Winning at What Cost?

How strange that I should feel tongue-tied. George Steinbrenner is dead. The National League finally won an All-Star Game. The second half is starting in baseball, and Carlos Beltran, heretofore my favorite Mets player, is coming back.

So many thoughts go through my mind, some of them not even coherent, especially with respect to Steinbrenner and Beltran.

We’ve heard, over and over, “all George cared about was winning, he was all about winning,” while acknowledging that he was a sonova bitch, usually followed by a story about some anonymous contribution that everybody seems to know about. I’ve seen sportswriters wax poetic and get tearry-eyed because he remembered their name.

When Steinbrenner came into baseball, I thought he was a jerk. Most people did. He didn’t do anything unless it was stupid. Later on, when he finally stepped back a bit to let baseball people run his club, he made sure to get his face and name back in the papers, usually by doing something outlandish and petty, something brash and mean and arrogant.

I’m sorry the man died, I truly am, and sorrier still that he was apparently gravely ill before his heart finally gave way. But I never liked him. I was sorry Yogi and he got back together. And I don’t think he should be in the Hall of Fame, not that that’s even all that important.

If I were ever a Yankee fan, I’d probably feel much different. But I was never a Yankee fan. It goes against my nature. I’m one of those champions of the underdog…always have been. And that is why I became a Mets fan, after having been a Dodgers fan before that.

I don’t believe in winning at all costs. Yankee fans do. George Steinbrenner certainly did. His every action was self-serving, at least his public actions. And self-serving meant Yankee-serving by definition. So I can understand Yankee fans liking him, even loving him. And that may be the only thing I’ll ever understand about Yankee fans, that, and their win at all costs philosophy.

If George had bought the Mets, and ran the Mets the way he ran the Yankees, I’d have become another team’s fan, probably a team like the Phillies or Boston, but not the Cubs or Kansas City. My team would have to care passionately about winning, but not at all costs.

There are examples of the Yankee avarice too numerous to mention but the most recent and heinous example was their attempted acquisition of Cliff Lee. The Yanks have Sabathia, Pettitte, Burnett, Vazquez and Hughes. That’s five very fine starters. That should be enough.

For anyone who cares about competitiveness, the Yankees were already loaded. They didn’t need Cliff Lee. But the Yankees don’t care about the rest of baseball. They only care about the Yankees, their storied history, their hallowed stadium, their rings, their monuments and on and on.

The Yankees tried to guarantee their World Series win. It wasn’t enough to have Arod and Jeter and Teixeira and Cano, Posada and even Swisher, and all those pitchers. That wasn’t enough surety for the Evil Empire. For Yankee management and fans, what fun is there in watching a good baseball game?

All of that now brings me to Carlos Beltran. Carlos was out of the game for most of last season and most of this season with a bone bruise of the knee. Not that I don’t believe he was really hurt. I do. But I know there are probably contract issues that entered into the situation.

Beltran has it made in the shade, if he can find any of that in Flushing. The Mets are 4 games out, have a nice pitching staff, some good young players and, as he will still be considered as recovering, there are no outlandish expectations of him. As he always has been a great player though, we can expect that he will provide some big hits, make some nice catches, and, in most respects, be Carlos Beltran. But he won’t be expected to carry the club.

What annoys me most is that he’ll be playing at someone else’s expense. In every case, that someone else has been a key player for the Mets this year, whether it’s Francoeur, Pagan or Jason Bay.

Once again, that brings me to my point about winning at any cost. As good as Beltran has been, I’d like to see him earn his way back into the lineup. But that won’t happen, it can’t really happen, it probably shouldn’t happen, as winning certainly takes precedence over some bruised feelings.

But it doesn’t go down easy for me as a Mets fan. This Mets club seems well-knit as a team. So I worry about chemistry. But I also enjoy watching every one of those outfielders, especially Francoeur and Pagan. From my standpoint, I’d rather see Bay sit.

But, for the same reasons as Beltran must play, Bay must play. It’s that crazy but true axiom in baseball that says players eventually find their level. It’s very often true. As hard as it may be for me to believe right now, the axiom says that Jason Bay will get hot, or even torrid. And Carlos Beltran will eventually hit .300, drive in 100 runs and score a hundred times in a full season.

But it’s those exceptions to the rule that grate the most on a fan’s patience and compassion. David Wright had his worst year by far last year. His power just disappeared and never came back. Recall the lean times of Carlos Delgado in years past before he went absolutely crazy at the plate to carry the club seemingly all by himself for about six weeks.

Mets fans have to hope for the best, that a club that finishes 4 games out at the half, with Francoeur and Pagan, can finish first at season’s end with Carlos Beltran, all other things being equal (which in and of itself is saying a mouthful).

Go Carlos!!