I was told this week that many of the ‘higher ups’ in the Mets front office read me whenever I write on this site. I am honored if that is true.
If so, my wish would be that one of you that read me make a copy of what I am going to say here and give it to our new owner when he arrives. Better yet, send it to him before he arrives.
Steve, I first became a General Manager of a business in 1980, so I know a little about the do’s and don’ts of running a business. I also have been a Mets fan since 1962. Lastly, I have blogged about them since 2005. Add all this up together and my thoughts here should be considered respectable as well as worth reading.
1. Don’t be afraid to be hands on here. It is your money that brought you to this position and no one should stand in your way if you want to take an active role in the day to day operation of this team.
2. Make an ‘at top’ move. Work out a pleasant exit for our existing General Manager. He tried and I am sure he thought that all the moves he made were the right ones. They weren’t. Other teams took advantage of him and his lack of experience when it came to talking trades. We can’t operate this way in the future.
3. One thing our General Manager did well was to hire and build a solid draft, scouting, and analytical staff that is churning out the high quality additions to this organization, both through the domestic and International draft. Please make no changes in personnel here.
4. You have just bought a team that has a young, exciting nucleus of players in the clubhouse that are ready to win for years to come. The highly talented prospects that blanket the lower affiliate teams are going to take 2-3 years to being ready to join our current roster in Queens. Please have the patience to wait this process out.
5. Consider Omar Minaya as either your new permanent or interim General Manager. Sit down with him. See if he is interested. If he is, see if he will have problems if you pick up the phone sometimes and talk directly to either other owners or General Managers in the league. Your reputation precedes you as a hands-on manager and your prior success probably happened because of you and no one else. Please run the team that way, but you can’t do everything. You will need a trusty Tonto by your side to run the day-to-day operations of this team. This will allow you the time to do what you do oh so well. I would hope you and Omar could come to some kind of agreement here. He is a good, kind, family man that has always given the Mets 150%. He also has a superior knowledge about how the baseball world works down in the islands. Trust me. He’s worth a strong consider here.
6. You are quickly going to find that the press that are assigned to cover your team are not your best friend. Call it the New York way. Whatever it is, they will turn on you in a heartbeat if you lose a three game series to the Braves. You might consider countering this by a new hire of someone that these ‘reporters’ could report to. A couple of suggestions would be the recently retired Kevin Kernan or the ex-Mets beat writer Adam Rubin. They are both well respected by the fans as well as their old fellow beat writers. Kevin’s wife might not be happy with me suggesting here husband return from retirement, and I know Adam hated the travelling, but one of these guys might want to come back in from the cold for your new venture.
Oh… and regarding the online community, consider adding one of the more intelligent blog writers in some kind of full time capacity. Mike Steffanos or David Rubin come to mind. They are lifelong Mets supporters that could help you lead into the new world of online fandom.
And regarding the Twitter fans… these are not your friends. They tweet for one reason and that is to come up with one more entertaining snarky one-liner than the last guy.
7. I have no idea if you will take over the helm before this season ends. Don’t sweat it if you do. Let what happens, happen. This is a fractured season at best. Luckily, your arrival will be after the trade deadline, so you won’t be tempted to mortgage the house like our previous GM did (see… I am already talking about him in past tense). Let our rookie manager take this team into the off-season and then take it from there.
8. I took over many businesses in my past and I found not every person I inherited had my best interest in mind. I am sure I am not telling you something you don’t know here, but you must rid ‘your’ team of anyone that is either just going to pull a paycheck or work behind your back in a negative way. This team desperately needs new, positive plasma in its veins. Remove your obstacles. And don’t forget the cannolis.
9. Your time will be when the free agent market starts. I have no idea how much money you intend to spend here, but I know as as previous owner of a failed business, I knew my first year of operation was not going to be a profitable one. Instead, I always invested more and dug my hole a little deeper with the goal to go profitable a few years down the road. Better personnel cost more money. Refining the product as well as advertising it was also an immediate money drain, but all would prove to be the right move in the long run.
Your business is a simple one. Baseball players. Sure, the hot dogs have to be fresh and cooked well, but it is the team on the field that matters here.
A few suggestions from a lifelong observer…
- You need to add some key players via free agency to help this team until the kiddies rise to the top like cream. I offer you three areas:
- One, we need, at, least, one more quality starting pitcher for the 2021 (and beyond) season.
-Two, we need a rare find… a defensive first center fielder that also can hit.
-And three, we need a future catcher.
I will leave the names to consider to your brain trust (cough… George Springer.. cough).
10. Make it fun to be a Mets fan again. Complete the Seaver statue project… consider a return of ‘Banner Day’… bring back The Fonz… stuff like this.
Lastly, thanks for reading my missive. You can always reach me directly at my email address: macksmets@gmail.com. We could then exchange phone numbers for the future.
There’s always a cold glass of sweet tea for you in my now (original Ozone Park boy) South Carolina home.
Mack
