Mr Silva certainly poured his heart and soul into this article, and any true Met fan who is disgruntled by the current situation will truly enjoy this read.

Well, I am still alive, which is more than I can say for the Met franchise.  I am not saying this in response to the Miami Marlins (dreadful uniforms, what the hell were they thinking?) signing Jose Reyes.  No, not at all.

Jose Reyes signing with the Miami Marlins is not the reason that the Mets are an irrelevant franchise.

I consider the Mets fortunate that they were priced out of contention just to be in the bidding for Reyes.  For if the Mets had the cash to throw away on a selfish, injury-prone player, I am sure they would have done so in an instant.  I would imagine that they would have committed themselves to a very long-term, team-destroying deal without batting an eyelash.  Alas, the Mets escape this one without a scratch and I am sure that they don’t even know it.

Why are the Mets dead?  Let me count the ways.

Next season, the Mets will have precisely one healthy player with a solid track record for success in David Wright.  Wright by no means is all that he is cracked up to be, but compared to the rest of the roster for 2012, he is a megastar.

Then we get to the next rung of players.  Those who either have to prove their health or their worth while garnering bloated contracts that have not paid off for the most part or even at all.  I bring to you Johan Santana and (ugh) Jason Bay.  I have to admit, even though Bay was the “Token Move of Appeasement” in 2010, I actually thought that he would work out to some degree.  Yep, dead-wrong.  Bay has been nothing short of one of the worst signings in Met history.  As far as Santana goes, who in the world can predict what decreased level of pitcher he will be moving forward.  This is under the assumption that he can actually pitch without blowing his arm out again after 5 or 6 starts.  In either case, expecting Santana to be anything more than an above average pitcher is nothing short of tomfoolery.

What comes next is either the unproven or pure mediocrity.  There may be some upside with Ike Davis and Ruben Tejada here, but is there anyone else that should excite us for next year?  I think even Mike Pelfrey’s mother isn’t excited about his prospects going forward.

Don’t expect any help from free agency or the farm system either Met fans.  All of our prospects are 2 plus years away (stop me if you haven’t heard this one before), and the Mets may have only about 10 million to invest in about 7 important roster spots.  These include starting pitching, an entire bullpen including a closer, outfield depth, and possibly a second baseman.

Hey other than that, I think we are set for 2012.

Seriously though, is anyone going to pay good money to see this abysmal product next year?  I know some extremely optimistic Met fans who have told me that they have canceled their season tickets for this year, and these were the blind optimists who thought the Wilpons were doing a solid job.

The revolting truth is that it isn’t going to get any better in 2013, nor 2014, nor 2015.  You can see where I am going with this, can’t you?  I urge all Met fans to abstain from purchasing any Met products or tickets until the Wilpons decide to give our fan-base the break we deserve by selling the team.  I think it is quite obvious, even to the passive baseball fan, that they have successfully run this team into the ground.  What more needs to be seen to prove that point?

Well, fear not.  Angel Pagan has taken care of the need for comedic relief during last night’s drubbing at the hands of the Phillies.  As reported by the Daily News, Angel was unable to make it to the plate on time for his scheduled at bat.  I’ll allow Hardball Talk’s article to give the specifics on this one.  I am still laughing too hard to elaborate any further.

This toilet signifies so many things when it comes to the Mets and their season.

This makes me wonder.  Was Angel sick to his stomach because of something he ate, or is it simply that he feels the same way we Met fans do about the state of our team year in and year out? Hmmmm….

Alas, I could not leave Mr. Wilpon’s asinine comments pass me by without reacting.  I do have a responsibility here as well, real life aside.

I am of the belief that every situation occurs for a reason, whether it be business, family, projects, or what have you.  When I post an article, I hold myself to rather high expectations that what I type will represent myself and my ideas accordingly.  If I am not in the proper frame of mind when I sit down to create that article, then I should smash the idea before I type a piece of crap to share with my readers.  Now, if I am foolish enough to continue at this juncture, then who do I have to blame?  Well, obviously no one but myself.  That would be the adult reaction.  Claim responsibility for one’s own actions.

On the other hand, I could use the childish approach that Mr. Wilpon saw fit to use weeks ago by saying that I was just “snakebit” at that moment, and I’ll just try again using the same methods that failed me to begin with.  It seems like such an obvious mistake to make when performing any sort of self-analysis.

Fred Wilpon has grown weary of owning the Mets. Why won't he sell?

This makes me wonder.  Is the Wilpons’ decision making born from true arrogance, a “screw the world” sort of mentality?  If not, the only other answer would be a sheer lack of intelligence.  Beyond these two choices, we are left with no other explanation for the continued failures of this ownership.

