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4/13/23

Tom Brennan - Some Mets Fans (How Do I Say This Nicely?) Suck.

One Bad Player Performance and Many “Fans” Look Like This.

Darin Ruf stunk as a Met. 

One wonders, though, if he would have sucked as badly if a cohort of fans was more supportive and not vicious. 

Here is Ruf in a recent article, discussing the player-unfriendly atmosphere he found himself in:

In an interview with The Athletic, Ruf said while “fans are going to be tough on you” no matter where you struggle, “in New York, it’s magnified.” He maintains the media runs with fans’ perceptions, causing players to get “crushed by two entities.” Ruf says that’s true even if you stay off social media.

“I think a lot of people feel that athletes, if they do a certain thing well, they should be able to do it well anywhere at any time,” Ruf told The Athletic. “But throughout life, you’ll be in different stages of emotional stability and mental stability. 

When a lot of things get thrown your way at once, it’s hard to perform every single night on a stage like NY or really anywhere in MLB. “Baseball is a very tough game and you have to be in a very good spot mentally to have success. I’m hoping I can get back to that.”

Mets fans wanted a savior as the Atlanta freight train bore down on the Mets last summer. Ruf faltered. And some of the fans crucified him for it. Some fans would have found the Roman Coliseum more to their liking than Citifield.  Blood sport. Why?

Because some of Mets fans suck. You can see it on Facebook…vicious…mocking…ignorant.

Psalm 73:8 talks about them: 

“In their mockery they speak evil; from their arrogant position they speak oppression.”


Now, the small but overtly rabid crowd’s target is Francisco Alvarez.

Those few “fans” say he sucks, he should be traded, he should be sent down…blah blah blah.

“Call a Code Red!” “You want me to be on that wall.”  No…we don’t.

Alvarez Perspective:

1) He is here early because Narvaez had the nerve to get badly hurt about a mere 7 games into the season.

2) He did not call himself up. Eppler did. Alvarez, the employee, did as instructed.

3) Other Mets minor league catchers make Tomas Nido as a hitter look like Roy Campanella, so in house choices were Alvarez, Alvarez,and Alvarez.

4) They got rid of Nido-equivalent Patrick Mazeika. And Kevin Parada is not ready. How do I know? Well, he’s had 15 at bats this year. And Parada has allowed 16 stolen bases. That ratio doesn’t work.

5) The “fans” call for crucifixion after Alvarez, under the same home park glare the veteran Ruf Found himself in, did poorly his first two games. TWO. These same fans would have “traded that bum Willie Mays” when he got off to his jittery 1 for 26 start in his career in 1951.  Mickey Mantle hit .222 his first career month. Mike Schmidt hit .196 his first full year.  GET RID OF THEM!

- But those fans crucify Alvarez after 2 games.

6) The Mets keep signing old guys to bazillion dollar contracts. Then they get hurt or fail to hit.

One genius “fan” screamed for the front office to get us a real catcher. Mindful that Alvarez had caught all of 2 games, I asked who exactly he had in mind. He (having no clue) said he would leave that to the front office. But he wanted that acquisition NOW. DO IT! Billy’s magic wand and Steve’s wallet.

The team, I must say, is underperforming, in part because the owner loves to collect dinosaurs. I hear he is considering renaming Citifield as Jurassic Park. The Brooklyn Nets tried the old star thing when they got Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett past their prime - a Brooklyn disaster unfolded.

Aging Escobar thru Tuesday (spring and regular) is 8 for 70, 1 HR.  Koosman hit like that. And Kooz was no Tom Seaver at the plate. And he flailed again Wednesday. Escosaurus Rex, anyone?

TEN MILLION SMACKERS FOR BURNT TOAST.  

Carrasco too looks like Ol’ Man River.

“But he was good last year.”  

“But Eduardo had a great September.” 

When you are a player who gets old, you wake up one day and you’re 10 years older.  You were very good…suddenly it is gone.

In baseball it just happens.

Francisco needs to go on a long road trip, well away from those morons who consider themselves fans who have something to say.  Not realizing that when that happens, when their lips part, bile and ignorance flows out.

Leave the kid be. 

He’ll be fine…if the “fans” don’t crucify him first.

Maybe those fans should find something else to do. Drive in traffic and cut people off and scream at them, perhaps? The Apostle Paul, speaking in a different context, said this, which might also apply:

“As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!” A little harsh, but catches one’s attention.

I’m rooting for Alvarez all the way. I want him to survive - and then thrive.

And I’m pushing back on that cadre of Facebook morons who’d probably be pleased to psychologically destroy the kid and say, “SEE! I told ya so. Now…who else can I destroy?”

The same gaggle of “Fans” are all over Daniel Vogelbach too. Their ability to differentiate is sub-optimal, to be charitable. They just have to pick on someone. Why not the fat guy who, I dunno, gets on base a lot?

