Swapping The Mets For The Dodgers: Everybody Wins!

Well, being a Mets fan just gets better and better, doesn’t it?

We’re worried about whether or not the team will keep Jose Reyes in orange and blue next year, while people who actually work for the Mets will now have to worry about where their next meal is coming from. On the one hand, we say, “In Sandy we trust!” while looking at his track record in Oakland and San Diego, then realize we can’t trust the people who hired him to actually provide the resources to let him do his job. I hate to be crude, but it has become more and more evident that Fred and Jeff Wilpon are doing something…ummmm…”organic” on our legs, then telling us it’s raining. Then they tell us it isn’t our business. For your intrepid columnist, this all summons up dread feelings — feelings I haven’t had since I was a snotty fourteen-year-old – and one simple conclusion: the Mets must be sold, and sold immediately. This team in this market needs to be in the hands of someone who will be willing and – more importantly – able to provide the resources for the Mets to be run like the New York team they are. Or at least like the Boston team they could be.

The same thing has been happening in Los Angeles, owing to the three-ring circus known as the McCourt divorce and subsequent Chapter 11 filing. Think about that for a second: the two largest markets in the National League – two flagship franchises who should have the wherewithal to contend year after year, after year, after year have found themselves in the most dire financial straits imaginable. Now, due to some fancy machinations by MLB Commissioner Selig, Frank McCourt has finally agreed to put the Dodgers up for sale. Dancing in the streets of Tinsel Town, I’d imagine. Unless…

This could be the golden opportunity for Fred Wilpon. If he could somehow sell the New York team he doesn’t seem to really want, that might give him the resources to finally be able to own the team of his dreams. Fred is forever waxing poetic about the Boys of the eternal Summer of his Brooklyn youth. About Gil and Campy. About Erskine and Newk. About Pee Wee and Skoonj and Shotgun Shuba. And why wasn’t Labine available to pitch to Thomson? About how in high school, he pitched while Sandy Koufax played basketball.

Wilpon – with some help from New York taxpayers — built an entire shrine of a ballpark to the team he loves, not the team he owns, including the entire main entrance dedicated to Jackie Robinson – a pioneer, a great man, a man who transcends sports, to be sure, but also a man who never had anything to do with the Mets. I’d really like to see the Mets and Dodgers pull a deal as was last seen in the NFL in the early-70’s, when Bob Irsay transferred his ownership of the L.A. Rams over to Carroll Rosenbloom owner of the Baltimore Colts. Irsay got the Colts he wanted, Rosembloom got the Rams. If a sane, stable person with New York roots can get the Dodgers, he could swap them to Wilpon for the Mets.

See? Everybody wins!