![\"mets\"](\"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/mets.jpg\" "\\"mets\\"")
<\/p>\nThe search for the next Mets general manager is (almost) over, and for now we don\u2019t have a lot else to talk about.\u00a0 Unfortunately the most important facts are hidden from us; the candidates\u2019 plan for the future.\u00a0 Looking at past history is certainly helpful, but what really determines who the best choice is is the game plan that person has to bring the Mets to the World Series.<\/p>\n
Nothing will dispel the adjectives and storylines currently trending among Mets writers.\u00a0 We\u2019ve heard broke, dysfunctional, disastrous, cheap, stupid, tyrannical, clueless and many others.\u00a0 Signing a general manager that\u2019s perceived to be a good choice may quiet that some in the offseason, but that\u2019s only a band aid. If and when the Mets announce their choice this week, the team won\u2019t actually be any better.<\/p>\n
This is why signing a guy as a figurehead of autonomy is not the way the Mets should go.\u00a0 A quiet offseason does nothing for ticket sales or profits.\u00a0 It\u2019s the actions of the new hire that will do that, and even that\u2019s unlikely until those actions, acquisitions and trades, put up statistics in regular season games and the Mets look like a winning club.\u00a0 So we can speculate about who is the best choice, but until we see the decisions made, it\u2019s not easy to know that.<\/p>\n
Until the Mets are winning, consistently, all those stories people are writing about the Mets being dysfunctional will continue.\u00a0 You\u2019ll hear people crack jokes about Prevention and Recovery, joke about the Mets doctors, criticize Jeff Wilpon\u2019s apparent involvement in the way things are done and reference Bernie Madoff any time anyone gets more money than is thought to be fair or the Mets don\u2019t sign or talk to a player that someone thinks they need.<\/p>\n
Outside of the fanatic fan, us bloggers and tweeters and hard-core followers, most people don\u2019t even know or care who the general manager of the team is.\u00a0 If the team is exciting, popular, and winning they will come to the stadium.\u00a0 If it\u2019s not, they won\u2019t.\u00a0 No GM is a savior; it\u2019s going to take a lot of hard work from everyone all the way down to the 40th<\/sup> guy on the extended roster to get this team back to respectability.\u00a0 It\u2019s not about names or faces or organizational structure but about winning.\u00a0 So let\u2019s get this general manager selected and into the office so we can start with the process of building our 2011 World Champion New York Mets.<\/p>\n Jon Heyman is reporting tonight that the Mets have decided on Sandy Alderson.\u00a0 If this is indeed the case, my point stands: The team is not yet better.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take the next step and start interviewing smart, talented people to manage the team.\u00a0 And let\u2019s start keeping some things internal before blabbing it to the media.\u00a0 Either announce it officially, or don\u2019t tell Heyman, because telling him is as good as announcing it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The search for the next Mets general manager is (almost) over, and for now we don\u2019t have a lot else to talk about.\u00a0 Unfortunately the most important facts are hidden from us; the candidates\u2019 plan for the future.\u00a0 Looking at past history is certainly helpful, but what really determines who the best choice is is … <\/p>\n