What the hell do I want?
I was reading over the column that Mark Herrmann did on me and my book in Sunday’s Newsday. I like the piece very much and I found it very easy and interesting to talk to Mark. The column is accurate and Mark quotes me accurately. As I read it over, however, I’m a little puzzled, not by what Mark wrote so much as by what I said. I think it would be legitimate for any reader of this piece to ask him or herself the question: “What the hell does this guy want?”
I ask myself the question. What the hell do I want? It may not come through clearly enough in what I said, but I really do want the Mets to win. So do I want them to spend $300 million on a ten-year contract for A-Rod? That would certainly help them win. He really is one of the best ballplayers in the history of the game. Why wouldn’t I want him?
Well, I could say that I want to win in a certain way. Do I mean without free agents? No. I had no trouble signing Glavine or Beltran or Martinez. Do I have a problem with very high-priced free agents? Probably not. If I could get Johan Santana for $25 million a year, I’d do it. So I suspect that I really would be willing to do it with money if I could, even though I always say I don’t want to do it with money. Of course, I don’t want to spend too much money on players who aren’t worth the money. Well, yeah, duh.
As I said in the interview and as I said in the book, I really like the idea of rooting for the underdog. That’s part of the Mets tradition. I lived through 1962-68 and 1977-83 and I have to admit that I enjoyed those seasons. But how serious am I really about all this underdog crap? I mean let’s say the Mets did absolutely nothing to improve themselves over the offseason and Philadelphia and Atlanta made some major moves. That would certainly make us underdogs. Would I like that? No. Well, I would like it if we ended up winning anyway. Is it worth taking the risk? No.
So do I want the Mets to do something or do I not want the Mets to do something? Something. What? Something that will make the team better. How do you like the level of thinking here? Maybe I should have been a general manager.
Do you understand my quandary? I don’t really know what I want. Well, hold it, I do know what I want. I want a fun rooting situation. Does that mean winning? No, not necessarily. You have to be able to enjoy rooting for a baseball team even when they don’t win. To have a fun rooting situation, it helps to have a chance of winning. And it helps to have a team you like. What does that mean, nice guys with interesting personalities, or guys with high averages with runners in scoring position? The answer is guys with high averages with runners in scoring position who you can manage to convince yourself are nice guys with interesting personalities. They don’t all have to be nice guys with interesting personalities. Just some of them is enough, as long as a lot of them have high averages with runners in scoring position.
Who knows what will create fun rooting situations? When they happen, they just happen. It’s a hard thing to plan in advance. You can assemble a bunch of good guys, but how they hang together is something hard to predict and it depends an awful lot on how many games they’re winning. Winning creates chemistry at least as much as chemistry creates winning.
You also have to have that other thing: the hype, the myth, what gets created by the interaction of the fans and the press. Fun rooting situations aren’t just a product of what happens on the field, or in the dugout and the clubhouse. You have to have scores of people writing the same stuff over and over again to the point where the millions of people reading the same stuff over and over again start believing it.
We didn’t believe in 2007, and I think that this may have had an impact on what happened. When they don’t believe, we don’t believe, and when we don’t believe, they don’t believe.
I know what I want. I want belief.
November 15th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
There is definitely an element though of wanting to root for guys you like. Its easy to root for Mike Piazza or Pedro Martinez. I found it easy to root during the World Series for Manny Ramirez. I don’t know if he’s a nice guy or not, but I like him. My problem with A-Rod is that I just dont. He is unquestionably a great ballplayer and if he played a position we needed (which he doesnt) I probably would want the Mets to get him. But to me he’s insincere and fake. He has no humility, which even great players can have. In fact, it may be what makes them great players.
November 15th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
I really, really do not want Mr. Rodriguez to play at Shea and the new park, except as a visiting player.
It would be all but impossible for me to muster enthusiasm for him. I can admire his accomplishments, which are prodiguous indeed, but I simply find him an odious person.
Now he’s making overtures to the Yankees. Because Boras miscalculated and didn’t have the Yanks drive the price up beforehand. Good. Stay in the Bronx, Mr. Rodriquez. We, well, I at least, don’t want you in Queens.
As for a fun rooting situation, no, unlike with the Yankees, it doesn’t require a season like 1986. 1984 and 85 were fun, even if 85 ended in anguish. 87, likewise.
