Some time last week – November 19th to be exact – I received an e-mail from Mets.com titled, “Live Out Your Mets Fantasy: Take To The Field At Mets Fantasy Camp”. I’ve never been to one of these things, and honestly I don’t plan on it at any point, so I thought the idea of fantasy camp was just another inconsequential piece of spam that I would quickly forget.
Quickly though, this idea of it being a Mets “fantasy” camp quickly began to eat at me. Suddenly, some ulterior motives started to appear to me about why the Mets promote this so called “fantasy” camp. No, the Mets are not the only team with a fantasy camp, but because the Mets are involved there has to be some funky business going on down in Port St. Lucie. Below are some of the conclusions I made:
- The Mets fail to dish out significant money in the draft. Perhaps though, they are trying to corner the second-hand American free-agent market. That’s right, perhaps the Mets are trying to be original with their scouting strategy. Everybody else scouts the 18 year olds that are full of youth and unbridled potential. The Mets are seeking the best talent that is full of age and veteran craft. Not just any veteran craft, it’s the sort of element craft that is willing to pay $4395 to play baseball with Joe McEwing. Basically, if my theory is correct, the future Mets lineup will be filled with business folk like doctors and
lawyers. It is important to note, however, that if the Yankees are going by the same strategy they might find greater success because they offer kosher meals at Yankees fantasy camp. Though much of that same audience is likely turned off by the fact that Yankees fantasy camp costs a grand more than Mets fantasy camp. - Maybe the idea of Mets “fantasy” camp, especially these days is: forget that you root for a perpetually disappointing team for your entire summer, so spend your winter pretending to play for them! People constantly yell at games, “Player X sucks, even I couldv’e fielded that ball!”. . . Well fantasy camp is the chance to prove (or at least pretend) that it’s true.
- Perhaps, the Mets just use fantasy camp as a guise to take former Mets players and try to get them back in the organization. The Mets need
a left fielder? That’s why they recruit Bernard Gilkey to smile and wave at camp. A utility man? Super-Joe McEwing. It’s all just a clever ruse to recruit cheap players and put them in blue and orange again.
With the Mets, you can be pretty sure that Mets “Fantasy” Camp is far from what it seems to be. Hopefully, pretending to be on the Mets isn’t as depressing as watching the actual Mets.
Pete Lappin (3)