I ask them the question, who has the highest OBP during their Mets tenure?  Nimmo? McNeil? Lindor? Alonso?  

Nope, it is Big Daniel. A smidge under .400.

But…but…but…he doesn’t hit with enough power (ans. He’s been to the plate less than 25 times in 2023, and Manny Machado’s been up 56 times with no HRs); he’s slow (well yeah, that’s obvious); he clogs the basepaths (well there are several other Mets who don’t pose that problem because they simply fail to get on base); he can’t hit lefties (the execs knew that); he swings funny (you look funny, so sometimes funny things balance out).

Everyone got such a thrill when the groundskeepers’ work kept two squibs fair for bleeder base hits for Luis and Nido. 

Which obscured the real issue of why fans shouldn’t pick on fat Daniel…even with the benefit of those 2 hits, Luis, Nido, and Escobar are a prolific 11 for 75, skewering the offense. Pham is 6 for 26, but remove his one good game and he is otherwise 3 for 22. OK, Pham had a fine game Wednesday, too. Maybe the new prescription is a new lease on baseball life for him. We’ll “see”.

That is a whole lot of non-hitting, so…let’s of course pick on fat Daniel. Because he’s fat and slow and we just wanna lash out.

No, Daniel is a valued member of this sputtering offensive team, and I am a big DV supporter. The bile-spewers should try it sometime. Support the struggler.  

Or at least support the .400 OBP guy who sports some extra corporal heft.

Or continue to do their best to grind everyone down, like they did with Darin Ruf.

I have been hard on the Escobar swoon…and was on the Ruf swoon…but it was a pique I had with the front office and their love affairs with signing the elderly. They decide who can be on this team. 

Those nastygram fans just bring the daggers. 

That subset of fans (how do I say it nicely) suck.

NOW - to keep it fair and balanced - I went to a very recent game, packed with kids.  It was a beautiful day and no boos to my ears were heard.  A VERY positive crowd, and despite Nido and Escobar going hitless again, to drop to a combined 7 for 63, no boos for them were heard, only cheers were heard when Escobar dropped down a sac bunt that the pitcher dropped for an error.  

Pete and Lindor (our Frank and Brooks Robinson tandem) each launched long homers, offsetting output of the dangerous Soto.  Megill (3-0) gave the thrill, and the pen was a fortress once again.  

A happy 5-2 win day, after trailing early 2-0. 

So the paying fans were there for a great, supportive time.

The braying. brooding Facebook "fans" are a different breed. 

18 comments:

  1. Morning Mr. Grumpy

    Who pissed in your Coco Puffs this morning?

    Seriously, and I have told you this before, you are spending too much time on those low end Facebook fan sites.

    I used to post our posts one four of them, one for each team, but quickly turned away because how negative the readers there were, to the team, our writers, and our posts.

    I suggest you do too.

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  2. Tom speaks the truth. Baseball fans are relentless in their pursuit of perfection, which is something that cannot be obtained in a game as difficult as baseball.
    Ruf didn't perform, and he got skewered for it. Mercilessly. I think he was very accurate when he talked about mental state - that can be the difference between success and failure.
    Alvarez will get there, as long as he does not lose confidence in himself. Fans gotta help him there.

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    Replies
    1. You said the key word here

      Confidence

      Another 2 good words

      Play regularly

      Delete
  3. I’m with ya. But it is enlightening to see how much negativity is directed at Mets players, especially the young up and comers like Alvarez who do not need negative fans. Way to inspire your young talent to greater heights, fellas.

    I think I last had Cocoa Puffs 60 years ago. That is pretty cuckoo when you think about it.

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  4. Personally I prefer Cocoa Pebbles but spot on on the lunatic's and agree with Mack forget facebook. I see Kelenic starting to blossom but it took awhile so there's hope for Alvy (lol) facebooker's would have run him out of town years ago. I do love that the Cuse guys are raking because we need help on the big club but the question is who and when.

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  5. Well written, Tom, but you seem to be very negative toward the negative fans (who drive me up a wall, too).

    It's much too soon to pull the trigger based on all of 2 weeks. Even our stars are way below their norms.
    We'll find out on the West Coast trip if the cold weather was a factor in that.

    Meanwhile, Ruf had a1B, 2 B and RBI last night vs Kershaw, and guess who currently leads out team in BA. 😆

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  6. Bill, I got triggered by the vicious comments re: Alvarez after 2 games (TWO) and Vogelbach fat slurs (to which I replied, are you referring to the Vogelbach who has been on base 9 of 19 times, or some other Vogelbach I don’t know). Yep. I snoozed one site for 30 days this AM, May look to do so with the other FB fan sites.

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  7. There was a guy who said Alvarez could not DH when Nido starts. I suggested that in the rare instance Nido might get hurt, Luis could catch. Not perfect, but I want Alvarez to not sit.

