No Mets fan needs to leave Steve Cohen's table hungry just because their ace pitcher shuffled off to Arlington.
Back in the 90s, the Olive Garden restaurant chain ran commercials featuring the Italian word "abbondanza." Translated to English, the word means plenty. For Olive Garden, the philosophy seemed to be, "sure, the food is inauthentic and mediocre at best, but we serve you a lot of it!" They even had a dish dubbed "Chicken Pasta Abbondanza." I ate at an Olive Garden once in my life, and that was only because it was the favorite restaurant of the family of a young lady who I was quite smitten with. I'm sure my beloved Italian grandmother rolled over in her grave over my blasphemous transgression, but that young lady more than made it up to me later that night. Priorities, you know?
Olive Garden has moved on to new slogans, but the spirit of "Abbondanza!" lives on in the borough of Queens and the neighborhood of Flushing. Are you disappointed that your ace pitcher has fled to the southwest without even offering up a half-sincere goodbye message? Fear not, because in the land of "Abbondanza!" he'll be quickly replaced by a future Hall of Famer who is still driven to be the best. Steve Cohen has continued to show a willingness to invest in players and the infrastructure of his organization in a way that I still struggle a bit to get used to.
After all, it hasn't been all that long since the old days. You remember them, right? You'd eat those couple of spoonfuls of weak gruel you were served. Still desperately hungry, you'd leave the table with your empty porridge bowl in hand, shuffle over to Fred and Jeff standing at the front of the room, and plead, "please, sir, I want some more." Inevitably you left disappointed. Fred and Jeff didn't do "Abbondanza!"
When I heard the news that the Mets had signed Justin Verlander mere days after Jacob deGrom's shocking exit, I realized that the bad old days were just a memory. But what a wretched, loathsome memory it was. My mind flashed back to the winter of 2010-2011, just after Sandy Alderson had been hired as the Mets' GM. Reportedly, Alderson didn't realize how bad the club's finances really were until he took on the job.
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6 comments:
Mangia! Mike has served up another tasty article. Keep 'em coming! I'm sure that Steve and Billy will give you plenty to write about.
I grew up on the Ozone Park/Richmond Hill.border of Queens
Only could afford.eating at 3 restaurants:
1. Mabee's Charcoal Broil (where I washed dishes starting at 12).
2. The diner on 111th street and Atlantic Avenue
4. The Chinese restaurant at the F train exit at Van Wyck where Jimmy Breslin would be at the bar writing his column.
Nice article, Mike.......caught me off guard with the "young lady" comment, but I agree that it would make Olive Garden worth it!
The "not so good" old days are definitely in the past, which is a strange feeling, indeed.
Thanks, Guys. Had fun writing it.
Mack, my family's idea of a big night out was going to the Greek diner around the corner. But my grandmother was such a good cook, staying home was better anyway
NY Mets eyeing two more starters.
Jon Matlack (age 72). May finally get another veteran lefty in here, wouldn't that be nice. And righty youngster Bobby J. Jones (age 52) not to be confused with Bobby Mitchell Jones, a lefty starter added in for the sole purpose of confusing all NY Mets fans.
These key roster moves should help to make the 2023 starting rotation considerably younger and add hope for future NY Mets seasons as well as the fan base.
A Festivus for the rest of us, indeed.
This just in.
Jake just hurt his arm on the plane to Texas, and will be out five months.
Said he slept on it funny and is blaming the airline for having very stiff pillows. This ends the contest between all 35+ veteran MLB starters as to which one will get hurt first in 2023. I was going with Sale myself. No cigar there. Drats once again! My bad.
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