Respect is Earned

I gotta say this Wilpon thing is fascinating.  I know … some amongst us don’t want to hear about it anymore.  They say that this is an “overblown media creation.”  With all of the controversies that have plagued the Mets over the past four to five years, it’s become a knee jerk reaction.  “Overblown Media Hype” in part can be translated into “We don’t want to hear endlessly about another off the field distraction … can’t we just worry about who bats where in the order?”  Some of the so-called controversies have been completely overblown.  The Paul Lo Duca “talk to them, they speak English” incident, and the 2010 Walter Reed no-shows qualify as overblown media creations, to be sure.  And there are more.

This is not overblown.  Not to me.  This isn’t Fred Wilpon saying something innocuous and having it be blown up simply because he’s the owner of the Mets.  I know you might think so.  You might think because everything Freddy said was arguably true, then it’s his right to say it as the owner of the club.  And hey, George Steinbrenner did this all the time, right?  At least Wilpon didn’t call Beltran a fat pus-y toad.

There’s something fishy to me about whether there was a motive.  At first, this reminded me of the Rocker/Pearlman fiasco, where Rocker said all those stupid things about pregnant purple haired ladies on the 7 train and didn’t think they’d be published because they didn’t fit the narrative about what he thought the article was supposed to be about.  Maybe Fred Wilpon thought that the comments about Reyes, Wright, and Beltran were just supposed to be throwaways among friends, and that they would be cast aside to cast himself in a better light.  And listening to Jeff Toobin, I think he truly believes that the quotes weren’t so bad that they could be included in the magazine piece without causing a great stir.

But so many people think that there were ulterior motives to it.  That Wilpon wanted to portray himself as a true fan and get people on his side that way.  I don’t think that was the case.  The quotes seemed to be too off the cuff for that.  Or that he was trying to send a Steinbrennerian message to his top guns.  Nah, can’t be that either.  If that was the case, why would he apologize for it?  Nope.  Just seems to be another example of Fred Wilpon being tone deaf and, surprisingly, not savvy enough to manipulate the media to get his message across (and if that’s the case, shame on him).  Because if he tried to do that, then it backfired because he and his quotes got manipulated by all of New York.  And that’s nobody’s fault but Fred’s.

It probably bothers me more than it bothers the three players involved.  For them, the whole thing will die down in a few days, and nothing that Wilpon has said will mean anything in terms of how much Reyes signs for, or who trades for Carlos Beltran.  You think that if a scout was following Carlos Beltran around and seeing the production he was having would stop following him after reading the Wilpon quotes?  You think if the Giants were thinking about trading for Reyes that they would stop after picking up the latest copy of The New Yorker?  No, I don’t think he hurt himself or the players much if at all.  And this will blow over.  All things do.

But that doesn’t mean Fred Wilpon wasn’t dead wrong.  Think about it, he’s owned this team since 1980.  This means he’s had 31 seasons to get a buddy in from a magazine and “send messages”.  Bobby Bonilla caused nothing but angst for Wilpon in his time at Shea, including playing blackjack with Rickey Henderson during the 1999 NLCS.  Tony Tarasco hid marijuana in peanut butter jars and cast the organization as a bunch of potheads.  Charlie Samuels, who Wilpon loved because he was an ownership stooge, stole memorabilia from him and bet on baseball!!!  But he doesn’t say anything about them to any magazine.  No, he picks on three guys who play hard, play hurt, and give everything they’re physically capable of?  How does this make sense?  How is this right?  Mariano Rivera gets the red carpet treatment from ownership after his 500th save at Citi Field by getting the pitching rubber, but Wilpon railroads his own best players in a magazine article?  He can’t even be honest with them to their faces first?

Is it right because Fred Wilpon didn’t say anything that we ourselves haven’t said?  Is it right because he said things that were plausible without being mean-spirited?  No, it isn’t.  We don’t pay their checks.  I don’t pay David Wright to play baseball.  So if I think that David Wright isn’t a superstar, what the hell does he care?  David Wright has never heard of me, never read this blog, and if he happened to stumble upon it and see that I wrote that he isn’t a superstar, he could seriously give a rats’ ass.  And I don’t expect him to care.  Hell, I’d hope he wouldn’t care about anything that I said because I’m a random moron with a blog who’s trying to make people laugh once in a blue moon.  So, really, to hell with me.  But David Wright works for Fred Wilpon.  He dedicates himself to being the best he can be.  Takes pride in being a Met.  Works overtime for charitable work … and, I can’t stress this enough … offered anything he can do to help during this difficult financial time privately and publicly!  How does Wilpon thank David?  By being brutally honest not to his face, but to a magazine writer.  And whatever the so-called motivation was for doing it, sending a message … helping his own reputation … whatever it was, it sucks.  And it was pretty much pointless. Fred Wilpon can say whatever he wants as the owner of the club.  Doesn’t make him right.

