasons, Hernandez had 2,182 hits and a .296 lifetime batting average.".

While I do believe Hernandez is worthy of the Hall, I understand that there are legitimate arguments for and against. There are, however, no legitimate arguments against having his number 17 retired. Its an absolute joke that his number does not sit along the left field wall.

You can find Womak's fill article at: http://baseballpastandpresent.com/2010/10/05/does-he-belong-in-the-hall-of-fame-keith-hernandez/

Why Bobby Makes Sense

With the Omar Era coming to an end and the Wilpons FINALLY expressing a need to change the culture of the organization I feel compelled to chime in on the future of the Mets. While I agree that priority number one is to hire a General Manager who has the autonomy to choose the manager, the fact is that the GM should have to look no further than Bobby Valentine when making that decision. There are a number of reasons I feel this way and below are the top 5:

1. He will energize the fan base. There has been a lot of talk about the need to energize the fan base. Lets face it, the Mets are not going to be anything close to a perennial contender for a few years. This is not a situation, where they are one player away and need just a little boost to get over the hump. Changing the culture of this franchise is a long-term project; and because of that there is no one player on the horizon whose acquisition is going to get people pumped up. This is not a 2007 Hot Stove situation, when fans believed Johan Santana was enough to get them past the infamous collapse and on to a championship season in 2008.

The fact is, the Mets are in a much different situation now and need to look at more long- term goals. Therefore, the fans will not buy into an overpaid superstar as a savior. They will however buy into Bobby V. Why? Read On.

2. Most importantly, he is a damn good manager. Of all the major sports coaches, baseball managers have the least to do with impacting a win or loss. While this is less so in the National League than American League, you would be hard pressed to find anyone involved in sports to believe that baseball managers have as much of an impact on the outcome of a particular game as an NFL or NBA coach. That being said, Valentine is one of a handful of managers who actually makes a significant difference in the win-loss column.

Just think about the 2000 Met team Valentine took to the World Series. While the team did feature two serious offensive threats in Mike Piazza and Edgardo Alfonzo, a formidable top of the rotation duo in Mike Hampton and Al Leiter, and a pretty decent bullpen, the rest was a below .500 team. For heaven’s sake the outfield consisted of rotating Timo Perez, Daryl Hamilton, Jay Payton, and Benny Agbayani, (and that was after the departure of Derek Bell and Rickey Henderson). The infield was not much better, showcasing an injury plagued Robin Ventura at third base, (.232; 24; 84 RBI’s), a defensively challenged Todd Zeile at first, (.268; 22; 79), and the combination of Rey Ordonez, Melvin Mora, and Mike Bordick at shortstop, (a combined .236;10;60). This cast was part of a National League Championship team?!?! How did that happen?!? Well, much of it had to do with Valentine’s crafty managing style, a style that was put on full display when he completely out-managed Tony LaRussa in the 2000 NLCS.

While players may not all love playing for him, the fact is that Valentine seems to get the most out of mediocre talent. This, coupled, with an uncanny ability to always be one step ahead of his opponent leads to more wins simply because he is the dugout.


3. He gives the Mets an identity. Over the past month of the season Mets radio broadcaster Howie Rose talked a lot about the added pressure that David Wright carries around as being the face of the franchise. Rose pointed out that Wright’s the guy who is expected to make all the PR appearances, do all the commercials, and who serves as the go to guy for reporters. And while its true that this can take its toll on a player, I would also add that Wright is pretty boring. He never says anything very interesting, never expresses much emotion, drops cliché after cliché in describing the team, and rarely, if ever, veers from the party line. In other words, he is your typical modern day baseball star.

Valentine is everything that Wright is not. And while it is unusual to think of a manager as being as identifiable with a team as its star player that is exactly what makes him so unique.

4. He takes pressure off the players. I never understood why it was a bad thing that Valentine was a lightning rod for controversy. His antics and remarks always caused the media to focus on him, while his players could just play. This quality would be even more beneficial to today’s even softer and more sensitive player.

