Entitlement

By Taryn “The Coop” Cooper
Posted Tuesday, October 16, 2007

No matter where you turn in the Mets blogosphere, you hear the same trade proposals, day in, day out. As if WE are the general managers getting paid to broker these deals, but also so convinced that if we “build it,” they will come (they meaning some other team’s superstar, coming to the Mets for virtually nothing).

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before:

Jose Reyes for Johan Santana, straight up.

Jose Reyes for anybody, since apparently all Mets fans hate him right now (except for yours truly…OK maybe the majority of Mets fans are still, but the people who want him off the team are screaming the loudest).

Carlos Delgado for a pair of Manolos (OK, maybe that was *MY* trade proposal).

Sign A-Rod!

Sign Aaron Rowand!

Get Linebrink!

Trade everyone on the team for Chad Cordero – ‘cause we really NEED him!!!

Mariano Rivera!! Jorge Posada!!!

The Coop has one thing to say to you Mets fans with nothing better to do than wax trade proposals in your spare time:

ENOUGH.

I’m sorry, we are Mets fans. I may have yelled at my dad towards the end of the season for “tricking” me into rooting for this team when I was seven, for complaining that it has never been easy, except when I was 10 and they won the World Series. Yes, I know, I could have walked away at any time, but I chose not to – kind of like Denis Leary, when he says in “Reverse the Curse of the Bambino,” that his love affair with the Red Sox is sadomasochistic. I’m sure most of us here at Flushing U can identify with that.

But back to my original point – when have Mets fans ever had it easy? It’s been easy to forget the ugly and bad times – like Generation K, Dallas Green and Jeff Kent, to just recently Victor Zambrano and Art Howe – when we have super-duper-stars on the team like Pedro Martinez, Carlos Beltran, along with homegrown talent David Wright and Jose Reyes. But to what extent? To think that – oh we finished one game out of first, so we can justify having Alex Rodriguez and Johan Santana on the team?

Here's my question: Since when have we become YANKEES fans? Seriously, folks, moving A-Rod to second base, or third base, when we have more than enough talent on the infield (we could use some help at second base but not at the expense of David Wright) screams of Yankee entitlement.

I call these panic moves. And the last few times we’ve done those, they’ve blown up in our faces. I could go there with Mo Vaughn, but I mean, he was just fat and out of shape, not to mention lazy. Have no idea how that one happened (oh I know, Jeff Wilpon stuck his nose in business he shouldn’t have). Robbie Alomar – a star on every single team he played on…except the Mets. Melvin Mora for Mike Bordick? Shudder. Don’t make me remember that.

Omar Minaya has enough on his plate with meddling owners who like to purchase talent on the cheap, an impatient media and a screaming fan base, putting the thought out there that – hey, we can’t wait for another championship, so bring one to us NOW, and we’ll think about the future later. Thanksabunch.

Sounds like another team I may have mentioned above.

When I was 10 years old, the Mets were awesome. I officially became a fan on the precipice of a great few years. When I read the history books on them during that period (The “Cashen” Age), my heart swells with great pride. A mix of a few veterans (Keith Hernandez, Gary Carter), with some home grown talent (Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, Len Dykstra, Wally Backman), and pitching out the wazoo (Ron Darling, Sid Fernandez, Rick Aguilera), the World Series championship I felt was EARNED and not brought to us by a bunch of mercenaries.

Furthermore, for the people screaming for Santana or A-Rod, or Rivera, Cordero, or heck, everyone on the free agent market, at what expense do we bring them?

Alex Rodriguez is bar none the best baseball player of this generation. As the Yankees can attest (and the Rangers…and the Mariners…), being a superstar concerned with padding your own stats does not guarantee championships.

Sure, the Twins made the postseason in 2006 riding on the arms of Santana and Francisco Liriano (who subsequently was injured and was not available for the games), but also with the young talent of Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau (AL MVP of 2006).

And ask the San Diego Padres with their A+ pitching staff how far their team got with one of the best pitchers in baseball?

ENOUGH.

The thing that I loved about Omar Minaya when he first came onboard was that while he wasn’t afraid to make a splash, he also had a good eye for talent. Remember Duaner Sanchez for Jae Seo, Mike Cameron for Xavier Nady (turned into Oliver Perez), Kris Benson for bag of ball Jorge Julio (Orlando Hernandez) and John Maine?

These are the trades I want. These are the impact moves I want to read about. Omar, if you read anything, read THIS:

Don’t bring me Johan. Don’t bring Gary and Uncle Johnny A-Rod. All I want for Christmas is Jon Garland or Joe Blanton or Carl Crawford or one of the Uptons.

Small moves like this indicate to me that you are concerned about the here and now, but also are looking to the future too. So from this point forward, I’m going to say, let’s stop thinking like Yankees fans and remember our roots. Remember the little guys. Remember the impact guys. Try to forget the Alomar and remember the Maine.