Last updated: 05/18/2012 - 4:05 AM UTC
Hit Braun = Hit Wright?
People are talking a lot about Terry Collins taking David Wright out of last night’s game as well as Wright’s reaction. Honestly I’ve been waiting to see Wright behave that way for years.
For those who don’t know what happened: After a solo home run by Rickie Weeks in the seventh inning Mets reliever D.J. Carrasco hit Ryan Braun (don’t call me Lloyd) with a pitch. Though both Carrasco and catcher Mike Nickeas said it was not intentional Collins feared reprisal by the Brewers pitcher the next time Wright would come to the plate.
Why Wright? Because Wright is the Mets best player and the Brewers best player, Braun, had gotten hit. You hit my best guy I’ll hit yours. Tit for tat. Very simple.
Collins, knowing it was coming, took Wright out of the game. Collins had the right idea. The game was already a lost cause with the Mets down 8-0 and why risk Wright getting injured (getting hit in the hands or the head) in such a situation?
For his part, Wright was visibly upset about being taken out of the game. And this made me proud. Though Wright acknowledged after the game that it was “heat of the moment” stuff it was nice to see his fire. He wanted to take the at bat knowing that he was going to get hit. He wanted to show his team that he’s the leader everyone says he is.
I’ve always been a Wright fan but have always felt he was too quiet. Not fiery enough to be a proper leader on a teams that have lacked that kind of fiery personality all teams need. The Mets haven’t had a fiery personality on the team since Paul Lo Duca. Last night Wright showed me that that fire can be there when needed.
Though I agree with Collins’ decision to take Wright out of the game last night I can’t help but wonder if that’s just staving off the inevitable. These two teams don’t play again until September so I’m sure Collins is hoping this incident will be dead and buried by then. But baseball players have long memories. What if it’s not put aside? What if it just festers? Wouldn’t Wright end up in the same situation in September?
One thing for sure, if Wright is hit in September there will be suspensions. I just hope there’s no injury.
Comments to this post
Booing Reyes Was Wrong
I don’t get it. I must be missing something. As I was growing up I was always taught to say thank you. So why was such a big deal made of the Mets video tribute to Jose Reyes before last night’s game, his first game back at CitiField since signing with the Florida Marlins? Why all the booing when he was introduced?
I totally understand that people feel slighted by how he left the Mets. Signing the big contract the first chance he got. Slamming the door on the organization he came up with. But nobody is asking Mets fans to like him and/or root for him anymore. A simple ‘thank you for all you did while you were here’ was all the Mets were giving him with the video tribute. And it wouldn’t have been much for fans to have similarly given him a thank you with a quick cheer before the game.
Another lesson I was taught as a kid was that if you don’t have anything nice to say you shouldn’t say it. Those fans who didn’t want to cheer should have just stayed silent instead of booing.
Of course, once the game began all bets were off. Reyes is an opponent now, after all, and you don’t root for the opponent.
Comments to this post
Enjoy It While It Lasts
The Mets are a mess and it’s my fault. This year I have watched 4 Mets games live (as opposed to watching on DVR or just highlights on various sportscasts). Three of those games are the Mets 3 losses so far on the season. In the fourth game the Mets were losing while I watched and then came from behind to win late in the game when I had stopped watching.
I jest, of course. Not that the Mets are without their problems (I have some sharp criticisms of the way David Wright‘s fractured pinky is being handled by the team) but to be 6-3 nine games into the season is a good start. I don’t think anybody expected that record before the season began.
So enjoy this record before it goes south. With the start of a 3 game series against an Atlanta Braves team that’s playing a whole lot better than they were in the opening series of the season the Mets could start meeting that expectation pretty soon.
Comments to this post
Torres Injury Rattles My Faith
Every time I start buying into the Sandy Alderson Mets being different than the Omar Minaya Mets something happens to bring things back into focus. This time it’s Andres Torres.
