Mets "Win" -- In Court If Not On the Field

So the Mets have settled with Irving Picard, the trustee in the Bernie Madoff case, agreeing to pay $162 million. One million dollars per game. And they don't have to make the 1st payment for a while.

I used to work for a lawyer, who told me, "A bad settlement is better than a good verdict." Translation: Better to put a quick end to it than to keep the story in the papers (or electronic media such as TV, radio and the Internet).

So, by that standard, this is a win for the Mets. Can this be called a win by any other standard? Yes: They could have had to pay a lot more.

Mets owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon could have been found to have been "willfully blind" to the scheme of Freddy Skill Sets' old pal Bernie Made-Off.

Damn, but that sounds like a line from a Mob story. Not that there's any such thing as the Mob. (Hey, I may be crazy, but I ain't stupid. I'm from North Jersey, I know the score.)

Anyway, being found willfully blind would have meant they were purposely negligent, and that would have been a major league ouch to the Wilpons, and could have thrown the Mets into something that would make their current bad situation look like a night out at the Bada Bing. Or, should I say, at Finn MacCool's in Port Washington, Long Island, the "local" of many of the juvenile delinquents on the '86 Mets.

Someone said that the Mets have cut $50 million in payroll coming into this season, and that this is an all-time North American sports record. I don't know if that's true, but, if it is, then the Mets will have gone from around $120 million in 2011 (7th in the majors behind the Yankees, Philadelphia, Boston, Anaheim and both Chicago teams) to around $70 million in the season about to begin (which would have ranked them 20th, ahead of only Washington, Miami, Arizona, Pittsburgh and San Diego in the National League -- and the Marlins are definitely spending more this season, and not just on Jose Reyes).

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Met fan blogs are getting all gloom and doom, acting as though the 2012 season is already a lost cause -- and, with further constraints, maybe more seasons.

Far be it from me to make the Flushing Heathen feel better, but...

At least now, Met fans can, in all good conscience, give the players a break. These cheap players, who were not first-choices by the club, and are not at their own first-choice club, will be doing the best they can. So will the manager, Terry Collins, who will not be expected, at least not immediately, to make chicken salad out of chicken feathers. (Or so to speak.)

So the players and the manager will be off the hook. No pressure at all.

But the Wilpons -- and, to a lesser extent, general manager Sandy Alderson, who arrived well after the fact and is not at all to blame for getting the team into the Madoff mess -- will be under pressure to try to make things better from 2013 onward.

Face it: The Mets are now free from the pressure of trying to take the New York Tri-State Area back from the Yankees, who have held it since 1993. Unlike a certain team that I shall call The Scum, the idea of competing with the Yankees for attention and money is, beyond any doubt, ludicrous. (Not that the aforementioned Scum had to do so on a local level, as the Mets have tried to do, with occasional success, for 50 years now.)

The Mets' goal, as a franchise, should now be to get themselves competitive again.

Because, to be completely honest, it's possible. Look at the other 4 teams in the National League Eastern Division:

* The Philadelphia Phillies have won the Division the last 5 years, but they're not quite what they once were. True, they still have 3 probable future Hall-of-Famers in Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins -- and that's just in their infield. They've also got Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, and the overrated but nasty Cliff Lee in their rotation.

But they've lost some key cogs, including closer Brad Lidge, Jayson Werth, Ryan Madson, the elderly but spry Jamie Moyer, and now-Yankee Raul Ibanez. They've replaced Lidge with Scum closer Jonathan Papelbon -- and if you think he often got hit hard in that little green pinball machine in the Back Bay, wait until you see him get lit up like a pinball machine (or, should I say, like an ATM) at Citizens Bank Park.

The Phils have actually declined each year since 2008: Won the World Series, lost it to the Yankees in 2009, lost the NL Championship Series to the San Francisco Giants in 2010, lost the NL Division Series to the St. Louis Cardinals last year. At this same rate, they'll win only the Wild Card and lose in the NLDS, and then next year miss the Playoffs completely. Okay, it doesn't necessarily work that way... but it could.

