Shannon here – that vibration you felt was the result of Ceetar finally accepting invitations to write for MP. Here’s Ceetar
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Following last night’s loss, David Wright and Terry Collins had a closed-door meeting
via Metsblog. One player meeting privately with the manager, and afterwards speaking about the mindset and attitude of the team, is something that doesn’t happen normally.
It’s a rather shrewd move by Colactus. He’s previously stated that he’s not going to have any more team meetings about staying focused, but he’s still managing to push forward his message to his players. Having the unnamed captain of the team reiterate the message, and act on the message, helps further emphasize that if you’re not willing to give it 100% you won’t be playing for Terry Collins in 2012.
Welcome aboard…good post too. Gotta love this kind of thing. As I’ve said before, given a decent team and no injuries, Colactus seems to be the right guy to take us places.
It’d be wonderful if Wright would take the bull by the horns, but I’ve seen no evidence he has it in him to do so. He’s always been overshadowed in the clubhouse by someone else or a combination of other players. Maybe Collins can pull it out of him.
He’s no Keith
That’s not a fair comparison. NOBODY is Keith. I’d settle for a Dykstra, a John Franco, an Alfonzo, or even another LoDuca.
It’s a shame how Beltran seemed to be coming around just as his time was up. Who knows, maybe knowing he was probably headed out the door took some of the pressure off and gave him a wider comfort zone.
I see plenty of evidence. it’s all over the place.
Where? Sure, I see Wright talking about his leadership role when asked, and I see suits and coaches who wish to see it happen talking about it. I even see the occasional reporter discuss it. Problem is, I’ve yet to actually see other players mention it or otherwise give any indication it’s there.
The 800-lb gorilla in all this is that when you’re in your 7th full season in the bigs and have outlasted 2 managers and the vast majority of the roster, if you’re capable of being a real captain, you should already have claimed the title long before anyone takes the time to officially bestow it upon you. The very fact that people have to write columns and make blog posts to convince fans Wright has it in his nature is evidence enough that he doesn’t.
That Wright took it upon himself to call this little pow-wow with Collins is great and all, but you’ll notice that the team’s “response” was to immediately go out and play one of its ugliest games of the season, chock full of poor execution, bad decisions, and mental lapses. That’s not the kind of result a true captain’s efforts delivers.
The team has no take charge guy…Reyes has great energy and the others sometimes feed off it, but I don’t think he is take charge. Beltran, we found out as he left, liked to mentor younger players…he could have been the leader, but never wanted to be the mouthpiece of the team. He’s gone anyway. The leader has to be respected, be take charge, smart on the field and willing to speak up. We don’t have one guy to do all that.