Send In The Clowns - The Circus Has Arrived At Citi Field

To compare the New York Mets to Ringling Brothers would be an insult to P.T. Barnum, who was not only a brilliant showman but a savvy businessman as well. While the first half of the Mets season was a comedy of errors and injuries, lately, much of the hurt inflicted on fans has come from the bungling ways of the front office and ownership.

We’ve seen a lot of this in the past under the Wilpon ownership regime. From essentially letting the players run the team in the final days of Bobby Valentine and the trading of Scott Kazmir, to the midnight axing of Willie Randolph, the Mets have been a public relations nightmare for so long it’s amazing their respected PR guru Jay Horowitz doesn’t keel over from the stress on a daily basis.

The latest debacle yesterday was actually an attempt to smother the previous week’s debacle of the bombshell allegations against VP of Player Development, Tony Bernazard. In case everyone out there in happy Phillies-land missed this, good old Tony was apparently a great baseball mind who had zero social skills when dealing with players and other personnel. He also apparently liked to whip off his shirt and threaten players but we can’t go there because as you all know, the first rule about fight club is don’t talk about fight club.

Anyway, after NY Daily News Reporter Adam Rubin broke the story of Bernazard’s misconduct last week, the Mets GM Omar Minaya addressed the media, saying the team was investigating Bernazard’s actions to the 11th degree. It was a cringe-worthy spiel in which Omar spoke in circles, using the word “investigate” far too many times. But hey, at least the front office was taking these allegations seriously. So despite Omar’s lack of command of the English language, at least the fans knew the team was looking into matters.

A week went by and even though the Bernazard story died down a bit, it was still making some headlines in the New York papers. The Mets, seeking closure, concluded their investigation and decided to remove Tony from his post. Yesterday, the team called another press conference where Minaya informed the public of the teams’ decision.

Sadly, what should have been closure turned into even more of a fiasco as soon as Omar hit the podium. The press conference was torturous to listen to. It was so bad that I actually wanted to crawl under my desk and hide.

Pretty much the only concrete statement made was that the Mets concluded their investigation and decided that it would be better if the organization parted ways with Bernazard. Omar could not or would not divulge the details of what lead to the decision. He did not specify whether the allegations made by the Rubin and others were true. All he said was that the Mets had been investigating Bernazard since before the claims were printed and that what they found out did not jibe with the organizations philosophy.

As Omar talked in circles, the press conference became increasingly difficult to listen to as every question he was asked he either could not answer because he was kept in the dark about the details of the investigation, or because of some human resources clause. But things turned really ugly when he called out Daily News writer Adam Rubin for going public with his Bernazard story because he was angling for a front office job. Wait a second, Omar, what did you say? Please tell me you didn’t go there…Oh, but he did…

At this point, what could have been a positive press conference and an example of the Mets putting something damaging behind them, instead opened up a whole new can of worms. I don’t know what he was thinking in saying this, but Omar, bad move…very, very bad move that is likely the beginning of the end for you.

As talk radio and the SNY Network went wild with this, the Mets front office attempted damage control a few hours later with their second press conference of the day in which Omar and Jeff Wilpon addressed the earlier slip of the tongue. In a pseudo apology, Omar essentially said he was sorry. But the mea culpa was not for accusing Rubin of undermining Bernazard in an attempt to get a job in the Mets front office, but for doing it at the earlier press conference. Now what kind of back-handed apology is that? That just added more fuel to the fire…You would have been better off saying nothing and waiting for the storm to pass.

Sadly, for everyone involved in this organization, this whole incident is embarrassing. For Mets fans it is truly disheartening. How can we have faith in our team if the front office acts like a bunch of bumbling idiots? How can we expect our team to take the field and play good solid baseball if there seems to be some sort of trickle-down effect where the ineptness of the front-office infects the team?

Surprisingly, maybe all of this hullabaloo is good for the players on the field. This is one of the few times in a disappointing season that the focus is not on their losing ways. The one hope in all of this is that perhaps with the spotlight shining elsewhere in the organization, the team can concentrate on just going out and playing good fundamental baseball. But as for the front office, these kinds of shenanigans have to stop.

Unfortunately, unless Omar pulls off some majorly brilliant trade or the Mets manage to make the post-season, this is probably his final curtain call. I don’t really see how he can recover from this, which is kind of sad because I get the feeling the truly inept person in all of this who should bear the brunt of the blame is really Jeff Wilpon and the way the Wilpon family runs this team.

Regardless of who the GM or even the manager is next year, if the Mets ever expect to be competitive the Wilpons need to become truly silent owners and hire great baseball people to run the everyday. The Yankees built their dynasty teams of the late 90’s while George Steinbrenner was banned from baseball. The Wilpons need to essentially ban themselves from doing anything other than signing checks. Either that or sell the team, make back your Madoff money and call it a day. As fans, all we really want is to win and be proud of our team. Sadly, I can’t say I have felt that way since 2006. And the circus has lost its mystique as well…Why spend money on Ringling Brothers when I can watch the Mets do a better job of clowning it up six months out of every year?