* Does anybody really fear the Atlanta Braves? They won 91 games in winning the Wild Card in 2010 and 89 last year, but the collapse of the former Boston team was almost forgotten in the wake of the tumble of the remaining Boston team (the aforementioned Scum). According to Baseball-Reference.com (a website which is your friend, whether you know it yet or not), their "Pythagorean W-L" was 85-77, meaning that, having won 89, they actually overachieved by 4 games compared to what their runs scored to runs allowed ratio would have suggested.

Chipper Jones turns 40 in a month. Dan Uggla has morphed into Dave Kingman: A career-high 36 homers, but 82 RBIs is too few for that many homers, and he batted just .233 and struck out 156 times -- 2 under his average! Five out of their 8 nonpitcher starters batted under .270 and only Freddie Freeman batted over .275. With Derek Lowe having moved on, their ace is Tim Hudson, who will be 37 in July. If closer Craig Kimbrel gets hurt, the Braves are in serious trouble.

* The Miami Marlins, having not just changed their name from "the Florida Marlins" but moved into a retractable-roof stadium on the site of the Orange Bowl, far closer to downtown, have decided to go for it, spending like mad the way they did in 1997 and 2003 (their only 2 postseason years to date), adding, among others, Jose Reyes, the man who, as much as anyone, was the symbol of the Mets from 2006 (with Mike Piazza having left) until the end of last season.

I don't know if the Marlins are going to replace the Phils as Division Champions -- even in their '97 and '03 World Championship seasons, they were Wild Card winners, they've never finished 1st, a distinction even the Expos/Nats have been spared -- but if they don't win it this year, it could be another selloff, as happened after their 2 titles. As Dave Rosenbaum put it in the title of the book he wrote about the '97 Marlins put it, If They Don't Win It's a Shame.

* The Washington Nationals have Werth, Ryan Zimmerman, Mike Morse, Danny Espinosa, Laynce Nix, a rehabbed Stephen Strasburg, an aging but still effective Livan Hernandez, Jordan Zimmerman (no relation to Ryan), and Drew Storen and Tyler "the Ex-Yankee" Clippard out of the bullpen.

Bryce Harper, still only 19, will start the season in Triple-A, but he could be as good as everyone (especially himself) thinks he is. If the Nats can get one more reliable starter, they could be in position to be, instead of the Braves or the Marlins, the team that succeeds the Phils as the NL East power. But they're hardly there yet.

So there is room for Met fans to hope.

But it may be quite a while before "The Magic Is Back." For the Mets to be over .500 this season, now that would be a "miracle."

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Hours until Arsenal play again: 19, at Goodison Park in Liverpool against Everton -- the other Liverpool club, or, as I prefer to call them, the Other Scousers.

Days until the Red Bulls play again: See below.

Days until the Red Bulls' home opener: 5, on Sunday afternoon, March 25, at Red Bull Arena, against the Denver-area-based Colorado Rapids.

Days until the Devils play another local rival: 14, 2 weeks from tonight, against the New York Islanders, at the Prudential Center. The Devils lost 4-2 to The Scum at The Garden last night, and that's the last time they play each other in the regular season. Nor will the Devils and Flyers play each other again in the regular season. The Devils could meet either team in the Playoffs.

Days until the Yankees' Opening Day: 17, on Friday afternoon, April 6, at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg against the Tampa Bay Rays. Under 3 weeks.

Days until the Yankees' home opener: 24, on Friday afternoon, April 13, against the Whatever They're Calling Themselves This Year Angels of Anaheim.

Days until the next Yankees-Red Sox series begins: 31, on Friday night, April 20, at Fenway Park in Boston. Just 1 month.

Days until the Red Bulls next play a "derby": 32, on Saturday night, April 21, vs. DC United at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington. They next play the New England Revolution the following Saturday afternoon at Red Bull Arena, and the Philadelphia Union on Sunday afternoon, May 13, at PPL Park in Chester, Pennsylvania.

