‘Mad Dog’ says Mets’ fans should ‘direct their ire’ at owner Steve Cohen

Chris “Mad Dog” Russo has a message for Mets‘ fans.

Instead of directing your ire at president of baseball operations David Stearns over Pete Alonso and the general state of the team, you should be aiming it at owner Steve Cohen.

“I have no problem, none whatsoever, with the Met fan,” Russo said Wednesday on “First Take.” “The one thing I will say with the Met fan, they wanna kill Stearns, ‘Fire Stearns, Fire Stearns.’

“Here’s the guy you gotta kill, you gotta kill Steve Cohen because it’s Steve Cohen’s money and if Steve Cohen, who made a big how do you do about [Pete Alonso‘s] record-hitting home run for the franchise last year, if he wanted Alonso on his team, he could’ve told Dave, ‘Dave, pick all the relievers you want, Alonso stays.’

“‘You have no problem with the money. Whatever he wants, he stays. He’s Mr. Met, I own the team, he stays.’

“He brought [Juan] Soto in, didn’t he? He sure did. And Stearns had nothing to do with that, that was all Cohen. So the Met fans needs to direct a little of their ire towards Cohen as much as they do to Stearns.'”

Alonso signed a 5-year, $155 million deal with the Baltimore Orioles last December after the Mets opted not to re-sign him in free agency.

On Tuesday, Mets fans gave Alonso, the franchise’s all-time home run leader who played with the team from 2019-25, a standing ovation and demanded a curtain call after he hit his 300th career home run in a game the Orioles won 7-5 in 11 innings. He reacted with an epic bat chuck.

“As the 2026 Mets, I know we have definitely underperformed,” Sean Manaea, the Mets’ starter Tuesday and Alonso’s former teammate, told reporters.

“But the guys in here work their ass off every single day and to have that kind of a reaction to an opposing player, it could be anybody, it’s crazy.

“I’ve got nothing but respect for Pete, but I’ve just never seen anything like that before. He’s just not here. I know everyone loves him, he’s the man. But he’s not here so to see the reaction from the fans like that, it’s just different.”

On Monday night, fans chanted “Fire Stearns” and many left the ballpark with the game tied 1-1 in the eighth inning after Alonso had his final at-bat and failed to hit the historic home run.

The Mets are 69-82 despite having a payroll of $356.5 million-$375 million for the season.

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