Honor the Absurd
Steve Cohen wants to put on an Old-Timer's Day. Here's how he should do it.
For years under the Wilpon regime, communications from the owners mostly came in the form of snarky, anonymous quotes leaked to beat reporters. So it’s refreshing to see Steve Cohen banter with fans Twitter. It’s the lowest possible bar for someone to clear: “start a Twitter account.” But still, it’s nice.
We’ve learned all sorts of things from Cohen’s Twitter interactions, but one thing that’s stood out is his desire to hold an Old-Timer’s Day. Again, “honor your team’s history” isn’t the highest bar in the world. But after the Wilpons, Cohen feels sort of like driving a luxury car after 20 years riding a bike with two flat tires.
Old-Timer’s Day is a fantastic idea. Why not? It’ll sell tickets, thrill fans, and tie together decades of Mets history in a way in which the previous owners took little interest. The Mets have had all sorts of players who deserve a triumphant return. Imagine Pedro Feliciano, one of the most effective relievers the Mets have ever had at the job he was given, pitching to Edgardo Alfonzo, who always seemed like he should have been a Met for life, while Rey Ordoñez plays shortstop and Paul Lo Duca catches. We could see one more appearance from Generation K, one last bomb from Carlos Delgado, a long-overdue standing ovation for Val Pascucci.
Yes, Old-Timer’s Day is long overdue, and Cohen appears committed to putting it together. “No brainer to have Old Timer’s Day, done,” he wrote on Twitter on November 1st, after soliciting suggestions to improve the fan experience. He followed that up a few weeks later. “I’m not just going to consider it,” he wrote. “I’m going to do it.”
Cohen, so far, seems like a man of his word, and it’s a good bet that he’s serious about putting Old-Timer’s Day together. So I’d like to get my two cents in at the outset. Any Old-Timer’s Day will be spectacular, but if Steve Cohen wants to create a truly unique Mets experience, there’s a very specific way he should do it.
These are the Mets, after all. There’s an aura of quirkiness and ineptitude about them: the Mets came into being as “lovable losers,” and even as their first incarnation lost 120 games, their manager, Casey Stengel, instantly became a Mets legend. Later, Yogi Berra became manager; he was always saying things like “it’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future.” A different Mets manager famously got ejected from a game, then came back to the dugout in a moustache and glasses.
The examples go on and on. There’s Marvelous Marv Throneberry, who was once called out for missing first base as he ran out a triple; when Stengel came out to argue, the first-base coach told him, “don’t bother, he missed second too.” There’s Mike Hampton, who announced that he was leaving the Mets not because of the $121 million the Rockies offered him, but because Colorado had such excellent schools. There was the time in 2013 when as rumors swirled that Troy Tulowitzki might be traded, the Mets released a statement that they would have a big announcement later that day, only to later reveal that the big announcement was a Citi Field concert by Huey Lewis and the News.
Whether you like it or not, there’s always been an aura of comic weirdness associated with the Mets. Steve Cohen might hope to reduce this ever-present strangeness and replace it with competence and winning, but he should still celebrate the hilarities of Mets seasons past.
So, how to do this on Old-Timer’s Day? It’s simple: bring back both heroes and villains. Celebrate the successes in Mets history, while also giving the failures a chance to redeem themselves.
Imagine how funny, how unique, how Mets it would be. Keith Hernandez striding to the plate against Tom Glavine. A double-play tandem of Rey Ordoñez and Luis Castillo. Beloved Turk Wendell handing it off to Armando Benitez. And of course, your cleanup hitter, that icon of Mets strangeness, Bobby Bonilla.
Yes, that’s right: bring him back. Put Bobby Bonilla in front of a packed Citi Field crowd and give him a chance to win back Mets fans. Let Tom Glavine show that even after 2007, he’s still proud to be a Met. Let Luis Castillo play second base; hopefully someone hits him a popup, and God willing, he’ll put it away. And let Armando Benitez nail down the save.
Old-Timer’s Day will be fantastic, a joyous celebration of Mets history. But it should also have some of the strangeness, the quirky element, that has defined the Mets for so long. So bring back both the heroes and the villains, and let them battle it out. Create an Old-Timer’s Day that’s joyful and profound, but also truly, unmistakably Mets.