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  8. Fans of any team, any sport...

    Want to win games, be proud of their team and how it is WISELY being run.

    That simple.

    I just don't care for athletes much who are whiners. There can always be reasons for anyone to whine anywhere really. But advisably do not, for it does not ever help any situation on planet earth that I know of.

    Players make huge salaries as compared to the average fan. Some fans may think that this justifies their more negative reactions to a player who is not doing well and obviously struggling for a stretch of time. It does not. It's just simply a release for fan frustration. Otherwise our heads would burst like in the old movie "Scanners." Not a good thing.

    But the truth is simply that fans want their teams to do well, play hard, win games, and suck it up with the fans and media (who are actually worse than the fans by-the-way) and just concentrate on playing their very best performances out on the field. This is what truly matters. Personally, I always think of Ted Williams and his "lovefest" with the media. It did actually make him a better player.

    When someone disrespects you, you have a choice to either let it effect you in a negative way, or wisely let it motivate you to prove to all what you already know, that you are better than the complainers think. And there are always complainers in society absolutely everywhere. A day does not go by without a few popping up in your life. Let it motivate you to new heights!

    We "the fans in the woods" all wish that we had it as good as the professional athletes do. My sincere advice to Darin Ruf might just be this, "Be you Darin and let the world say whatever it will. They'll get over it, or just find someone new to sulk at." I wish you well Mr. Ruff!

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  9. To me, the goal should be to get Alvarez enough reps that when Narvaez returns, Nido can get sent down and not Alvarez. If Alvarez isn’t ready, of course he goes down.

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  10. Bill, it was 85 at yesterday’s game. Escobar and Nido looked like it was freezing out, though.

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  11. What are my own frustrations in sports today.

    NYK: They will do quite well right up until they meet a team that has a real star center. The frustration part to me is simply that no one there in Knicks management can see this repetitive issue. They have plenty of high scoring guards, power forwards, and small forwards. Enough to host a pig roast already. But no center who can really spread opposing team's defenses for their other players, meaning centers like Ewing was who can shoot well from outside and not just dunk the ball. Until the NY Knicks wakeup to this obvious shortcoming, they will regrettably never win another Championship.

    NYM: I do not see the NY Mets starting rotation as a big deal issue, despite a slight injury to Justin Verlander, and the loss of a Jose Quintana who never once even pitched in a NY Mets regular season game.

    The only problems I see at current are:

    (A) The Mets need to somehow absorb the Edwin Diaz injury, bring in one more really good lefty late inning reliever preferably under age 100. Like a young guy not in "Depends" yet.

    (B) NEVER overlook the sincere possibility of improving your overall team's offense and energy level by bringing up Baty, Vientos, and Mauricio ASAP. And I don't care what the true issue is here on why they have not already.

    "Slow as molasses getting started in a new season players" do cost the team games that they could have possibly won otherwise. In my opinion, this needs to be addressed soon. And so I do now...

    1B Alonso ("The Big Bomber") 2B "Ronnie O. Mauricio" SS "Lindorific" 3B "BBaty" LF "Pham Pham" CF "Capt. Nimmoid" RF "Smarte" C "Punt, Pass, or Kick!" DH "Canhunt" or "Vientos Vientos"

    SP: "Maxsure", "Verlandering", "Thank God for Senga", "Megill Too Awesome Already", "Jose Bluto", and "DR. Smith" in the sixth slot because we a little old up top and our goal is the WS not just a pretty regular season and then out. Six-man time.

    BP: Nogosek, Peterson (long relief) Curtis, Hunter (when well) Hartwig, Orze, or Uceta for now in his place, Walker, Ottavino, Robertson

    Utility: Vientos, Canha (both getting playing time in the field as well)

    The streak has begun Mets fans!

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  12. It must be me.

    I see Francisco Alvarez's natural power batting ability at the plate and all, but he has to bring the talent behind the dish too. Catcher is a hugely important position.

    Where the heck is Mackey Sasser when you really need him anyway?

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  13. I do not get...

    Tomas Nido at all batting. Maybe more game time? I don't know.

    Great defensive catcher, we all know this. But in ST, I really felt like he had turned a corner. He seemed relaxed and ultimate powerful batting. I was like, finally the man has arrived full-throttle at the plate.

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  14. Up above...

    I foolishly left out Jeff McNeil. LF ahead of Pham Pham. Canhunt for a lefty late inning reliever?


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  15. I saw this ditty about the great Tylor Megill in the NY Post:

    Tylor Megill (3-0) improved to 7-0 in eight April starts over the last two seasons. No pitcher in MLB has more April victories in that stretch.

    Megill has allowed two runs or fewer in seven of those eight starts and three hits or fewer in five of them.

    ReplyDelete