The burning question for Mets fans is who to root for in this year’s World Series, the Yankees or the Phillies? Both are hated, both are outstanding teams replete with thumpers that make Mets fans queasy with envy.
While many ruminate on which team to root for, let me simplify the equation, and flip over the question. Who will you root against?
Let’s start with Pedro Martinez. After all, he cashed over $50 million of Mets paychecks that you helped supplement with rising ticket prices and insanely exorbitant concessions. And how did Petey pay us back? By winning EIGHT games in the last two years of his Mets contract.
And then having the chutzpa to ask for $5 million for the 2009 campaign. On the heels of a 5-6 record. A million a win, is the new math according to Martinez. He should’ve played for next to nothing as an Ode to Mets fans, that supported him for four seasons. Moreover, only the first was stellar (15-8 .282, 217 IP).
Three out of four seasons the numbers mediocre: 17-15. In fact, he pitched more innings down the stretch for the Phillies (44.2) than in all of 2007 (28) for the Mets. When the team collapsed with 17 games to play Pedro was nursing another injury. Like in the post-season in 2006, when one more win puts the team into the World Series.
Pedro failed to answer the bell time and time again in his Mets tenure (and don’t get all fuzzy about his signing “bringing credibility” to the organization-you are judged by wins and losses in professional sports).
Then to add insult to injury (sorry) seeing Pedro take place in the NL Pennant celebration after he played a bit part (5-1 with plenty of run support) was blood boiling. If he is not the biggest phony on the planet, he is a contender.
So root against Pedro, the Phillies, and the Yankees, maybe you will get lucky with one or more.
*Mets Merized Online Needs Your Help*
The Mets wisely passed on Pedro, and then he landed with another team. What’s a player to do? Not compete for his new team? Not support his new teammates? Pedro was a gentleman as a Met, and he continues to be one.
The Mets knew he was fragile when they picked him up, by the way (which is why Boston passed up on him).
You know what drives me nuts about this whole Pedro thing? The fact for some strange reason there is a group of Mets fans that are rooting for him. I don’t get that.
Look, I like his antics and I was super excited when he came to the Mets. But he did nothing but cash checks for the most part. I mean he came to us when he was not healthy, he practically spent more time in rehab starts than in major league starts and when he finally got healthy, he wanted to hold the Mets up at gunpoint for a contract. When if he REALLY wanted to be with them, he woulda given a discount to them since they paid for his vacation from the major leagues basically.
Frankly, I think he’s going to get rocked tonight. I wrote an article on here a while back about the Dodgers/Phils series before they announced Pedro would start in LA. I knew he would. He needs the warm weather. At his age, the cold weather is his biggest enemy.
I think the Yanks KNEW and rightfully so that by 1 time through the lineup that Lee was untouchable last night. All they need to do is take Game 2 and rock Pedro and they are fine and they know it.
The Phils refuse it seems to go to a 3 man rotation and pitch Lee on short rest which will lead to their demise. Lee needs to pitch in 3 games this series for the Phils to have a chance, and it doesn’t look like he’ll be able to with word coming out they likely will pitch a 4th starter for Game 4.
DOUG THE TRUEST SSTATEMENT IN YOUR ENTIRE POSET WAS IN BASEBALL YOU ARE JUDGED ON W-L. SO, IN 2004 HOW DO U JUDGE NYM? HERE IS THE ‘04 RESULTS LEST WE FORGET:
Eastern Division Home Away Div Leag Icf
2 Atlanta 96-66 .593 —- 49-32 47-34 51-25 37-31 8-10
Philadelphia 86-76 .531 10.0 42-39 44-37 39-37 38-30 9-9
Florida 83-79 .512 13.0 42-38 41-41 43-33 33-35 7-11
NY Mets 71-91 .438 25.0 38-43 33-48 29-47 32-36 10-8
Montreal 67-95 .414 29.0 35-45 32-50 28-48 32-36 7-11
NO INTELLIGENT MET FAN SHOULD CRITICIZE NOT SIGNING PEDRO WHEN THE PHILLIES INKED HIM BECAUSE EVEN IF HE WERE THE BOSTON PEDRO HE WASN’T CHAQNGING ANYTHING IN ‘09 FOR NYM, EVEN IF HE BROUGHT ALONG HANLEY & PHAT ALBERT, NOT THAT LATE IN “THE LOST SEASON”.
how is this pedro’s fault??? we knew what we were getting we saw that his numbers were declining. this was not his fault and he wanted to pitch for us. he really wanted to be a met, even this year. the phillies were smart by getting him and using him in the way they did. he did not pitch constantly and he is a guy, that at this point in his career, needs to pitch every 5-6 days. he needs the extra rest, have u seen the results when he does this???
its not his fault and you act like any individual would want to tear their rotator cuff just to get paid. this post is down right ridiculous to make the accusations that your making here. in 2007 he came back the last week of the season when we still had a chance and he gave up 3 runs in 6 or seven innings but we still lost that game. dont blame pedro for that, he had no run support when he was here and thats been the problem for this team. the days we score runs, our staff is horrible and days we score a run or two you have a guy like johan go out there and give his best and give up two runs and lose the damn game.
dont place blame on pedro for something he didnt do, he tried and he wanted to be a met all this time.
