At the time, it felt appropriate that Steve Cohen’s stewardship of the New York Mets began with a public relations event. The billionaire hedge fund owner and rabid fan was seen as a savior for a franchise that, under the Wilpon family, underachieved on the field and overstimulated its beat writer corps off it.
That first chat in November 2020 felt like a revelatory unveiling of the Mets’ future — spirited and ambitious, but buttoned up in a way the meddling Wilpon clan never allowed for. Cohen told the assembled onlookers, “I am not in this to be mediocre.