There is no doubt that the New York Mets of the past six years all sum up to one word : failure. Perhaps it’s even fair to say that about most of the New York Mets existence painful as that admission may be. However the heartbreak of 2006 is still strongly felt. That year was supposed to be the Mets year. Everything was going so well for them and it just felt like we Met fans were finally going to have something to cheer after so many years of heartbreak.
Unfortunately, it was not to be and even today it’s hard to fathom. The Mets seemed to go on slumps at the wrong time while the Saint Louis Cardinals heated up at the right time. Whatever it was the Met team of David Wright, Jose Reyes, and Carlos Beltran failed to get it done that year and the following two years were worse (I guess depends on one’s perspective there) with the collapse that led to the unclassy firing of Willie Randolph and it’s just been a disaster ever since.
The feeling seems to be that this Met team needs to be dismantled and the two Carlos are already gone. But we still have David Wright though I’m not sure we’ll get back Reyes as of this writing. Should the Mets aggressively pursue him and give him whatever he wants? Or should they let him go, and trade Wright too? One thing for sure we do need to put these disaster years behind us. However a change may be needed in order to do this. As much as we may love Wright and Reyes it may be time to say goodbye to them.
Many fans do not want to see this happen. Wright and Reyes are homegrown talent, and we have not seen too much of that with the Mets. They have traded dozens of players who went on to excel in other teams. Hey they were the team to trade Nolan Ryan. Now look across town and see years of homegrown talent that the New York Yankees have accumulated. Dimaggio, Mantle just to name two and those more recent ones like Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, and Andy Petite all home grown talent who went on to win championships. Wright and Reyes were on their way in 2006 but failed to do so. They’ve come close only to fall short again and again.
However, despite this failure they are homegrown talent. Should we keep them anyway and give them one more chance? Or is it really time for a change? Mike Francesa once pointed out in his radio show that homegrown talent means nothing if you don’t win. He has a point and yet I understand what fans are saying too. I longed for David Wright to become every bit the hero Derek Jeter became when he won back in 1996. (It didn’t matter if he was as good or not but just to be loved the same way and hey Reyes too) Now I look at David and I can only remember 2006, 2007, and 2008. He’s also the player that is happy that Mets management is taking down a fence or two in CIti Field.
Homegrown talent or not it probably is time to move on. For the feeling of failure to change here, we need David to come through and to help win that elusive championship. Reyes will probably not return, but if he does the same thing will have to apply to him. We may love these two homegrown guys, but if they go on without winning then it really doesn’t matter about the homegrown thing. Then again with the Mets and their luck it’ll be the same old story. These guys will play elsewhere and they’ll become bigger stars there. It never seems to fail.