If you were unfortunate enough to open up the pages of the Daily News this morning, you were subsequently subjected to one of the more ridiculous narratives to come out of the publication in years. That’s saying something considering in the last calendar year their sports writers have called for Rex Ryan’s job for visiting his son at college and made a federal case over credit breaking the Carmelo Anthony signing. Journalistic integrity is not something they are known for, they are a tabloid headline paper, but when they unjustifiably go after some of their prospective readers, that’s when a line is crossed. Here’s an excerpt from today’s column written by Andy Martino:
“The rest of us could spend fruitless years trying to understand the psychology of a Mets fan, at least the ones who speak loudest on social media. It goes something like this: We hate the team, we hate the front office, we hate the owners, we hate the manager. Wait, we won a few this week? We’re so excited, oh my god, we’re going to the playoffs, don’t you dare say anything bad about our Metsies.”
Let’s delve in. First of all, anyone spending fruitless years on the psychology of a Met fan has deeper issues than the failures of a baseball team. No one is doing that, and the notion makes no sense, so…good one Andy. As for the ones “who speak loudest on social media,” if that’s even possible, he’s most likely making a reference to passionate Mets’ faithful. Fans are pleased with success, and perturbed or disappointed at failure, is this really something new to the landscape of sports? Or to put it in his terms: Is this breaking news? Fans do have a tendency to vent that enthusiasm online via many outlets thus capturing the more impulsive reactions, but isn’t that the point of social media, to interact. Twitter, which I’m assuming the outlet this “journalist” is referring to, though seemingly off the record, is the fans version of “on the record.” Passion and impulse affect everything in life and skew rationale sometimes, even to extreme degrees. As long as fans are not going after a player’s character or distastefully attacking with derision, there’s nothing wrong with documenting the roller coaster feelings one experiences during a game…again, that’s one of social media’s most popular utilities. I mean what’s next, critiquing emojis?
A Mets fans inner turmoil is a complex dynamic these days. The majority of the fans are not pleased with ownership and management and they want a better product on the field. The players, however, are for the most part liked by the fan base. The character of this team is high, and while their struggles are well documented this year, any scorn or disdain a fan may feel, the majority of it is not directed towards the players. The Daily News doesn’t see it that way. We, the fans, are the problem. Here’s his next paragraph:
“At least this is emotion, and we’re not criticizing it. Just know that the mood at your team’s ballpark is unworthy of your passion. Here, it is dead, so dead that your eyes water, and lids droop, and you can’t imagine how anything better could materialize.”
The first line is priceless. It’s like calling someone ugly, than saying “just kidding.” The second line doesn’t quite make sense. The mood at the stadium is not the fan’s fault, but it’s the expected result of a team playing under .500 ball til mid-September. So maybe we’re all not as delusional as you think Andy, I mean you just contradicted yourself in the next paragraph. But wait, it gets better:
“The Yankees aren’t good, and they won’t make the playoffs, but they are trying to seize a moment. They acquired players at the trade deadline, and have continued to tinker with the roster. They even made Young a September callup, and rode him to a walkoff shocker on Thursday.”
Weren’t the Yankees seizing the moment when they shelled out over $500 million dollars on contracts before the season? Desperation or panic set in for the Yankees, there was no seizing being done. They had no talent in the organization to turn to so they pinned their hopes on players who once showed talent in previous years and were unwanted by losing teams. Stephen Drew, Chris Young, and Chase Headley are shells of their former selves; the Yankees were the only team that would’ve taken them.
This is a flimsy article made to antagonize Mets fans who have gotten under the writer’s skin for whatever reason. The Mets fans have showed impatience and frustration in many forms this year and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. To criticize a fan base for having passion, albeit impulsive sometimes, is a despicable exercise. There will always be those nasty fans that displace anger, but you’ll find a percentage of those people in all walks of life, just an unfortunate fact.
The strangest component of this article is to call a fan “unworthy” in a time where the ownership has shown to be the most disloyal character in Citi Field. Maybe Mr.Wilpon isn’t worthy of our money, but the players will still get our attention and enthusiasm, good or bad. That’s how it should be and what encapsulates a fan in New York.
Follow Sean Flattery on Twitter @SeanFlatts
Couple of things here:
1 – Andy Martino grew up in Philadelphia. He is a Phillies phan.
2 – The NYDN is a shill paper for Mets ownership. They have been sympathetic to the Wilpons for ages.
Draw your own conclusions.
Not sure why this was published in the paper. It’s not controversial, nothing enlightening and it sure as hell didn’t push animals or sex, so where is the news value?
