Erica Lay - Thank God For Football

Are you ready for some football?!? I know I am.

As Mets fans (or sports fans in general) we’ve all lived through our share of catastrophic seasons. I was at Shea for the final game of 2007 when Glavine imploded. And, of course, I managed to make it through last year’s rotation disintegration. But, for me, this season has been worse than any other in recent memory. This was the first time I’ve ever truly given up on the Mets.  

Which is why I’m so happy that football season is about to kickoff. Unlike most Mets fans I know – who are Jets fans – I’m a Giants fan. And it feels really good to root for a team that operates with some level of functionality and integrity. The Giants may have their issues (last season’s Eli Manning debacle, for example) but, as a fan, I feel like I can count on their ownership to evaluate their shortcomings and make decisions that benefit the team and franchise both short term and long term.

I can’t say the same for my beloved Metsies.

We have the best pitcher in baseball in Jacob deGrom and he may not crack the 10 win plateau. Yoenis Cespedes spent another year on the shelf and finally underwent surgery to repair the issue that has likely caused his recurring DL stints over the past few seasons. Jason Vargas has largely been a disaster, (although he’s turned things around recently). The list goes on and on.

In fairness, there have been some bright spots, too. Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil come to mind. Zack Wheeler has become what I’d always hoped for. Amed Rosario has seemingly started to put things together. And, of course, there’s deGrom’s Cy Young chase.

But the bad is just too overwhelming. Not in the microcosm of this season alone, but in the totality of bad decisions that have continually plagued this organization. From the Tom Seaver trade to flying Ryan Church across the country with a concussion to Omar Minaya questioning Adam Rubin’s motivations – this organization just can’t seem to make decisions that create positive change for anything other than the shortest of time frames. And they’re embarrassing.

One of things I was most excited about going into this season was the changes made to the medical staff. I thought we’d finally be able to move past the misdiagnoses and the extended DL stints. How wrong I was. Instead, we continued to let injured players linger on the MLB roster, just to bring them in for an ill-fated PH appearance before finally relenting and sending them to the DL. Then we’d rush them back before they were either a) fully healed; or b) fully rehabbed. When different medical professionals make the same bad decisions over and over across seasons, it’s an organizational issue, not a staff issue.

And on a team absolutely begging for offense, we let our best organizational run producer, Peter Alonso, rot in the minor leagues.  Not even a September call up! And the kicker – he plays first base, a position that had no natural options on the MLB roster. This is the kind of miserly action which not only works against the best interests of the on-field team, but infuriates the fan base.

I’ve always known that the majority owners of this team were abhorrent, but this season really drove it home for me. I hope whoever they hire for GM is an inspired choice that creates some excitement. (I’d love to see Kim Ng get the nod). But knowing that Jeff Wilpon will continue to be the true driving force makes it awfully hard to get excited about this franchise. I hope I feel different by the time Opening Day rolls around. 

In the meantime….let’s go Giants!