I tend to believe that it is the former more so than the latter.  Fred Wilpon has reached a point in his life where he feels that he has demonstrated a certain level of competency and success within his trade.  Now that the heat is truly on him and his regime for their failures as owners, he decides to dismiss those who speak  badly about him, as well as play the blame game with everyone else inside his organization.  It is obviously a complete lack of patience being demonstrated here, and I do not see it improving much as we go forward.

This leads to the one true question.  If you are tired of all of this Fred, why not just sell?  Get out.  I’ll show you the door. It would make your final years that much more relaxing, wouldn’t it?  Not to mention a ray of hope for all beleaguered Met fans.

The horrible truth here is this.  Unless this lawsuit pending against the Wilpons and Saul Katz goes completely in favor of Mr. Picard and his cause, I firmly believe that the Wilpons will remain majority owners of the Mets for my lifetime, and beyond.  It is a depressing situation indeed for we Met fans, as I believe it is nothing but a pipe dream to believe that the Wilpons will have to pay back the principal investment they made to Bernie Madoff many years ago.

Well, we can always dream though, can’t we?  As Met fans, we are certainly used to that.

Here is the video -

This backdrop aside, you might be lead to believe that this small measure of success would lend to a slight bump in fan attendance at Citifield.  However, the truth of the matter is that the opposite has actually occurred.  Newsday reports that fan attendance has actually dropped by 3,031 per game.  This was according to statistics taken from baseball-reference.com.

Empty seats at Citifield certainly depicts how Met fans feel about the state of their team

According to the article, Mets executives blame this on bad weather recently, as well as the fact that attendance typically picks up after the school year has ended.  They also “claim” that the total ticket sales for this time of year are actually the same as they were last year.  Yawn.

One thing is certain.  Despite the fact that the Mets have exceeded expectations thus far, the Met fan base does not really buy into what is going on.  After all, why should they?  When you look at the Met lineup, you see guys named Pridie, Turner, Tejada and Murphy getting regular at bats.  That is not going to excite anyone.  The fact is, the star power the Mets offer is either injured (David Wright, Ike Davis and Johan Santana), under producing (Jason Bay – again) or headed out of town very, very soon (Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and possibly Frankie Rodriguez).  The future, like the Wilpon’s bank account, is certainly bleak.

When this is taken into account, how can the Met front office realistically be surprised by the dip in attendance?  If they are hanging their hat on the idea that these AAA players will continue to overachieve, then they are less intelligent than even I thought that they were.   Truthfully, that is tough to do.

I personally tip my hat to all the Met fans who are fed up with the direction of this team due to its misfit owners.  As a matter of fact, I think that I’ll actually raise a drink to all Met fans later this evening.  It is about time that we Met fans show the Wilpons that enough is enough.

Nat King Cole should sing about how forgettable the 2011 Mets are

The Mets find themselves in a rather predictable place today.  They are currently tied for worst record in the major leagues at 4-9 with other predictably bad teams (Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners).  If you were hoping, or even worse, believing that the Mets would be better than this, then all I can say is shame on you.  Foolish optimism will get you nowhere with this franchise.

I haven’t written a thing in quite some time simply because there is absolutely nothing to write about.  I could break down how the Mets are severely deficient in the pitching department, but that was obvious from the start.  I could illustrate how the Mets, with new fiery manager in hand, still can not seem to catch, throw or run bases with any level of proficiency.  The only question that would come to mind is this.  Why bother writing about this team?

Folks, the Mets are an inferior product, and there is no sugar-coating it.  Why delude ourselves with anything other than the facts?  The Mets are as irrelevant as a VCR right about now.

The Met hierarchy is in a no-lose situation this year, their first under the Wilpon employ.  If the Mets compete at all, it would be looked upon as being a tremendous achievement by all.  If they do not compete, then the finger of disappointment will be pointed towards the prior regime’s mistakes.  Either way, they come off looking peachy, from the GM down to the manager.

What do we have to look forward to you may ask?  Let’s think about it.  Nothing.

Jose Reyes will be traded by the deadline if he stays healthy.  Carlos Beltran will finish up his Met career after this season.  Johan Santana, fresh off his latest surgical procedure, will not pitch until September at the earliest.  That is true only if the Mets actually make a good decision about how to rehabilitate him properly (a long shot I know).  When he returns in 2012, he will likely be a different pitcher all together, one that is no longer worth what he earns annually.  The Met payroll next year will likely be significantly lower than it is this year, as whispers of a 75 million dollar payroll are being heard throughout the blogosphere.  That means that there is no help on the way for next year either.  Ouch.

Other than that, the future looks bright Met fans.  Long live the Wilpons!

To what depths will the brain trust of Sterling Equities sink?

