I spent my Memorial Day at Citi Field watching the Mets cough up their latest hairball … a 5-3 loss to the Pirates that featured a gutty pitching performance by Jacob deGrom, who didn’t have his best stuff but pitched his ass off and lasted 6 and 2/3’s innings and 122 pitches … primarily because Terry Collins didn’t want to be forced to take his best hitter out of the lineup due to a technicality like pitch count.
It also featured the latest bullpen meltdown by the Mets, most notably Jose Valverde, who was responsible for breaking deGrom’s heart by being responsible for four runs in 2/3’s of an inning. It would turn out to be his final game as a Met, as he was released after the game. Congratulations to the Mets for figuring out what the rest of the world knew about Jose Valverde for three years. If the world ever ends, I want to be at Citi Field. Because the Mets are light years behind everybody else.
Terry Collins’ reaction:
You’re welcome, #mets fans. https://t.co/7kc1W9z2nO
— Poppi Kramer (@PoppiKramer) May 26, 2014
Yup. Shit Happens. We’ve gone from the classic elegance of Gil Hodges to “shit happens”, by Terry Collins. I don’t know about you, but I smell a Free Shirt Friday idea on the horizon. I’d love to hear Brandon and Alexa read that promo.
“Hey Brandon, that Shit Happens t-shirt looks great on you!”
“Thanks Alexa. And you can have this shirt for your very own if you come to Free Shit Fri… er, Free Shirt Friday at Citi Field.”
Valverde wasn’t the only casualty of Memorial Day, as hitting coach Dave Hudgens was also let go by the club for presiding over this clown car of a lineup for four seasons. What frustrates me more than anything is that Valverde should have been gone weeks ago, and firing Hudgens is akin to throwing a pebble into the Grand Canyon. This only starts the clock on the inevitable, just as it has with many coaches under many managers before. If Collins is on the hot seat, then just make a change already and stop with the hope that changing the hitting coach is going to fix everything. Take a calculated risk and do something significant and try to fix this. If the Mets think that firing Hudgens will lead to anything else besides the eventual firing of Terry Collins, then they’re insane. But we already knew this.
Unfortunately, this is not a problem related to one person. The Mets are a systemic failure that starts at the top with the Wilpons. They messed up with your money, forcing them to hire a guy who could work with a small payroll. Sandy Alderson has done some good things in an impossible situation with no cash flow and a barren farm system. But this major league roster is trash and Alderson needs to shoulder some blame here. Terry Collins has had little to work with in terms of major league talent. But still makes some ridiculous decisions such as playing Bobby Abreu, who played the game tying single much like any other forty year old man would … and waiting to double switch in a better defensive outfielder until they were two runs down. Also a ridiculous decision was pitching Scott Rice every day last year because YOLO … and now paying for it by bringing him in to face Ike Davis only to have Gaby Sanchez pinch hit and drive one to Northern Boulevard. Oh well, shit happens.
But then I learned that Dave Hudgens went silo doors on Ron Darling, Keith Hernandez, and … you and me.
“I really just think guys tried too hard at home. I think the fans are really tough on the guys at home. How can you boo Curtis Granderson? They have no idea how hard this guy works and how he goes about doing his business, doing his job. He gets off to a slow start and they’re booing him? Come on. It’s tougher at home to play than it is on the road, there’s no doubt about it. And they’re trying really hard at home. You can see it in the statistics. The fly-ball rates went up, the swing-and-miss rates went up at home. I think we were first in the league in runs scored on the road, so I think guys were relaxed on the road. They could just go out and play the game, don’t worry about anything. Then at home, they’re trying to do so much. I’ve never seen that work out — especially young players trying to do more than they should be doing. When you look at the numbers inside the numbers, and you see exit velocity rates going down at home, you see fly ball rates going up, you see swing-and-miss rates going up, you see chase rates going up a little bit — although we’re best in the league in not chasing pitches out of the zone — I think those things, it just means guys trying to do too much, trying too hard.”
I went ballistic when I read this. Ranted on Twitter about it. I stand by it. I’m tired of this organization and the people within it blaming us for all the ills of this team. From insinuating that we don’t give the team a chance to succeed and that we sign a letter to prove our loyalty and wear purity rings, treating people who want to interact with the team as “distractions“, and being told that our booing is the reason this team can’t hit at home. We get giant middle fingers, cheap giveaways, and bad baseball, and it’s our fault? For caring enough to boo? Caring enough to go to a daytime ball game and then working an eight hour shift? Caring enough to travel to Chicago and Tampa and Montreal for the sole purpose of seeing them play? It’s sickening. It’s really a wonder why I bother … and it’s a wonder why it’s gotten to the point where Mets fans aren’t even a majority in Citi Field’s own backyard.
Every time somebody like Dave Hudgens says something like this and it goes unchallenged, it empowers a blameless culture in that locker room. It empowers the players into thinking that it isn’t their fault. Turn the blame on the fans and you’ll never hold anybody in the room accountable. How much of this is the players fault is up for debate. But blaming the fans isn’t helping. Nor is blaming all of the outside distractions helping. Put the accountability where it belongs and you may be pleasantly surprised at the results. But putting the accountability where it ultimately belongs requires some to look in the mirror. Good luck hoping for that to happen.
Oh yeah, Ron and Keith:
“The naysayers, the guys who disapprove of us, the guys who I listen to on TV all the time, those guys that know everything about the game, I’m just amazed at it. What’s wrong with getting a good pitch to hit? Somebody, please punch a hole in that for me. I just shake my head at the old-school guys that have it all figured out. Go up there and swing the bat. Well, what do you want to swing at? It just confounds me. It’s just hilarious, really. That’s one thing. I’m glad I don’t have to listen to those guys anymore.”
You know, you can work for the White Sox … sounds like Hawk Harrelson is a little bit more your speed.
Losers blame others for their failures … even when those others have World Series rings on their fingers. Always remember that. But Hudgens is far from the only person to put the blame where it doesn’t belong. When the Wilpons started treating the baseball team as more business and brand … and less baseball team, this organization become chock full of excuse makers and blame deflectors. And again, it starts at the top. The Wilpons made Dave Hudgens the scapegoat, and in turn Hudgens gave the scapegoat label to us … and Keith Hernandez. It’s a sickening, vicious cycle that will never, ever end. It’s enough for me to make it my life’s mission to outlive Jeff Wilpon to ensure that I witness one season without their involvement in this team before I die. If I have to eat kale and drink wheat grass until the end to make this happen, I will. Because going to many more Met games like the one on Monday might very well kill me.
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