TAMPA — There are ways to rehabilitate yourself if you’re an owner. It’s possible. George Steinbrenner was once so vilified that Yankee Stadium cheered and added a derisive chant at no extra cost on the night when he was thrown out of baseball for the second time; before the decade was out, Yankees fans were chanting “Thank you George!”
And now, around the Yankees, in memory, he is a more revered figure than Francis of Assisi.
Wellington Mara? What we tend to remember is the beloved patrician whose players adored him, who at the end of his life was thought of as a secular saint. What we tend to forget are the 18 straight years the Giants failed to make the playoffs when he oversaw team’s day-to-day ops … and the fact it was his idea to move the team to Jersey.
That common denominator is winning. The Yankees won six titles for Steinbrenner, four of them after he had become a pariah. The Giants won two Super Bowls and made a third for Mara, all of them after he had ceded control of the team to football men. So, yes, winning is a big help.
But the Knicks and the Mets aren’t going to win any time soon, certainly not in the quantities that will apply stain removal to their present relationship with their fans. As a result their owners — the Dolans and the Wilpons — receive a lion’s share of the blame from frustrated fans who keep waiting for things to turn around and never actually see them turn around.
So maybe it’s time for everyone to be a little proactive.
Maybe it’s time for what would be the biggest transaction we’ve seen in New York since Babe Ruth. Or since the sale of Manhattan island itself.
Trade the Knicks for the Mets.
Straight up.
OK, maybe it couldn’t work straight up because the Knicks’ franchise value, according to various rankings, is just over $1 billion and the Mets is just under $1 billion, but what’s a few hundred million between friends? Besides, the reversible fits are simply too outstanding to ignore.
Imagine: James Dolan never has been shy about opening his checkbook. Many’s the day when a Knicks fan has found himself saying, “If only there were no salary cap in the NBA.” Well, there’s no salary cap in MLB. Even the most fervent Dolanaphobe has to concede this much: The man will spend money. If Dolan owned the Mets they wouldn’t have had to worry about Stephen Drew because he would’ve signed Jose Reyes to a 10-year contract.
The Wilpons? Put it this way: The first time they looked at the NBA’s collective-bargaining agreement they would get good and giddy and look at each other with big smiles and say: “Wait, there’s a limit to how much money you can spend? If you don’t keep yoourself under the salary cap you can be in trouble?”
They would pinch themselves. Then Fred would wax poetic for a bit about what a terrific basketball player Sandy Koufax was at Lafayette High.
But there’s something else too: The one thing the Mets seem to do well is analyze, to almost wicked extremes, their own players, draftable players, other teams’ players. In the NBA, such scrutiny has helped turn the Spurs and the Pacers, to name two, into perennial contenders because they are smart about what they can spend and whom they spend it on. And there’s no disadvantage for not overpaying. If anything, a reluctance to overpay is a good, disciplined quality to have in the NBA.
And think of the other possibilities. Isiah Thomas: third-base coach! Mike Breen transferring his signature catch phrase — “Bang!” — to a David Wright home run! The Mets Citi Dancers! The Shea Bridge at Chase Bridge! The Mets retiring Bernard King’s No. 30 and the Knicks retiring Keith Hernandez’ No. 17!
I don’t see a downside. Do you?
Whack Back at Vac
Ron Goydic: When Sandy Alderson and Fred Wilpon call for 90 wins, are they counting exhibition and intrasquad games?
Vac: And maybe a few out of Las Vegas and Binghamton, too.
Morris Shalom: Carmelo will take less money so the Knicks can put together a better roster? He’s a few years late to this. If he’d felt that way when he was in a rush to get out of Denver, it wouldn’t have cost the Knicks half their team to acquire him.
Vac: The players the Knicks gave up won’t ultimately be as costly as the draft pick, which is now almost certain to be a lottery pick. Incredible.
@dArefin: I wish I were mayor of New York City. I’d be looking for ways to shut down the Chase Bridge right now.
@MikeVacc: Time for some traffic problems at Penn Plaza?
Tom Witt: I’ve always thought the NBA could learn a few things from the players, coaches and fans of their sister league. For years there have been openly gay players in the WNBA; the only reaction that seems to elicit is “Can she help our team win games?”
Vac: My sense is the NBA will adopt that credo swiftly. And other leagues will follow in rapid pursuit.
Vac’s Whacks
We sometime lampoon coaches who work too hard, who sleep on their couch and get about 20 hours of sleep a week. Mike Jarvis, fired by Florida Atlantic on Friday, has learned — again — the opposite consequence of working too little. An ignominious end for what should have been a terrific coaching career.
St. John’s put itself in a tough spot losing to Xavier the other night, but it would be a fine thing if the Johnnies could right themselves in time to make the NCAA Tournament, because if they could only get in, they could stay a bit.
Binge-watching “House of Cards” is fun … until you realize, when you’re done, you have to wait another 50 weeks for your next fix.
What does it say about a career when your seventh-best movie might be “Ghostbusters”? What a supreme talent. Godpseed, Harold Ramis.