Days until the last Nets game in New Jersey: 34, on Monday night, April 23, against the Philadelphia 76ers, at the Prudential Center. Just 5 weeks before New Jersey no longer has an NBA team.

Days until the U.S. National Soccer Team plays again: 67, Saturday night, May 26, against Scotland, at EverBank Field in Jacksonville -- formerly known as Jacksonville Municipal Stadium and Alltel Field, home of the NFL's Jaguars. Under 10 weeks.

Days until the 2012 Olympics begin in London: 129 (July 27). A little under 4 months.

Days until the next North London Derby: Unknown, as the Premier League announces its schedule for the upcoming season on the 2nd Friday in June, and the new season always starts on the 2nd Saturday in August -- meaning that the next Arsenal-Tottenham match can't be any earlier than August 11, which is 144 days (under 5 months) from now.

Days until Rutgers plays football again: 165, on Saturday September 1, at the Superdome in New Orleans against Tulane University. Not exactly a rivalry game, although Tulane was founded by a Princeton man. And thus will begin the Kyle Flood Era. Good luck...

Days until East Brunswick High School plays football again: 178, on Friday, September 14, opponent and location to be determined. Under 6 months.

Days until the 2012 President election: 231, on Tuesday, November 6. Register to vote... and on November 6, vote!

Days until the next East Brunswick-Old Bridge Thanksgiving clash: 247. Just under 8 months.

Days until Alex Rodriguez collects his 3,000th career hit: 487 (estimated around July 20, 2013). Just 16 months.

Days until Super Bowl XLVIII at the Meadowlands: 684 (February 2, 2014).

Days until Alex Rodriguez hits his 700th career home run: 757 (estimated).

Days until Alex Rodriguez hits his 756th career home run to surpass all-time leader Hank Aaron: 1,592 (estimated).

Days until Alex Rodriguez hits his 763rd career home run to become as close to a "real" all-time leader as we are likely to have: 1,626 (estimated -- estimating 28 home runs a year, he should get it late in the 2016 season, maybe around September 1, at age 41).

My Mets Recommendations -- Seriously

So October is over -- and, despite the Yankees crashing out in the Division Series, October 2011 broke my record for most posts in a month, 47, surpassing the 46 of October 2009 when the Yanks went all the way (albeit needed until November 4 to do it).

I know, I know: You think the Internet was juiced this season.

About the Mets. I joke about them a lot. I make no apologies for that. I hate them. I hate the Mets, and I hate Met fans, the Flushing Heathen.

But I also think it's a good thing for New York to have two good baseball teams, not just one.

So I'm going to get serious and make some recommendations for the Metropolitan Baseball Club of New York -- more specifically, for the father-and-son owners, Fred and Jeff Wilpon, and for general manager Sandy Alderson.

1. Keep the current management team. Alderson and field manager Terry Collins have had only 1 year in charge. That's too soon to judge a man in either position. Unless there is a medical or ethical calamity, you don't replace a manager or a GM after just one year (or less). Willie Randolph, Jerry Manuel, and GM Omar Minaya were all given fair chances to succeed or fail on merit -- in Minaya's case, a far more than fair chance.

2. Let Jose Reyes go. No, he's not "the face of the franchise" -- he's only half of it, along with David Wright. Furthermore, he's been so for 7 seasons now (starting in 2005), and what has he gotten you? One postseason appearance.

Yes, he won the National League batting title this season, the 1st Met ever to do so (in 50 seasons). He's led the NL in hits once, triples 4 times (including this season), and stolen bases 3 times (but also caught stealing twice), and is on pace to have over 2,600 hits in his career -- not a Hall of Fame-worthy number, but very good.

But he's also got a career OPS+ of 106 -- meaning he's been 6 percent better at getting on base and getting extra bases than the average major league hitter from 2003 onward. And that's counting his 143 this season, his previous high being 118. He'll be 29 years old next June 11 -- and a baseball player's prime is generally considered to be from age 26 to 29.

And while he averaged 158 games per year from '05 to '08, he's missed substantial portions of the last 3 seasons due to injury. And he's had attitude problems. He may get more mature than he is right now, but he's not going to get any better, and in fact is likely to decline due to wear-and-tear and injuries.

