Mets Blogger Roundtable: Finding Good in the Wilpons

Last week, my brother challenged me to find something nice to say about the Wilpons.  Given the tall task this was, I figured the best way to handle this was to turn the question over to the fine people who participate in the Mets Blogger Roundtables:

Mark Healey (Gotham Baseball)

Here’s the deal; unlike a lot of people, I’ve spent some time with Jeff Wilpon. (That’s me interviewing Jeff during a tour of Citi Field) I know he loves baseball. I know he wants to win. I think he gave Sandy some decent money to spend this offseason and it was invested poorly. Jeff, IMO, needs to be less passive aggressive and more out in front of everything that happens. The Wilpons and Katzes are not going anywhere, so we need to put away our pitchforks and find some constructive ways to remind ownership of how much we want this team to succeed.

Editor’s Note: On Gotham Baseball, Mark had a more detailed analysis about how fair the coverage of the Wilpons has been.

Joe Maracic (Loud Egg)

The Wilpons have not sued me yet for using trademarked material in my toons.

Michael Mayer (MMO, MMN)

The Wilpons (Jeff) have done a great job running their Overwatch League team, which Jeff says stems from staying out of day-to-day operations.

Metstradamus (Metstradamus Blog)

I’m not falling for this. The minute I make some joke like “well, I’m sure Jeff Wilpon has never kicked a puppy”, Bob Woodward is going to link Jeffy to a puppy mill in Greenwich for the Washington Post. I’m out. You make your jokes. Hope they age well.

Greg Prince (Faith and Fear in Flushing)

Shannon Forde cited Jeff Wilpon as being very supportive of her when she was battling the cancer that eventually took her life. That’s what I think of when I try to remember there’s a human being behind the caricature.

Tim Ryder (MMO, FOB)

it’s tough to find anything overwhelmingly pleasant to say about the Wilpons. They’ve been doing an excellent job of trolling an entire fanbase for 16 years. Does that count?

Breanna Susa (That Mets Chick)

The Wilpons are really good at saving money. I bet they have a ton of money saved for their retirement. Their financial advisor must be so proud of them with their savings. Actually they are probably their own financial planners since they wouldnt want to give up that 1% of compensation the planners would recieve. Genuis if you ask me. I guess thats why Jeff graduated from Harvard. Dude knows how to save, its almost as if he’s seen a financial crisis like the one in 2008 when the stock market collapsed. Genuis I tell you.

Mets Daddy

The Wilpons are trying to save baseball by pointing out just how unsustainable its economic model.  Teams like the Red Sox, Yankees, and Dodgers are spending at unsustainable rates, and it is going to send them into financial ruin.  Once those teams go down, who knows about the future of baseball?

Fortunately, we have people like the Wilpons who are there to advise all of baseball how to avoid financial ruin and to build a profitable baseball organization which is predicated upon building just one team per decade capable of going to the World Series.

On a more serious note, it was good to see the Mets have a tribute video to Matt Harvey and to welcome back Ed Kranepool and put the word out about his need for a new kidney.  Fans have been justifiably angry with the Wilpons, but they did deserve credit for doing the right thing in those instances.

Here’s hoping you take the time out to help out of a Mets great while you’re taking the time to read some of the excellent work from this group of Mets bloggers.

 

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