Mets Talk--That Doesn’t Make Trouble Go Away

Florida is right where the New York Mets left it. Only the geography and the calendar have changed for them. The issues that made this such an unbearable spring for them came north with them like a bushel of grapefruit.

The same questions remain -- criminal, legal, medical and professional. They are “what if ... “ and “what happens when ... “ And those are always the most difficult questions.

They’ve ended their self-imposed silence, telling the media and probably telling themselves that they did something they had to do and it pulled them closer as a group. Perhaps.

They were dealing with a whirlwind they could neither understand nor cope with, so they climbed into the storm cellar and pulled the door shut. But now they’ve opened the door and the dirt is still swirling.

Three players are still facing the possibility of felony rape charges. David Cone is still facing a civil suit -- a dollar-action by three harpies -- alleging harassment and sexual misbehavior. And Kevin Elster still can’t throw.

“I like this ballclub; they’ll be OK,” Jeff Torborg, the manager, said Saturday when the Mets touched down at Yankee Stadium for their first exposure to New York since the storm broke.

“Teams that win handle adversity, either from a losing spell or from external forces,” he said.

Whether these people can handle adversity is still to be shown. Cone had his best game of last season while knowing the police were weighing a rape accusation -- soon dismissed -- against him. But that was one day in the pressure; they’ve had three weeks in this tempest, and now they’re looking at six months.

“It’s not something we can put on the back burner and forget about,” infielder Dave Magadan said thoughtfully.

First is the criminal charge, which makes the baseball part pale. There was a young woman who either was raped or was not raped. The state of Florida has not yet decided whether the evidence says to prosecute or not.

“I’d hope it would be determined shortly,” Al Harazin, the general manager, said. He thought the decision would be reached last week; now he’s hoping for early this week.

“Obviously I had concern for the criminal aspect,” he said. “That has so dominated my thinking that I didn’t have much time for the potential repercussions in their lives.”

If the rape charge is dismissed, these players are still out there in the public scrutiny for contact with this woman. Reports say DNA tests link one of the players to the semen stains on the accuser’s dress. Two of the men are married. What are the repercussions in their lives?

“To be a professional is to be able to do your job whatever happens,” Magadan said.

Baseball is a game compared to the trauma that woman charged or the freedom of the men in question, but baseball is what they do. “That ability to focus is why I’m up here, not in the minor leagues,” pitcher Bret Saberhagen said after his first insider’s look at New York scrutiny.

What if the state of Florida prosecutes? What if it convicts? What if there is no conviction but a messy trial? “We’ve all got jobs to do,” Magadan said. “We can’t go out and worry what might happen: It might rain.

“What if -- God forbid -- something happens with them? These are problems people have in everyday life. Some business people are found cheating on their wives. Are you going to quit your job?

“People have catastrophes in their lives and fall apart. Some people do not. Some people have great years in Triple-A and get to the majors and fall apart.”

So far the players have tried to deal with a difficult situation earnestly if not too wisely. They closed the door and their mouths to all media for nine days. It was the action of young men overwhelmed by their situation. The manager didn’t think it was the right action, but he didn’t want to make it an issue between him and his new team.

They shut themselves off -- all for none and none for all -- rather than have some players talking to some media people and inflaming an already tense situation. This is a team that has fractioned itself in recent years.