Meanwhile, I have instantaneously become a fan of Eric Usinger of Huntington, NY.  He is certainly not someone who will be used and abused by the Wilpons.  We should all take his lead as we forge forward as fans of the team that the Wilpons currently (hopefully not for long) own. After all, we are fans of the New York Mets, not of Sterling Equities.

You can expect much more of this to come, as the Wilpons will do anything in their desperate state to win over the fans and the money that they represent to Sterling Equities.

Such is the case with the Wilpons and Sterling Equities these days.  Just over two years ago, in the wake of the Bernie Madoff scandal, Mets ownership stated to its fan base that baseball operations would not be affected by the Wilpon family’s massive losses in this incident.  I am not sure how many Met fans actually believed this garbage at the time, but nevertheless, it was still the Wilpons’ decision to proceed in this manner. 

This mantra was all that was needed until more glaring evidence arose to discount the Wilpons’ claim.  Certainly ownership had to know that once the fans and media took notice of the team’s declining player payroll, that more questions would be asked.  After all, you don’t quickly move from free spending to cutting payroll without even the most numb of a fan taking notice of  this change in policy.  Such was the case leading into the 2010 trading deadline, when the Mets were still in contention for post-season play.  Not even a mild consideration was given to adding a big name to help the club at that time.  What followed was a second half plunge into obscurity, and another failed season.

Shortly after this, more evidence arose that proved the Wilpons were lying about their company’s business, and how it would relate to the operations of their baseball club.  A lawsuit was brought against Sterling Equities in regards to massive financial losses suffered by former employees in the Madoff Ponzi Scheme.   This was getting quite ugly for the Wilpons. 

More recently, yet another lawsuit was brought against Sterling Equities in relation to the Madoff scandal.  Even after this news, the Wilpons impossibly danced around the matter with the following statement.  “Regardless of the outcome of these discussions, we want to emphasize that the New York Mets will have the necessary financial and operational resources to fully compete and win,” Sterling Equities said.  “That is our commitment to our fans, and to New York.”  Oh really?

Well fans, how do these previous statements look today?  Apparently, the strain was just too much for the Wilpons to bear, because yesterday the Wilpons made an about-face, when announced that they will be selling a share of the team.  This is a complete contradiction to previous statements within the past few years.  Shocking isn’t it?  I think not.  Of course the Wilpons still want to maintain a majority ownership of the Mets.  This gives them the ability to control the club just as they have for years, and continue to do wrong for the franchise.  They will try to skate by for as long as they can, spitting out lies to the public whenever they need a new one to keep the growing opposition at bay.

Fred Wilpon and Sterling Equities are running out of lies to tell

What are we to make of this?  What we do know is that you have to take a big businessman’s word with a grain of salt.  After all, they are usually not the most trustworthy of people.  What we have here is an ownership group that has been lying through its teeth for years (or even decades) to its employees, business associates, and most importantly to us, the Met fans.  Some of us have been seeing this for years, and some have not.  Perhaps some people actually needed to see cold, hard evidence that ownership could lie to our faces like this.  Well, let the wake-up call begin, Met fans.  The truth has just arrived at your doorstep in a pretty package with a bow and greeting card in bold print.  What does the card state?  It states “The Wilpons are not the right owners for this team!”

I have been shouting about this for years to those who know me.  I have been blogging about it for just over a year.  My voice will only get louder now with this absurdity flying across the media mainstream. 

The question you as Met fans have to ask yourselves is this.  Do you believe the Mets will ever recover with the Wilpons at the helm?  The recent lack of success of the club, along with the airing of its owners dirty laundry certainly proves that a turnaround is not likely.  The next question you need to ask yourself is this.  Do I want such crooked men who obviously have bigger issues to deal with running my team’s “baseball operations”? 

Think long and hard Met fans.  You as judge and jury have the ability to have an impact on this.  If you feel that the Wilpons need to go, then you need to take certain steps.

1) If you buy tickets or merchandise, you support the Wilpons’ finances.  The best way to get them out of here is to slow down their revenue flow.  There is not much you can do about the large quantity of money they garner from SNY.  However, ticket sales, vending, parking and merchandise are certainly items that you can control.

2) Even more important than step number one.  Spread the word to other Met fans.  Tell them to follow step one, and what the consequences are if they continue to line the Wilpons’ pockets with additional sources of revenue.

I am by no means starting an organized protest.  If I had the time away from my real career, I would certainly contribute more to such a cause. (Perhaps a ‘Be Gone With Wilpon!’ protest?)  I am, however, voicing my opinion on this matter, and I hope that others who read my post feel the same as I do about the Mets’ current situation.

We knew Jeff Wilpon was clueless, but this is simply ridiculous

Yes Met fans, this ACTUALLY happened.

Listen if you dare (go to 26:00 minutes in to hear the song), but remember that this is only going to make you sick.

Jeff Wilpon Sings Like a Fool