Ah-Ha!! It’s A Profit Thing

By Taryn "The Coop" Cooper
Posted Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Like many people, I have at least four different email addresses I check daily. My Yahoo! Account, Gmail, work email (via blackberry) and my home “professional” email.

And of course, each one of those email addresses has their own “Mets.com” account.

So what does that mean? Well, whenever MLB has a big announcement, promotion, whenever the Mets do something significant or promoting a date, I get an email. Four different times.

So, it goes without saying that when Johan Santana’s deal was official, I see the following title in all my email boxes:

“Johan’s Coming…When Are YOU?”

Most of the Flushing University staff, faculty, students, etc know that The Coop is a Mets season ticket holder, two plus years and running. And as a season ticket holder, you have all heard my take on the untimely and pretty insulting decisions on Wilpon & Co to raise ticket prices for 2008.

One year prior to moving to a new stadium. You know, to lock in those desperate holders, who mostly jumped into full season plans to guarantee their seats in CitiField.

And you know, right after the largest collapse in baseball history.

Then I started to think, ‘cause I do that sometimes, about what exactly we Mets fans had to look forward to until this deal took shape and then really happened. I’m sure a year of pennant races, but possibly looking outside in, given that “on paper” the other NL East rivals Braves and Phillies have made improvements while the Mets stood (as it seemed) idly by. And don’t get me started (again) on the Lastings Milledge trade.

Because all is absolved when Omar Minaya pulls off possibly the biggest coup in Mets history, with the gaining of Johan Santana for a ton of money, years and some prospects. And the bonus being, the Mets even got to keep their best prospects!!

But put aside the Mets jacking up ticket prices for us loyal fans. The fans who continued to come through the gate although it was obvious, the team just had the life sucked out of them and the only games they would be playing in October would be on the golf course. Okay, okay, okay. I’m done harping on that. Really. But that aside, was there any incentive to us maybe wanting to go to games in 2008?

We might have seen Philip Humber start a game. That would have been nice. But that fifth spot in the rotation was reserved for either Mike Pelfrey or El Duque.

What else? The Mets desperately needed pitching. Would Mets fans have shown up in droves for those games Livan Hernandez or Kyle Lohse were going to pitch?

The answer is – of course, most Mets fans, that is true Mets fans, don’t care who’s starting or who’s playing, just as long as their team plays well enough to win.

But here’s another interesting tidbit. I was reading someplace else that Johan Santana #57 shirts and jerseys were ALREADY being ordered by the Mets clubhouse shops and sports stores.

Hmmm…how convenient.

Meanwhile, stud pitchers like John Maine and Oliver Perez, numbers 33 and 46, respectively, are somehow left out of the mix. Moises Alou #18 shirts though, definitely in a surplus.

You go to any other stadium, anywhere else, and if you want the scrubbiest guy on the team’s shirt, guess what…you can get it. Only at Shea Stadium can you NOT get the two aces on the staff in 2007.

But hey, a guy who has yet to play his first game in a Mets uniform…stop by Monday, we’ll have ‘em for ya!

Sheesh.

Look, you guys know that I was going ape over here at Flushing University by the time of this trade. I think for most of us, we either expected Johan to finish out the year in Minny or for the Yankees or Red Sox to outbid each other. And this could go down as one of the top three trades in Mets history. Up there with the significance of Keith Hernandez or Gary Carter in the 1980s.

But with Johan, the parity in baseball is MUCH different than it was in 1986.

I’m sure Fred Wilpon knows the old adage, about how one has to speculate to accumulate. Trading for and signing Johan Santana to a six-year extension was a no-brainer. From a business sense.

But how much money can we make exploiting the worker mouse?

As Artie Johnson used to say on Laugh-In, “Vetty eeeenteresting.”

But of course, will I try to be first in line for that Santana #57 shirt?

What do you think???

Go Johan.