Mets owners too weak to stand their ground with Beltran

Putting people first

The silence from Fred and Jeff was deafening. It appeared the Wilpons were looking for a way to s

ave face and lay the blame on Beltran. Unlike current Mets ownership, the late George Steinbrenner never cared what the New York writers said. George handled matters his own way and gained the respect of both Yankees and non-Yankees fans.

Steinbrenner was loyal to his players. I can’t say that about the Wilpons and this makes them and subsequently Van Wagenen liars when they said last year they were going to make the players a priority. That philosophy should have applied to Carlos Beltran the manager too.

To further support my position, look at Inflategate and the Patriots. Tom Brady got suspended after they were caught with deflated footballs for a better grip in cold weather. A locker room tech took care of that and the NFL (with help from the Indianapolis Colts) caught it. Aside from Brady’s suspension, part of the punishment was New England lost a draft pick.

Another example was the New Orleans Saints and Bountygate. The NFL caught Defensive Coach Gregg Williams paying a bounty to his players for hits on opposing offensive players, with the intent to injure to knock them out of the game, Head coach, Sean Payton was also involved.

The end result of the investigation led Greg Williams to be suspended indefinitely, Sean Payton suspended for one year, and linebacker, Jonathan Vilma was also suspended indefinitely. New Orleans was also fined and forfeited two second-round picks.

Both incidents resulted in harsh punishments. But as of today, Gregg Williams is back in football as the Jets Defensive Coordinator. Saints owner Tom Benson brought back Payton as his head coach.

Patriots owner Robert Kraft still kept Brady and head coach Bill Belichick. Both the Saints and Patriots are back to their winning ways. Both owners remained loyal to their employees. Unlike the weak-kneed New York Mets owners.