Torres tweaked his already hurting left calf during yesterday’s opening day win over the Braves and will be placed on the disabled list. Kirk Nieuwenhuis will be called up to take his roster spot and Ruben Tejada will be moved into the leadoff spot while Torres is on the shelf.
Torres hurt the calf 16 days ago and took some time off. He just resumed game activity on Monday and proclaimed himself ready for the season. Perhaps I’m jaded from the Minaya years but it seems to me that a player saying he’s ready isn’t enough. I don’t pretend to know how the medical and training staff work but I’d have felt more comfortable if someone on that side of the operation would have made that proclamation. If we learned anything from the Minaya years it’s that players, who are competitive by nature and want to get back into the game as soon as possible, should not be taken at their word when they say they’re ready to return.
I really don’t know if this is what happened in this case so I don’t want to sound accusatory. I’m just saying it seems eerily similar to what happened during the Minaya era. And we can’t have that.
Comments to this post
Opening Day Lineup
Here’s the lineup for today’s opening day game against the Braves:
| 56 | Andres Torres | CF | ||||
| 28 | Daniel Murphy | 2B | ||||
| 5 | David Wright | 3B | ||||
| 29 | Ike Davis | 1B | ||||
| 15 | Jason Bay | LF | ||||
| 21 | Lucas Duda | RF | ||||
| 30 | Josh Thole | C | ||||
| 11 | Ruben Tejada | SS | ||||
| 57 | Johan Santana | P | ||||
Comments to this post
Opening Day Springs Eternal
Opening day is nearly upon us. In fact tomorrow at this time the Mets season will have already begun. This excites me. Not because I’m a Mets fan but because I’m a baseball fan.
Opening day is always exciting to me because everything starts anew and anything can happen. It doesn’t matter what your team did last season because they all start fresh. Expectations don’t matter either because every season has it’s surprise teams and who’s to say the Mets can’t be one of them.
Likewise it doesn’t matter that Kentucky won the NCAA basketball championship. The Yankees (who have won the World Series every time Kentucky has won the NCAA) are no lock to win. It’s why they play they games.
I’m not going to get into comparing the Mets to other teams. I won’t go into position by position analysis. None of it really matters to me right now.
Looking at the Mets roster I see some players I expect a lot from and others I don’t expect very much from. I see a team that, if everyone plays to their ability and stays mostly healthy, can be competitive. I’m not saying their going to win many games but that they can be competitive in almost every game they play. (There’s a big difference.)
I know that there are many places you can look to find a more detailed look at the team than that and that’s ok. The main point for me is not to do in depth analysis but to enjoy the games. Statistical analysis is great and has a place in sports arguments but it shouldn’t get in the way of enjoying the game.
Anyway, I hope everyone is looking forward to watching games that count as I am. Maybe we’ll be watching the Mets play in more games that count this year than the last few. It’s only opening day so you never know.
Comments to this post
Wright Needs A New Six Pack
There are many injury worries in Mets camp this year (which seems to be par for the course for recent Mets camps) but the one that seems to be talked about the most lately is the one suffered by David Wright. Wright was in New York so team doctors could get a better look and give him a cortisone shot yesterday. They’re calling the injury a torn rectus abdominis muscle.
The key word in this diagnosis is torn. Muscles that are torn don’t mend on their own very well when you’re pushing your body like a professional athlete does. In fact Baltimores Nick Markakis had the same injury last season and had offseason surgery to repair it.
This injury will definitely nag Wright throughout the season. The question is how much will he be able to play with it? Markakis had the surgery in January and is still about a week away from playing the field (he’s scheduled to start DHing some time this week). I understand not getting the surgery now (he’d end up missing at least half the season if he did) but that means another season of Wright not being quite right (another bad Wright/right pun).
Comments to this post
Minaya’s Deal With The Devil
Ever since Omar Minaya left the organization I’ve wanted to believe the Mets bad injury history would be over. And just when I’m starting to believe that it is the team is hit with an injury bug. Pedro Beato, Scott Hairston, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Lucas Duda and Reese Havens all have been recovering from injuries this spring but they’re just the tip of the iceberg. Ike Davis has a lung infection, David Wright has a rib cage issue that may still keep him out another couple of weeks and now Tim Byrdak had surgery to repair a torn meniscus.
