Mets' Steve Cohen acts like an owner rather than fan
Steve Cohen was absolutely right about one thing: He most certainly did tip his hand.
On June 28, he most certainly did say, “All is not lost, but it’s getting late. I’m preparing my management team for all possibilities. If they don’t get better, we have decisions to make at the trade deadline.”
Thirty-five days later, sitting in the visiting team’s dugout at Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium, Cohen all but shrugged his shoulders.
“Nobody listened to me,” he said. “I kind of said it. No one listened.”
He paused.
“I’m surprised you’d be surprised.”
He said all this impassively, almost aloofly. It is a reminder that though Steve Cohen may be in his 63rd year of rooting for the Mets, most of those years he has primarily been a fan of Steve Cohen, and a fan of the business interests that have allowed him to accumulate a fortune in the neighborhood of $20 billion.
Mets owner Steve Cohen talks to the media before the Mets’ game against the Royals on Wednesday night. AP
It recalls a line from “Wall Street,” when Bud Fox reminds Gordon Gekko of a past morsel of advice the mentor had offered the protégé: “You once told me, ‘Don’t get emotional about stock,’ Gordon. Don’t.”
Fans, of course, lead with their emotions. That is what causes them to care so deeply, to pay so steeply, to suffer so completely, and to react so viscerally when things go badly. And no matter how detached the prism, Tuesday had been a long, hot, miserable day to be a Mets fan — from the moment the trigger was pulled on the Justin Verlander deal to the instant Josh Walker’s leg trembled ever-so-briefly, allowing a walk-off-balk to the worst team in baseball.
Mets fans woke up salty on Wednesday, and even the ones who in their heads acknowledged the team might have done the prudent thing by evacuating so many players couldn’t help but feel the heartburn of reality that occurs whenever you realize a season is over — whether that happens after 100 games, after 162 games, or at the end of October.
Cohen surely understands that, and if he doesn’t, the acres of empty seats that will litter Citi Field will surely send that message, as will the certain reluctance of some faithful ticket buyers to renew for however long the Mets’ period of recalibration will last.
He tried to reign in — if not walk back — some of the seismic spin that had accompanied some of general manager Billy Eppler’s comments the past few days, and just about all of Max Scherzer’s.
“The expectations were really high this year,” Cohen said. “My guess is next year they’ll be a little lower. But I can’t speak to the offseason. I’m opportunistic. I don’t want to roll a team out there we’ll be embarrassed by.”
And then: “I’m not as negative about this.”
If Cohen provided the foreshadowing for Black Tuesday during the bleak final days of June, he has also always been quick to point out that his willingness to spend money would never be limited simply to making splashy big-ticket signings.
From his arrival, he has spoken about the great commitment — and greater cost — needed to improve the franchise’s infrastructure, and its farm system. It’s all on the record.
Justin Verlander is back with the Astros after just 16 starts with the Mets. Gordon Donovan/New York Post
It’s just not as fun as when that cash is distributed to famous names with All-Star (and occasional Hall of Fame) credentials. Mets fans hungered for years for an owner who would treat the team like a big-market team, and Cohen gave them that rush. Together, owner and fan also learned a hard lesson, to which Cohen lent a voice Wednesday in Kansas City:
“Spending a lot of money doesn’t guarantee you a trip to the playoffs,” he said.
Of course, what he didn’t say is also true: Spending a lot of money to acquire prospects in lieu of stars doesn’t bring any guarantees, either. But Cohen is a man who has played the percentages all of his life, all the way to a Monopoly-money bank account. He isn’t someone you imagine often draws to an inside straight. He saw the Mets’ playoff odds hovering around 14 percent and made a choice, a tough one, to sell.
Maybe even the part of Cohen that remains a fan was just as upset by what happened Tuesday, and in the four months before. We didn’t see that part Wednesday. Cohen the owner didn’t consult Cohen the fan.
Source: New York Post
