Comments on: Whatever Happened To Having Fun In Flushing?

By: Kaneseo

Kaneseo — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:25:27 +0000

Amen.
That 2006 smile was wiped clean off their face in Game 7 of the LCS that year. They were just not constructed to overcome that knockout punch…

By: theonlymaskman

theonlymaskman — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:34:23 +0000

I think the issue about Jose’ is not whether he’ll be playing with fun next year, but rather, will he be playing with ability? If he returns with his talents restored, fun will follow; if not, then all bets are off! Foremost, let’s play attention to the quality of his return performance.

By: sarge

sarge — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:13:13 +0000

Boy there sure a lot of stuffy supposed Met fans out there. Do you prefer professional, quiet behavior while losing? It always comes back to Jose doesn’t it? This season showed how much a 100% Jose meant at bat and in the field to the Mets. I wish all those Jose and latin bashers would stop it already. Baseball is a game played by kids and adults and I don’t see anyone telling youngsters to be serious before a game. Come on. Everyone prepares in his own way. Some pitchers will not talk to anyone on the day of game, all have some kind of ritual to prepare, Jose’s and some others is to listen to music, dance, etc in order to get loose. If you don’t relieve the tension before big games for some then the tension is taken to the field, mound or plate. Let them have fun within the clubhouse allowances, later for Francesa and the media.

By: Kay

Kay — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:20:59 +0000

I meant 70′s, but the early 80′s were horrific too.

By: Kay

Kay — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:20:21 +0000

This is not nearly as bad as the 80′s is just freshest in everyone’s minds.

By: frank62

frank62 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:40:26 +0000

Winning creates fun, lets try to win something and the fun will take care of itself

By: Luis Venitucci

Luis Venitucci — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:24:26 +0000

Been a Met fan since 1969, and they are making it pretty hard to stay one now, and I was a Fan in the late 70s!! Nino Espinosa, Frank Taveras, Doug Flynn-Good God they were bad

By: JT

JT — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:39:00 +0000

Rollins definitely does not hustle all the time. He certainly does not run every ball out. He dogs it plenty, and got in trouble last yr for not even bothering to show up to a Mets/Phils game on time. Yeah, thats a model citizen right there. And Victorino is not as bad, but he doesn’t run every ball out either. Phillies fans actually complained quite a bit about him when it came to that stuff early last yr. Than he started hitting, so they didn’t really care anymore.

The Phillies win b/c they have a great team. Not because the run harder than other teams. They have a great lineup, and their guys have produced in crunch time.

And LOL at your friend’s story about what made him stop being a Mets fan. What do they need to all hold hands and sing before a game?? In the middle of the WS, Myers and Hamels are fighting…guess that means the Phillies are in shambles as well.

By: Shamik

Shamik — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:43:08 +0000

I’d rather have the players on the mets spend more time watching film, working out, and practicing the fundamentals they clearly lack, rather than figuring out 25 different handshakes. What a joke, what the hell is wrong with a fist bump or two and a pat on the butt?

By: Shamsky

Shamsky — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:35:54 +0000

Sorry Greg, but I couldnt care less if they were having fun. First and foremost I want hardened fundamentally skilled players. Secondly, I expect these players to conduct themselves professionally on the field and bust it 100% of the time. Finally, it’s for us the fans to have fun, not the players. Their job is to give us wins.

By: Bayonne Mets Fan

Bayonne Mets Fan — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:53:57 +0000

To sum it all up the reason there was no fun this year is because everybody got injured.

By: SC

SC — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:51:16 +0000

The problem with our team is that they seem to have internalized that they are losers in every sense. When stuff starts going downhill, our downtrodden fans just groan and the team does absolutely nothing to prove us wrong. How many late comebacks have we seen in the last few years. One, maybe two? Once it goes into the late innings and we’re down by a couple of runs how many fans honestly believe in their hearts that we can pull one out? David Wright sure doesnt. Our garbage lineup sure doesnt. Our pitchers certainly dont either. Add to the fact that we are clearly cursed. How else do you explain everything that has happened?

Off the top of my head I can think of so many bizarre things that have happened to this team. Dirty Sanchez’s promising career ending because of a taxi ride, sending our bullpen into three year swoon. Tom Glavine absolutely imploding in one of the most important starts of his career. This entire abortion of a season is proof of it as well.

By: andy

andy — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:37:39 +0000

its not fun, TO YOU! we are not talking about you, nor any fan. when your team is down and out due to injury and its july, do u expect the team to give in and thats it. no its still a game. you know ur not winning a championship that year, but what stops u from having fun. towards the end of the season it was good to see people still smiling because they still love the game regardless and when Figgy threw the complete game and won, it was a good thing. whether hes there or not next year the team will and you still need to find bright spots even when things are going bad.

By: Danny Krieger

Danny Krieger — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:07:01 +0000

BMF – I was not really disagreeing with you. It’s just a very fine line as to what it takes to win. Certainly #1 is talent. But there are those other intangibles that are not measurable. You can’t predict it and you can’t trade for it or sign free agents.

