Thursday, February 07, 2008

SOONER OR LATER IT ALL COMES DOWN TO MONEY.

There are certain undeniable baseball truths in our house: You Only Get One Team, The Only True Mets Uniform Is Pinstripes, You Can’t Like The Yankees AND The Mets, You Don’t Leave A Game Before The Final Out (amongst others).

Add to that: The Boras Clients Only Go For The Money.

I have tried to argue and debate this, I have tried to formulate convincing arguments. TBF will not be moved. During the entire Zito debacle, I offered many convincing, well-researched and thought-out theories about why Barry Zito would make the right choice and come to the Mets.

“It’s only about the money. Period. The Boras clients ONLY go for the money.”

I learned that he was right about this the hard way (although in the end we are all grateful daily that we didn’t cough up the money for Zito, of course).

At the end of the press conference last night, TBF says, “Now we just gotta lock up Perez.”
“I know. It’s making me nervous that we haven’t.”
He loves Oliver. He has a custom Perez shirt (because, of course, the frickin Mets can’t bother to SELL SHIRTS FOR THE STARTING ROTATION). He is one of his favorite players to watch.

I didn’t know exactly how nervous I was going to be until I read on Metsblog this morning that Senor Sabor is represented by the Great Satan. And that, of course, no, he is not interested in a long-term deal with the Mets.

Here we go again.

I love Oliver Perez. I love his goofiness, his lack of inhibition, he’s like a computer geek who’s ended up as a Major League Baseball pitcher completely by accident. I love the hops over the foul line: ebullient when he’s nailed it, fierce when he’s struggling, they say everything about his attitude and his spirit. I love that he rocks the high socks. I love when he comes to the plate, because you feel like he’s just trying so hard and that he honestly believes that he’s going to get that hit (unlike, say, John Maine, whose entire stance broadcasts, I have no fucking idea what I’m doing but I have to do this so let’s give it a go.).  I love that he was a reclamation project that everyone else had given up on, until he met the Jedi Master, Rick Peterson.

And, of course, most importantly, I love that he is Senor Sabor and what happens when he throws that ball.

I would be unbelievably sad if we lost Oliver Perez, and I know that there is nothing we can do except hope that the Wilpons will open the checkbook. The thing is, no matter how much we want Oliver, there is somebody who is going to want him more. And now we know that it will come down to the checkbook, and nothing, not loving playing in New York, not the people who he is playing with, not the thought of Johan Santana being available as a mentor of sorts, will change that.

It’s one thing to lose one of your favorite players in a trade. It’s another to lose him because Macphisto is ruling with an iron fist.