A few years ago, the New York Mets, with fresh green bills in their pockets, did a complete overhaul of what is now Citi Field. They made a state of the art stadium worth upwards of $800 million, and saved $40 million.
As recently reported, that $40 million is coming out of the safe, according to The New York Times. The Mets, upset that star third baseman David Wright sucks, is going to be making it easier on him by shortening the outfield fences 8-feet by height and by nearly 20 feet inward in some places of the stadium. This way, as the Mets hope, Wright will hit more home runs — and the team as a whole will hit more.
Drop some stats on me — 2008 was Wright’s best season… 33 homeruns, 124 RBIs. This year? 14 homeruns 61 RBIs.
And the Mets are going to blame it on their state of the art, $800 million stadium. Not on Wright. Not on the hitting coach. Not even on the wind. How can you not blame it on Wright? Sure, he sucks at hitting homeruns now — maybe because of the stadium — but he’s also striking out like it’s nobody’s business. From 113 Ks in 2005, to 161 in 2010.
According to The New York Times, the owners formally announced Monday that they had gotten the field wrong when they were designing and constructing the new stadium. But how could that be? According to the Times’ article, former general manager Omar Minaya preached defense, speed and pitching, in the design of the ballpark.
So that means you didn’t want people hitting home runs.
The Mets were in a dibacle. Either way they were terrible. Their poor pitching had been giving up so many home runs that they wanted to make it harder on their opponents to hit them. However, that was a double-edged sword because it caused the Mets to hit fewer, too. Thus, the Mets decided to change their minds and go rebuild something they’d spent so much money on.
But hey! They had saved $40 million last time. So they can afford to spend that on fences that make everything easier.
Let’s just pad the Mets players’ stats. But let’s not count them anymore.
Why do team’s do this? So what if you’re not hitting enough home runs! Play some small ball, find a way to manufacture runs. Teams with less money can’t just go out there an drop $40 million on outfield fences. Those teams, smarter, better teams, find a way to win. They can win by great pitching or by playing small ball. It’s been done before. But I guess the Mets will just take the easy way out — the expensive way out.