I think Nick Swisher and AJ Burnett had an incredible positive influence on this team. Did the Yankees sign Burnett and trade for Swisher for this?

By: MJ

MJ — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:04:37 +0000

I also agree that winning brings fun, but I have to call BS on the rest of your post. First of all, anybody who says that they “stopped being a Met fan” was never a Mets fan in the first place. Part of being a Mets fan is suffering through years of agony for the one year of bliss. The Mets have had much worse characters on the team than this. Coleman, Bonilla, Saberhagen, just to nane a few, and there are MANY more. Also, you are giving the impression that it’s the latin players on the Mets that are the problem. Many other teams have latin players, that do the same things. Sheesh, Manny actually shows up a pitcher EVERYTIME he hits a homerun. When he was with the Sox, the whole team did it and nobody said anything. Perhaps it is part of the Latin culture to dance and play music before games. Ever think of that? I like that about them. You want some fun? Go to a baseball game anywhere in Latin America. What, do you expect them to act like stodgy white guys? That is not their way. Also, Pedro M. was part of that crowd too for many games. But, I guess it’s OK now that he pitches for the Phillies? Also, it was Glavine, Wright, and Randolph to a certain extent that were some of the main choke artists in the Mets downfalls in ’07 and ’08.

By: Bayonne Mets Fan

Bayonne Mets Fan — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:02:37 +0000

I know the Yankees of the 70s won while hating each other, so did the Oakland A’s of the 70s. But they WON….and poured champagne. Once the celebration is over you can go back to hating each other.

You’re missing the point and splitting hairs now.

I don’t believe you need chemistry to win. Just be a professional and play good, solid baseball between the lines.
My babe ruth team hated me and I hated them…we almost won the championship while missing 2 of my stars.

Just play baseball and hustle hard for 9 innings. After that you do what you want.

By: Danny Krieger

Danny Krieger — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:49:20 +0000

I basically agree with you “winning brings fun”. But there are exceptions. Teams like the Yankees of the ’70′s won while hating each other. The Yankees of the late ’90′s were so stoic and workmanlike in winning.

How do you get rid of the anxiety and tension that is seen so clearly every time the Mets take the field? I think they’ve lost confidence in themselves and each other. Reyes is the key – but only when he plays well. Otherwise he sulks and brings the team down with him.

It’s more than just throwing a pie in someones face. It’s the intangible chemistry that is difficult to measure.

By: Bayonne Mets Fan

Bayonne Mets Fan — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:28:18 +0000

James K said it right and I”ll quote him,

“Winning brings fun not the other way round” This blog has it all backwards.
The Phillies have fun winning becuase they play the game HARD. They play the game the right way. Shane Victorino hustles out infield pop outs and rounds 1B while doing it. Jimmy Rollins? Like him or not, he’s the definition of hustle! He’s the definition of “Forcing the issue”

In this day and age of not hustling, if you’re a fan of baseball like I am, you have to give the Phillies credit for probably being the team that hustle the most like in the old days. That’s what creates winning, not dancing.

David Wright and other Mets jog to 1B on infield ground outs. Nobody jobs slower approaching home plate on a hit than David Wright.You can’t expect to win doing that. Not hustling is not fun, hustling is fun.

Nothing wrong with a little dancing after a big hit but here’s a quick little story about that stuff.

There’s a guy who works out at the gym I go to who is a vendor at Yankee stadium. He also used to live in Philly and worked there as well. He used to be a Mets fan but he told me of the day he stopped being a Mets fan.

It was before a Mets/Phillies game in Philadelphia sometime right before the collapse of September 2007. He was down by the Mets dugout and said some of the Spanish players were dancing and fooling around in the duguout during practice, the music was loud and that all this was led by Jose Reyes. This was BEFORE the game mind you! He noticed Tom Glavine, David Wright, Willie Randolph, & Jeff Conine were standing far away and noticed in their body language that they wanted nothing to do with this.

This guy told me he was completely disgusted. This is no way professional ball players should behave right before a big game, this is not how you prepare for a big series…. and I agreed. This gave you a window into the disconnect in the clubhouse between Willie Randolph and his players that we used to read about in those days.

Needless to say the Mets went on to get swept in that late August series.
That was the day he stopped being a Mets fan.

By: chris

chris — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:11:10 +0000

You have fun when you win. Getting smoked isn’t any fun, and if it is, as a fan I don’t want a guy who enjoys losing on the team.

Fun would be consistent playoff appearances and a couple or three or five World Series championships. That would be FUN! Not waiting 20 plus years for a Championship team…or choking like dogs down the stretch to miss the playoffs…or being basically ‘toast’ in June…NOT FUN.

By: MJ

MJ — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:18:38 +0000

Having fun and being loose is great. The Mets need not only that, but they also need their entire swagger back. They need an identity. We don’t even know what the team will even look like come ST. There are so many questions. I think that the 2006-2008 thing has run its course. Whatever was going to happen with that gorup has happened.

Also, this may be a subject for another thread, but they should also look at bringing the fences in at Cit -err- Jackie Robinson Field a little bit. Don’t think a lot of power guys who are free agents don’t look at that. They do.