New York Mets 2008: A Mess to Remember?
Since the dawn of sports talk radio and New York's Godfather of Sports Radio, WFAN, I have found,through the years, it's increasingly difficult to follow and be a fan of the teams I used to exclusively follow. Since the NJ Devils get no press, they are still my favorite sports teams. I found that I no longer had the hate of the Rangers and Islanders, and end up following them a little bit. As a Yankees fan, the same thing happened- I didn't hate the Mets, and I would actually listen to games and watch games. The football teams never play each other, and when they do, the Jets are bad, and the Giants are not as bad.
That's a tangent, but back to baseball, the New York Mets. What the hell is going on there this year? The collapse in 2007 was bad, historic bad, Yankees vs Red Sox bad.. but 2008. The team is near .500, Billy Wagner bitching about being the only one answering questions while other players did not or simply left the clubhouse, bringing back shades of Paul Do Luca complaining the Latin players weren't answering questions. The new manager, Jerry Manuel, said about fans booing Aaron Heilman:
"It's very, very fertile ground for growth in Shea Stadium. It's fertile ground for a team's growth and development. Sometimes fertile ground has fertilizer."
So, in Shea, there's lots of sh*t?
This after Wilie Randolph talking about racist announcers on SNY and other black coaches, like Herm Edwards and Isaiah Thomas. Followed by weeks of speculation of Willie getting fired, and then getting fired, at 3:00 am, on the road, in Anaheim, after being told his job was safe?
Bryan Church injury worsens when travelling cross-country with a serious consussion.
Insanity like this may have flown in the 1970s, when I was too young to understand and didn't really know about the Yankees and Mets (and their crazy cheap owners at the time- washing used baseballs so they didn't have to buy new ones?), and some of the 1980s, when the idea of total access to sports and sports personalities was still relatively new, if at all. Now, in the 2000s, with the internet, 24 hour sports stations on TV, radio, and the internet, and 24 hour news sites and blogs, you would think that people would realize that what they say can be pulled out and really make them look bad.
On a related note, I think Citicorp, the people that bought naming rights to Citi Field for the New York Mets from 2009 into the future, is almost done laying off 12,000 employees to cut losses. Man, what a mess.
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This thread looks so lonely so I'm gonna chime in with my limited sports knowledge here.
I think the Mets never did recovered from that catastrophic collapse from last season. I haven't been around NYC media for awhile, but I remember the likes of Mike & the Mad Dog who are relentless in their criticism when the teams are down. It's hard to get over a slump like that which carries through the offseason if people won't stop bitching about it.
Randolph definitely got the shaft for the way that he was fired. But I felt that he was also somewhat sleepwalking through the first part of the season. Player seemed unhappy. Wagner struggled. The whole clubhouse just felt weird. Along with the weird racist comments and such, it felt like that he just wasn't into what he's doing.
Then there's the whole expectation thing. Despite their reasonable stats, I think people expect even more out of Beltran, Wright and Jose Reyes. It's also kind of funny because I wouldn't be surprised if Beltran and Wright both ended up with 30-30 seasons and Reyes steals 80 bases while hitting .300. Now, why aren't you winning with this kind of stats?
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Giving up a grand slam to an American League pitcher should be the death knell for your season.
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To an American League pitcher from the worst team in the major leagues, no less.
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As a lifelong White Sox fan, I still like Jerry Manuel--in case that's any consolation.
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You all tend to forget that although baseball is a 'team' sport, it's all about individuals. Statistics this and statistic that. AND if they aren't playing well together for whatever reason, they loose. If(!) they are playing well together, no matter if they are the worse this or that, they can (and have) beat the best teams on any given series. Plus individuals are athletes of various athletic skills. Hernandez of the Mariners is a young and very(!) athletic individual (check out the line drives near him this season and how he either knocked them down or got out of their way) and if any pitcher want's to leave one down the middle of the plate, he surely will whack it. Granted, homerun, let alone a grand slam is a bit 'lucky', but with other factors aforementioned, maybe not. Look at history. Back when the Mets first started everyone cheered them for practically just getting out on the field. They were that bad. BUT, with practically the same young crew they surprised everyone in what, 1970? I can't remember the year right now. But they whooped. Things change. Can be any given night, week, year whatever. Labelling is for the press. The guys on the field know the real story.
The 1969 Miracle Mets, with an awesome Tom Seaver who won like 30 games or something.
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OK, a couple of comments:
Nice point, I can see how a team that wins a Super Bowl is "not as bad"
I wonder if he's related to Ryan Church, the Mets outfielder? If you can't even get the player's name right, don't make the point.
Ryan Church getting hurt has nothing to do with the fact that this franchise is an embarrassment to it's city and it's fans. As a long time Mets fan, I'm embarrassed about a number of things, but he's been a lone shining light on a horrible season, it's unfortunate that his injury has kept him out so long. But the embarrassment shouldn't be limited to JUST the Mets. As a Yankees fan, you shouldn't even worry about the crosstown team until Hank "I wanna be like my daddy" Steinbrenner learns to shut his mouth and try to find ways to bring back "Yankees pride", because that left town in the late 90s. I think it's JUST as embarrassing how the Yankees treated Joe Torre, who was treated with so much disrespect, not knowing for the last 3 years if he was going to keep his job or not, and then to have Hank actually come out and say that Torre was nothing before he came to New York and he should thank the Yankees for pulling him out of obscurity. Sorry Hank, the man came in and won 4 World Series for you in the first 5 years he was there. Mind you, that the Yankees spent 18 years looking for a World Series ring until Joe came along, maybe the Yankees were nothing for a long time until Joe came along. These two franchises have the highest payrolls, and neither will make the playoffs this year. Both team right now are an embarrassment to New York, the Mets have just been making more headlines.
-For the Greater Good
It's been a bad vibe around this team. Certain players looking old all of a sudden (Delgado, 4-year-contract-Castillo), a lack of mental focus or maturity (Oliver "Jekyll & Hyde" Perez, Jose Reyes), and a fan base that seems to be waiting for some kind of compensation on a daily basis for falling short in '06 (probably their best chance to win the whole thing even with the depleted rotation) and last year's stomach punch. Not a good team. I liked the things coming out of Manuel's mouth when he took over, but it may not matter with this personnel. We'll see where they're at after a month with Manuel. Amazing that they're still within striking distance in the NL East, really.
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