NYBD has an interesting premise following Josh Thole’s desicision to get off twitter because it was too negative.
I said a couple of weeks ago Mets fans are fast becoming the worst in all of sports. They thrive on anger, negativity, and playing the victim. Maybe the Josh Thole “Twitter-gate” is just a small sample of idiots. Does anyone really know the percentage of baseball fans that are represented on Twitter? Regardless, having spent time around the ballpark, talking to individuals around the team, and interacting with fans I can attest to the fact the behavior towards Thole is not just a small Twitter sample. It’s a burgeoning new attitude by Mets fan that threatens to destroy what once was a great fan base.
I said it a couple of weeks ago, I will say it again. Mets fans it’s time for an intervention. You are a disgrace, a joke, and perhaps it’s time we traded a majority of you somewhere for a player to be named later. If only we could delete many of you, just like Thole did to his Twitter.
I disagree with Mike. The sports culture has gotten more negative in general, and part of that is because of the technology whether it’s flaming someone on a message board, twitter, or a fat guy complaining about uniforms day after day after day.
Personally, I may not be the most positive fellow, and this blog was born of frustration with the direction of the franchise…but I do try to spotlight the positive and definitely try to encourage positive behavior among fans.
The Mets fans I talk to are passionate but not haters. Frustrated but not wishing illnesses on people.
Anyway, very interesting read.
It’s an outlet. Can’t yell at your boss, can’t yell at your spouse, can’t yell at your kids or dog, but you can dog just about everyone on Twitter or on message boards. It’s especially true for Mets fans due to the current situation of high payroll/bad performance/odd ballpark/bumbling management/allegedly crooked ownership. And it’s not 1963 when it was fun.
I happen to agree with Mike, and I fully admit I can get ridiculously frustrated with players like Pelfrey and Wright. Still my frustrations remain fairly innocuous tongue and cheek more to see if I can get at a few fans thin skin vs. seriously “hating” players.
However this culture of modern Mets fans has been growing and festering into a sore for almost two decades now. The collapses in 2007 and 2008 have only made the wound more open and nasty. Mets fans are the new Red Sox fans. Whiny, self loathing and always concerned about the Yankees.
I blame fantasy baseball
There is certainly some merit to that.
I also think the media’s constant portrayal of the ownership in a negative light. Has everyone forgotten M. Donald Grant? The modern medias feeding the 12-24 hr news cycle, adding in the oneupmanship of new/social media just perpetuates the negativity.
Well my personal belief is that a fair amount of the criticism and negativity is due to how the franchise has been run in the past decade. I am a fan who admittedly has been very tuff on them and negative. Based on my own feelings it is due to poor decisions players who have not lived up to either their hype or potential, and the specter of that other team that playes in the Bronx. I think that the modern way of big market teams swallowing up all the free agent talent has changed the way fans look at the team. We don’t see them as that loveable expansion team that was charming and fun. We see them now as a large market marquie franchise that never seems to get it right. There location and baseball’s current condition has caused them to lose there charm. Rightly or wrongly I think alot of us expect them to do what the Yankees do and get angry when they don’t. Add the collapses the failure in 06, and Madoff and you have a perfect storm.
Mixing a lot of things in there.
Just for starters, how is it a players fault that they don’t live to “hype”. Players generally don’t go around hyping themselves, at least I can’t think of a Met player who has recently.
The specter of the other team in the Bronx is irrelevant and part of the strange inadequacy Met fans feed into. Nothing the Mets could do will EVER catch them so it is pointless to set them as a standard bearer.
I wasn’t blaming the players I was just setting a circumstance. Fans hear about players that are hyped and expectation are set. I realize they can’t compete with the Yankees but there are some who think they should. It’s that inadequacy that turns them negative. All I was trying to say in admittadly way too many words is there is a combination of things that add up to the single problem.
But Dom that is exactly my point, if you or I as a fan buy into what is said about a player simply because the GM or a coach says big things about them it doesn’t make it so. If one buys into hype they deserve to be disappointed.
And insofar as the Yankees again, that is exactly my point those that think the Mets can EVER compete on the same level playing field as the Yankees are completely delusional. Unless there is a hard set salary cap and revenue sharing the Mets are a big market team that shares probably the same basic chances at revenue building afforded to the likes of the Dodgers, Giants, White Sox, Cubs and possibly the Angels.
