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When Wally Attacks

metirish Mar 24 2009 09:29 AM

Wally kills me , any point that might be worth something gets lost in all the hate he seems to have for the Mets organization. It's as if he was bullied by Fred Wilpon or something for years and now this is his way to pay him back , just very strange. ] Imagine a world without Yankees. Imagine a world in which there was no $210-million team playing in a brand-new $1.3-billion ballpark, charging as much as $2,500 for the rights to watch its quarter-of-a-billion-dollar third baseman try to outrun a passel of paparazzi. Imagine if there were no 26 world championship banners flying in the Bronx, no Monument Park to remind us of all the exalted ghosts who helped hoist them, no Boss to create the monster and no Prince Hal or Boy George to systematically destroy it. Imagine if there were no Bob Sheppard, no Robert Merrill, no Challenger the Bald Eagle, no Ronan Tynan. No John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman. No - heaven forbid! - Derek Jeter. What would that leave us with? Right. The Mets. How do you think you'd like that? Better question: How do you think they'd like it? The Mets, that is. The answer, of course, is not much. In a world without Yankees, the Mets would have a whole lot more to answer for. In a town that prides itself on giving no free rides, the Mets have enjoyed a lifetime Metro card into blissful anonymity for most of their 47-year history. They build an $800-million ballpark (Troubled Assets Relief Program Field) financed in large part by government subsidies and taxpayer bailout money, and nobody gives a damn because the Yankees did the same thing, only on a bigger scale, in the Bronx. The Mets raise their highest ticket prices to nearly $300 a seat, which in most locales would be a scandal and an obscenity, and compared to the Yankees, they look like a discount store. The Mets spend more on ballplayers than all but one other team in Major League Baseball. But because that one team is the Yankees, who outspend their nearest competitor by the value of the entire Colorado Rockies roster, nobody cares. And when, with that $140-million roster, the 2008 Mets execute the second of two of the most disheartening back-to-back collapses in baseball history, they somehow fly under the supposedly sensitive New York radar. Why? Because in 2008, the Yankees failed to make the playoffs, too. I would submit that never in the history of organized professional sports has a team benefited so greatly from constantly running second in a two-horse race. Once again, the Mets have enjoyed a fabulous spring. And once again, the Yankees alone take a bullet that should pass through both of them. Despite blowing the NL East for the second straight season, the 2009 Mets come out of camp full of optimism and confident that whatever ailed them in 2008 has been cured. They rid themselves of their in-house "culprits'' - Aaron Heilman, Scott Schoeneweis, Duaner Sanchez, Luis Ayala and, of course, the Wicked Witch of the NL East, Willie Randolph - and added two "saviors,'' Francisco Rodriguez and J.J. Putz. With the help of their main divisional antagonists, the Phillies, they also rid themselves of longtime Mets-killer Pat Burrell, out of the National League. And with the annual assistance of the Yankees and their ever-helpful third baseman, they have rid themselves of having to answer the kind of questions that are routinely asked in Tampa and the Bronx but rarely are heard in Port St. Lucie or Flushing. Such as, after Johan Santana and, hopefully, Mike Pelfrey, which starting pitcher can you truly rely on every five days for a full season? John Maine? Oliver Perez? Livan Hernandez? Pedro Martinez? Or, do you really expect that Daniel Murphy, with all of 131 major-league at-bats to his credit (and, ominously, only two home runs), can handle the responsibilities of an everyday leftfielder? Same goes for rightfielder Ryan Church, who suffered two serious concussions last year and was never the same. Are we to trust that he is fully recovered now? What about Luis Castillo, the subject of this year's spate of disingenuous "rededicated and in the best shape of his life'' training-camp space-fillers? And then there's Brian Schneider, who didn't hit a lick last year but will this year, we are assured, because he now is "more comfortable'' in New York. Never having heard this before this spring, I wonder: When exactly did his comfort level become a problem? Then, of course, there are "the collapses'' to be dealt with. If they didn't choke in 2007 and they didn't choke in 2008, what exactly did they do? Each collapse may have been hideous in its own unique way, but that doesn't change the bottom line. Two years running, the Mets, with the fattest payroll, the most talent and, it often seems, the biggest egos in the division, needed to win one more game to reach October. Two years running, they couldn't do it. Why not? And, considering their history, why should we believe they will do it this season? In a world without Yankees, those are the kinds of questions the Mets would have to answer. In the world the Mets inhabit, those kinds of questions aren't even asked. Their fans may not be able to live with the Yankees, but the Mets wouldn't want to live without them.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Mar 24 2009 09:36 AM

Putting aside Wally's idiotic notion of how much grief a team is deserving of being worth discussion to begin with, the Yankees got a free pass for finishing in 3rd place.