One might say you can’t blame Minaya anymore and for a while I wanted to believe that. But there’s just no escaping the only logical explanation: in 2006 Omar Minaya made a deal with the devil to get the Mets into the playoffs. Considering all the bad that’s happened to this team since (two major late season collapses, a very well documented string of injuries, the Bernie Madoff backlash, etc.) this is the only explanation that makes any sense.
Think about it.
Comments to this post
Spring Is Where Questions Start Getting Answered
This is an incredible time of year for baseball. No matter how many questions a team may have as the offseason ends there is great anticipation.
How will the Mets cover for the lost offense and leadoff characteristics of Jose Reyes? Will Johan Santana be able to return to his old form? Is there a rotation behind him? Who will be the starting second baseman? Is there a place for Daniel Murphy on this team? Will re-configuring the outfield fences help the bats of David Wright and Jason Bay? Will Lucas Duda continue to develop?
We will start getting answers to all these questions and more today. Because today is a day that we baseball fans wait for all offseason. For today pitchers and catchers report!
Comments to this post
Forever A Kid
All day yesterday I was thinking of new beginnings. Despite the doldrums the Mets are currently in I found myself looking forward to next week when pitchers and catchers report to Port St. Lucie to begin preparing for the 2012 season in earnest.
Then the news came. I first saw it on Twitter as I see most breaking stories these days. And as most breaking stories my first reaction was skepticism. Just because it’s on Twitter doesn’t mean it’s true. But as time went on and the various outlets began reporting it the sadness began to sink in.
The news, of course, was that after battling for several months cancer had taken Gary carter from us. Carter was the catcher for the great Mets teams of the mid/late 1980′s during my formative teen years. Those are days I’m nostalgic for regularly for many reasons outside of baseball but also for what Carter brought to the table for my hometown team.
Many people will be writing far more interesting stories and posts about Carter’s passing than I will. They’ll talk about Carter’s accomplishments on and off the field, their personal relationships with him and the legacy he’s left behind. They’ll talk about his Hall of Fame credentials, his 324 career home runs, his 1,225 RBIs, his rally starting single with 2 outs in the bottom of the 10th inning of game 6 in 1986. They’ll talk about his trade to the Mets for Hubie Brooks, Mike Fitzgerald, Floyd Youmans and Herm Winningham. They’ll talk about his faith and enthusiasm for the game and life in general.
But on a day I was thinking about new beginnings I chose to remember him for an old beginning: his first game as a Met. The game that got us believing that the breakout season the Mets had in 1984 would not be a fluke. That with this big kid anchoring the batting order and coaching the pitching staff from behind the plate 1985 would be so much bigger than 1984. And it was. From the very beginning.
The day was April 9, 1985. The Mets opened at Shea Stadium with a day game. It was a Tuesday so I was in school most of the day but managed to get home to see the end of the game (much as I’d do for game 6 of the 1986 NLCS, but that’s another story). The Mets had gone into the 10th inning tied 5-5 with the St. Louis Cardinals when Carter came to the plate to face Neil Allen, who had been traded from the Mets (along with Rick Owenby) to the Cards in the Keith Hernandez trade. Carter hit an Allen fastball deep to left field that just cleared the outfield wall before landing in the visitor’s bullpen to win the game for his new team.
It was more than just a game winning home run. It was a message to his new teammates that he’d always be there for them. It was an example of the never give up attitude that would infect that team and eventually win them a World Series championship. This is what Carter brought to the table both on and off the field. This is what would greatly influence the budding sports fan in me and, more importantly, influence my still developing personality.
I didn’t know Gary Carter. I never got a chance to meet him. And I never got a chance to thank him. But from the bottom of my heart I’d like to say thank you, Mr. Carter, for the thrills you gave me when I, to, was a kid. Goodbye, Kid. Rest in peace.
Comments to this post
