27
2012
There’s No Need To Fear…
An article by Craig Lerner
Jeff Wilpon handed out orange T-shirts that he had printed with the Underdog logo on them for the players to wear during Spring Training.
“I thought Jeff had a great idea”, Collins said.
David Wright wasn’t to keen on them.
“I don’t really like using the whole underdog thing,” he said. “I don’t like really playing that card. I think it’s just a way to remind everybody in here that the outside expectations aren’t the expectations that we have for ourselves. And I think Terry did a good job of kind of conveying it today, because obviously the expectations from the outside are low, and understandably so.”
Wright refers to Collins’ message to the team this morning in which he said, “There’s 29 teams who think they’re better than the Mets. You know what? If it ticks you off, then we’re doing our job. You’ve got to know how you’re being felt out there.”
Well, at least I now have a better understanding of what Jeff Wilpon does around here. 
Updated: Feeling totally embarrassed after botching the original title (Thanks Mr. North Jersey), I thought I’d try to redeem myself. So I tinkered with my photoshop and I think this t-shirt might have worked better:
New title, better tee. Now, everything is right with the world again. Whew!
About the Author: Craig Lerner
I'm a data analyst and researcher for a leading news agency who loves life and is hooked on the Mets. I love following the Amateur Draft and have a particular fondness for the Mets Minor Leagues who I follow each day. Give me a cold beer, a summer day, and a Mets game, and I'm good to go.
41 Comments + Add Comment
NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 42 | 28 | .600 | - |
| Nationals | 34 | 35 | .493 | 7.5 |
| Phillies | 34 | 37 | .479 | 8.5 |
| Mets | 25 | 40 | .385 | 14.5 |
| Marlins | 22 | 47 | .319 | 19.5 |
Last updated: 06/18/2013
Recent Comments
- RandomGuy: on Wheeler Deals, Mets Sweep Braves In Nightcap, 6-1: And you keep Murphy at first? Duda...
- XtreemIcon: on Wheeler Deals, Mets Sweep Braves In Nightcap, 6-1: Scouts don't lie. Maybe they get it...
- BadBadLeroyBrown: on Wheeler Deals, Mets Sweep Braves In Nightcap, 6-1: Second base of course...Mets have a free...
- BadBadLeroyBrown: on Wheeler Deals, Mets Sweep Braves In Nightcap, 6-1: I have never heard he was miserable...
- RandomGuy: on The Future Is Here: Six Scoreless In Wheeler’s MLB Debut: Now, just throw down an epic trade...
Latest From Mets Minors
Check Out These Great MLB Links!
Photographs From Gordon Donovan
Fans Follow Us On Twitter!
1332 Fans Like Us On Facebook!
2341 Fans Read Our Feed!
1702 Fans Subscribe via Daily Email!
The sad part is they are irregular shirts he got for cheap from the University of Miami
Wright’s thinking his american Legion teammate got 100 M and he got an underdog t-shirt.
Hahhaha! Yes… “My friend got 100 Million Dollars and all *I* got was this lousy t-shirt!”
Hey! I object to using Mighty Mouse’s catch phrase of “Here I come to save the day” rather than “There’s no need to fear, Underdog is here!” for Underdog.
Nicely done, MNJ
Damn it, I totally blew that one! I got them mixed up!
Sheesh Craig even I knew Underdog’s catchphrase & the show ended 20 years before I was born! Get with the program!
Just kidding, but that might be a nice slogan for the Mets this year, being underdogs.
Thanks, MNJ, I didn’t want to be the nerd to point it out.
LoL, when it comes to getting classic cartoon characters catch phrases correct “It’s the lawwwww of the west.”
Something about the owner having these made….
If some of the boys – Ike? Turner? Thole? Murph? got together and had a few of these made and wore them in ST, I think I bet thinking ‘good for them’. Nothing wrong with the guys being realistic about their chances and banding together to ‘save the day’.
But the owners having them made up? IDK…..
* I bet I’d be thinking…..
I, actually, love what David Wright had to say about this. The shirt is a cute idea for a college team or some other type of amateur team…but these guys are professional athletes who play for a team in New York City…having to remind them and the rest of the world that they are underdogs seems to me to be another slap in the face in a long line of face slappings by the Wilpons. Guaranteed the Wilpons will be peddling this shirt all season to earn a buck. However, having said all of that, speaking as just a novice fan…I kind of like the way the shirt looks. I’m ashamed of myself.
Great comment. I enjoyed the self-deprecating humor.
whatever you gotta do to get them pissed off, and taking it out on the other team, right?
David Wright brings up a good point even though I like tees.
I really really don’t like this shirt. Not just because I don’t think the owners should be conveying this message, but mainly because it just doesn’t look good. What is that font? Why is the U like that?
Couldn’t Jeff had gotten it in the same font as the interlocking NY? Or maybe incorporate the baseball logo?
That thing looks like a bad NHL throwback design.
Donal — I think it’s a hockey puck after PickPocket Picard took a bite. I hope he’s taking Tums now.
Jeeze, hope that’s not a trademark logo for that cartoon. LOL…..
Off Topic: The Francesa / Heyman interview rite now over Braun is pretty good.
you can argue all day the merits of Jeff doing this, but damned, you can’t argue that it isn’t one seriously fugly shirt.
BTW Alex check it out.
http://www.twitvid.com/W3QTL
Better would have been a cardboard cutout of a Naked Fred Wilpon that would get covered up for each win they get this year!
Sort othe opposite of the gag from Major Leagues!
Can someone please muzzle and leash Jeff? Please? Just stay in your mansion and play catch with the dogs or the butler or something.
The shirt should say, “We Suck!”
