MLB Bailout Program for NY Mets Fails

September 30, 2008 - A proposed plan to rescue Major League Baseball’s New York Mets from another pennant race collapse has been rejected by commissioner Bud Selig. The controversial program would have changed the National League playoffs from a 4- to 6-team format, allowing both the Mets and Arizona Diamondbacks to participate in the 2008 post season.

The Mets’ season ended in familiarly embarrassing fashion Sunday, September 28 with a 4-2 loss to the Florida Marlins, eerily reminiscent of the playoff-eliminating 8-1 defeat to the same Marlins one year ago.

Hope was resurrected, if briefly, in the hearts of those supporting the big-market New York franchise, when Mets general manager Omar Minaya proposed a plan that would allow the team to participate in the 2008 post-season, while also providing for $400 million of relief to the organization. According to Minaya, the program would give Mets fans the confidence they needed to continue to attend games, while enabling the organization to sign marquee free agents CC Sabathia and Francisco Rodriguez in the off-season.

Selig, a Wisconsin native and former Milwaukee Brewers owner/president dismissed the bill, saying, “Why should we bail out these huge market teams when they’re the ones who created this overpriced free agent mess in the first place?”

So the Mets faithful once again continue to wait and cling to the taught rope of confidence that keeps them dangling over the pit of mediocrity.