The New York based news bureaus are doing their creative best to either talk themselves into how Dontrelle Willis is going to join the Mets rotation or if not that, how the area will get the entire team itself.
"It's really funny because it was almost like I was one phone call away from being a Met," said Willis, who agreed to a one-year contract last month that is worth $6.45 million.
He added, "I've never heard so much speculation, and it's going on to this day."
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One of Willis's neighbors, he said, is a Mets fan from Flushing. "Every time I walk outside, it's like a countdown to when I'm going to be a Met," Willis said, laughing. "They're all over me every day."
While it's entirely possible that Dontrelle may wear a Mets jersey one day, you know, Halloween does come around every year. But for it to happen in real life requires that the Marlins can't land a stadium deal. But even then, it's not guaranteed.
Let's play the what ifs. Say the Marlins can't workout a deal for a stadium and the franchise has to move, god forbid, it is extremely likely that the club will want a star player to market in its new home. Willis sure fits that bill.
That's okay, the New York press has that scenario covered also.
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So why can't New York support a third major-league baseball team?
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So what is stopping some ambitious entrepreneur such as Jeffrey Loria from packing up his team and moving from the baseball wasteland of Miami, where they can't find 15,000 people a night to go to a ballgame, to New York, where the Mets and Yankees will be turning away that many people every night?
There are 11 million people in New York City and on Long Island alone; another 7 million if you add in New Jersey and Connecticut; a million more in Westchester. Despite 162 home games a year between the two teams, two 24-hour cable sports TV networks dedicated to their coverage, two all-sports talk radio stations and four daily newspapers in New York alone, it may well be that our town is under-served by the sport it reserves most of its passion for.
Let me help him out with that one: the answer is MLB. They won't allow it and shouldn't allow it until all possibilities are exhausted in South Florida and even then it won't happen.
It is true that the New York City area can easily support three teams and one day they may get their third. But it won't be the Marlins. First, I think MLB is being upfront about their desire to have a team in South Florida. And since the Marlins are already here they will make every attempt to keep them here. Second, the third team in the New York City area is considered the plum location for all relocation possibilities and I don't think a team with our ownership history is the one they will want to place in the Big Apple.
The residents and the news outlets of New York can dream but it's not gonna happen. No matter how much they wish it so. Clapping loudly for Tinker Bell only brings her to life in the plays and movies. It doesn't get you a pitcher and certainly doesn't get you the entire team.