Reese Kaplan -- Mike Puma's If These Walls Could Talk Part 3 of 9

The next chapter in Mike Puma’s If These Walls Could Talk: New York Mets began to cite the beginning of the end for the club as the playoff days were a thing of the past and the expectation during this period was for bad things to happen.  

It started off with the ever changing cast of characters.  Steve Phillips truly had the knack for bringing baseball players to New York who were either past their prime or simply not capable of contributing the way they once did.  Some say it is the pressure cooker of being in the media capital of the world.  Some say it is the poor preparation and execution by the people helping to get the team ready to win.  It could just be bad luck, too.

Starting in 2002 Mo Vaughn became a big part of the Mets for his girth more so than his bat.  He was recovering from injury and wasn’t nearly the same player he had been when he was in Boston with the Red Sox and in Anaheim with the Angels where he had been a three-time All Star and three-time contender for the MVP Award.  

After missing 2001 due to injury, Vaughn’s career was not what it once was.  In the two years combined he accumulated only about one year’s worth of playing time.  When you start to eyeball his production, it doesn’t look all that bad with 29 HRs and 87 RBIs, though the .249 combined batting average was well below his normal .293 career production.  He’d ballooned up in weight and that size didn’t play a good role in healing.  He wound up retiring from baseball after his two ill-fated years half-time in a Mets uniform.

He was not alone in his ineptitude, of course.  They also made a deal with the Indians to obtain one-time star Roberto Alomar to play second base.  It’s kind of ironic that after being burned in the Carlos Baerga deal a few years earlier that they’d go back to the same well again, but creativity was never a part of the Phillips front office.  In the season prior to coming to the Mets the 12-time All Star Alomar had hit .336 with 20 HRs, 100 RBIs and 30 SBs.  Apparently at age 33 he was still performing at his future Hall of Fame level.  For the single season he was with the Mets he hit just .266 with 11 HRs, 53 RBIs and 16 SBs. 

For that output the Mets gave up outfielder Matt Lawton who didn’t amount to much, oft-injured and never established Alex Escobar and pitcher Jerrod Riggan who turned in a season with a 7.64 ERA for the Indians.  You can’t really squawk that the Mets were robbed, but he didn’t help.  After one year he was shipped off to the White Sox for prospects, the only one of which amounted to anything was Royce Ring who wound up pitching for two good seasons in 2006 and 2007, but those years were outliers and he finished up with a five-year career ERA of 5.29.  

They added one-time former Met Jeromy Burnitz in the hope he would contribute good power to the ballclub, but by year’s end he delivered 19 HRs, drove in just 54 and batted a measly .215.  They added free agent Roger Cedeno for his return engagement as well.  When he was a Met in 1999 they were rewarded with a .313 AVG and 66 stolen bases.  In the three years that passed his weight went up and everything else went down.  He finished that 2002 season with just 25 stolen bases and a .260 AVG.  

No matter how good Mike Piazza and Edgardo Alfonzo were for the team, they couldn’t compensate for the lack of production of the other regular players.  The rest of the lineup included the likes of Timo Perez, Rey Ordonez, John Valentin and a host of others that were not much better than some of the recent squads fielded during the Terry Collins days.  

After more than six years in the dugout things were on a downward spiral and many speculated that Bobby Valentine was at the end of his rope.  Fred Wilpon asked him as a favor to allow Jeff Wilpon to sit in on season ending coaching meetings to listen to what was being discussed as preparation for his future responsibilities in the front office.  He was assured that Jeff would be quiet for his first two years as an observer, so Valentine reluctantly agreed.

Of course, as soon as the meeting started, Jeff Wilpon piped up about how he thought things should have been done and would be done in the future.  Valentine was obviously incensed by this change from what he had been promised.  It started with a diatribe on hitting philosophy based upon golf swing instruction that conflicted with long time hitting coach Tom Robson.  

When Valentine asked the elder Wilpon somewhat sarcastically, “Have two years gone by already?” Fred Wilpon changed his mind and fired Bobby Valentine.  The meeting was done without GM Steve Phillips present and Valentine was offended that he was gone while Phillips remained on the job.

Of course, it became Phillips’ task to find a new manager.  He wanted Lou Piniella from the Marlins but they wanted Jose Reyes in return for their manager.  Instead he went after the man who “lit up the room,” Art Howe now formerly of the Oakland A’s.  While he did have some success over there, it became clear almost immediately that the decision to bring in Howe was wrong on many levels, not the least of which was the new manager’s often parodied, “We battled” whenever the club lost yet again.  The then highest paid manager in club history was fired long before his contractual end, admitting the mistake and deciding they needed to move in yet another new direction.  

Cliff Floyd offered up the opinion that Art Howe was just not right for this role.  “No knock against Art Howe, but fans are really smart there and they wear their emotions on their sleeve.  When Art was leaning on the top railing of the dugout, you should have heard the choice words they gave him every game.”

The 2003 brought the Mets 37 year old Tom Glavine who was never fully embraced by the fans.  First, he was a former Brave and the Mets fans felt they were bitter enemies.  More importantly, the Braves had no interest in keeping him around and he was not regarded in the same stratosphere as former teammates Greg Maddux or John Smoltz. 

By the end of 2003 GM Steve Phillips was shown the door as well.  He told the Wilpons he saw it and knew it was coming.  He had been receiving death threats from fans that kept him from going to certain locations for fear someone might follow through.  The fans cheered vociferously when Phillips was no longer a part of the organization.

A large chunk of this chapter dealt with the arrival and legacy of one Rick Peterson, pitching coach extraordinaire who was misquoted by writer Tim Kurkjian as saying he could fix Carlos Zambrano in 10 minutes which led to the justifiably criticized trade that sent top prospect Scott Kazmir to Tampa Bay.  Zambrano pitched for three weeks and was shut down, missed the following season entirely and then gave them one full but highly mediocre losing season in which he made 31 starts.  He was pretty much done after the next injury, though he attempted comebacks with Blue Jays and Orioles in 2007 to no avail.  

The arrival of Omar Minaya to the front office changed perceptions dramatically.  He was instrumental in scouting at Montreal prior to coming to New York and he was determined to put a much better product onto the field.  His first flashy acquisition was the oft-injured but elite pitcher Pedro Martinez.  He oversaw the departure of Mike Piazza after eight years and a failed attempt to convert to first base from catcher.  There was still not a lot of winning, but the teams gradually became more competitive when people could remain healthy.

The end of the chapter had to do with the transition from the old television broadcast team of Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner to the new SNY network’s team of Gary Cohen (formerly of radio only), Keith Hernandez and third choice pitcher Ron Darling.  He was chosen after declined invitations to both Al Leiter and David Cone who didn’t want to partake in the 162 game schedule required of the TV team.  Just before the season started Hernandez offered up to Darling the position that he would do the hitters and he should do that pitchers.  That eased up tension in Darling’s mind and they worked together better in the booth than they had as teammates.  

Mike Puma confirmed, “All three did a consistent job of telling how they came together.  They did a great job talking about it online.  Darling was only a year into it with the Nationals.  They were not really close but eventually he and Hernandez fit together well.”