Fman99 Mar 24 2009 09:43 AM

Oh thank goodness for the fucking New York Yankees! Hosannah! Then... Barf! Jeez. People wonder why newspapers are going tits up... maybe it's due to idiots in MLB press boxes.

G-Fafif Mar 24 2009 10:02 AM

If the MFYs didn't exist, perhaps the Mets would have altered their approach to team-building for the long-term and been better off, not feeling the pressure to spend as big in the attempt to keep up or "win now." If the MFYs didn't exist, perhaps the Mets would have been the magnet for all free agents seeking New York money and fame. If the MFYs didn't exist, perhaps the Mets would not have felt compelled to have invested so heavily to become a contender because they would have been the only option in a theoretically baseball-starved fan. Perhaps none of the above would have taken place, but it's asinine (or, to use a synonym, Wally Matthews) to assume the Mets would have proceeded exactly as they have and that the results would have been exactly the same if there were no MFYs. Never mind the rest of his asininity.

Edgy DC Mar 24 2009 11:47 AM

If the Yankees didn't exist, it's hard to imagine another American League franchise wouldn't have popped up in New York some time or another. Imagine if Wally Matthews didn't exist. I actually thought this was going to be about Wally Backman.

metsmarathon Mar 24 2009 11:48 AM

]Despite blowing the NL East for the second straight season, the 2009 Mets come out of camp full of optimism and confident that whatever ailed them in 2008 has been cured. well, i mean, shouldn't they? sure you may quibble with how confident they should be over the effectiveness of the exorcism, but damned if any team shouldn't be optimistic coming out of camp.

