It’s always something…
After one of the tougher Mets losses of this season, there was a pretty stark difference between losing pitcher Chris Mazza, who stood in front of his locker and answered every question, and starter Noah Syndergaard, who bolted the clubhouse without answering any.
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) July 19, 2019
I’m a big boxing fan and one of their cardinal rules is that there’s no hitting below the belt. But apparently no such rule exists in baseball, especially in how the the game and the players are covered by a media that is always looking to create that one viral tweet or storyline- good will be damned. You may even say that Anthony DiComo’s take was more like a swift kick to the balls, pardon my French.
I’m sorry, and I hope I’m wrong, but I just don’t see the value in a tweet like that other than to denigrate one of the team’s top players and turn the fan base against him.
I wanted to ignore this, but there’s a part of me that just can’t let it go because someone needs to stick up for our players when they are unfairly tainted in a negative light as Noah Syndergaard was.
We’re talking about a player who pitched his heart out last night in an epic battle with one-time Giants’ ace Madison Bumgarner. Syndergaard was far from perfect, but time and time again he quelled the flames from one of the hottest teams in baseball and winners of six straight.
Someone needs to defend a player who did everything he could to put the Mets in a position to win on Thursday night, despite them losing the game in such spectacular fashion.
A great many of us stayed up until almost 3 am to watch that debacle unfold as the Mets lost a 16-inning marathon by a score of 3-2 after taking the lead in the top of the frame on a Pete Alonso solo home run. When it was all over, many of us were mentally, emotionally and physically spent. Can you imagine how the starting pitcher felt?
Did you see the looks on on Alonso and Syndergaard’s faces when San Francisco plated the winning run? Yes, these are players, and many of them are paid well for playing this game. But more than that – a lot more than that – they are people too. People with the same feelings and emotions as us. People that hate losing as much as we do. People that deserve the same level of respect as all of us do.
My father used to have a saying that he so often tried drilling into my head. Good people can make bad decisions and that doesn’t make them bad people. And while I never wanted to hear it at the time because I was too intent on handling things the way I saw fit and had no use for any of his life’s lessons. Now that he’s gone, I’ve since realized just how important his advice to me was… Too little, too late. Sorry Dad….
I bring this up because I think Anthony DiComo is a good writer… A good beat reporter… I enjoy following him. But his tweet last night, was a bad decision on his part – an awful decision. It was a bad tweet. I wish he would have thought twice before he hit that “send” button.
I was hoping – actually, praying – that somehow Syndergaard wouldn’t see it because I could just imagine how hurtful and dismayed it would have made him. Unfortunately, Syndergaard did see it and his response a short while ago, pretty much said it all.
“This is what you go with after a tough 16 inning marathon loss,” Syndergaard responded to DiComo.
“Anthony, I have been nothing but respectful and professional with you over the years. If you had an issue with me, talk to me in person like a man. This is below you, you’ve changed our relationship in one tweet. Congrats.”
Syndergaard is right. Maybe he was tired? He did have to endure another 2 1/2 hours after exiting the game at 108 pitches. DiComo could have texted him any questions he may have had if it was so damned important to him. But somehow, I don’t think that’s what motivated his decision to go after the 26-year old righty.
In my opinion, the way he handled it was completely inappropriate, and of course now this will be the main talking point on sports radio, social media and all the talking heads on SNY, who I’m sure are going to take DiComo’s side on this.
Last night was bad enough without having to add another log into into the Mets inferno. I feel bad for Syndergaard. I feel bad for the team and all the players who will now be expected to respond to this. And believe it or not, I feel bad for DiComo too, because he’s going to be killed by the fan base and you know how that can get when they set their sights on someone.
This was all totally avoidable. Too bad…
