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Haven't We Seen This Before?

By jmorrill16, Section MLB
Posted on Wed Nov 30 2005 at 3:53 PM EST
More on: (all tags)

By: Jon Morrill

    When heading into writing anything as a journalist, you're supposed to remain objective; to write the piece without bias or slant. But also in writing, especially in sports writing, you should have some passion about your subject. In this particular case, the latter is keeping me from maintaining the former--I have such great passion, or at least emotion, about the subject that I am about to talk about that its hindering me from keeping a balanced perspective. I'll do my best to adhere to the strict rules of journalistic writing, but I'm not making any promises.

   

The main reason why I hate sports teams from the Empire State has been epitomized by the events which have taken place over the past week--none of which, surprisingly, have anything to do whatsoever with the New York Yankees. It has to do with their cross-town little brothers, the New York Metropolitans. With a new television station in place for 2006 and the extra spending money that comes with it, Mets GM Omar Minaya is working hard for the second straight off-season to do his best George Steinbrenner/Brian Cashman impersonation and fill an all-star at every position in the Mets' 2006 Opening Day lineup. Whether it be Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran from last year or the recent acquisitions of slugger Carlos Delgado and premier closer Billy Wagner this year, the Mets are working hard at buying a championship in 2006--and overpaying for one at that.

But haven't we seen this before? Haven't we seen clubs try and buy their way to the post-World Series interview with Jeannie Zelasko or Joe Buck; drenched with champagne and grinning ear-to-ear, but to no avail? We have; most recently it was the 2002-2005 New York Yankees. Now with their re-dedication to cultivating the Yankee farm system, it's Minaya and the Mets with the deep pockets and the fat wallets. One would hope that in a time when even George Steinbrenner has (finally) acknowledged that the best way to become and stay competitive is to grow from within and use players from your farm system--as opposed to "robbing Peter to pay Paul" as former Mets GM turned ESPN analyst Steve Phillips always so eloquently puts it--that everyone would take the hint. But the Mets sure haven't. New York City sure hasn't--the city with two other teams in other sports who boast the largest payroll in their respective leagues--the New York Knicks of the NBA, and the New York Rangers of the revamped NHL--who coincidentally are both considered the worst teams in their sport.

Don't get me wrong, the Mets are looking fantastic in 2006. So fantastic, in fact, that I think that if Opening Day were tomorrow, all the baseball analysts and writers would have a legitimate reason to not pick the Braves to take the NL East this year. But I see dark financial storm clouds ahead for Mr. Met & Co. thanks to all of the overpaying of players they're currently doing. Both Pedro Martinez and Billy Wagner signed with New York primarily because Minaya was willing to give them the guaranteed extra year at the end of their contracts that their former teams wouldn't give them. Should these pitchers start to give out towards the end of their contracts, as both the Red Sox and Phillies respectively anticipated, look for the Metropolitans to start cutting payroll and for these names to be back on the trading block, if not the retirement list.