I have been trying to wrap my head around why we Mets fans are not that excited about the first place club and I think it comes down to a lack of star power.
It’s a weird thing. They win baseball games, but they win with a cast of lesser known names.
We love the young pitching, but who on this team is a genuine baseball star?
I will name three, and one isn’t around: Curtis Granderson, Matt Harvey and David Wright are baseball stars. There may be other players you like more or think are better players, but those are the three stars.
And is that what makes this season so weird?
The 2006 club had stars: Reyes, Wright, Beltran, Glavine, Pedro. Arguably Wagner and Delgado.
The 2000 club a little less: Piazza a superstar, Ziele and Ventura as Granderson types, and maybe Hampton, Leiter, Franco.
This club? No superstars for sure, and only one star “known” player playing daily.
We’ve always been told and believed winning cures everything. The Monday-Thursday crowds at Citi Field don’t look all that amazin’ (Dave Howard would say wait until the weather warms up and school is out, but why waste three months of a six month season?).
I dunno. I like watching. It’s nice. It just doesn’t have……stars.
Saying we need stars to get amped or draw a crowd sounds a bit superficial.
I will admit that having star power does help with marketing efforts, but then that’s drawing the more casual fan and the (dare I say it) bandwagon jumpers. For the regular everyday fan, it’s not a lack of stars that is the pain point, but rather the lack of a consistent line-up. How many different infield combinations has this team had this season? A regular line-up that fans can get behind and that can consistently perform in games would be a big plus.
dtwohig Well, the lineup you can put squarely at the feet of the career-losing manager they’ve entrusted to, ahem, lead this team to the promised land. The Padres fired Bud Black with a winning record because they felt they should be doing better…