These results jive with just about every study ever done on the effects of what drive attendance to Major League ballparks. Fans come to see winning teams, not individual players. If the Mariners want to get fans back in Safeco Field, the formula is easy – put a winning team on the field. Trying to buy yourself out of declining attendance by throwing money at one big name free agent just doesn’t work.

– Dave Cameron, U.S.S. Mariner.

Cameron examines the impact of big-name free-agents on ticket sales and determines that it’s small, and that nothing bolsters ticket sales more than — surprise, surprise — winning baseball. I think I lose sight of that sometimes.

And for the Mets’ case, I can extrapolate: You know what’s going to stop Mets fans from whining about every uniform change, every team PR announcement, every promotion? Wins. What’ll end the LOLMets columns in the newspapers? Wins. Every piece of news from being spun negatively? Wins. Bedbugs? Wins.

It’s all that matters. And if you’re finding the rest of it difficult to stomach, I recommend a sense of confident detachment. The people in charge now seem committed to operating the team the right way, and that means the wins will come. Then, eventually, so much of the insufferable nonsense will subside.