This shirt sums up the state of the mets under the wilpons and sandy, a complete joke. Just when u think you cannot be laughed at any harder they break out this, we r the laughing stock, break out the brown bags
Yet another embarrassing day for NY Mets fans. This guy is a complete jerk, how dare he print these us, HE is the reason WHY they are in the position they are right now.
Same guy that went on WFAN in 2009 and made a lot of empty promises, Madoff scandal would not effect team, resources would be available, payroll would not be cut, ALL of which the opposite happened, now this?
Just keep giving the media and late night TV Hosts more material.
Disgrace……..
Can someone please kill Jeff Wilpon….please?
I can’t listen to another word from this silver spoon asshat.
as long as the dbag wilpons r in charge, this is the kind of crap we can expect.they
are a bunch of fools, period.this organization is a joke.
That is a little over the top. Being a putz is not punishable by death.
The real putz is Omar, who decided to let J.J. walk after an injury plagued 2009.
I felt the Mets never gave him a chance and gave up too soon. Imagine if we still had J.J. – we would have our closer, KRod would have not mattered much, and our bullpen would be overall stronger going into 2012….., if his $4.5 million salary didn’t cause him to be sent off as well.
So you want me to believe that Omar was a putz just because Sosa says so?
That deal was a disaster from the get go. Minaya should have made it contingent upon a physical. He also didn’t have to give up as much as he did.
All players have to go through physicals but don’t forget, we’re talking about the Mets medical staff so obviously the condition that shelved J.J. went undetected.
And still, J.J. has been a great reliever the past two seasons and if he had stayed on, it would not have looked like a bad trade at all.
I blame our misfortune on the world baseball classic. David couldn’t retain the high he had after his walk off hit capped a ninth inning comeback for the U.S. while Putz couldn’t recover from the downer of being the losing pitcher to Canada.
“All players have to go through physicals”
Actually, no they don’t. A physical only happens when a team requests it. For trades, anyway. All players are subject to Spring Training physicals, but by that point it is too late to catch something like Putz.
Mostly, teams work in good faith with each other, but in some cases, physicals have been requested. You hear every once in a while that a deal is contingent upon physicals. But that is because one side requested it.
There are in fact very few rules regarding trades.
“we’re talking about the Mets medical staff so obviously the condition that shelved J.J. went undetected.”
Putz had documented elbow problems in Seattle. Nothing major, but it still should have been a concern. When the Mets medical staff did notice a problem at his Spring Training physical, the front office told everyone to keep quiet about it.
“And still, J.J. has been a great reliever the past two seasons and if he had stayed on, it would not have looked like a bad trade at all.”
But, if the Mets had done their due diligence, the situation probably would have been completely different.
“I blame our misfortune on the world baseball classic.”
I blame it on an all around lack of foresight and process.
” David couldn’t retain the high he had after his walk off hit capped a ninth inning comeback for the U.S. while Putz couldn’t recover from the downer of being the losing pitcher to Canada.”
Or maybe guys, especially pitchers, shouldn’t be in pre-season tournaments.
Putz option for 2010 was 9.5 million. Omar would’ve been outta his mind to pay a set up man 9.5 mill and a closer 13 mil(K-Rod). 22.5 for 2 relief pitchers???
Alas, that is true as well. I’m just looking at it from down on the field and nothing more.
Didn’t think there was anything wrong with the gesture until realizing that as a player, it’s insulting after all that Jeff has done to the team to put them in such an embarrassing position. It would have been more appropriate to have given them boxes of chocolates.
Reminded me of a stunt the Orioles pulled on Thurman Munson back in 1970 when the Yankees were making a surprise challenge on them for first place in July. After losing the first of a three game series in the ninth inning in Baltimore, Thuman said the birds weren’t supermen. The next day Paul Blair and a few others walked up to him at the batting cage, opened up their jerseys to reveal a big “S” underneath them. Like David, I don’t think Thurm thought that was funny,either.
Nice. That’s a great Munson story. I don’t recall ever hearing that one Joey D thx for sharing.
Hi North,
I remember seeing the picture on the back page of the Daily News. It was taken the day after a heartbreaking loss that first game. I think the Yankees were leading going into the bottom of the ninth when Baltimore rallied to win, the winning run coming on a close play at the plate in which Thurman either couldn’t handle the ball or it was too far up the third base line to be played properly. That was in Munson’s rookie year and I remember him just laying on the ground for a few seconds before getting up, the disappointment showing in his face. Will look up the game to see if my memory is still sound.
Joe
North,
This is the box score. The Yankees feel behind early, came back and held a two run lead going into the bottom of the ninth. Only fault of my memory was that this was the second game of the three game series, not the first. Even though a Met fan, many of us were also rooting for the Yankees for they were sort of on their own miracle run. So I was down after the game as well.
Joe
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=197007080BAL
This is a very sad situation, Lousy tshirts for professionals baseball players who make million for a living, to do their job, it’s kinda like saying, guys EVERYONE is saying the team we have WILL SUCK, but here’s some tshirts to make you guys feel better about yourself… We didn’t get the players to help you guys win, but as an owner, i got this tshirts to make the team better..
Pathetic… I at this point am feeling more sorry for the players who gotta go through this situation, with some broke a** owners and a GM who is a snarky as***** and could care less about winning or losing as long as he cut payroll and get single A pitcher for all stars while collecting his check..
Good luck trying to bring fans to the game.. they’re spreading all kinds of news and it’s not even ST, duda hitting hr’s, wright hitting Hr’s to right center, etc, just to see if the fans get suckered in into going to the stadium… yeah, once reality settles in april we’ll see if all the lies come to fruition and fans stay away or go spend their hard eran money on the team..