The Zionist Conspiracy Exclusive Report: Statement From Omar MinayaUpon his departure from Nashville, New York Mets General Manager Omar Minaya has just issued the following statement exclusively to The Zionist Conspiracy:
Good Afternoon, know what I'm sayin'.
A little more than three years ago, I accepted the offer of Fred Wilpon to serve as General Manager of the New York Mets. I promised you a GM who is not isolated from the fans, who feels your pain, and who shares your dreams, and who draws his strength and his wisdom from you, know what I'm sayin'.
During the past three years I’ve spoken to you on many occasions about team concerns, the pitching crisis, reorganizing the coaching staff, our league's luxury tax, and issues of losing and especially winning.
Ten days ago, I had planned to speak to you again about a very important subject - the bullpen. For the fifth time I would have described the urgency of the problem and laid out a series of recommendations to ownership. But as I was preparing to speak, I began to ask myself the same question that I now know has been troubling many of you: Why have we not been able to get together as a team to resolve our serious bullpen problem? Know what I'm sayin'?
It’s clear that the true problems of our team are much deeper - deeper than Guillermo Mota or Scott Schoeneweis, deeper even than Paul Lo Duca and Lastings Milledge. And I realize more than ever that as GM I need your help. So, I decided to reach out and to listen to the voices o our fans.
I invited to Shea Stadium people from almost every segment of our society - business and labor, teachers and preachers, bloggers, and private citizens. And then I left Shea and gave a tour of CitiField, before I left to attend the winter meetings in Nashville to listen to other fans, men and women like you. It has been an extraordinary ten days, and I want to share with you what I’ve heard.
First of all, I got a lot of personal advice. Let me quote a few of the typical comments that I wrote down.
“Mr. Minaya, you are not leading this organization - you’re just managing the front office.”
“You don’t see the fans enough anymore.”
“Some of your players don’t seem loyal. There is not enough discipline among your disciples.”
Several of our discussions were on pitching, and I have a notebook full of comments and advice. I’ll read just a few.
“We can’t go on giving up forty percent more runs then we score.”
This was a good one: “Be bold, Omar. We may make mistakes, but we are ready to experiment.”
I know, of course, being GM, that good trades and free agent signings can be very important and that we've had just mixed success. But after listening to the Mets fans, I have been reminded again that even Johan Santana can’t fix what’s wrong with the Mets. So, I want to speak to you first tonight about a subject even more serious than pitching. I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to the Mets' chances of contention.
I do not mean our hitting. The Mets will hit. And I do not refer to Pedro Martinez's shoulder.
It is a crisis of confidence.
It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our team will.
The confidence that we have always had as a team is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read when reminiscing about '69 or '86. It is the idea which founded our organization and has guided our development as a team.
We’ve always believed in something called pitching. We’ve always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own. That Isringhausen, Pulsipher and Wilson will lead us to better days.
Our children are losing that faith. Some of them wear A-Rod jerseys, know what I'm sayin'? As a result, just as we are losing our confidence in the future, we are also beginning to close the door on our past.
The symptoms of this crisis are all around us. For the first time in the history of our team a majority of our fans believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. Two-thirds of our fans do not even go to Shea.
Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift. You don’t like it, and neither do I. What can we do?
First of all, we must face the truth, and then we can change our course.
We simply must have faith in each other, faith in Willie Randolph's ability to manage the team, know what I'm sayin'? Restoring that confidence is now the most important task we face. It is a true challenge of this generation of Mets fans.
What I have to say to you now about the bullpen is simple and vitally important.
I am tonight setting a clear goal for the bullpen policy of the New York Mets. Beginning this moment, this team's bullpen will never have a higher ERA than we did in 2007 - never. From now on, every new addition to our bullpen will be met from our own farm system. The generation-long growth in our dependence on other teams' castoffs will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move toward the next decade.
You know we can do it. We have the natural resources. We have more prospects in our farm system than the entire American League West. We have baseball's best young talent.
I will continue to travel through New York, to hear the fans. You can help me to develop a team agenda for 2008 and beyond. I will listen; and I will act. We will act together. These were the promises I made three years ago, and I intend to keep them.
Little by little we can and we must rebuild our confidence. We can spend until we empty the Wilpons' bank accounts, but we can succeed only if we tap our greatest resources, our youth.
In closing, let me say this: I will do my best, but I will not do it alone. Let your voice be heard. Whenever you have a chance, say something good about our team. With Willie Randolph's help and for the sake of our team, it is time for us to join hands. Let us commit ourselves together to a rebirth of the Amazin' spirit. Working together with our common faith we cannot fail.
Thank you and good night, know what I'm sayin'?.
posted on 12/06/2007