Beltran?  Don’t tell me that “oh, he was just disparaging himself by calling himself a ‘schmuck'”.  Because that was a shot at Beltran, plain and simple.  Yeah, Beltran struck out against Adam Wainwright.  Awful moment in Mets history.  Beltran admitted that he still carries that with him and tries hard to overcome that.  He crashes into walls during meaningless games.  He’s played hurt pretty much his entire Mets career.  And the owner of the club mocks him?  Does he really think that this is going to “light a fire” under Beltran?  Or any of them for that matter?  What gear does Beltran have left to give at this point?

And Reyes?  Probably the least disparaging of the three since he was just discussing contract terms.  But it’s bad form to go public during negotations.  He’s taking shots before negotations even begin?  Really??!?

I loved this comment from Mike Pelfrey:

“I think guys will be upset.  But we’re all a family: ownership, coaches and players. Sometimes people say things they regret. It’s a mistake and you learn from it. Maybe next spring when we have our media workshop for the players, Fred can come and sit in on it.” –Mike Pelfrey 

Michael Kay basically blasted Pelfrey for it by saying that you don’t do that to the owner of the club during his radio show on Tuesday, and that Pelfrey should shut up. To hell with that.  It’s up to the ownership of any business or corporation to set the example for the employees.  I’ve always said that the Mets were too nice a team on the field and I think that was the residue of Fred Wilpon being a nice guy.  Well now that Fred wants to set the example of submarining his three best players for no good reason, he should expect a little of that back.  To say that Pelfrey should respect his owner just because he has a title and because he signs the paychecks is a line of thinking that we have to get away from in this country.  Yes, you should respect your elders.  No, anarchy isn’t a good thing.  But you give what you get.  Respect is earned.  It doesn’t come by writing a check or having a title.  It should be earned by what kind of person you are.  And Fred Wilpon by all accounts is a good person who had a bad moment, but it was still a bad moment.  I’ll go all Keith Hernandez on you and tell “all you kids out there”: Always respect people.  Never, ever, respect a title by itself.  Or money.  Yes, you have to earn the respect of your superiors at every turn.  But people forget that they have to earn your respect too.  If Mike Pelfrey lost a little bit of respect for Fred Wilpon because of that unecessary hatchet job he took at his players, so be it.  He picked the perfect opportunity to not bite his glove.  And if what Kay says is true and that “well, Wilpon can turn around and trade you”, well hey, he might be in a pennant race.

The three players involved took the high road and stayed away from further controversy.  They probably would have done that even without the team meeting that the Mets had before the game, because they’re smart on their own.  And they deserve better.  I hate to say it, but part of me hopes that they’re all traded and gone to better situations because they deserve a reward for putting up with all of this nonsense that comes with the territory of being with the New York Mets … nonsense that the Wilpons have created.

And as for Tuesday’s game, well … the team meeting didn’t work as the Mets played obviously uninspired baseball in an 11-1 loss to the almost as awful Chicago Cubs.  There were many low points, a dropped pop-up by Ruben Tejada, a dropped throw by Ronny Paulino, Fernando Martinez having a ball bounce off his knee thirty feet away from him while standing still … maybe the lowest point was letting Carlos Zambrano drive in two runs with a pinch-hit single without even wearing batting gloves.  All these low points made me think about something: I had heard some rumors of a professional sports franchise recently … not throwing a game, but purposely not going out with their best effort as a “screw you” to their manager/head coach for trashing their effort during the previous game, a game where the effort was clearly there.  I don’t know if this is true, but I did hear this rumor.  And I don’t think the Mets went to the field with the mindset of not giving 100%.  I think the players were distracted, certainly not disinterested.

But make no mistake, Tuesday’s game was a message to Wilpon … whether it was intentional or not.  Message being: This is what happens when you try to catch flies with vinegar.