Meet the Mets

Here's your chance to show your solidarity with the distressed fans of the distressed New York Metropolitans.

Screw Phillips

I sure miss Fire Joe Morgan, but this will do nicely in a pinch.

My point is not to knock those guys. They’re great players. They do some things better than Beltran. And there are other things they don’t do as well. If you want to have a fair fight and compare what they do, how they play the game, fine. But saying stuff like this drives me mad:

“I think at times, while he puts up some numbers, his game is inconsistent. There are times where, in pressure situations, he hasn’t gotten the job done.”

See? Here we go. Even though Beltran puts up “some numbers” his game is “inconsistent.”

Some numbers = tangible.

Inconsistent = intangible.

Carlos Beltran is actually quite consistent. He’s a great centerfielder year after year. That takes consistency. He is the best percentage base stealer in baseball history. That takes consistency. He has, as mentioned, scored 100 runs, driven in 100 RBIs eight times. That takes consistency. He has only once in the last seven years hit fewer than 25 homers, driven in fewer than 100 runs, put up an OPS+ of less than 126. If anything, Beltran is TOO consistent, and that consistency has left knuckleheads demanding that he be greater than great … you know, by improving his intangibles.*

*Or is it increasing his intangibles? Monetizing his intangibles? Tangiblizing his intangibles?

One more Phillips gem:

While he has that great talent, there are times when he doesn’t play the game and make plays.

Yep, those players who don’t play the game or make plays, those are the worst kinds of players in the world. You want a player who plays the game, makes plays, a player who makes game plays, the plays gamers play to make, a player who makes plays for plays that playmakers make.

I caught some of the hilarity in the booth Sunday night. I'm pretty sure Steve Phillips is there to make Joe Morgan look prepared.

Oy the Mets

That Fred Wilpon, the NY Mets owner, was a Madoff victim* was known, but it appears the Mets organization may have been even more deeply involved then previously known.

The customers include prominent people and institutions that already had been publicly revealed, such as the Wilpon family, owner of the New York Mets.

Also listed were more than two dozen accounts involving the Mets and companies affiliated with their owners were listed, many with addresses at Shea Stadium.

I guess we now know why Omar Minaya hasn't been in the Manny sweepstakes.

And I'm not surprised to learn that Sandy Koufax was on the list as well. He and Wilpon went to HS together and remain close.

* The definition of "victim" is a little strange in reference to a Ponzi scheme since, until it's exposed, the investors are themselves benefitting from the scheme. Beyond their original investment, isn't everything else they lost ill-gotten?

The wake

Only the Mets would decide to hold a last game at Shea "celebration" after a game in which they may be eliminated. Delgado just flew out deep to left with two runners on in the last half of the 8th. The Brewers' walk off win is up on the scoreboard at Shea.

"And that's just as good as money"

I don't think I've ever read a story about baseball that is both completely cynical and engages in some of the most clichéd and hoary hackery about the sport as this from Tim Marchmann. But you gotta love this.

In leaving as he has, Rodriguez has also made himself larger than Joe Torre's retirement, the ascension of a new generation of Steinbrenners (both of whom, bizarrely, go by diminutives of the same name), and the replacement of Torre. Everyone always felt that no matter how many MVP awards he won and no matter how many times he carried a team that's gone months without reliable pitching, he had still never done anything to be as outsize as Reggie Jackson or Mark Messier or whoever. He has now. Derek Jeter may have four rings, but he never responded to press reports that he was about to be offered a $150 million contract by essentially severing ties with a team. If money is how you show respect in sports — and it is — A-Rod has more respect than any jewelry can ever earn.

First of all "jewelry" can't "earn" respect. Winning four rings has earned Derek Jeter enough "respect," that despite a lack of range in the field and really good, but not dominant numbers on offense (in this age of the power-hitting shortstop), he will enter the Hall on the first ballot. Oh, and by the way, Mr. November made $21.7 million last year.

Secondly, Rodriguez didn't turn down an offer from the Yankees because they never had the opportunity to offer it (Boras' strategery being, no doubt, that he didn't want a public offer from the Yankees which, in turning down such a huge number, could have scared away other teams). But never mind. In what universe does turning down $150 million from one of the very few teams with the resources and willingness to offer it in the first place (remember, that's $30 million/per year) earn someone "respect?" Amazement, maybe. Derision, surely. But not really what I'd call "respect."

Look, nowhere has Alex Rodriguez been more defended and lauded than on this humble blog (well, maybe, Ken Tremendous can make a claim to that), and we'll have to wait for the ghostwritten memoirs to learn his real motivation for leaving Yankee Stadium -- confines that have been decidedly more friendly for him recently. But his timing was crass, going along with his agent and not even entertaining a proposal from the Yankees was unnecessary, and his reasons for leaving are bullshit. And what he's done more than anything -- even for those of us who enjoyed watching the best player in the game for the last four years and will miss the 150 runs he scored last year -- is cement his reputation for not being able to stand the glare of New York for very long. And for a level of narcissism rare even among professional athletes.