.png)
I feel like this couldn't have come at a better time. While I spent most of last week recovering from the flu, I was able to get my annual holiday viewing of The Godfather 1 & 2 checked off my list for the year. A week later, Santa came early in the form of Steve Cohen, snatching superstar shortstop Carlos Correa from the clutches of the San Francisco Giants in an extremely sneaky, back room 3 AM deal from his penthouse suite in Hawaii, where his family is spending the holidays.
Corey Sipkin/New York Post
Now today, instead of waking up to even more good news from Queens, Mets fans woke up to a warning from rival a MLB executive, who claimed that there would be "consequences down the road for him," if he doesn't stop his ridiculous shopping spree right this instant.
While it's fresh in my mind, this is all too familiar to me. Cohen is Michael Corleone, the San Francisco Giants are Moe Greene, the man in which Corleone tries to bribe into selling his casino to the Corleone Crime Family, and this mystery executive is Hyman Roth, the man who puts the hit out on Michael in an effort to stop him from spreading his influence in Las Vegas.
What we're experiencing right now is basically the exact plot of The Godfather Part 2, a movie that is so long, that director Francis Ford Coppola opted to put an intermission in halfway through the film, so that movie goers in 1974 could get up, stretch their legs, use the bathroom, refill on snacks and drinks, and probably enjoy a smoke.
Just imagine this scene, but it's in beautiful Hawaii instead of dreary New York during the winter
Obviously, I'm kidding. Steve Cohen's life isn't in any danger, and his brother Fredo isn't betraying him behind his back (at least I don't think that's the case)
However, I would like to address this newly formed narrative of Steve Cohen "ruining baseball." Cohen isn't ruining baseball, you want to know who is? How about we point the finger at John Fisher, the owner of the Oakland Athletics who is single handily driving the team out of Oakland with his greed, the city in which they've called home since 1968, brought four World Series titles to, 17 division championships, 6 American League Pennants, and countless Hall of Famers who started their careers there and have been woven into the fabric of the city. Every single year, Fisher dismantles the team just a little bit more in order to keep shedding payroll, which is now currently sitting at a poverty level of just $54,000,000 heading into the 2023 season.
We can also look at Bob Nutting, quite possibly the most hated man in Pittsburgh right now. Nutting, who has been the majority owner of the Pirates since 2007, has spent so little on his team, that since 2010, he has only spent $804 million on free agents. Steve Cohen has spent $806.1 million on free agents this year alone.
If you really would like to find out what is and isn't good for the sport, look at owners like Fisher and Nutting. Those are only two examples of many in the MLB right now. There are simply owners who just do not care, and us Mets fans dealt with that in the form of the Wilpon family for 34 years until they finally showed some mercy by selling the team.
What Steve Cohen is doing is lighting a fire, starting a revolution in every MLB city across the country. Soon enough, fans will start looking at Cohen and saying, "why can't we have that?" and pressure will be applied to owners like Fisher, Nutting, Stuart Sternberg (Tampa Bay Rays) and countless other owners who refuse to put a winning product on the field.
Long story short: don't hate the player, hate the game.
Steve Cohen is The Godfather of Major League Baseball.