Stay with me on this one before you pre-decide this is some sort of anti-Matt Harvey article.
Every morning one of the first things I do on the internet is search for “Matt Harvey.” Why?
1. Matt Harvey is fun.
2. Matt Harvey brings site traffic
3. The rest of the media gets their underwear all moist any time there is MATT HARVEY NEWS and I enjoy poking fun at that. (Wait until he throws off a mound. VJ day coverage will look small in comparison).
This morning I was making the rounds and I see a lot of tweets about how Matt is gonna dominate, he’s going to win a Cy Young, people are doing artwork about him…
Snow day @Sportstrait of the @Mets @MattHarvey33 can’t wait until baseball starts again pic.twitter.com/UDwRGYVEBX
— Sportraits (@Sportstrait) January 27, 2015
…and that makes me wonder how these people will react say the Mets go 80-82 and Matt is say 11-10.
Will they reboot and assume Matt is going to be 85 Gooden in 2016? Blame it on the injury?
Or is this a tenuous part of the fanbase that is holding on to one last hope that this franchise isn’t a complete mess. Would 11-10 and 80-82 make them throw up their hands and decide the Mets aren’t worth their attention.
I’ve been around these parts a long time and I strongly suggest it is the latter.
I remember, back in my vendor days, hearing some guy brag to his friend about how he had been a season ticket holder since 1987 but he wasn’t going to renew. It was like 1992. Yep.
If the Mets win, the fanbase won’t give a hoot about security issues at the stadium, obstructed views, the price of beer, malls, or even Wilpons. Wining hides all sins.
However, 80-82 and Matt Harvey isn’t The Dark Knight (by the way we need to stop with that, it’s already really annoying) what happens to this segment of the fanbase?
Hopefully Matt goes 24-4 and wins the Cy Young and we’ll never know.
….
This next part didn’t fit in with the flow above but it’s related.
All eyes on third base. This guy can’t hand in 8 home runs again. Matt Harvey is awesome and all but at best only plays every five days. David needs to hand in 155 good games. He got a free pass last year. He’s too important to the entire plan to not hand in a solid season. It will be an interesting plot-line to watch.
I’m not sure I agree with the idea of Matt Harvey being fun. Watching Matt Harvey dominate opposing batting orders in 2013 was fun. The hype around him, not so much.
I want to see the Mets play well – I’m going to watch them anyway, so I hope they’ll play baseball that I’ll enjoy. I couldn’t care less about whether the rest of the “fanbase” watches or walks away, especially now that it seems that increased ticket sales aren’t really going to mean more money for the baseball payroll.