Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: So where have all the Mets fans gone?
From: <ALWHC@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Date: Tuesday, 1 Sep 1992 11:22:48 EDT
 .edu><1992Aug26.033950.11652@sunb10.cs.uiuc.edu><1992Aug26.044911.15046@cs.cornell.edu>
Organization: City University of New York/ University Computer Center

  It really wasn't that long ago when the Mets were contenders and they
were so loaded with talent down to the AA farm club that Mets fans (as
well as the rest of the league) thought that they had a dynasty, a team
that would win the championship for the next 3-4 years. What went wrong?
  First of all, even when they were on top, they still had their faults.
They weren't that great defensively and with the exception of Keith
Hernandez, no one was a Gold Glove at their position. Davey Johnson
never managed them well enough to really bring out the potential of the
team. Other managers like Herzog and Lasorda had their teams bunting,
moving the runners over, etc. manufacturing runs while Davey relied too
much on the long ball which doesn't always come through. Think of it:
The Mets owe their championship to an error by Bill Buckner when they were
talented enough to win in it in 5 games, they lost in '88 to the
Dodgers when they should have won, and they barely got past the Astros
in '86. In some of those years that they finished 2nd to the Cardinals,
they could have made it. Davey Johnson coached too much like Earl Weaver
who also had some of the best teams of all time and only has one championship
to show for it.
   I pinpoint the demise of the Mets not when they traded Dykstra away,
 but when they traded Kevin Mitchell away. Even though they got Mcreynolds
 out of it, Mitchell hit more homeruns and got more rbi's and he would
 have complemented Hernandez, Strawberry, and Carter better than McReynolds.
 And as a side point there was some controversy over there being only
 two or three black players at the time on the Mets, and had they kept
 Mitchell, it might have helped that situation.
    Then over the years when Joe McIlvane was being groomed to succeed
 Frank Cashen, McIlvane traded Roger Mcdowell and Dykstra for Juan Samuel
 and was also envisioning a "Dream team" of a pitching staff and so he
 traded away Rick Aguilera, Kevin Tapani, and Dave West to the Twins for
 Frank Viola to go along with Gooden and Cone. We now see that none of these
trades panned out. Then there was the letting go of Strawberry and slowlye
but surely the '86 team was being broken up.
   If those three trades and non-signing not happened Mets fans could have
had an outfield of Strawberry, Dykstra, and Mitchell, and some middle
inning relief and a closer from some of the pitchers traded to the Twins.
With all that power from the outfield, possibly Magadan would have filled
in nicely at 1b after Hernandez, and they could have made some package
deals and filled in the rest of the team. It may not be a perfect team,
but it would be a lot better than what is out there now.
   We could on saying they should have done this and that, but what they
 should not do this winter is go for another quick fix like last year.
 They should clean house, resolve the next few years to develop talent
 and a good nucleus and with a few free agent signings they could then
 contend. The Braves and Pirates went through lean years before they started
 winning and now the Mets have to pay their dues again.


  Al