Reese Kaplan -- Major Embarrassments Are Nothing New to the Mets

The media have been pretty much deluged with various articles on the termination of Jared Porter’s 36-day tenure as the General Manager of the New York Mets.  Everyone knows the story by now about his obsessive and inappropriate communication with a visiting reporter from outside the USA while employed with the Cubs.  Regardless of whether the Diamondbacks or Mets or Cubs knew about this incident, the ESPN story that broke regarding Porter’s actions pretty much forced the Mets’ hand to act.  They did so promptly and decisively, relieving Porter of his duties for the Mets even though the actions were not done while employed by this team.  Steve Cohen was vocal about not wanting to set a precedent about what was permissible in any employee communication and the action taken was reviewed positively by the folks covering the team.

The next passel of articles concerned how it was that Porter had gotten away with it all this time, why there was not better vetting of candidates to hold executive positions with the ballclub and what would be the immediate fallout.  Right away the articles started flooding out, naming possible replacements for Porter (including simply letting Zack Scott who was hired to be the second in command to take over for the now deposed GM).  We saw a rehash of a lot of familiar names the Mets have worked with in the past, Sandy Alderson has worked with in the past, or in the case of Michael Hill formerly of the Marlins, someone who is currently available without having to break a contract.  

What crossed my mind when this story broke was not the inappropriateness of the action (which is unquestionable and reprehensible), but rather the number of embarrassing situations in which Mets personnel have found themselves while collecting a paycheck from the Queens National League team.  Let’s have a cringy reminder of a few of them…

The embarrassment of the upcoming season actually preceded Porter when known steroid abuser Robinson Cano was popped for doing it again.  The second baseman is on a year’s non-paid suspension for his actions and nothing has been done to suggest it was an isolated incident or that it would not happen again.  Well, at least they saved over $20 million as a result of Cano’s canoodling with PEDs.  

Right now Carlos Beltran no longer holds the dishonor of being the shortest termed ex-employee of the Mets since he lasted just 76 days compared to Porter’s 36.  In that case it was the period while he was with the Houston Astros during which he participated in the infamous sign stealing scandal.

Then there was the photograph of a sex toy visible at one of the player’s lockers which did nothing to contribute to the public’s good feelings about the Mets ballclub.

Back in 1993 there were a pair of incidents.  One involved formerly stellar pitcher Brett Saberhagen choosing to spray a super soaker filled with bleach at the assembled crew of Mets beat reporters in the locker room.

That same season speedy outfielder Vince Coleman threw a fairly powerful firecracker equivalent to a ¼ stick of dynamite at fans gathered in St. Louis after the game outside the ballpark for an autograph.  Three people -- a 33 year old woman, an 11 year old boy and a 2 year old boy required hospitalization for their injuries.  The 2 year old suffered cornea damage.  

In the realm of substance abuse and drinking to excess, you have quite a few candidates to consider, including most recently Matt Harvey, but preceded by both Darryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden.  The latter two added violence and other incidents to their questionable behavior while with the Mets.  

Speaking of violence, who can forget the relief pitcher Frankie Rodriguez punching out his father-in-law in the clubhouse at Citifield?  He then went off on the reporters trying to cover the story as well.  Needless to say his Mets career came to an abrupt end.  

Back in the spring training of 2004 two Mets outfielders -- Karim Garcia and Shane Spencer -- started off their problematic night by stepping outside of a bar in which they were apparently overserved, then proceeded to pee on the pizza parlor’s front window.  When the pizza employee came out to complain, Spencer decked him.  Needless to say, neither of these guys amounted to much of a Mets career either.

A problematic but talented Carl Everett patrolled the outfield for the Mets for a few years, but his personal control issues led to suspension for anger management when a stadium worker noticed bruises all over the body of one of his children.  He went onto much worse situations, including holding a gun to the head of his wife and abusing another family member.  

This one in 2002 was a major cringe and seemingly something only the Mets could manage to do, but they had Hall of Famer Mike Piazza hold a press conference to announce he was not gay.  

The World Series crew in 1986 was hardly free and clear either.  There was a brawl with Houston police involving Rick Aguilera, Ron Darling, Bobby Ojeda and Tim Teufel

Of course, how could we forget Bobby Bonilla Day, the July 1st holiday in which the team pays their former third baseman well over $1 million to make up for early termination of the old contract.  This transaction will continue to take place every year until 2035.  Yup, paying him 8% interest was a little short-sighted and deep pocketed.  Thanks, Wilpon family!