[IMPORTANT: Make this 4 times longer with much more detail]
Sports Carroll’s Column: Steve Cohen Sends Message To Mets Fans by Lloyd Carroll February 24, 2025 Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports NEW YORK, NY — With MLB’s spring training Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues beginning its exhibition game schedules in Florida and Arizona respectively, several players, coaches, front office executives and even owners have voiced their opinions and more on an assortment of topics. Mets owner Steve Cohen met with the media for an informal Q&A at the team’s Port St. Lucie, FL spring training headquarters. He was asked about the Mets ranking a below-average eighteenth in Major League Baseball home attendance in 2024. Image Credit: MLB Obviously, he was not happy. He was particularly irked about how Citi Field was a veritable ghost town for a midweek series with the Washington Nationals in September even though the Mets were in the thick of the playoff hunt. Steve Cohen has every right to be peeved. Unlike the previous Mets owners, the Wilpon family, Cohen has spent liberally on talent, both on the playing field and in the front office. He has been very accessible to the press, and to fans. He and his wife, Alex, who is very firsthand when it comes to the consumer experience at Citi Field, have frequently greeted folks entering the ballpark. Image Credit: George Napolitano/Latino Sports That does not mean there were no legitimate reasons for the lagging attendance, especially for midweek September games against less than marquee opponents. Mets fans have fresh memories of the team’s September collapse in 2022. Things got worse in 2023 when the Mets were selling off name talent at the July 31 trade deadline because their odds of making the playoffs were slim. “Hope is not a strategy,” Steve Cohen famously, and wisely, said at the time. There are also economic and lifestyle considerations. Citi Field parking fees, tickets, and concession items are costly. Disposable income, and leisure time, are precious commodities. School is back in session in September, so it is hard for families to go to the ballpark. Sports executives often forget many of their customers are on tight budgets. They also frequently fail to understand they are competing with other sources of entertainment. Image Credit: Henry Ordosgoitia (Henry O.)/Latino Sports The Mets absorbed their first major injury of the spring even before the first exhibition game in Florida was played. Pitcher Frankie Montas, who signed a two-year, $34 million contract as a free agent, even though he bombed with the Yankees, and has a career earned run average near five, has a strained lat muscle. He is expected to miss six to eight weeks. Mets fans should not be surprised if he does not make his Mets debut until after the All-Star Game break. Juan Soto gifts Brett Baty a fully loaded Chevy Tahoe SUV for uniform No. 22 Juan Soto thanked Mets infielder Brett Baty for giving him his uniform number (22) by getting him a fully loaded Chevy Tahoe SUV. Soto paid $92,000 for the car. While many are using the term “gift” to describe Juan Soto’s generosity, the IRS will consider it to be earned income. Baty was compensated by Soto for performing a service. Baty’s 2025 income increased by $92,000. The good news for Brett Baty is the transaction took place in Florida. Baty is a resident of Texas. Neither state has an income tax. Yankees and manager Aaron Boone agree on terms of a two-year contract extension The news of Yankees manager Aaron Boone’s two-year contract extension was quickly overshadowed by Friday’s news that Yankees CEO Hal Steinbrenner is relaxing the team’s longstanding policy against beards. There was concern the Yankees were making it harder to compete for free agents with teams who could not care less about facial grooming. It will be fun to see whether Aaron Boone and his players will emulate the many NHL players who grow beards when the playoffs get underway. Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports I remember chatting with Andrew McCutchen when he was traded to the Yankees for the 2018 stretch run from the San Francisco Giants. The handsome McCutchen was compelled to shave his goatee to comply with the Yankees facial hair policy. “You look like your bar mitzvah photo!” I joked with him. McCutchen laughed but could tell he was not happy having his personal freedom infringed. He signed with the Phillies as a free agent a few months later. ESPN opts out of deal with MLB The big sports business story last week was the announcement by ESPN that it was opting out its broadcasting deal with Major League Baseball after this season. The Worldwide Leader in Sports felt it was overpaying for its rights when compared with the MLB packages has with Warner Media (TBS), and the Apple TV Plus and Roku streaming services. Image Credit: ESPN Speculation naturally turned to which media company will fill the void created by ESPN’s departure. While the obvious candidates are streaming behemoths Netflix and Prime Video, there may be an old school broadcast television network ready to flex its muscles. The CW has quietly been acquiring parts of the WWE, NASCAR, and NCAA properties. They are also the home of “Inside the NFL,” and they were the first home for LIV Golf. Getting a significant baseball package would certainly put them in the big leagues (full pun intended). Another possibility is that Warner Media, which will lose its NBA rights at the end of this season, has a big treasury which means it can increase its MLB package if it chooses. The Start of the 2025 MLS Season No sports league has a longer season than Major League Soccer whose commissioner is Bayside High School alum Don Garber. The New York Red Bulls, whose season ended in December when they lost the championship game to the Los Angeles Galaxy by a score of 2-1, began their 2025 season last Saturday. Image Credit: MLS At Wednesday’s Red Bulls media day, head coach Sandro Schwarz agreed the season is quite long, and expressed envy at how the Mets and Yankees get to spend another month in Florida. Veteran Red Bulls defender Sean Nealis grew up in Massapequa and graduated from Hofstra University. He was thrilled the MLS Eastern Conference semi-finals were held at Cit Field where the Red Bulls defeated the New York City Football Club. “It was a lot easier to for my parents to come to Citi Field than to Yankee Stadium!’ he said with a chuckle. Image Credit: AP Nealis is also a huge Mets fan. “I know their pitching rotation is a question mark, but that was the case last year. I am confident they will have a great year.” I spoke with Sean about the lack of coverage both the Red Bulls and NYCFC receive on local television sports news segments, sports talk radio stations, and the daily newspapers. The Philadelphia Union, on the other hand, are given the same respect by the local Philly media that they give to the Phillies, Eagles, Sixers, and Flyers. “It is frustrating, but I hope things will change as the league continues to grow. What works against Major League Soccer is their lucrative rights deal with Apple TV Plus means no MLS team can televise their games on local outlets. For years, the YES Network showed NYCFC games, while MSG Network did the same for the Red Bulls. The cliche of being out of sight means being out of mind is apropos. Image Credit: Diego Abarca/Latino Sports The Red Bulls are trying to emulate the Mets in that they want to be known for their cuisine. Their food purveyor, Delaware North, will be offering a variety of garden and Caesar salads for those seeking healthier stadium food options. They will also offer Wagyu beef sliders for their high roller customers. 4 Nations Face-Off, A Massive Success for NHL The National Hockey League had to have been thrilled with the attention their Four Nations Tournament received. The tournament which featured teams from Finland, Sweden, Canada, and the United States received ratings saved for the Stanley Cup Final. Image Credit: NHL The NHL was helped along by Jamaica Estates native, and current United States president, Donald Trump’s insults and tariff threats to our neighbor to the north. That led to Canadians booing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Montreal’s Bell Centre. Of course, that was the best thing which could happen for the NHL because that meant marginal viewers were made aware of this first-time tournament. As was the case with the 2022 Olympics, Team Canada beat Team USA in the decisive game with an overtime goal. NBA’s All-Star Game Down On All Accounts The NBA All-Star Game drew terrible ratings and was even criticized by one of the league’s stars, Draymond Green. When I was growing up, the All-Stars from the Eastern and Western conferences took the game seriously and played hard to win. In recent years, the defense and effort were so egregiously bad, NBA commissioner Adam Silver kept trying to come up with ways to keep the game interesting for viewers. He has not succeeded. Image Credit: Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images This year, the NBA had the misfortune of having to compete against the three-hour-plus “Saturday Night Live 50″ celebration on NBC, which dominated the ratings for the night. “Saturday Night Live 50” Speaking of SNL’s 50 th , it was a fun show. One of the show’s best hosts, Peyton Manning, had a cameo role. He made a cogent analogy of how hosting SNL was like being a quarterback in the NFL. Both are live experiences, and you must be ready to handle any unexpected occurrences. Image Credit: SNL NBC’s related streaming service, Peacock, has a four-part series about “Saturday Night Live.” I wish they had devoted a segment to the many sports luminaries who have hosted the show such as Derek Jeter, Tom Brady, Charles Barkley, Eli Manning, and of course, Peyton Manning. Remembering and Paying Tribute to Jerry Butler I was saddened to learn of the passing of singer Jerry Butler this past Friday. Butler made singing seem so effortless with his silky baritone voice, he was nicknamed “The Ice Man.” He certainly radiated cool. Butler first came to fame in his hometown of Chicago when he partnered with Curtis Mayfield and Sam Gooden to form the Impressions. In the 1980s, Jerry Butler would go into politics in the Windy City. Image Credit: Press He recorded “Moon River” before anyone else did, but the song will always be associated with the late Andy Williams because it was Williams who was asked to sing the Henry Mancini tune at the Academy Awards. With no disrespect to Andy Williams, whose version of “Moon River” is terrific, Butler was victimized by racism, and he had every right to be resentful. His best work came when he went to Philadelphia in 1968 to work with fellow Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees, producers Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff. Among the great records they made were “Western Union Man,” “Never Gonna Give You Up,” and “Only The Strong Survive.” No More Tribeca Grill? It will be the end of an era this Saturday night when the Tribeca Grill closes for business. Its managing partner, Tracy Nieporent, will still run the Daily Burger at Madison Square Garden, along with Nobu, but he is trying to cut back his schedule. Tracy is arguably the biggest sports fan I know as he rarely misses a Mets. Jets. Knicks, or Rangers game. I am proud to call him a friend. You can read more of Lloyd Carroll’s columns posted weekly on The Queens Chronicle. Related Topics 4 Nations Face-Off 4 Nations Face-Off Tournament Aaron Boone Andrew McCutchen Brett Baty Citi Field ESPN Jerry Butler Juan Soto Major League Baseball Major League Soccer Mets MLB MLS National Basketball Association National Hockey League NBA NBA All-Star Game New York Mets New York Red Bulls New York Yankees NHL Saturday Night Live SNL Steve Cohen Tribeca Grill Yankees Click to comment Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Comment * Name * Email * Website Advertisement Facebook Latest Article Baseball / 2 weeks ago 35TH ANNUAL LATINO MVP AWARDS – 2024 OFFICIAL BALLOT ANNOUNCED BRONX, NY (February 10th, 2025) — It has been thirty five (35) years since… By Press Release Baseball / 10 mins ago They Ask that Rafael Devers Be Fired – Piden que Boten a Rafael Devers “Love your mother-in-law… because baby-sitters are getting paid too much”… Joey Adams. 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