No, I'm not running the Mets or their fans down. What bothers my about the Orange and Blue...and sometimes black team and their fans is that WE DON'T HATE THE METS! They want us to!
They want us to hate them. They want a rivalry... but they, as Derek said, they're "just the Mets". They are the place holder wearing the colors of New York originals... THE BROOKLYN DODGERS and THE NEW YORK GIANTS. They will always be the "other team".
Steve Cohen will never change that. Why? Because all the money in the world can't erase The Babe, The Mick, Joe D, The Iron Horse, Reggie, The Bronx Zoo, The 90s etc. No, this isn't me holding onto the past either. IT'S JUST BASEBALL HISTORY, that's all, and there happens to be a lot of YANKEE BASEBALL in that proud story of the American Pastime. Full stop.
I'm glad for my pals that root for the Metropolitans. Truly. They have a great park over there. It's a quantum leap over the big "Ashtray near LaGuardia" as my Pop once called it. Yea... remember Shea Stadium? They have some great players these days and the Mets of the 1980s were fun to watch.
My issue is with guys like Barstool's KFC puffing his chest out on WFAN today saying, "NOBODY CARES ABOUT MONUMENT PARK AND THE PINSTRIPES ANYMORE!" Seems like Yankee fans live rent-free eating nothing but high scoring Portnoy Pizza's in Kev's head. Take your big-time player! Steve had the money, Soto has Boras and so it goes and so it goes. I enjoy KFC on the Barstool podcast, and know he's breaking balls, but the glee people get from the Yanks not signing someone outweighing the rush of getting a big bat like Juan is nuts.
Signing Soto would've been awesome for the Yankees. He seemed to like the Bronx, playing with #99 and the fans loved him...BUT it's a lousy move. It hamstrings you from getting anything else, even having Cohen's monopoly money. The luxury tax is heavy and buying all-star teams does not work.
We are so far gone on players and these contracts. 700 plus million? For a one ballplayer? Think on that. Yes, dollar amounts increase as time passes, but that is insane. Even if they do a little presto chango like Ohtani and backload it all...it still sucks. WE AS FANS END UP PAYING THE NOTE, GANG! Higher ticket prices. Higher concessions prices, Taking a family of 4 to a game? Call your bank and take out that second mortgage.
I don't blame the players. They take what is offered. If the owners put a cap on cash the Union will strike. Agents like Boras don't care about you and your love of the game. They don't. Juan Soto doesn't either. You cheering him as a Met or booing because he ain't a Yankee anymore makes NO difference to him. He is a hired gun. He NEVER claimed to be anything else.
Don't the Mets still own Bobby Bonilla? Baseball is a clown show of contracts these days. For every Juan Soto story we see flame outs, injuries... or they lose the hunger because they got all they wanted. S
Sickboy's line in Trainspotting - "First ya have it. Then you lose it. Then it's gone forever. In all walks of life."
THIS WILL HAPPEN. The Mets just overpaid for a guy who is GREAT! He is a great ballplayer...but in 2 years he'll be really, really good. In 5 years he'll be a strong power hitter who will be a permanent DH. In 7 years, Mets fans will be calling into WFAN saying, "I said it then! We should never have given him that type of money! 15 years??"
Look, the Yankees have PLENTY of problems. I don't think much of the GM. The owner ain't his old man. The team has stars...and a lot of black holes too. The new stadium is a nice outdoor mall, and there are loud mouth Yankee fans spouting off with the sad, "27 championships, bro!" But they're still the Yankees for better or for worse. Steve Cohen and Juan Soto can't make them a lesser franchise in the world of sports or baseball lore any more than Rolling Stone could try to make the Beatles a lesser band. In short, some things just stay gold in this world. The New York Yankees were never about one player. They are, whether KFC and his ilk like it or not, what people think of when baseball is uttered - fan or not.
What Soto did was great for Soto, good for the Mets and lousy for baseball fans. It will keep pushing our game more and more out of reach. It's not because the slugger passed on the Yankees either. I feel the Yankees are culpable too. No organizations are innocent. No superstar player is either.
We always hear the cliche', "hey, it's a business." That may be true. It's a business for the owners and big-time players...but for us fans? We're outside looking in at a sign that reads : BASEBALL FANS NEED NOT APPLY.
A 90's song about greed ought to do it... Silverchair for the Golden Throne Juan Soto now sits on.
A 90's song about greed ought to do it... Silverchair for the Golden Throne Juan Soto now sits on.
--Mike O'Hara
BYB Contributor
Twitter: @mikeyoh21
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