In a previous life I used to really sink my teeth into the off-season. I would scour the bitchin’ internet for any and all reports of potential free agent signings related to the Mets and their National League East competitors. Now? Not so much.
For a while I thought this had everything to do with the fact that there isn’t a great deal to be excited about with the 2012 Mets. At least in terms of being in the running for this year’s premier crop of talent that is. We are going to have shorter, blue fences at Citi, which is nice.
Something dawned on me. Prior to the Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran signings the Mets weren’t regularly in the discussion for this kind of player in the past. Yet, I was extremely interested in the off-season process.
Maybe I’ve become a full-fledged cynic at the ripe old age of 35, but I feel like things have changed in terms of how rumors are being reported in 2011. We have become so insatiable for “real-time” developments that members of the media feel the need to run with a story the minute they hear something new.
Sources close to fill in the blank here are popping up everywhere and appear to be a legitimate origin for anything new these days. I feel like a handful of years ago these legitimate sources were labeled as rumors (appropriately so in my humble opinion).
Just look at the saga of Jose Reyes. He’ll definitely re-sign, he won’t re-sign, he’s going to the Brewers, he’s minutes away from signing with the Marlins (hideous uniforms and all). It seems to me a guy riding two rows behind Jose Reyes’ third cousin on the bus overhears a portion of a conversation and it is taken as Gospel.
I’m not a fan. Instead of scouring the bitchin’ internet, I now skim it. I am no longer reading entire articles. I click on interesting headlines, read the introductory sentence, and then start scrolling for actual quotes from the parties involved. This doesn’t include agents by the way. If I don’t find any, I discount the piece and move on with my day.
Who knows if this is a bad or a good thing. It’s not something I’m losing sleep over. Just me realizing that either things have changed, or my perception and interest in the hot stove season has.
Midwestropolitan 