I will root for whoever I want.
If I dislike Oliver Perez then I will dislike Oliver Perez. I don’t care if he was within his rights to refuse the assignment. I am within my rights to personally respect him less.
I think Castillo’s reasons for not going to Walter Reed were weak. Show up. Stand at the back of the room if you feel squeamish (as I often do at funerals). Just go on the trip. If you get that uncomfortable step out and go to the men’s room and take your time. That’s my personal opinion and I won’t be told it’s invalid.
I’m thinking Beltran could have rescheduled his meeting. I tried to look up if his foundation is located in Washington but couldn’t find an address. Perhaps someone he needed to meet with was in town. Maybe this meeting was all over the phone and he could have pulled it up an hour or used this new fangled cellular technology while on the bus. Maybe the Mets have a no-cell rule on the bus. I don’t know, but I’m still allowed to be disappointed he didn’t go.
I’m not so mad at Beltran because of performance. I am mad at Castillo and definitely Perez for performance. Wright’s up and downs don’t bother me. I’m not as gonzo over Ike as other fans are.
I thought the Mets version of Pedro was terribly overrated. Can’t stand Tom Glavine. I love Santana. I love all five 1986 starters. I have little fondness for the 2000 team.
I’m not nuts about Piazza nor Franco. I liked Cora more than you did.
I hated Valentine as manager but kinda dug Jerry even though it’s time to move on. Loved Davey from minute one, hated Joe Torre from minute one.
My favorite player of all time hit .264 in two stints with the Mets and somehow got a ring. I just like him.
My favorite player on the Mets right now has 11 career wins.
I’m reading newspapers/blogs/tweets and being told how I’m supposed to feel about WalterReedGate.
I’ll feel how I want. Right now I feel annoyed.
You can disagree with some or all of everything I wrote. I doubt we agree on everything, but we do agree we love the team.
My dream version of the team wears pinstriped jerseys and all 25 players (even the starting pitcher) visit Walter Reed. Maybe I don’t know anything about starting pitcher preparation Maybe your version is Luis Castillo in a black jersey. Maybe the Mets should have given A-Rod his 24+1 deal and the A-Rod Store way back when.
Doesn’t matter. It’s my feelings and I’m the one who pays for my tickets.
You’re well within your rights to root for whomever you like, and for whatever reason. But realize that if you hate on good players while pumping up bad players you lose the right to complain about the team not winning.
I repeat, if you hate on good players and praise bad players, you do not get to complain when the team fails to win. It’s pretty simple.
There is a difference praising bad players and actually liking them too. It’s actually alright if you like Jeff Francoeur, and it’s certainly okay to root for him to do good and exceed what he’s done in his career. Every single AB a player has a chance to have a career-changing moment and actually get better. Even if you like Jeff, you know the offense hasn’t gotten it done this year. As a fan, outside of any direction influence, it’s certainly okay to want the upgrade in 2011 to be a “good” Jeff Francoeur rather than a free agent or Angel Pagan or whatever. Stranger things have happened. Most are hoping for “A really good RFer next year, and I hope that guy is Jeff Francoeur, versus just wanting Frenchy out there”
It’s alright not to like Jose Reyes, or any other good player. For any reason. Whether it’s attitude, because you’re ex-wife left you for a guy named Jose, charity work or visits to Walter Reed. To me that off-field stuff doesn’t matter. I don’t like David Wright or any of the other guys better for going, and I don’t like those three any less for not.
None of our feelings about particular players really matters as far as the games go. It does bother me when fans start to seem to prefer Luis Castillo to ground out than for him to get a hit. When fans boo Oliver Perez entering a game louder than they cheer Niese striking out guys. You can dislike those three for not going to Walter Reed, but it wasn’t wrong of them not to go, no matter what you feel. It’s a personal choice and no one is obligated to do anything. That’s actually kinda the point of the whole thing and part of what said soldiers are being honored for.
I think you’re basically agreeing with what I’m saying. People can “like” or “dislike” whomever they choose. Who am I (or anyone?) to say otherwise.
But if your ultimate desire as a Met fan is to see the team win, then not liking the good players who can contribute to that end seems contradictory.
If you (the hypothetical “you”) want to root for fun guys who play through sprained thumbs and give good quotes to the media, that’s fine with me. But if you’re happy about (for example) Alex Cora and Jeff Francoeur being on the team and want to dump Jose Reyes, I don’t see how you have the right to complain about W-L record.
As for the Walter Reed thing, it’s an overblown joke of a story. The NY Mets media has nothing to write about so they’ve created this monster. Ollie’s “excuse” is the weakest, for sure. The other two are totally justified. But I have no ill-will towards any of them for this. By including the tisk-tisk quotes from Wright and Dickey (most of the articles did that), it’s quite obvious the writers are trying to contrast players the fans like with players fans don’t like. Most fans are idiots, unfortunately, and lap up this stuff from the NY media.
To say “Beltran could have rescheduled his meeting” is ridiculous when one does not know the circumstances of this meeting. Has it been planned months in advance? Did it involve dozens of people and was not easily moved? Maybe the government or department of education was involved, which is why he held it in DC? Baseless speculation is a waste of time, and being “disappointed” in him without knowing the facts is pretty weak.
I am agreeing with you, yes.
The media always play up things like this, hitting on a particular story and beating it to death so much that even people that saw through it originally start treating it as fact. Take the Mets are broke angle. Or mismanaged from above. or Jeff Wilpon needs to butt out. None of these things are or have ever been confirmed. Or the Beltran-Surgery thing. As far as I could tell the major point of contention was that the Mets wanted to discuss if there were other options. Now you know next year when the Mets are in Washington they’re ALL going to have to go or this is going to be blown out of proportion. As soon as the Mets get the scheduled finalized, they should probably send a memo to the players just officially making it manadatory for PR reasons.
If the Mets even vaguely knew how to play this game, it would be a non story.
The Yankees have the best record and we have the three stooges.
Just wondering how outraged you were in 2008 when only 15 players showed up to this same event?
Sux2Lose I thought that was an excellent question. I looked up and I don’t seem to have mentioned the trip at all in August 2008. The blog was newer and really unfocused at the time – lots of posts about the Summer Olympics.
I did however find this mention of Carlos visiting veterans from November!
I think the below link is a real interesting read on this topic, Shannon. Pretty much sums up my feelings on the matter as well.
http://www.amazinavenue.com/2010/9/10/1680109/the-hypocrisy-of-the-walter-reed
The only thing I would add is that charity work is not an obligation and I think it’s unfair to judge someone for not participating. I would ask those who judge when the last time they did something charitable was. Perhaps I’m a shitty person because I use the St. Judes’ return address labels without sending any money back?