Andy, I agree with you 100%!! To criticize Pedro because he was hurt when he was here in a bunch of nonsense. To make comments because he had the gall to celebrate with his team when they won the championship is nonsense.My question is what was he supposed to do? Not play anymore? Return the money the Mets paid him? Not be happy to be going to the World Series?
See here is where you two are wrong. He signed a 4 yr 53 million dollar contract I think it was. Now…can you or anybody honestly say he earned even half that $? Truly, you can’t. That’s not his fault I suppose.
However, where he had a chance to make it right was in the off-season and even in May when he was asking for a ridiculous contract from anybody who wanted him which included the Mets who he “wanted to play for.”
If he “wanted to be a Met” so bad and loved our organization and yada yada…he wouldn’t have demanded a $5m contract plus incentives at his age. And spare me the “looking out for his financial best interest” He earned $53 m for doing barely anything, I think he’s okay.
At his age if he wanted to play for NY, he would have given a hometown discount to the Mets based on the 4 year heist, but he didn’t. He wasn’t interested in helping the Mets or helping anybody… he waited to ride the coatails of a playoff team. Do I blame him? Hell no. But I certainly won’t root for him and praise him because he says he wanted to play here but clearly didn’t
Pedro definitely should have given the Mets a hometown discount especially after how the last 2 1/2 years of his contract transpired. He should have taken an incentive laden deal to come back, which the Mets would have gladly accepted. Still, it’s hard to root against a baseball icon like Pedro who managed to excel in his career without and hints of steroids use unlike his contemporaries who are all tainted. It’s hard not to root for Pedro, even though as Mets fans we shouldn’t.
Are you guys living in the fantasy world occupied by the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus? Have you not been paying attention to baseball for the last 30+ years? Baseball from a players point of view is all about how much money can they make? They talk about “loving a city”, but if another city offers more money…they split. Its not just Pedro, its every single major league player! If you’re going to make a bad guy out of Pedro for not giving the Mets a “hometown discount”, then you got to get on every player about the same thing.
do you honestly think pedro would have been effective starting the entire year with us. NO!!!! and then we would have heard more crap from everyone saying this and that. hes one of those guys that you dont want to be there the entire year because he will burn out. and if you havent noticed yet, baseball IS a business. its a game but do you see what they are giving guys coming out of college and high school to play. as a player, you want to have fun, but you want to earn what you are worth, especially if you are a kid from the islands or city. you have nothing and you make sure you get the most for your talent.
Anyways, i will be rooting for Pedro tonight and i hope he takes down the yankees. hopefully there is no 27 championships because thats all the yankees will talk about for the next 15 yrs till they win another one. that is all yankee fans have. they do not talk stats, no facts, just titles that they were not alive to see. they had a good run in the 90s but thats it and i hope they fall hard. i would love to see that. this goes beyond a rivalry between phillies/ mets (which did not exist before 2006) it was always the mets/ braves, which died down for the most part. For the record, i hate the phillies, but i want to see every yankee hat and sign burn!!
JESS, SORRY; BUT YOU OBVIOUSLY THINK A PLAYER BORN & RAISED IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, WHO’S BROTHER WAS DRAFTED BY & PLAYED FOR THE LA DODGERS, SHOULD SUDDENLY BECOME A MET FAN AS EXHUBERANT AS YOU ARE. RE THE CONTRACT & HIS MISSING A CHUNK OF IT. THINK IT IS WHAT IT IS. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. I’M SORRY IF YOU ARE A FAN OF ANY PERFORMING ARTIST, FOR YEARS, DO YOU EXPECT SOME SORT OF DISCOUNT FROM THAT ARTIST WHEN THEY ARE PERFORMING IN YOUR VENUE? PEDRO HAD A KNOWN “TORN LABRUM” WHEN WE SIGNED HIM, THE FACT THAT IT CAUSED HIM TO MISS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF PLAYING TIME SHOULD HAVE BEEN A GIVEN, ANYONE WHO ANTICIPATED HIS AVAILABILITY THROUGHOUT 4 FULL SEASONS WAS UNREALISTICLY EXPECTING TOO MUCH. WHERE WAS PIAZZA’S DISCOUNT? STAWBERRY’S? MEX’S? WHEN THEIR CONTRACTS WERE UP.
