29
2009
Manuel Has To Act, Or Else It Will Be More Of The Same
An article by Doug Branch
After Gary Sheffield was nailed at the plate, at what he assumed was a home run by Daniel Murphy on Thursday night-assumed being the operative word, it might behoove all of the Mets to bust it on balls that carom off the quirky Citi Field walls.
To be a home run, or not to be a home run. That is the question, that only television cameras can address. Yes, the Mets are five-for-five on the winning ledger, but you know the first nay is going to create a ground swell of bloody murder in Met Land.
In the interim, can Messers, Sheffield and Reyes, et al, just put their heads down and sprint the remaining 180 feet, please. Is that too much to ask in the 21st century? That players run hard on the base paths? Obviously, this epidemic has trickled down through the Mets farm system, evidenced by Fernando Martinez’ vapor lock on a pop-up near home plate.
Hey, Fernando, if you want to watch, then buy an (expensive) ticket behind home plate and sit down. Otherwise, bust it down the line like (some) of your teammates. We’ve said since the inception of the season, that little mistakes lead to defeats, and you can only shoot yourself in the foot so many times before you are hospitalized come October.
Do the Mets really want to risk playing for their lives again in the waning moments of the season?
If they want to make it to the post-season for the first time since 2006, then running hard at all times might be a capital idea. Maybe Jerry Manuel might want to make a statement and embarrass one of his players who embarrass him. It worked for Gil Hodges (removing Cleon Jones in mid-inning for not hustling after a fly ball) once, and I recall 1969 being a banner year.
Let’s leave the hemming and hawing to the umpires, the wacky bounces to the walls of Citi Field, and the final word to television monitors housed in the bowels of the new park. Otherwise, any ball headed for the fence, please run rapidly.
About the Author: Doug Branch
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Not running hard out of the box or around the bases has become the new culture of baseball. Players that run hard are now the exception and not the rule. It’s unfortunate, but true.
Well said Doug,
I’m going to have to disagree with what appears to be the majority opinion here and say that Fernando Martinez deserves all the flack that he is getting. It may be unfair but it is the culture of the game that is in question here and unfortunately some readers here may be too young to remember that running hard 100% of the time all the time and forcing the issue used to be the norm. It is something you don’t get rewarded for. Could you imagine what Gil Hodges would’ve done to Martinez? Or even what his teammates would’ve done to him if this game was played in another era? Manuel should have yanked him out of the game and one or more veterans should have chewed his ass out, maybe someone did I don’t know. It’s things like this that make it harder for youth baseball coaches to teach their players to play the game the right way because when they see this they think it’s normal. I don’t mean to throw cold water on the good play of the 1st place Mets but when a young professional who has been playing baseball all his life does something as egregious as this it is a major story that reflects a growing culture of the game today and especially the culture of this Mets team and possibly their farm system. It needs to change and change fast. And when people like Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya become apologists for this type of behavior it makes it even harder.
The Mets deserve plenty of comments like this but not Gary Sheffield. Sheff is a wise old player and hustles consistently. In the Subway sign play, Sheff had to make sure the ball was not caught by an outfielder before going all out. Each case is unique and has to be evaluated on its own merits. Sheff is as smart a base runner as there is on this team and the criticism needs to be pointed in the right direction.
I say we bring Bobby V. back. He would have not taken any shit on this team and this team would be performing much better then it is. Not saying that I do not like the team, but I do, but I think we can be doing much, much better.
Bobby V!