Sandy is in charge and the Bookends are Gone

By John Rahilly

            It was clear to me on October 29, 2010 that the Mets made the right decision to hire Sandy Alderson as the General Manager of the Mets. That feeling was reinforced with each passing day; he and his dream team front office are on the job.

            There has been a bad taste in this organizations mouth ever since Beltran was caught looking when Adam Wainwright not only broke off a yaker, but at the same time made us forget the “catch”, and broke all Met fans hearts, and for all intensive purposes started the decline of the Omar Minaya regime.  Two of the final negative staples of that regime, two bookends from the Walter Reed soap opera have been asked to join Elvis, and leave the building.    

            Oliver Perez was a distraction when he failed to go to the minor leagues last year and has been an enigma for the most part since he arrived with the Mets.  Despite a few, and I mean a few, flashes of brilliance, like against the Yankees and Phillies.  The bad Ollie got his papers, the good Ollie went home to his wife. 

Luis Castillo, Johan Santana’s disco buddy from Minneapolis was released because the older he gets, the more of a distraction and malcontent he has become.  In the words of Keith Olberman, “Luis, you’re not good”.   Luis earned his ticket off the island and ended up with the 1^st place Phillies – or so they say. 

            When the Mets were influenced by Bud Selig to hire Sandy it was the best move they ever made, heck it was the best move Bud ever made.   I get this feeling that Sandy is in charge and working with his skipper, Mr. Collins and they are starting to deal with the clubhouse culture.  I like the makeup of Chris Capuano and Chris Brown, and keep my fingers crossed Beltran heals quickly – this is lent we need a miracle.  But who knows maybe our luck won’t be as bad as it’s been the last few years.

I do know this, I feel better about the organization tonight, not good about our chances to win it all.  But then again, these are my beloved New York Mets and they lose when we expect them to win, and win when I expect them to lose.  We expect them to lose so of course this could be an entertaining year both at the ball yard and the courtroom.