Fresh Meat

There are a lot of people out of work and I’m sure some of them are qualified to run operations for the New York Mets. That I could root for a team that tolerates the crap that Bernazard had been handing out makes me sick. I mean, it’s the Yanks who are the Evil Empire, right?

Well, apparently not. It looks like Bernazard had run the Mets farm system like a bad warden in a Turkish prison. And a NY Daily News reporter blew the whistle on him, forcing a very unwilling Mets hand to fire Bernazard. So they decided to turn a little heat back on the reporter, alleging some kind of inappropriate behavior by the News’s Rubin.

Although I have to admit the whole affair was vastly amusing, Minaya’s handling of his press conference convened to fire Tony Bernazard was as bad as I could imagine, and I have a pretty vivid imagination. To go after the press anytime under any circumstances is pretty stupid, but to go after the guy who just blew the whistle on you is even worse.

I’m sure it made Minaya feel better. The sad thing is that Wilpon probably thought it was a good idea too. Knowing Wilpon is a very hands-on type of owner, it probably irked him quite a bit to have to fire one of his chief lieutenants. And he thought he could give Rubin some of the stuff he had been handing out. You could see the two of them, Wilpon and Minaya, putting their heads together and saying, “Yeah, let’s give that SOB some of his own medicine.”

While I can understand them feeling that way, I can’t understand them actually thinking it was the appropriate thing to do. This is New York, fellas. This is the good ol’ USA. I think these guys have lost touch with reality.

As a long-time Mets fan, I feel embarrassed. For my being so stupid over the years. For my thinking the Mets were the good guys all this time. For my thinking the Mets ran an organization that put some emphasis on baseball as a real game, a game that should be fun.

Now that I’m otherwise informed, I say get rid of the whole lot of them. I don’t want to root for Minaya anymore. And while I don’t think any amount of pressure would force the sale of the team, I say get rid of the Wilpons too. I don’t go for this feudal baron type of ownership. This is 20th Century America.

What the whole affair says to me is this. “We own the Mets and we’ll run it any way we want. There’s nothing you can do about it, and if you try, we’ll come after you.” Who wants to root for these guys? Even Steinbrenner didn’t do anything like this.

All they had to do was fire Bernazard and get out of Dodge. Case closed. Goodbye everybody. We’re sorry we run the Island of Doctor X. We’ll hire somebody better.

But no.

It’s a damned shame too because things are starting to look a lot better on the field. Our sorry team on the field has won its last three. After looking so very bad against the worst team in the league, the Nationals, the Mets totally turned things around against two good teams, Houston and Colorado.

And they did it in a big way. They pitched and they hit. First it was a starter from the farm system, Jonathan Niese, who went 7 innings and gave up just one run. Then Livan went out and pitched 7 innings more, giving up just 3 runs in a horrible first inning. Then crazy Ollie Perez managed to give up just 3 runs over 5 full innings. Meanwhile, the feisty Mets batters managed to score 25 runs in the three games. Unbelievable and totally unpredictable.

It sure has made my week though. Seeing Francoeur knocking in runs has been great. Everybody but Cora hit in the 10-3 win. In the 8-3 win, even Cora joined the attack and in the 7-3 win, the new core of the lineup, Castillo, Murphy, Wright and Francoeur, did the hitting while Fernando Tatis finished things with a grand slam.

The relief corps performed too. The only runs given up by relievers over the three wins were the two given up by their best reliever, K-Rod. Sean Green, Pedro Feliciano and Brian Stokes were outstanding.

So things are rosy in Mets-land, just about everywhere but in the front office. While the management tear themselves up, the players have been great and on-the-field manager Jerry Manuel hasn’t done anything to deter them. Maybe those crazy guys in the front office have unwittingly provided the only thing that could drive off all the team detractors….fresh meat.

But things won’t get easier. While the Mets feasted on some questionable pitchers in their little winning streak, they’ll now face Jason Marquis, a good young pitcher named Hamel and then a very good and hot hurler in Jorge DeLaRosa. The Rockies didn’t get to be a wildcard contender without pitching.

So it’ll be Marquis vs Pelfrey, Santana against Hamel and then Mr. Niese again vs. DeLaRosa. Even with Santana coming off a bad outing, it’s hard to think our local fellas won’t take at least one of these three. That would give them a split with the Rockies, which isn’t too shabby, especially given the prospect of having some of the injured return soon.

Given these front-office gaffes, maybe it helps explain the seemingly long stints on the DL for Beltran, Reyes and Delgado. Maybe there’s no real motivation to kill yourself for a bunch of bad guys. I hope that’s not true but the rumor has been that Beltran at least was not happy over the team’s handling of his bone bruise.

As a fan, my wish would be that we could go back to a time just before Omar put his foot in it.