Pete Alonso leaving for Orioles is latest gut punch for Mets fans
How many gut punches are Mets fans supposed to take?
On top of not making the playoffs last season, on top of the trade of Brandon Nimmo to Texas, on top of losing free agent Edwin Diaz to the Dodgers, on Wednesday afternoon came the news that Pete Alonso is leaving the Mets to sign with the Baltimore Orioles.
“I'm very disappointed,” said Mike Catapano, the principal at Half Hollow Hills West High School. “As a Mets fan, I'm very disappointed. Pete was such a great, rock-solid person for the team, for the lineup, for the city. Obviously, his numbers speak for themselves. From what I saw, he always did well for us. When I say ‘us,’ I mean, as a community, for Mets fans. I'm just disappointed in the direction that the team appears to be going in with the departure of him, Nimmo, Diaz. Just not happy.”
After last season’s collapse, owner Steve Cohen issued an apology to Mets fans and thanked them for filling Citi Field to the tune of just under 3.2 million tickets sold.
Before last season, ticket sales grew exponentially after the Mets left the Winter Meetings having signed Juan Soto.
The feelings are definitely not the same today.
“I'll probably sell, honestly, if people even want them,” said longtime season ticket holder Chris Blumenstetter of Massapequa. “That's the sad thing too, is that they increased prices for the fourth consecutive year, you had a loyal fan base to pack the park last year, averaging almost 40,000 a game, and this is the repayment that you get, tearing away the players that the fans love . . . You make me lock in to my season tickets in August. If I knew that this was going to happen, I wouldn't have renewed.”
Some Mets fans, while saddened by Alonso’s impending departure, see what the front office is trying to accomplish. But they want to make sure David Stearns and Co. know they better get it right.
“Pete has been a great Met and we will always be grateful for the memories and history he made with the organization,” Chris Antonacci, 46, of Stamford, Connecticut, wrote in a e-mail. “The issue is we haven’t been able to win with the current core players and the front office obviously believes they need to go in a different direction. They’ve freed up $100 million in salary which they better spend to get more athletic and improve their front end rotation.”
That’s what has some Mets fans scratching their heads. What exactly is the plan? It’s not clear.
But they are Mets fans. So most of them will have hope once the sting of all these gut punches wears off.
“Hopefully the team can still perform this year,” Catapano said. “I'm still a Mets fan. Not going to not be a Mets fan. But this is big blow. It’s going to take a while to overcome this.”
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