Let someone else overpay for Reyes. He made $11 million this season, and will want substantially more over a long-term contract. In terms of quantity and quality, the Mets have made some mistakes over the years, some of them doozies. But having $11 million extra to spend every season on 2 to 4 players gives them a better chance of having at least 1 of them work out well than if they spend it all on Reyes. In this case, better the devil you don't know than the devil you do.

3. Keep the young talent. First baseman Ike Davis and starting pitcher Jonathan Niese are 24. Outfielder-first baseman Lucas Duda and starting pitcher Dillon Gee are 25. Daniel Murphy and Justin Turner are 26. And David Wright is still just 28, and, unlike Reyes, could get better.

True, Davis, Duda and Murphy can't all play first base, but Duda has already been tried in left and right field, and perhaps Murphy can be moved to an outfield position. The Mets' current outfield setup is an increasingly useless Jason Bay (32) in left, a servicable but hardly productive Angel Pagan (29) in center, and Duda in right.

Getting rid of Bay -- especially conning a team in need of veteran talent that Bay's got it, and get them to take his contract -- especially if it means getting another starting pitcher, or, even better, getting a decent reliever, would be a big help, both in terms of money and age.

The starting rotation, presuming everyone is healthy, is as follows, with the ages they will be next season:

1. Johan Santana, 33
2. R.A. Dickey, 37
3. Mike Pelfrey, 28
4. Dillon Gee, 26
5. Jonathan Niese, 24
Extra starter/long man. Chris Capuano, 33

Due to injury, Santana has pitched just 366 innings in the last 3 seasons -- 167 in 2009, 199 in '10, and none at all this season. He will probably be ready to start the 2012 season. If he comes back at anything like he was in his last full season (2008, 16-7, 2.53 ERA, 166 ERA+, 1.148 WHIP), that alone would probably be a 10-game improvement for the Mets.

It would free Pelfrey from the need to be the Mets' big pitching hope, and also prevent them from relying so much on a knuckleballer, Dickey. I have Dickey listed as the Mets Number 2 simply because he was their most effective pitcher this season; ideally, presuming no acquisitions, it would be Santana/Pelfrey/Gee/Niese/Dickey. Having 3 good starters under age 30 for at least the next 2 seasons (by which point Pelfrey will be 30) will stabilize the rotation.

Which brings me to my next point:

4. Don't splash the cash. It's not just that the Mets, due to Fred Wilpon's stupid investment with fraud king Bernie Madoff, can't afford it; it's that it wouldn't help that much even if they could.

The National League Eastern Division isn't going to change much in the next 2 or 3 years. The Philadelphia Phillies will still be the prohibitive favorites. The Atlanta Braves, despite winning the Wild Card last season and having it but blowing it this season, aren't going to scare anyone. The Florida Marlins are mildly interesting but don't look like Playoff contenders.

And the Washington Nationals are exactly what they were when they arrived from Montreal in 2005: A team in rebuilding mode, although a team with Ryan Zimmerman at the plate and a healthy Stephen Strasburg on the mound every 5th day can't be totally written off -- then again, this sounds a lot like the Mets, with David Wright (third base, same position as Zimmerman) and Santana (albeit much older than Strasburg, but also with injury issues).

I can tolerate a team I root for making an effort to improve. If you tell me that you're sacrificing 2 or 3 bad years in order to build 5 to 10 good years, I'll take it -- and the Mets have already had 1 year of rebuilding, so they're much better off than they were a year ago.

Not going after big free agents now will probably mean a better shot at more cash being available later. Besides, look at the free agent crop. The biggest-name hitters are Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder. The Mets, as I said, are stocked at 1st base. This is the NL, where there's no designated hitter. Where are they gonna put Pujols? Okay, he used to play left field. But where are they going to put the corpulent, inaptly-named Fielder?

As for the available pitchers, now that the Yankees have extended the contract of CC Sabathia, who's left? C.J. Wilson? Hardly an ace. Mark Buehrle? Still a really good pitcher, but he'll be 33 by Opening Day.

