Mike Francesa ... I Cannot Believe I Am Saying This ...

The other day I was driving in my car, scanning the radio dial, and I come across the FAN with Mike Francesa talking to someone about the Mets. Since I returned to my self-imposed exile, from most things Mets, I was about to change the station when what Francesa was saying peaked my interest. This I found strange since I find him arrogant and uninteresting. This day would become an exception.

You see, part of the reason we started MetsFanClub.com was due to the fact that most of the radio sports personalities never quite did it for us. Once in a while, they would step up and confront a sports personality in an interview, or when they blew a game and not coddle them, or admit when a prediction was wrong. It was when we listened to then WFAN's Sports Show Mike and the Mad Dog, that we would really get even madder with the New York sports media. Any time they would make a prediction, comment on a player or situation, both of them would always hedge their bets, play both sides as not to get anyone upset, and when they were wrong, never admit it. Simply, they would never commit to a prediction. They always left themselves an out.

When "The Dog" left to pave his own way into the sport world, the arrogance still continued. One of the things that always bothered me as a listener was the way in which some callers were handled. Now, even I would have hung up on a few when they couldn't get to the point, or would talk in all directions and could not be precise. I understand that in any business time is money, but the difference between a caller and the on-air personality is that the on-air personality has connections, and has access to behind the scenes. Without that, the on-air personality is just like us, a sports fan who happens to have their own sports talk show.

Which brings me back to the other day and Francesa on the 'FAN. He proceeded to give in detail the moves that the Mets organization has made going all the way back to the Piazza trade. One that the Wilponzies did not want to make, thank you Mr. Doubleday, and it was this trade that basically saved the Mets at the time. Without Piazza, the Mets would have been nothing for so many more years.

Francesa continued on the trades made over the last years, and how this organization is happy with mediocrity, something MetsFanClub.com has been referring to for years. (On a personal note, I believe that this Mets organization will not win, let alone make it to and win, the World Series, as long as they are owned and controlled by the Wilponzies.)

He continued to recount the Phillips years as General Manager with the moves and trades that were a bust and how they could have gone further but did not, up to the present with now GM Omar Minaya who was allowed by ownership to again not make a much needed trade at this years deadline.

Francesa did a great job in illustrating how with each year, and since the Beltran caught looking game, the Mets did nothing to further their cause. They did nothing to get ahead of the competition. He pointed out that if you look at the teams that do not accept mediocrity, it is because no one is untouchable, and that if a deal can be made, they will make it.

His comments were clear, direct, to the point, and spot on.

So, Mike Francesa, I Cannot Beleive That I Am Saying This ... WELL DONE!