GROW UP JESS & REALIZE YOU ARE PAYING FOR PERFOMANCES NOT LOYALTY WHEN U SIGN A PERFORMER FOR ANY CONTRACT THAT PAYS THEM FOR THEIR SERVICE. THIS BS THAT ANYONE IS OWED ANY MORE THAN A FAIR WAGE FOR A FAIR AMOUNT OF WORK IS REDUICULOUSLY NAIVE & RIGHT OUT OF DISNEY’S PRODUCTION SCHEDULE.
So Pedro shouldn’t celebrate? I guess by that logic Donn Clendenon and Kevin Mitchell shouldn’t have been allowed to celebrate in ‘69 and ‘86 since they, too, were midseason acquisitions.
I will root for Pedro. I cannot bring myslef to say “Go Yankees” or certainly not “Go Phililes!” Granted I would rather have the Yankess win than the Phillies, but I will root for Pedro. He certainly owned Mr. Dumb Manyia.
Sorry, Doug, I usually love your pieces, but this one…plain ‘ol clunker:
the day I blame the player for asking “too much” money is the day I start supporting factory owners over the workers.
Please provide the evidence showing that raised ticket prices reflect the salary paid to Martinez.
Here’s to Pedro throwing a no-hitter tonight!
Exactly. Don’t want the players asking “too much”, don’t offer it. Like the Castillo contract, although he is overpaid, he was offered it. The guy just signed the line.
Pedro made his price. No one wanted to give in. Phillies needed SOME sort of pitching and thus you had the pro rated contract signed. The point is, if you offer “too much” or give in, whose fault is it really? They just sign the line…
I am really getting tired of hearing the word “rooting”. I cant wait for the series to end so that we can move post all of this crap.
Pedro cost too much and didn’t do a damn thing for the Mets. All you mooks need to stop mollycoddling the guy. He’s our equivalent of Carl Pavano. Where was he when we needed him? On ice somewhere.
I hope the evil empire knocks him all over tonight. If he couldn’t help the Mets out when they needed it the most you can sure as hell bet that I don’t want to see him win one for the Phils.
And Zanaca you’re a retard, don’t ever equate Pro Athletes with Factory Workers. The ludicrous salaries that Pros make and demand are what keep factory workers from being to afford a night at the stadium. If you want to see stats that support this look at the increases in salaries and ticket prices within the past 20 years. It’s got nothing to do with inflation.
Hey, Andrew, I’ll say this once, and I’ll say it politely, do yourself a favor and don’t call people names. This way it will save me from calling you an illiterate piece of shit, who doesn’t exactly grasp the concept of nuance, or reasoning by analogy. Okay?
Incidentally, there’s a new concept called data. Any time you are ready to produce some re: salaries and ticket prices, I’ll be happy to read it.
ANDREW, I AGREE WITH RUSS, NAME CALLING IS THE LAST REFUGE OF THE IGNORANT! BTW, SIGNING PEDRO WAS THE NYM FAN ANNOUNCEMENT THAT THEY WERE WILLING TO PLAY AS A BIG MKT TEAM; AND PUT THE “24+1″ & “BAD BACK” EXCUSES BEHIND THEM. IF PEDRO CONTRIBUTED TOWARDS THEIR GOALS AS A TRUE “ACE” IT WAS A BIG PLUS BEST U CONSIDER THAT PEDRO WASN’T ACQUIRED FOR HIS ONFIELD PRODUCTIVITY AS MUCH AS HE WAS HIS CACHE! IN THIS LATEST VERSION IN ‘09 WE WERE ALREADY WITH “THE BIG BOYS” & NEEDED ON-FIELD MORE TYHAN CACHE. DO YOU JUDGE THE MOVIE U SEE BY HOW MUCH THE STARS WERE PAID?
Thanks guys for all your viewpoints (although, the only time I advocate name calling is when you have an argument with your wives!).
Anyway, I believe many Mets fans were thrilled when Pedro came aboard and were not deluded into thinking he would perform at the level he did in Boston. However, we all hoped that three of the four years of his contract would result in productivity and number one starter status (at worse, our number two man).
The reality is he delieved wins in only his first season as a Met. And I truly believe asking for $5 million last season (he knew he would not be ready before the all-star break) was a bit galling.
I always believe the athlete deserves as much as he can get, but is it naive to expect he live up to his end of the bargain? I guess it is.