5. Find a closer. If big bucks need to be spent, before or after a trade, here's where you do it. Francisco "K-Rod" Rodriguez is gone, mainly because he'd become a liability on the field as well as off it. Right now, the Mets' 2 best relievers are Jason Isringhausen, once the future of the franchise but now 38 (39 next season), and Bobby Parnell (26 but with an ERA and WHIP much too high for a reliever).

The Mets haven't had a reliable bullpen since... since... think, Mike, think... uh, 1986? Remember, they'd already gotten rid of Jesse Orosco after 1987. In their 1998-2001 runs, their closer was Armando Benitez, who was like nitroglycerin: He could make the heart beat again, but he could also explode. In between, they had John Franco, but they had to get to him first. In 2006-08, it was Billy Wagner, who, in spite of nearly breaking Franco's career record for most saves by a lefthander (424 to 422), was actually worse in late-season and postseason games than Benitez (both for the Mets and for other teams).

Just as you have to have good starters to set up a good reliever, so too do you need a good reliever to make sure a good starter's work doesn't go to waste. And, let's not forget, Sandy Alderson was the Oakland Athletics GM who got Dennis Eckersley and, with then-manager Tony LaRussa, converted the once-great but troubled starter into the best reliever the game had yet seen (until Mariano Rivera). As opposed to Billy Beane, who never did get that elite closer for the A's (the best he could do was... Isringhausen! Who wasn't bad, but was no Mo or Eck), and that's as big a reason as any why "Moneyball" failed.

6. Stop trying to pander. The early Mets, like the erstwhile Dodgers and Giants before them, reached out to black and Hispanic ballplayers well before the Yankees did, and as a result got black and Hispanic fans to come out to Shea Stadium when they wouldn't go to the old Yankee Stadium, even though said Stadium was in a neighborhood with mostly nonwhite residents.

But Minaya's attempts to build "Los Mets" turned out to be like Will Rogers' assessment of Prohibition: "Prohibition is like Communism. It's a great idea, but it won't work." Bringing in Pedro Martinez, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Santana and K-Rod, and promoting the heck out of Reyes, may have increased the Hispanic attendance at Shea and then Citi Field. But those 6 guys all dealt with injuries, and even when healthy, Beltran, Delgado, K-Rod and Reyes were inconsistent.

There's talent out there. Some of it is white. Some of it is African-American. Some of it is Hispanic. Some of it is East Asian. There may even be, somewhere out there, a few South Asians who've turned away from their culture's love of cricket and are about to make their mark on baseball. Surely, there are enough of each group in New York, and especially in the Mets' home Borough of Queens, America's ultimate ethnic stewpot (not a melting pot, as has often been said), to bring in such fans.

But that's why the Mets, and other teams, have Heritage Nights. Irish, Italian, Polish, German (Oktoberfest), Greek, Latino (both Merengue Night and Fiesta Latina), Caribbean (more ex-colonies of Britain like Barbados, and France like Haiti, than those of Spain like Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic), Japanese, Korean, Taiwan (in place of "Chinese," I guess the Wilpons are McCarthyists), Indian and Pakistani -- though, as far as I know, not yet Arab -- all have been represented at Met home games, with ethnic music and dances being performed on the field in pregame ceremonies.

These communities see this, and they can see that you care. But there weren't hordes of Japanese fans coming to Shea to see Tsuyoshi Shinjo and Masato Yoshii. Yes, they came to Yankee Stadium to see Hideki Matsui, but there was a difference: Matsui was great. The old-time Giants manager John McGraw was always looking for a great Jewish player to bring in the immigrant New York Jews of the early 20th Century, and especially their American-born, assimilated kids. He never found one that was good enough. (Just his luck, by the time The Bronx's Hank Greenberg came along, not only was McGraw getting old, but he had Hall-of-Famer Bill Terry at first, and the Yankees couldn't take Greenberg, either, because they had Lou Gehrig. So Greenberg went to the Detroit Tigers.)

