“You know, for years and years, you used to watch those teams that won all of the time, they had an air about them. You used to play the Braves and they’d walk out there and, they weren’t cocky, but they were confident. They weren’t overbearing, they knew how to play, they knew what they had to do to win games.” ~ Terry Collins
Swagger is a funny word. When I hear it for some reason palm trees and hula dancers come to mind. There is a kind of “sway” to it … like watching Huggy Bear walk down a street swinging his cane, that is until Starsky and Hutch slide over their Gran Torino and slam him up against a dumpster, (Torino, another funny word). I worry that the Mets are behaving a little bit like Huggy Bear this spring with the Nats eventually comprising the role of Starsky and Hutch.
What concerns me is this impression that the “swagger” (now in cool mist and mountain fresh aerosol) is meant more for the fans than it is for the other teams. See when I think swagger, I think 1986, and what I remember really was that they didn’t talk a whole lot to the fans or the media, but when it came to putting other teams in their place, they were about as intimidating as a size 13 boot to the face.
This spring, I don’t know, somehow this seems almost rehearsed. Like there was a focus group that came across some data on how teams who think they’re going to win are more likely to win and so they brainstormed how to get the team to think like a winner on a whiteboard over some spinach dip and a bruschetta platter. And then there’s this ongoing campaign to convince the fans that the team is for real.
This “Take The Damn Thing” t-shirt campaign for instance, (which has since been retracted). What does that even mean? “Take The Damn Thing” ?? The assumption is that the Mets are not aware that the pennant is up for grabs? They have to be reminded? With a t-shirt? That’s like getting your kid’s 3rd grade teacher a t-shirt that says “Teach The Damn Kid.” Sounds like another choice morsel from the fertile mind of Jeff Wilpon … I’m actually surprised they used the word “damn,” and not the more family friendly “darned.”
It certainly doesn’t help when a former GM radio host shares that “these sort of statements are a coordinated effort by the team’s media, marketing and communications department.”
Even normally Sponge-Bob-nice David Wright seems to be growing tired of the marketing gimmicks. I’m afraid poor David may develop a twitch … I’m telling you, he’s going to snap one of these days. I mean, I like a good round of trash-talk as much as the next guy, but isn’t a quiet controlled confidence preferable to a lot of hot air? Like Caine from Kung Fu — THAT dude was confident and hairless. You’d think Sandy Alderson would appreciate that. I’d watch Kung Fu any day over Starsky and Hutch. I imagine, in a world where old 70’s sitcoms collide, Starsky and Hutch trying to shake-down Caine for information wouldn’t go over very well. I think Caine and his Shaolin temple training would slow-motion disarm them and leave them tied to a post on their rear ends with a horse nibbling on Starsky’s cowboy hat.
But I guess you have to embrace whatever personality the team happens to cultivate, and this team certainly appears a little louder and more swagger-iffic with the addition of The Dark Knight (of Gotham) … which hands down has to be the greatest sports nickname in recent memory. The only issue might be that there are so many Batmen these days it’s hard to keep track. Is Matt Harvey the reserved and snide Michael Keaton? The oafish George Clooney? Or the gruff and surly Christian Bale?
Personally when I saw Matt Harvey pitch the first thing that came to mind as a Mets fan was that this guy was going to be “my friend Harvey” from an even earlier sitcom, The Honeymooners. In the episode, Ralph is loud and full of bombast, arguing his right to a pool table he and Norton had already started playing on, until he looks up at a hulking Harvey who looks like someone tried to chisel his face out of a rock wall with a ball peen hammer. Hamina hamina hamina.
On a more pragmatic level, if you talk enough other teams get wind of it and you have another problem — teams gunning to shut you up. As a team who hasn’t had a winning season in forever, you figure a quiet confidence that allows you to run under the radar might not be a bad way to go? At some point, you’ve got to wonder how much of this is about winning, and how much is about ownership lining their pockets (or paying off their debts). But what do I know? Maybe the focus group found that teams are better off going with big talk, especially if they want to sell tickets during spring training.
One thing is certain, there will be a good number of us who fall for it and buy lots of tickets before a single game is played, and maybe that’s the whole idea. As for the players, I just hope this confidence is genuine and not a forced product of some marketing edict. It could mean the difference between upholding the underdog and restoring justice to a dusty western town, or taking a beating in a back alley at the hands of a couple of dirty cops with great hair.
