On a murky, rainy Tuesday, I was with a gaggle of baseball-writer types at a friend’s apartment in the city. Our hostess provided a nice lunch and we celebrated the 96th birthday of our colleague, who saw Lou Gehrig play. Late in the lunch, I started getting texts from two rabid Mets fans. “Céspedes back! 4 years!” one wrote. “Finally, some good news!” the other wrote. “This could get us almost all the way up to the next election,” the first one added. I broke the news to the dozen writers, including Mets, Yankees Tigers and Orioles fans. "Céspedes should play right field,” one of them said. "With that arm, that’s his best position.” We debated that, and the $110-million price, for four years. Money well spent. (Not our money, to be sure.) We talked baseball til it was time to go home. Forty-five minutes later, I was driving through my home borough of Queens, in the dark, in the rain, right past the Mets’ ball park. (I know it has a corporate name, but I hate banks -- more since the crash.) The huge message board was hawking stuff – probably a hazard for drivers trying to negotiate the shifting lanes and insane rush-hour drivers on the Whitestone Expressway. But I took a quick glimpse anyway – commercials, some U.F.C. event, season tickets. Céspedes, I said. Brag that you just locked up Céspedes for four years. That would have been big-time celebrating – lighting the candle rather than stumbling in the dark, which the Mets have been known to do. But nobody in the Mets' office had pushed the button to tell the Whitestone Expressway about Céspedes. I kept my eyes on the road but my mind was on April, when Céspedes, that imperfect star, will start swinging for the fences, and catching almost everything hit near him, and throwing out knuckleheads who run on his arm. The Mets remain a contender particularly if their young pitchers recuperate. I thought about the ball park buzzing, buying a hero at Mama's stand, watching Cabrera's sure hands and Granderson's smile and DeGrom's and Syndergaard's locks flapping in the breeze. I felt better than I have in a month. We would get through the winter. Baseball will be back. I suspect Yankee fans feel the same way about the prospect of the first full season of Gary Sanchez. Yankee fans are human. They got to live, too. They look forward to driving around with John and Suzyn calling the game, the way Mets fans feel about Howie and Josh. In the winter, in the red states, in the blue states, in the big markets and the small markets, fans are lying dormant, dreaming their dreams. (What dreams can Cubs fans possibly have, now that their tormented circadian rhythms have been forever disrupted?) That's baseball. On a gloomy afternoon, somebody sends a text, and the ever-hopeful fan thinks, I can make it through the dark months. We will survive.
Brian Savin
12/2/2016 07:51:21 pm
This is manna from heaven! A read that makes the whole world brighten until at least through next July.....I pray. I'm beginning to think this guy is about more than economics. I believe this talented outfielder truly wants to be with these teammates for his career.
George Vecsey
12/3/2016 08:18:26 am
Brian, thanks. He surely got a huge deal, and four years sounds better than those 6- and 8-year deals for older players.
Brian Savin
12/3/2016 11:26:24 am
If he took two million less in year one, the Mets probably could have had the cash to keep Colon in his last year in a Mets uniform. They should have asked him. That kind of deal has worked pretty well for a guy named Brady in another sport.
George Vecsey
12/3/2016 01:16:16 pm
Brian, it's a great story because it shows the awe for Zidane by even the Agnelli clan (one of them currently being held by the law in NYC))
Brian Savin
12/3/2016 03:56:24 pm
You're right, there is something impressive about the guy, kind of like Messier's twin brother in physique and steeliness, and I read the arabesque, etc. ballet stuff in your book, although I find it hard to think in Nureyev or Baryshnikov terms for him, but how "charisma" translates into coaching success is something that eludes me completely. Although you do point out he used his head a lot....butt.... 12/3/2016 02:10:20 pm
Zindane has done an excellent job as a first year manager with Real Madrid. He does not seem to be rated high in many of the qualities expected of the top tier of managers. Although some of his players have expressed reservations that his training methods are old fashioned, they admit that he inspires the team.
George Vecsey
12/3/2016 04:28:31 pm
Alan, nothing quite like the Clasico.
bruce
12/3/2016 04:55:25 pm
george,
bruce
12/3/2016 03:11:51 pm
george,
George Vecsey
12/3/2016 04:20:33 pm
Bruce, my apologies. I will never overlook Taranna again.
bruce
12/3/2016 04:43:20 pm
george,
Gene Palumbo
12/5/2016 08:48:09 pm
This just in! George has an excellent column in the Times: “By Rejecting George Steinbrenner, the Hall of Fame Slights a Brash Transformer.”
George Vecsey
12/5/2016 09:03:58 pm
Planning update here early Tues.
bruce
12/5/2016 09:18:19 pm
george, 12/5/2016 11:39:33 pm
The criteria for admission to the Baseball Hall of Fame should be based upon ability, whether as a player, manager or owner, and their contributions to the game as indicated in Rule 5. 12/8/2016 07:16:50 am
<a href="http://www.happynewyear2018eve.com/2016/12/year-2018-calender.html" >Year 2018 Calender</a> 12/8/2016 07:17:50 am
<a href="http://www.indianidol2016.in">Indian Idol 2016</a> <a href="http://www.indianidol2016.in">indian idol 7</a> <a href="http://www.indianidol2016.in">indian idol session 7</a>
happy new year
3/21/2017 08:00:01 am
<a href="http://www.happynewyear2018.net/">Happy new year 2018</a>,
happy new year
3/21/2017 08:03:55 am
<a href="http://www.happynewyear2018.net/">Happy new year 2018</a>, Comments are closed.
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