Anthony DiComo of MLB.com reports that during his Hall of Fame press conference, Pedro Martinez said that Mets fans “settle for what they have,” while “Yankees fans cannot” settle.
It’s strange to hear a player contrast two fan bases from the same city that way, but the question is, is Pedro right?
Ironically, I wrote a post this morning that kind of touched on that somewhat.
I’ve see many Mets fans become overcome with apathy and many more others now resorting to saying things like “that player costs too much” or “pass, we can’t afford him”, basically sounding like they’ve been conditioned by years of watching an inept ownership operate like a small market operation.
There is also a large contingent of Mets fans who will not settle and those are the ones who stopped going to games in some kind of protest, or who keep calling for change. They are most likely the ones who are largely responsible for declining attendance and ratings and demand a better product after six consecutive losing seasons.
Getting back to Pedro, we do congratulate him on his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday.
A three-time Cy Young Award winner and eight-time All-Star, Martinez dominated in an era known for big bats and big home runs. Always such a fun player to watch with a positive demeanor off the field, he was a fierce competitor on the mound and helped the 2004 Red Sox win the World Series.
With the Mets, Martinez pitched parts of four seasons and compiled a 32-23 record with a 3.88 ERA and 1.159 WHIP. His first season with the Mets was his best by far, going 15-8 record with a 2.83 ERA while striking out 208 batters in 217 innings.
So do Mets fans settle? What has been your experience? Speaking for myself, I’ve never settled on anything important to me in my entire life, and I’m not going to begin now. My writings on this site will strongly reflect that.
(Updated 1/7)
