Steve Cohen further casually introduced himself [1] to us Tuesday afternoon, after tweeting back and forth among us on and off for a week. We’d definitely like to hang out in his company some more.
The new owner of the New York Mets, decidedly not the old owner of the New York Mets, took to Zoom to chat with the media (and, by extension, all of Metsopotamia) and sent us zipping toward the future. There were sentimentally superb nods to the past — his first Mets game at the Polo Grounds; his many games in the Upper Deck at Shea Stadium; his fond recollections of Cleon, Tom and Mookie from ’69 and ’86; and his confirmation that reviving Old Timers Day is indeed a fine idea — but the most encouraging portion of his Q&A was forward-looking, with his sights clearly set on a brighter tomorrow.
How could they not be? The Wilpon clouds have parted and their replacement by the guy who rode the Port Washington line to Shea before making his billions is auguring blue skies smiling on us. He’s got the will to win a World Series in a time span equivalent to how long it’s been since were last in one, and he’s got the financial wherewithal to convert our shared wishes and dreams into uplifting reality…or at least push us a whole lot closer to meeting heightened expectations. Plus he seems pretty cool about the whole thing. Overall, Cohen is here to take our sad song and make it better.
Hey, Steve, don’t be afraid. You were made to go out and get us some players, fortify an organization and generally elevate us to perennial powerhouse status. And you’ve got Sandy to pitch in.
Yes, Sandy Alderson 2.0 has arrived, like Bobby Ewing from out of the shower in Dallas. Brodie Van Wagenen was never here if you close your eyes real hard and then open them real fast; Luis Rojas will probably still be here when we look around come Spring of 2021, but that’s OK for now. Unlike the fall of 2010 until the summer of 2018, Sandy will not be the GM, but he will oversee operations, asking only for the chance to shop high-end and to receive “a seat at the table,” which should be easily accessible to him, assuming Brodie didn’t throw it through a wall on his way out.
Any situation like this is going to be chock full of happy talk and pledges to recreate “the culture [2],” but we’re primed to take just about everything Steve and Sandy said literally, seriously and to heart. The game has changed. This is not your slightly younger self’s offseason press availability. We will no longer listen to Alderson speculate on what might be done while we shake grains of salt on his perhapses and maybes, because he’s got somebody backing him who’s prepared to grant him leeway and resources, two items we’re pretty certain he didn’t have within his regular grasp pre-Cohen. We’ll no longer cringe when we hear from the owner , because the owner is no longer somebody whose only public statements are scheduled for self-congratulations or damage control.
The Mets, Alderson said, have been “storied”. The Mets’ goal from this day forward is to be “iconic”. Cohen said he’s “all in”. Who here isn’t?