Yankees ghosts of players past haunts Mets owner Fred Wilpon

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The Yankees have for far too long employed a disastrous business model. In keeping with the season, Mets’ owner Fred Wilpon recently tried to show Hal Steinbrenner the folly of his ways.

The Yankees are in trouble. Their spending now and in the past has shackled them. And it will inevitably lead them to a financial hell, forever dragging bloated contracts through a bleak baseball future. Just ask the owner of the Mets, Fred Wilpon:

Wilpon believes such an economic model is “unsustainable,” according to a source, a sentiment he has held for several years as the Yankees have made blockbuster acquisitions. Wilpon’s reaction to the Stanton deal was hardly unexpected by those around the team patriarch — he was so rankled when the Yankees traded for Alex Rodriguez in 2004, according to sources, that he called a Mets executive who was on a family vacation to complain. “[Wilpon] keeps saying the Yankees can’t keep this model up,” a source said.

Fortunately, Fred Wilpon recently rented the spirit of Christmas past to illuminate Hal Steinbrenner. As usual, he was too cheap to get all three spirits.

And as is true for his GM’s press conferences, Fred was nowhere to be seen, but it was clear that he had instructed the spirit in what to say.

Expect the First when the Bell Tolls One

“Spirit: Rise, Hal Steinbrenner, and see the mistakes of Yankees past. Look, it’s 1977, and you’re just a boy. But your father has already set the Yankees franchise on a path of ultimate failure. By signing Reggie Jackson, he has doomed himself and all of baseball to death!

Deeeeaaaaatttttttthhhhh!

Hal: Well, the team won back-to-back World Series and made it to three in four years. Some would say that was pretty successful.

S: Yes, but that is only short-term success. It cannot last! Nooooooo, the only wise course of action is to win with only homegrown players. Look at the Mets.

Even as he built his real estate empire in Westchester, Fred could see the only sustainable model was homegrown players and an Ebeneezer Scrooge-level yearly investment in the club. He knows, he has always known, that an owner does not build a team; he waits for it to appear from the minor league system completely intact magically.

Fred knows there is no correlation between adding great free agents to success on the field. And he knows Mets fans like it that way!

They won in ’86 with almost exclusively homegrown players or players traded for. In faaaaaaact, they did not win until they got rid of their only high priced player, George Foster.”

(Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images) /

So, Free Agents Always Destroy a Team

“H: Fair enough, but the Yankees won twice as many by adding Reggie to some homegrown Yankees, and some who were traded for.

S: Oh, poor, poor Hal. You still have not seen the error of your ways. Let us look now through all the recent Yankees’ years. Through the Eighties, when your team was consistently mediocre.

H: Alright, that’s true. But at least the Yankees won more games than any other team in that decade.

S: Ah, but look at the Mets brilliant strategy. They were awful to start the decade, had a few years of excellence resulting in a world title, and faded back to the bottom for another ten years.

That’s a recurring vision, by the way, except without any more titles. I won’t show you all of that as it would be too depressing. For you, Hal, of course. Not Mets’ fans. They love this approach. Oooooooooooohhhhhh!

Meanwhile, poor and destitute Yankees fans have had to suffer through your family’s years of folly. See as dearly departed George foolishly signs Wade Boggs, David Cone, and Kenny Rogers in the early Nineties. Doesn’t he see how this will destroy the Yankees! Oh, woe is me!

H: Um, yeah, I guess I can see that. But the Yankees did win the World Series in 1996. And Coney went on to help win three more.

S: Hal, oh Hal, why must you only look at the short-term rewards! You must focus on how unsustainable this all is! Only Fred Wilpon knows the key to long-term baseball success. Watch as his team plays in the 2000 World Series!”

(Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images) /

Now, Back to 2000

“H: Well, okay, I remember that series. I actually watched it when it happened. And, um, I remember the Yankees beat them that year. And that wrapped up four WS titles in five years.

S: I seeeeee. Hum. And how did you dooooooooo that?

H: You know, like a lot of teams. We got lucky and found ourselves with a lot of homegrown talent in the early Nineties. So, uh, we, you know, invested money in their success. We surrounded them with some great talent that also produced for us at the right time.

Of course we didn’t know we were going to win that much, but we thought the point was to put ourselves into position to win; still, do.

S: You make some good poooooints! But, as the baseball savant Fred Wilpon is rumored to have said when a team such as the Yankees spends too much money on a player, it is bad for baseball! Doom. Doooooooooom!

H: Didn’t he sign Yoenis Cespedes to a four year, $110 million deal just last year?

S: Yes, but that’s an appppppppropriate amount! That was not the case when your brother signed Alex Rodriguez to his last, $275 million contract. See now as your team struggles with its payroll for years, only now coming out from under its weighty links!

By the way, I’m visiting Hank next. Now back to your liiiiiinnnnnnkkkkssss!

H: I agree, and there is a lot of truth there. But, Alex was the main reason we reached the WS in 2009. And winning it really helped our team financially.”

What do Doctors know that Players Don’t?

“S: But it’s also how you’re treating your plaaaaaaaayers. The Yankees seem to take a cautious approach to medical issues and take control of their players’ recoveries. That will never work.

Owner of the Millennium Fred Wilpon has made it clear that it is the players who should decide what is best for themselves.

After all, as Fred Wilpon must clearly know the answer to, who is better to decide what is best for the franchise, the team doctors or the saving-themselves-for-free-agency players?

H: I, uh…whoa.

S: Now that’s a sustainable model for success!

Oh, and see how you let your players develop before deciding on their futures. Sad, sad Yankees. The Wilpons know you should give up on players prematurely and then watch them go on to become All-Stars on other teams, a philosophy your father shared.

That’s the real path to glory! And it makes sense for a club that wants to save money: Give up on players then replace them with lesser free agents, like Neil Waaaaaaalker.

H: Uuuuuuhhhh…..

Who Needs Justin Turner?

S: And now you’re making the same mistake with Giancarlo Stanton and his contract! Fred and other brilliant baseball minds know this will be exactly, 100% like the A-Rod yeeeeeeeaaaarrrrrsss!

H: Uh, okay, maybe. But Stanton might be more like Reggie, or Tino or Paul O’Neill. Plus, he’s only 28, whereas A-Rod was 32. And it is doubtful he is hiding a debilitating PED secret that will cause him massive psychological drama, and act like a total tool, for the next decade.

Oh, and if his signing results in even one World Series, it will be one more than we have won in the last eight years.

S: Hal, oh Hal, just listen to yourself. Still focusing on the short term. This is completely unsustainable! And no fan of the Mets would settle for one World Series in the next decade…wait, what am I saying? That can’t be right.”

If This Trend Continues, I Do Not See A Title in the Mets Future

“H: I understand that every team has to be run in its own way, but the Yankees have won seven championships since 1977 using this exact model. We now have money under the penalty threshold, one of the best farm systems in baseball, and have just added the NL MVP to a team that fell one game short of the World Series.

Yankees ghosts of players past haunt Mets owner Fred Wilpon