Jeff asks…
I’m so disgusted that I don’t know where to begin, but can you please tell me why everyone is turning on Matt Harvey and painting him as a villain every time he says or does something? This hurts me so much because Matt Harvey is my favorite player and has made it fun for me to watch the Mets again.
For the first time in eight years I purchased two ticket packages for me and my wife, mostly because we were excited that Harvey was coming back this season from Tommy John surgery.
It seems like sites like MetsBlog, Daily News and the Post just love to rip him to shreds whenever they can. It breaks my heart and this is why we can never have good things.
Why do they hate him so much? What has he done to merit all this scorn with the Daily News calling him an A-Hole, MetsBlog pleading with him not to be a douche bag, and all those awful things in the New York Post article.
Can you please reply back? It would be very appreciated if you could shed some light on this.
Thanks, Jeff
Joe D. replies…
I wish I had an answer for you, but to be honest all I can do is venture a guess as to why the media is painting Matt Harvey as Public Enemy No. 1. First, let me summarize the recent events chronologically for our readers who may not know.
It all began when Matt Harvey posted a picture of himself in a private jet heading to a resort during some personal time off.
Some assumed that he was taking this private flight instead of the team charter with his teammates, which was not the case at all. A few knuckleheads began killing Harvey on Instagram and Twitter.
Seeing how some fans were reacting, Harvey posted another pic of himself with his teammates flying back to New York on the team charter.
“Just landed back in NYC on ‘THE TEAM FLIGHT’ ‘WITH THE TEAM,’ Harvey wrote after the recent west coast road trip.
Everything seemed to calm down after that with a few even apologizing for their overreaction.
But just as the mini-drama was winding down, SNY’s MetsBlog posted the incident on their site and in two hours the Instagram comments jumped from about 75 to well over 300. Matt Cerrone followed that up with a personal open letter to Harvey 12 hours later.
“Let it go, man. You’re 26, a nice guy, more humble than people realize, you’re great at what you do, you’re healthy, guys want to be you, women find you attractive and you’ll one day sign a $200 million contract. It does you zero good to come across as petty and irritated.”
“I realize you love to compete and that is part of what makes you great. But, trust me, save that target and energy for your on-field opponents. In the last day, you’ve comes across like you’re competing with your critics when you respond in code and snark online.”
That created even more animosity as any positive intention Cerrone may have had, backfired and Twitter exploded with a two day hate-fest that lasted into Saturday when he was expected to start.
Then things took a terrible turn for the worse.
After Harvey, Kevin Plawecki, Jon Niese and other players played a round of golf at the brand new golf course Donald Trump opened in the Bronx, he posted a picture with all his Mets teammates, simply thanking Trump for the free round of golf.
Boom… That was it… The media wolves tore him to shreds believing he was endorsing Trump’s political campaign. It was a bloodbath, and it forced Harvey to delete the Instagram post and photo.
Not to be outdone, the Post and other tabloids cherry-picked some of the most vicious attacks on Harvey from the private plane fiasco and published them the next day.
“After your pitching performances, it’s fitting you take a plane by yourself. Degrom is better”
“What a douche riding in his own plane.”
“You’re an a—–e and everyone knows you’ll be a Yankee soon.”
These are just the mild retorts, there are hundreds more that were more hurtful, vicious, and vile. And they were all from a small minority of Mets fans who were riled up from reading the two MetsBlog posts, two articles in the Post, and the cake-topper by the Daily News.
The sad part about this was how a few Met fans made the entire fan base look so bad. Fox News painted a terrible image of us and even the San Diego Padres posted “Wow! It looks like Matt Harvey is being run out of town.”
What really sucks is that the vast majority of Mets fans abhorred what was going on and saw the whole incident for what it was – a madcap media maelstrom created out of a non-story to drive site traffic and page views. Character assassination, hurt feelings, and emotional abuse be damned.
There are many who believe the whole incident was spearheaded by Mets ownership, and considering the apparent ties to SNY and Sterling maybe they’re right. After all, the Wilpons are the masters of “whisper campaigns” against players who fall out of favor with them for either personal reasons or financial ones.
Harvey is eligible for arbitration this offseason for the first time and in line for a significant raise.
So to wrap this up, Harvey has gone from superhero to villain all because he took a private jet to a resort on an off day, and thanked Trump for treating the team to a free round of golf.
And the worst part – besides how deviously Harvey was treated by an out-for-blood media – is that fans like me and you had to watch helplessly as the player who put the Mets back on the map and revived the fan base was torn down by uncaring misanthropes.
In what I can only call poetic justice, it was great to see Matt Harvey rise above all the faux-carnage and personal attacks on him with a powerful performance against the Diamondbacks on Saturday in which he struck out nine and hit what would be the game winning homer. I cheered my ass off for him.
Here’s my message to Harvey:
Ignore all the haters and the condescending and patronizing know-nothings. Just remember that the vast majority of Mets fans love you and think you’re freaking awesome. We love your swagger, your free spirited nature, your infectious enthusiasm, and your determination to win. Qualities this team has lacked for years until you showed up. You f**king rock!
