At Least When The Mets Struggle, They Don’t Play Dirty

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• Rich S May 9, 2012 at 2:05 pm

  I am glad you thought the same thing of the Wigginton slide; I can’t believe how I have not hear anyone comment about it. It definitely looked dirty – you could see him twist his shoulder forward to get more force there.

  There is a fine line between gritty and dirty. The Philthies are past it; but at the same time, the Mets have been too far from it. But it looks like they are getting grittier.

  Lets Go Mets!!!
  • vinnie papandrea May 10, 2012 at 11:37 am

    I agree I thought he definetly threw his shoulder, and everyone keeps saying it was clean because he didn’t run him over.
  • trs86 May 10, 2012 at 11:40 am

    Honestly I think his leg got stuck. I think originally he had intentions of running him over and then tried to slide and almost did a pop up slide. He’s lucky he didn’t break his ankle.
• Brian May 9, 2012 at 2:10 pm

  I have to give this site credit. While Metsblog posts pictures of their tv screens and other images, you keep churning out great stuff to read. You have surpassed them in my opinion. Keep it up Clayton and everyone else.
  • Bayonne Mets Fan May 9, 2012 at 3:49 pm

    Matt Cerrone is a nice guy but it seems he posts/tweets more about social media and what new gadgets are out there than friggin baseball. Even the SNY commercials don’t mention his name anymore and instead they say “a blogger” lol
• USMF May 9, 2012 at 2:29 pm

  I think the Wiggy slide was hard, but it wasn’t dirty. If you take off your orange and blue colored glasses, you’d see if that Wiggy was coming in full speed to score and any turn he did was to protect himself. He didn’t slide out of his way to hit Thole, he went directly into the plate. If anything, it’s more Thole’s fault because he left his head out there exposed. If the names were reversed on the jerseys, you’d be praising the Mets for playing hard.

  Now, if you should bring up the pictures showing Victorino actually grabbing Murph’s leg trying to trip him to break up a dbl play.

  As for Cole, I think it was stupid for him to admit to hitting Harper, but I actually give him a little credit for it. But I just don’t understand the reason for hitting Harper. The only reason I can think of is that, the Nats are good, Philly are sucking…Cole is the forgotten man in a fantastic rotation and he’s jealous of Hapers press.
• stick May 9, 2012 at 3:40 pm

  I agree with USMF. it didn’t look dirty, and just because he adjusted his body doesn’t mean he was doing it to try and “take out” thole as opposed to protecting himself for impacting.

  also, wasn’t it Turner on the 2B take out this time? That one, not even close. Even Charlie admitted to that one.

  Hamels is just an idiot, but there was really no reprecussions. A modest fine, and he gets 1 extra days rest next time through the order. A suspension for a SP needs to be more than 5 days to mean anything.
• Christopher Masiello May 9, 2012 at 3:47 pm

  This is a tough one. I do think that the Phillies have gotten a bit chippy of late, where they were gritty in the past. However, I think that the Mets have been soooo heartless and lethargic during the Phillies great run (2007 – 2011). What’s the difference between those gritty Phils and these dirty ones? Wins! If they were winning, it would all look great.
  How many times did we wish Willie Randolph would scream at an umpire? How often did we wish Jerry would stop coddling the spoiled babies of Los Mets? How often did we wish a Mets pitcher would drill and opposing batter to send a message? Home plate charges, broken up double plays, charging the mound….. Yeah all of that has been missing.
  I think that Terry has at least added some fire to this organization. And I’m glad to see it.
  • Bayonne Mets Fan May 9, 2012 at 3:55 pm

    To Clayton,

    Be careful knocking the Phillies so much so early because they’ve had Utley and Howard on the DL so far this year as well as Lee. And Victorino and Rollins aren’t hitting right now. Let’s see them when everybody is back and than see what happens.

    Christopher,
    And I wish the Mets would take a page out of the Phillies book and play some nasty baseball (not necessarily intentionally hurting anyone) but some of us have been saying for years how passive and apologetic the Mets play – a perfect style of play for a Wright-led team.

    Mets need more mugs. They need guys to slide hard & take fielders out on DPs, they need to have their pitchers be ordered to back hitters off the plate, throw one at someone once in awhile when needed. They need to show that if you take them for granted or you try to play tough we’ll play tough right back and then some. I haven’t seen that since Paul LoDuca was here.
• srt May 9, 2012 at 4:05 pm

  Today in baseball, you don’t see as many players barreling into the catcher to try and knock them from catching the throw or if they have it, holding onto the ball. More and more you see those sideways slides going around them and trying to just get a hand in there on the plate. Keith comments on this all the time.

  I’m not convinced this slide was anything more than the former. Don’t think he intentionally tried to hurt him or take him out of the game but I’m pretty sure he was trying to knock that ball loose anyway he could. To Thole’s credit, he hung on.

  Now Victorino’s slide that was ruled interference was clearly trying to stretch it and hope he didn’t get caught.

  The pictures over on metsblog of Victorino trying to grab Murphy’s leg? If that’s not deliberate, I don’t know what is. That looked pretty bush league to me.
• Des May 9, 2012 at 4:11 pm

  Bayonne — “… some of us have been saying for years how passive and apologetic the Mets play – a perfect style of play for a Wright-led team.” Are you saying they are passive because it’s a Wright-led team? Or are you saying that now that it’s a Wright-led team, they are capable of aggressive play?
• jessep May 9, 2012 at 4:13 pm

  I don’t think Wiggy’s slide was dirty at all. I think Victorino has done similar stuff before, I never liked him. Also, I honestly had no problem with Hamels hitting Harper. The problem was talking about it. People throw at players like that all the time, they just don’t talk about it.

  But, Victorino to me has always been dirty.

  Utley has a special place in my heart because of the time he told Yankee Stadium “boo? f you”

  But he’s a Phillie so I hate him almost as much as the team we play next!
  • Des May 9, 2012 at 4:27 pm

    jessep — I’ve always admired Utley’s cahones too. Solid and tough — except for his legs.
• Greg Pomes May 9, 2012 at 4:59 pm

  I don’t think Ty’s slide was dirty at all. It was hard nosed baseball. People are just not used to seeing it anymore.