5. The New York Factor. No need to go into an entire in depth analysis of the extra hardships posed by managing in New York. We hear, read, and talk about it to death. Simply put, it takes a special kind of person that can handle the media and the pressure. Valentine has proven he can do both and be successful.

Hope

Over the past month I have logged onto this site multiple times, each time staring aimlessly at the screen. Despite my efforts to focus and search the inner workings of my brain for some sort of inspiration I have found nothing. There is only so much I can write on the subject matter of ineptitude, embarrassment, irritation and disappointment.

As the weeks have gone on- and my frustration intensifying at this complete block- the fans have grown agitated; my inbox flooded with emails demanding a statement, a rant, an article, anything regarding AMF's opinion on the state of the Mets. And all the while I have felt helpless, like a powerless and blood ridden Clark Kent after a beat down in a local diner at the hands of Rocco , who is forced to watch as E.J. Marshall poses to the world: "Superman Where Are You?!?!?"

Well, over the past twenty four hours I have found that spark. I have found that voice in my head that eagerly repeats itself over and over again and won't stop until I commit it to the written word; and, ironically enough, it is not a voice of desperation, but one of hope. That's right, hope.

With the "unofficial official" news that Jerry will not be returning as Mets manager, nor Omar as GM, we can start to move beyond the last five years, which has been the worst era in Mets history. With this news, and just as importantly the news that the Mets will be looking at candidates for both positions outside the organization, I feel a sense of excitement at what the future may hold. Now, don't get me wrong: I remain cognizant of the fact that the Wilpons still own this team, and within weeks my optimism will reverse course when we hear reports that the Mets have decided to remain in house and promote John Ricco and hire Bob Melvin. But for now I choose to relish in the unknown.

I choose to dream of new possibilities; i choose to believe that Jeff Wilpon will be reigned in by his just as clueless, yet less intrusive father; I choose to believe that the baseball gods have chosen to sabotage Bobby Valentine's plans to return to the majors with the likes of Florida and Cleveland, so that he can be back at his natural home in Flushing; I choose to believe that a new respected baseball man will come in and not throw big money at mediocre talent, but invest in the draft and over see the building of a deep and talented farm system; and I choose to believe that within a few years the Mets can not only be contenders, but be made up of players who don't bitch and complain about the griddy brand of baseball played by the hated Phillies, but recognize it as the only way to play.

In spanish "Lets Go" is translated as "Vamos." And at the beginning of the Omar era, when there was so much hope on the horizon I enthusiastically showed up at Shea in a crowd of 50,000 string chanting "Vamos Mets!" Tomorrow, five years later I will show up amongst a crowd of 15,000 strong at Citi Field, with a sense of optimism as I chant "Adios" to a tragic era.

An Endless Cycle

Yesterday morning I returned from my two week Honeymoon in Peru, where my wife and I made a conscious decision to stay as disconnected from the world as possible. No cell phone use. No internet browsing. No checking of voice messages or emails. And absolutely no following of the Mets; after all, nothing can interfere with a relaxing time away that affords the opportunity to regain some perspective than thinking about the Metropolitans. So as I have spent the last day catching up with my world, an unhealthy dose of which revolves around The Amazins', it feels as if I never left.

Apparently, you can spend significant periods of time cutting the Mets out of your life and would not miss a thing because it is always the same story: the team is under achieving and inspire no hope for their fan base; the usual parties continue to suffer from recurring injuries; the manager gives brutal press conferences where he drawls on an on for twenty-minutes leaving the fans to wonder if he is talking about the same group they have been forced to watch; and of course all this is topped off by theater of the absurd moment involving key personnel, in which every fan, sportswriter, blogger, reporter, analyst, etc. AROUND THE NATION provides the obligatory, "Only the Mets" statement.

The Mets have managed to become so predictable in not only their ineptitude but in their drama that in following them you feel as you are immersed in a "Groundhog Day" world, where you are living the same day over and over again. Unfortunately, unlike Bill Murray's Phil, our role as Met fans are not characters in a movie where we can look forward to an end to the monotony of it all.

Angry Met Fan would like to thank the guest writers for their postings during my absence. Hopefully they will continue to post whenever they so desire as their insight only adds to the bright future of this blog.