G-Fafif Mar 24 2009 11:53 AM

="Edgy DC":34b5d05r]I actually thought this was going to be about Wally Backman.[/quote:34b5d05r] I did, too. Hoped there'd be some umpire getting a YouTube beatdown or something. seawolf17 Mar 24 2009 02:24 PM Re: When Wally Attacks Imagine a world without Mets. Imagine a world in which there was no $120-million team playing in a brand-new multi-million dollar ballpark, charging as much as $280 for the rights to watch its third baseman try his hardest to outshine the glorious shortstop across town. Imagine if there were no Bob Murphy, no Tom Seaver, no Mr. Met, no Mike Piazza. No Gary, Keith and Ron. No - heaven forbid! - David Wright. What would that leave us with? Right. The Yankees. How fucking great would that be? Better question: How do you think they'd like it? The Yankees, that is. The answer, of course, is a lot. In a world without Mets, the Yankees would have more money than God. In a town that prides itself on giving no free rides, the Yankees have enjoyed a lifetime of luxury throughout their 100-plus-year history. They build an $1.2-billion ballpark financed in large part by government subsidies and taxpayer bailout money, and nobody gives a damn because the Mets did the same thing, only their owner got caught up in the Madoff scandal and they sold the naming rights to Satan. The Yankees raise their highest ticket prices to nearly $2,500 a seat, which is fucking obscene. The Yankees spend more on ballplayers than every team in Major League Baseball. But because they haven't won shit since 2000, nobody cares. And when, with that $210-million roster, the 2008 Yankees finish in third place behind both their arch rivals and a team that was nearly contracted out of existence a few years ago, they somehow fly under the supposedly sensitive New York radar. Why? Because in 2008, the Mets tanked just like they did the previous year. I would submit that never in the history of organized professional sports has a team benefited so greatly from running first in a two-horse race. Once again, the Yankees have enjoyed a fabulous spring, Alex Rodriguez's past steroid transgressions, before he was here as a Yankee, notwithstanding. Despite blowing the AL East, the 2009 Yankees come out of camp full of optimism and confident that whatever ailed them in 2008 has been cured. They rid themselves of their in-house "culprits'' - Carl Pavano, Mike Mussina - and added two "saviors,'' CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett. (Keep in mind that Mets-less Yankees existence would mean that Johan Santana would be a Yankee, and so would Francisco Rodriguez, happily putting his flamboyance aside to set up for the greatest reliever in the history of sport, rather than slumming across town.) And with the annual assistance of the Mets and their woeful bullpen and anemic offense, they have rid themselves of having to answer the kind of questions that are routinely asked in Port St. Lucie and Flushing but would never be uttered in the Bronx or in Tampa. Such as, after CC Sabathia, and, hopefully, AJ Burnett, which starting pitcher can you truly rely on every five days for a full season? Chien-Ming Wang, coming off an injury? Brett Tomko? Andy "14-14" Pettitte? Kei Igawa? Joba Chamberlain, he of 124 career major league innings? Or, do you really expect that Brett Gardner, with all of 127 major-league at-bats to his credit (and, ominously, zero home runs), can handle the responsibilities of an everyday center fielder, a position once held by such luminaries as Mickey Mantle and Bernie Williams? Same goes for rightfielder Hideki Matsui, who looks like he's older than Bob Sheppard, and moves just about as quickly. Are we to trust that he is fully recovered now? What about Robinson Cano, the subject of this year's spate of disingenuous "rededicated and in the best shape of his life'' training-camp space-fillers? And then there's Nick Swisher, who hit .219 last year but will this year, we are assured, because he now is "comfortable'' in New York. Then, of course, there is "third place'' to be dealt with. If they didn't choke last year, what exactly did they do? Eight years running, the Yankees, with the fattest payroll, the most talent and, it often seems, the biggest egos in the division, haven't won dick. Why not? And, considering their history, why should we believe they will do it this season? In a world without Mets, those are the kinds of questions the Yankees would have to answer. In the world the Yankees inhabit, those kinds of questions aren't even asked. Their fans may not be able to live with the Mets, but the Yankees wouldn't want to live without them. metirish Mar 24 2009 02:31 PM ="G-Fafif":63538mrz] ="Edgy DC":63538mrz]I actually thought this was going to be about Wally Backman.[/quote:63538mrz] I did, too. Hoped there'd be some umpire getting a YouTube beatdown or something.[/quote:63538mrz] I never even thought of Backman , shame on me. That was brilliant Seawolf. Methead Mar 24 2009 02:58 PM Excellent work there, Seawolf. G-Fafif Mar 24 2009 03:06 PM Fire Wally. Fire Chico. Seawolf writes everything from here on out. themetfairy Mar 24 2009 03:18 PM Great job Wolf! Met Hunter Mar 24 2009 03:58 PM Excellent job there SeaWolf. You make me proud to be a Met fan. You need to send it to that dickhead. batmagadanleadoff Mar 24 2009 04:04 PM This is another in a never-ending series of idiotic Mets articles by Wally Matthews, as everyone else here noticed. In this latest, the Mets are failures, not only because they aren't as successful as the Yankees, but also, because their sins aren't as sinful as those of their crosstown rivals. I'm not defending Wally in this paragraph; the article's obviously contrived and dumb -like most of his other Met pieces- to the point where the man cannot be said to be objective about the team. And a writer without objectivity is irrelevant. But don't get me started on Wilpon, either. He's a bad baseball man and really, under the guise of a baseball owner, still a ruthless businessman whose main purpose always, always, always is to squeeze every single penny out of life at the expense of everything else. Fman99 Mar 24 2009 08:11 PM Seawolf is the bizarro Wally. Amen brother, Geneseo in the house! seawolf17 Mar 25 2009 10:35 AM Thanks for all the kind words. It's really Wally's work; I just edited it for him to read properly. I understand that you think you can sell papers by being "controversial," but it's crap. Knock Murphy, but not Brett Gardner? Knock Maine, but not Wang? Knock them for "only" charging $300 for a top seat? And fuck, all we've heard about all winter is about the fucking collapse. We haven't heard anything about the Yankees not making the playoffs. Go to hell, Wally. metsguyinmichigan Mar 25 2009 10:45 AM Nice job, 'Wolf. In a way, the Yankees are like the Mets' douchbag neighbors. You just know they'd build an ice rink righ outside your door if given the chance. Edgy DC Mar 25 2009 10:52 AM I kind of hated them buying up interest in the Nets. Not that I dig on the Nets, but I hated the Steins breaking up the Mets-Jets-Nets continuum. Vic Sage Mar 26 2009 07:48 AM don't forget the brief, if beloved, NY Sets batmagadanleadoff Mar 26 2009 08:25 AM ... and the NY Bets. (mid 70's OTB ad campaign tying into that whole MetsJetsNetsSets thing) Edgy DC Mar 26 2009 08:29 AM And the New York Threats --- a public relations initiative trying to gain broader acceptatance for a mafia shakedown campaign.