The being upset with ownership, whether right or wrong, is believable. Not agreeing with how a front office put together a team, believable. The other factors are all born of a lack of economic understanding combined with buying into pr/marketing hogwash.
” a fat guy complaining about uniforms day after day after day”
~~~
wait, what?
Phil – thats me.
heh…yeah, i knew that (and i knew it wasn’t paul, who’s skinny as a rail)…just thought it was a funny way of describing oneself das all
It’s my way of tipping my hand that this is all in fun and i don’t take this over seriously. I’m also don’t fawn over Mazzilli to the point of creepiness, but he is my face Met.
Thank God for Philly fans! This is the one time they have us beat hands down!
Nobody is worse then Philly Fans, not even on our worst day!
I don’t at all support folks going after players personally, and don’t at all get why Josh Thole of all people becomes a target, but generally speaking of the premise, ARE YOU F’ING KIDDING ME?
This team’s got a $120 million payroll and is sitting in last place, on the heels of 2 straight 4th-place finishes and arguably the biggest September collapse in the history of the game. And that’s just on the field. Add to that a stadium sponsored by a bailed-out bank, a manager who thinks the team’s own TV network is out to get him, and a G.M. that tries to launch a conspiracy theory against a beat writer, and the franchise has been a complete disaster for going on 5 years. This TEAM is what’s a disgrace and a joke. They need to count their blessing that anyone’s even paying attention at this point.
One thing last-place Mets fans have always been is passionate, and that passion is going to flow in the same direction of the franchise. As the franchise bottoms out, so will the fans’ collective attitude, and the two will have parallel rebounds in the future.
This “entitled, unreasonable fans” talk is fine for a defending World Series champion that everyone jumps on after it loses 5 of its first 6 or a first-place team that catches grief for a 3-game losing streak. It makes sense in that context. This team, however, sucks. It’s in LAST place. Not second, not a competitive 3rd: LAST. It finished 2nd-to-last the year before and the year before that. It hasn’t played a playoff game in 5 seasons. What the heck do you expect people to say if they care enough to say anything at all?
Say it with me: “Man up and play better.”
When it comes down to it, I don’t think we have the worst fans in sports. We have very passionate fans, and we have a lot of fans. So percentages are going to point to there being a group of bad eggs, just like in anything else.
You have cities like Miami and Tampa, where the fan base doesn’t even acknowledge the team unless it’s in the playoffs. Those to me are had fans. Most of us are there through thick or thin. I am very passionate about this team, and I refuse to boo even when things are going south. There are plenty more like us out there. I read a lot of the blogs as well as write one (when I actually get a chance to) and no one really bashes the team. Mostly we just speak from the heart about our feelings of the team we love.
The media comes into play. They are worse on the players than most of us are. There’s so much stuff off the field surrounding the team that it’s hard to avoid the negativity, especially when it occurs on the field. And it makes the fans act out. I don’t think that makes Mets fans the worst. You just have some people out there that have to make the whole group look bad.
Bottom line is that people forget that the players are humans too. They have families. They don’t want to be embarrased. Im sure the Thole situation may stem from the fact that he doesn’t want to his family to he subjected to that stuff on a public forum. But if you have a couple of idiots ripping him on his twitter and he has to cancel his account, that doesn’t make us as a group bad fans.
I don’t blame Josh Thole for walking away from Twitter – would you volunteer for insults and unsolicited “expert” advice about how to do your job?
I’m just tired of all the negativity surrounding the Mets these days. The media folk feel that they have to be negative to attract an audience… I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it.
Fans are another story. If you hate the owners & think the team stinks, why torture yourself? Wouldn’t you rather spend your time on something that you enjoy? If there’s something you do like about the Mets, wouldn’t it be better to focus on that aspect instead of the ones that make you crazy?
i don’t volunteer for them, but i get them every day…from the guy who pays my salary
~~~
writers (and that includes the entire blogosphere and twitterworld, whether they’re qualified or not) need copy…if there’s no GOOD news, then they have to find bad news…it’s what sells (or sold) papers and what generates comments and replies
the old saying that “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” totally plays into the new “look at me” world — if you can say something negative about the team, AND get a reaction — well then, someone’s “looked at you” — i feel bad for thole taking criticism, but i bet there aren’t too many of us who’d trade what we get paid to do for what he does…he’s a big boy, he can take it
er…who wouldn’t trade…
*misses edit button*