Wilpon Apologizes To Beltran & Reyes, Mets Respond With 11-1 Loss To Cubs

The Mets owner (for now) spoke to both Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes before last night's game in Chicago, to either apologize or explain his published comments in the New Yorker.

As we all know, Wilpon, in his interview with Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker, said that some "schmuck" gave Beltran $119M and a 7 year contract, made fun on his called third strike thrown by Adam Wainwright in the 2006 NLCS, and said Beltran was only 65% - 70% of what he was.

As for Reyes, he said he was oft injured and not worth the Carl Crawford money, and he won't get paid that much.

Reyes handled the entire situation better than anyone else. After his conference call with Wilpon in manager Terry Collins' office, Reyes said:

“He’s the boss. He can say whatever he wants to.”

When asked if he spoke to Jeff Wilpon during the damage control process the day before, Reyes merely said that he wasn't sure if Wilpon called because he didn't answer his phone.

BEAUTIFUL!

Before the game, Collins addressed the troops, told them not to worry about any comments that were made. They were men and they were professional baseball players.

The Mets took the skipper's rallying cry to heart, and went out and played like the Bad News Bears in losing to the Cubs 11-1.

Jose Reyes' performance after this ordeal was a testament to this guys attitude. Jose was 2-4 and knocked in the Mets only run.

Beltran was 1-4.

The present "starting" catcher, Ronny Paulino, was awful, committing 2 errors and a passed ball.

Next year's RF - Fernando Martinez (?) had an error also, and was 0-1 after coming in for Jason Bay, who was removed due to a sore calf muscle.

Mr. Wilpon is entitled to his opinion. I agree with that. I also wasn't extremely bothered by his comments as I stated yesterday. The problem is that it was public, and he could very easily have lost his three best players.

I believe Wilpon loves owning the Mets. The problem is that he doesn't realize that he knows very little about how to handle his club and the fans that bleed ORANGE & BLUE. His public relations incompetence is astounding, and with one little interview with the New Yorker, he might very well have sealed his fate...just like he did with Jose and Carlos.

Sources: Andy McCullough - Star Ledger, Adam Rubin Twitter, CBS Sportsline, ESPN