Seek out the best players. If that means, whites, fine. If it means blacks, fine. If it means Hispanics (and, these days, it usually means them more than anyone else), fine. If there is an Asian who is good enough to play in the majors and fills a Met need, go get him.

But don't go after a player simply because you think you might get his ethnic group to come out to the ballpark to cheer him on. After all, Mike Piazza could hit no matter what the ethnic makeup of the ballpark on a given day, but all the Italians in the Tri-State Area combined couldn't make him properly play the position of catcher.

These moves would probably help the Mets immediately, even if it doesn't result in a bid for the postseason in 2012, or even in 2013. But it will make them look like they know what they're doing, both on the field and in the front office. It will make them, in their 50th Anniversary season, look a lot less like the 1962 Mets than the 2009-11 (and September '07 and September '08) Mets did.

Moneyball: A Loser

A movie version of Michael Lewis’ book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, about the Oakland Athletics of the early 2000s and their general manager, Billy Beane, is currently being filmed.

Beane is being played by Brad Pitt -- who I once saw at the old Yankee Stadium, sitting in the Field Boxes with his adopted son Maddox Jolie-Pitt, but not with Angelina Jolie, a "significant other" who is far more significant than he is.

Paul DePodesta, Beane's assistant GM at the time, has been renamed Peter Brand, and is played by Jonah Hill, best known for appearing in Judd Apatow's gross-out sex-comedy films, especially Superbad. (These were recently "Airplaned" into a parody film titled The 41-Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It.)

Art Howe, the A's manager at the time, is played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Two real-life major league players are confirmed as being in the film, albeit playing other big-leaguers: Royce Clayton, a former All-Star shortstop who has acted before but did not play himself when his character was struck out by Dennis Quaid's Jim Morris in The Rookie, plays A's shorstop/steroid cheat Miguel Tejada; and Jason Windsor, who really did play for the A's, but as a pitcher, plays outfielder and first baseman John Mabry.

Michael Lewis is currently riding a wave of success from the film version of his book The Blind Side, about football player Michael Oher and his adopted family, which won Sandra Bullock the Oscar for Best Actress. Aaron Sorkin, the genius behind A Few Good Men, The West Wing, and the brief but wonderful Sports Night (I still miss you, Sabrina Lloyd), assisted Lewis and others on the screenplay.

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I've never understood why everyone made a fuss over, and why someone's now making a movie about, Moneyball and Beane. (Sounds like a bad 1970s cop (or private eye) show: Moneyball and Beane. Freebie and the Bean. Tenspeed and Brownshoe. B.J. and the Bear. (Okay, that one was about a trucker and his chimp.)

But why make a fuss over Billy Beane, and the theories that inspired Moneyball?

A, The A's have never won a Pennant with Beane as general manager. He's been there since 1998, 12 seasons, and they haven't even won so much as an ALCS game since 1992. No Pennants since 1990. No World Series since 1989. Observe:

* 2000: Won the AL West. Won Game 1 of the ALDS against the Yankees, and forced a Game 5 at home at the Oakland Coliseum (or whatever corporate name it had at the time). Yankees won.

* 2001: Won the AL Wild Card. Won Games 1 and 2 of the ALDS against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Only needed to win 1 of the last 3, the first 2 of which would be at the Coliseum. Yankees won.

* 2002: Rode a 20-game winning streak, longest in AL history, to a Western Division title, and didn't have to face the Yankees in the ALDS. Faced the Minnesota Twins. Had the home-field advantage. Lost the series.

* 2003: Won the AL West. Won Games 1 and 2 of the ALDS against the Boston Red Sox. Only needed to win 1 of the last 3, and if it went to a Game 5, it would be in Oakland. Lost the series.

* 2004: Just missed the Wild Card, losing it out to the Red Sox. Who knows what would have happened if they, rather than the Sox, had been the Wild Card.

* 2005: Again, did not make the Playoffs.

* 2006: Won the AL West again, and this time, won a postseason series for the first (and still only) time since 1990, beating the Twins. Went into the ALCS against the Detroit Tigers, knowing that Games 1 and 2, and, if necessary, 6 and 7, would be in Oakland. Got swept.