I don’t even get why lambasting Mets fans (if that’s what this confusing mess is) ever came to mind. We’re a loyal, passionate fanbase that tends to appreciate the game despite coping with terrible owners, a questionable front office and embarrassingly low payroll despite being in the most powerful city in the world. We’re looking for silver lining, even if it’s a two-game winning streak, before we need to vent about the Wilpons again.
When I want news and opinions about the Mets I turn to the blogs and not the NY newspapers. The blogs, and those who comment, give me enlightenment, food for thought and entertainment along with information. In addition, there are some talented writers in the blogdom.
Look, calling NYDN a rag is the equivalent to saying the sun is hot. The cat is out of the bag: its a rag not a newspaper. That said, Martino’s article does capture a cartoonish yet palpable beat to a lot of Mets fans. We win three, then we are “in the hunt for a wild card”, even though we are 11 back. The number of times Ive heard in April and May and June how close to the top and competitive we are, and really on track to be something I cant understand. The we go 3-9 for a spell to get reoriented with reality spitting venom everywhere, only to be enticed to imagine we are back in it after we take 4 from the Phillies. The reality is we havent been above .500 in so long, average will seem like floating on the clouds.
Us Mets fans regularly overvalue Mets players: take the present article over at Metsblog about Murph. Regardless of how many people who recognize Murph as a utility guy on a play-off team, and his worth in trade is some upper mid-level prospect, we hear that hes a critical part of our offense with an average glove. In reality he is a singles and doubles slap hitter with an horrendous glove. He’s not Tony Gwynn. That he is an offensive weapon in the land of Orange and Blue is a testimonial how terrible this team really is. Hmm, I wonder if maybe we can get Stanton for Montero, Plawecki, and Leathersich? I hear this kind of stuff on blogs and the radio all the time.
Mets fans have suffered trauma for a long time. I think the misguided overoptimism is a fan base so excited for the team to be good, that it bubbles out. We uniformly hate the ownership. Unfortunately we have become connected to our names on the back that bring us the little bits of goodness we can connect with to make all the cheering seem worthwhile, whether that be Harvey, deGrom, Wright, Lagares or whoever. In most cases though, we fail to see that the majority of the players are not fit for a MLB-level competitive team. We suffer from Stockholm Syndrome still, believing the likes of Cambell and Flores and denDekker, and _______, and ________ are somehow capable of being shuffled into the right position in a way to bring 90 wins. Yet the players we have are not good enough to beat the Braves let alone the Nationals.
The New York Mets problems are very simple to explain….first, its been proven that..NY can support a National League team..the NY Mets would enjoy full attendence nightly if mgmt fielded a winning team..we can’t field a winnng team because $$$$’s are not available…why aren’t suffcient funds available?..because the wilpons played with madoff…so, we have to endure yet another lost season…simple…thats the crux of the prblem…Lastly, our captain is probably kcking himself in the ass since he signed that contract..shame.
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Just a thought that this article comes out just after we learn that Jeff Wilpon is being sued by a former employee. The Daily News was once a decent paper a long time ago (sports only for me). They’ve become just another mouth piece for the dynamic duo Wilpons. So if Met fans are what the author proclaims so what? What has that have to do with the quality of play(ers) in Citifield? There is a reason why there has been a decline in attendance ever since Citifield opened and it has nothing to do with the fans. It’s about the quality of the product the Wilpons put out there for not only for the fans to see but everyone else in Major League Baseball. We fans are not the laughing stock behind closed doors. We met fans know who is to blame for this fiasco. And it’s not the fans
Well, with the apparent retention of SA and TC, I guess continued hatred and blame to the Wilpon’s remains as bright and alive as ever. Fan beatings to continue until attendance improves.
more, taken from MMO:
Sandy Alderson told the Daily News that “What we will do is we will make an announcement toward the end of the season, if not at the end of the season.” Regarding Collins specifically. Alderson also had this to say:
“His status still hasn’t been announced…I think he’s done a good job. Throughout the season, we’ve had some issues that we’ve had to deal with. He has handled them very well. We have seen the growth of our young players, especially in the pitching area. And we have played well the last — really, if we go back to even before the All-Star break. So he has done an excellent job.”
http://metsmerizedonline.com/2014/09/collins-aldersons-status-to-be-determined-at-seasons-end-expected-to-return.html/
As much as I don’t like TC and his archaic ideas about how to utilize a bull pen I can’t blame him for having to play CY in left field even though to any lay man one could see that was a terrible signing. Having 3 first base men to start the season is on SA as are all the rejects (Lannan, Valverde, Farnsworth) occupying key roles that added to the inept start of the season. What is the FO had the faith in the kids and given them an opportunity at an earlier time this season?
Mets fans are irrational and emotional, but what else is new? Every team has the die-hards who live and die with wins and losses. Very rarely does this passion get used as a belittling technique by a journalist.