I didn’t get a lot of joy out of this season, and got a lot of pain out of the last month, of course. Let’s hope for better times next year.
November 16th, 2007 at 12:51 am
“Who knows what will create fun rooting situations? When they happen, they just happen. It’s a hard thing to plan in advance. You can assemble a bunch of good guys, but how they hang together is something hard to predict and it depends an awful lot on how many games they’re winning. Winning creates chemistry at least as much as chemistry creates winning.”
…or, when Anthony Young was on the mound, Herculean quantities of Budweiser and a few knishes.
November 16th, 2007 at 3:51 am
Poor Anthony Young. And poor Bob Miller. There have been many worse pitchers than these in Mets history.
A good knish will get you through anything. What are the chances that one will be able to get something other than a Budweiser if one can ever get into Citifield? Are they going to be serving only Budweiser in the Excelsior boxes?
November 16th, 2007 at 6:04 am
It is now a moot point about Alex Rodriguez. He will soon be with the Yankees again. I am glad, because the Mets shouldn’t go into hock for him. My son, the Yankee fan, was ambivalent about A-Rod. He knows he did a bang up job during the season, but has been a flop in the playoffs. He is not cheering that A-Rod is back, but he is not booing either.
I want a season for the Mets like 2006, or 1985-1988. In those years they were in contention, and played well most of the year. 1986 they won it all, but it wasn’t easy. The other seasons in the 80’s were very competitive, and although they didn’t win it all, it was fun. I guess I want competitive play, good chemistry between the players and managers, and a spot in the playoffs every year. A World Series win would have to be in the mix at least once or twice. However, if we don’t get pitching, the scenario won’t happen.
November 16th, 2007 at 8:05 am
I want 4 world series titles in my lifetime. I don’t think that’s too much to ask. My girlfriend’s grandfather has been alive for EVERY single Yankees world series title. I got one when I was a kid. I’d like one in my 20s. Then one when I’m a young father in my 40s, and then one when I’m a grandfather.
But most of all, I just want the Mets.
November 16th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
“A good knish will get you through anything. What are the chances that one will be able to get something other than a Budweiser if one can ever get into Citifield? Are they going to be serving only Budweiser in the Excelsior boxes?”
Actually, assuming the other new ballparks HOK builds are emblematic, food and drink options at Citifield for all new attendees will improve. Under Shea’s current design, once the game starts, you can’t buy food from vendors on the main level unless you have a ticket there. (Thus precluding Mama’s of Corona other than its Mezz level sandwich stand).
At Camden Yards, Citizens Bank Park, Safeco Field, and everyother new park, there are much better common public areas where you can purchase any food options you want. (you have to go down a level to get to Tony Luke’s at CBP and endure the awful line, but its at least an option). So things should get better on that front.
November 16th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
Hell, the food and beer options at RFK in DC were head and shoulders above Shea…execellent hot dogs, Italian sausages, brats…didn’t try the sushi or whatever, but the beer selection was great–Harp, Leinenkugel, Pilsner Urquell, Red Hook, and a lot others, in addition to the horrendous Bud, Bud Light, Miller, etc.
I’m sure it’ll be even better in the new Nationals ballpark. Only question is, accessibility, parking, and such.
With the Mets coming to DC 9 or so times each year, I’ve not felt the need to make the trip to Queens every summer as I had done for many years…will have to get back up there next year, though. My son has moved to Washington state…maybe he can visit and he and I can have a father/son trip.
His email to me the day after the 2006 NLCS Game 7 was simply, “There are no words.”
He was living in Philly this summer, and we caught 3 Mets wins there in two days…and then didn’t attend the Sunday game (I had to get home). Maybe it’s our fault…
November 17th, 2007 at 12:49 am
No Chris. It’s not your fault. I do that to myself all the time (maybe I should have worn my lucky necklace, maybe I should sit a certain way on the couch). I don’t actually know you, but I feel that I know you well enough to know that its not your fault.
That said, I was delighted this year, after drinking diet pepsi’s all year because I can’t stomach Budweiser and I wasnt willing to miss the game to go to a better beer stand, that they suddenly started selling Grolsch at the stand near my seats in the Mezzanine (section 12). It was actually one of my Philly-fan friends who discovered it at a game he came to with me (at the beginning of our slide). One of the few things I am looking forward to is better food at Citifield. They’d better have knishes though. It is New York after all and we know a good knish will get you through anything.