* 2007-10: Haven't appeared in the postseason since.

Granted, winning 4 Playoff berths in 7 years is impressive, no matter how much money your team spends. After all, there are 6 teams that don't have 4 postseason appearances in their entire history: The Colorado Rockies, the Florida Marlins, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Seattle Mariners, the Tampa Bay Rays, and the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals franchise. The Washington Senators/Texas Rangers franchise only got its 4th just this season.

And there are 5 teams that haven't reached the postseason at all since the 21st Century dawned (11 seasons now) and the A's "Moneyball Era" began: The Baltimore Orioles, the Kansas City Royals, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Blue Jays and the Expos/Nationals. (And the Rangers and Cincinnati Reds just did it this season.)

B, In spite of the A's "success" from 2000 to 2006, no franchise in baseball -- perhaps none in all of North American major league sports -- is in more danger of moving to a new metropolitan area. This is largely due to the fact that they don’t have a suitable ballpark, while across San Francisco Bay, the San Francisco Giants do, and that was true before the Giants won this year’s World Series.

Plans to build new ballparks next door to the Oakland Coliseum, and in nearby Fremont and Hayward, have fallen through. An effort is being made to have them move down the coast of San Francisco Bay to San Jose, but that's traditionally been Giants territory (the Giants have their Triple-A team there in the Pacific Coast League, and once had a Single-A, California League team there), so that wouldn't be a good place for the A's.

The A's may not be as close to moving as Charlie Finley nearly made them to Denver in 1978 and New Orleans in 1979, or as close as the Giants came to heading to Toronto in 1976 or Tampa Bay in 1992 (for the 1993 season), but, as they say in medical dramas, I'm not going to lie to you: It doesn't look good.

Translation: This team is dying, and none of Beane's "achievements" has been able to save it, and there's no reason to believe the publicity generated by Moneyball: The Movie is going to help. After all, the Minnesota Twins were nearly contracted just 8 years after they were the focus of Little Big League.

(The Chicago Cubs didn't exactly need the help provided by Taking Care of Business and Rookie of the Year. Nor were the Red Sox hurting when Fever Pitch came out -- and a lot of Red Sox fans actually hate that movie. The Rookie didn't help the Rays at all. Nor did life immediately imitate art after the 1994 version of Angels In the Outfield, any more than the Pirates were helped by the original 1951 version. And The Scout did the Yankees no favors. Of course, having Major League may have helped the Cleveland Indians get new owners who were willing to build a new ballpark, but, so far, that's not a good track record.)

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Now, Sandy Alderson and J.P. Ricciardi, they have won Pennants and World Series. Not together, though: Alderson was the architect of the A's team that won 4 AL West titles in 5 years from 1988 to 1992, including 3 straight Pennants and the 1989 World Series; Ricciardi was involved in building the team that replaced them as the next great AL team, the 1992 & '93 World Champion Blue Jays. Neither franchise has won a Pennant since those guys left. Gibbs Rule Number 39: There is no such thing as coincidence.

At least in theory, the Mets hiring the proven Alderson and Ricciardi is not all that different from their 1980 hiring of Frank Cashen, the man who built the Baltimore Orioles into a team that won 8 Division Titles in 18 years, including 6 Pennants and 3 World Series. Hiring Alderson and Ricciardi appears to be the right move, although that largely depends on who Alderson hires as field manager.

Billy Beane has always refused to go to his team's owners and say, "Give me more money, so I can sign the players we need to put us over the top." And don't tell me they didn't have the money: If you can afford to buy the team's entire organization, you can afford to buy 3 impact players that can make the difference between contending for a championship and winning one.

If the A's move, if Major League Baseball in the East Bay dies, Beane will be the man who sold the killer the gun. It's time to stop treating him like a genius and a hero. He is, in fact, a coward, content to be a big fish in a small pond -- and the pond may soon be drained.

George Steinbrenner would have fired his sorry ass around 2004 or so.