New Mets owner Steve Cohen's Twitter account a hit with fans
Steve Cohen speaks during the Robin Hood Veterans Summit on Monday, May 7, 2012. Credit: Bloomberg/Scott Eells
Incoming Mets owner Steve Cohen wants to hear from you, Mets fans.
So much so that he dusted the virtual cobwebs off his previously quiet Twitter account, @StevenACohen2, and started soliciting feedback on Sunday.
"I anticipate closing the deal in the next 10 days and then it’s off and running," he wrote at about 9 a.m. "I would love to hear your ideas to make YOUR Mets experience better."
By early afternoon, Cohen had more than 20,000 followers and 2,700 replies to his request for ideas.
Among them: Bring back the black jerseys, retire David Wright’s No. 5, bring Edgardo Alfonzo back into the organization, trade for Francisco Lindor, allow fans who wait out long rain delays to move to seats closer to the field, spend money, play Saturday home games during the day and win the World Series every year.
One tweeter suggested that Cohen already had improved the Mets experience simply by buying the team.
"Nah, we can do more than that," Cohen wrote back.
Another user wondered: Is that really the Steven A. Cohen?
"Yes it is," he replied.
A source close to Cohen confirmed that the account does, indeed, belong to the hedge-fund billionaire who on Friday received approval from MLB and New York City on his purchase of the Mets, a deal that values the team at about $2.475 billion. Cohen wants to make a concerted effort to listen to fans, the source added.
Cohen’s wife, Alex Cohen, also tweeted about it from her handle @alexmomof5.
"I can confirm that my husbands Twitter account is in fact Stevenacohen2 — we are working on making it verified," she said.
The Cohens’ interactive element didn’t end there. In direct replies to other fans, Steve Cohen said he liked the idea of a loyalty program, viewed letting players go on local radio as a reasonable thought and suggested he would reverse a Wilpon-era lifetime ban for one fan.
"We need to fix that," Cohen said.
The fan sent a photo of a May 2016 letter from Robert Kasdon, Mets vice president of security, saying he was not allowed at Citi Field, MCU Park in Brooklyn or the spring training facility in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The letter threatened arrest if he was caught "on any of these premises at any time." It was unclear what the fan’s transgression was.
"That is amazing," Cohen said.
@StevenACohen2 has existed since January 2017, but before this weekend, he hardly tweeted. But he did lurk.
Among the tweets he "liked" this year: NBA star Bradley Beal saying the Mets should be sold to Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez, not Cohen, a "billionaire with a long track record of shady dealings"; a photo of Cohen from his college days, and a random tweeter fondly recalling the Yankees losing the 2001 World Series with Mariano Rivera on the mound.
