Squeaky Wheels

So that thing I wrote last night? You know, the one where I called for a fastball to somebody’s … anybody’s ribs in response to Charlie Manuel’s stealing signs rant? I hold zero chance of that happening now. In fact, less than zero. Why would I hope for the Mets to send a message to a division rival when there are players on the roster who would rather send messages to …

Darryl Strawberry.

Brandon Tierney reported that an ex-Met (who he wouldn’t name but said was “not necessarily a TV analyst”) had upset two “prominent” Mets (he wouldn’t name them, either) by telling them “to stop worrying about (media) criticism” and just “get out on the field and perform.”

The players, Tierney said, went to Jay Horwitz, Mets VP/media relations, and told him to keep the ex-player away from them. The former player, according to Mets moles, is Darryl Strawberry. The Straw Man visited the Mets clubhouse in Washington last week.

“He was saying you’re better than last place. He told them it was ‘rough’ watching them play, but you’re better than what you showed,” a Mets insider said. “Some of the guys who don’t know Darryl that well, don’t know he still bleeds Mets blue, might have thought it (his advice) was too tough.”

Now, who knows how true this is. And who knows if there’s another side of the story that we don’t know about. Mike Francesa (everyone’s friend, I know) said today that while the two players did get upset (who he claims were Jason Bay and, more prominently, Jeff Francoeur), the clubhouse ban request never happened.  But whether it did or it didn’t, this is a roster, a team, an organization that has shown itself to be increasingly passive and sensitive in their overall approach in the last ten years, and here’s more proof. Think about this … Darryl tells them not to worry about the media, and then the first thing these two players do is worry about the media?

Let’s assume just for a second that this happened, and that it was Frenchy and Bay.  Allow me to look at this from Frenchy’s point of view (Jason Bay might have been taken aback, but he’s too nice to say anything publicly because he’s Canadian, so let’s leave him out of this for now.)  My guess is that Frenchy is probably thinking through all this “Hey, I’ve gotten hit in the arm and I played the next day … I’ve crashed into walls and played through it … I’ve done everything this team has asked, including try to take more pitches and gone down to barbecue with Hojo during the winter to help my swing … and now I’m being told it’s not good enough by someone who isn’t my manager or even somebody who holds a position of authority in the organization? What’s the deal here?”  And when you look at it that way, I can somewhat understand it.  Nobody likes to be pulled in by their boss after pulling 55-hour work weeks and coming to work with the flu and being told about the one or two little things they do wrong.

But what Frenchy, Bay, or anyone else on that team that takes offense to anything Darryl said needs to understand the following: First off, there’s nothing wrong with being challenged to be greater than what you are, individually or collectively (when did that become a bad thing), especially in the business that they’re all in and that they’ve chosen.  And second, look at the standings.  Look at what this team has/hasn’t accomplished the last four seasons.  What exactly would be your answer to anything that Strawberry said to you?  What’s on your resume that you can lean on as evidence?

Someone has gotta tell me what was wrong either with what Darryl said, or with the manner he used to say it. Remember when Keith Hernandez called them quitters back in ’02 and that team got all pissed off even though Keith was 200% right and forced him to apologize even though none was necessary? Well Strawberry didn’t even use a public forum for his “criticism”, and now there are players who have a problem with him. This is what these players were worried about on the eve of series with the Yankees and the Phillies.

This was a pep talk!!!  What, is Strawberry’s opinion tainted because he quit The Apprentice after three weeks?

It honestly makes me wonder about how this team will react when faced with some on-field adversity later in the season.  Think about it: when the Mets have faced baseball adversity over the last four years … namely, three home gameswith either the World Series or the playoffs at stake … they’ve fallen flat. Oh-for-three.  And I know that most of that has been due to the performances of guys like Tom Glavine, Scott Schoeneweis, and Luis Ayala.  But it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that at least a small part of those losses came due to a lack of mental toughness that for some reason has been cultivated for years and years in Flushing.  Think about it, if a player can’t handle somebody telling them that they’re better than their record shows, how are they going to handle facing Albert Pujols or Chase Utley … or staring down the barrel of Doc Halladay or Billy Wagner or even freakin’ Steven Strasburg in a key spot during a divisional game?

(Unless of course Steve Phillips takes over in Washington, because as long as Phillips is talking about baseball somewhere and is still lobbying for a job in the game, then hope really does spring eternal.  Hey, how is Jose Cruz Jr. doing these days?)

So yeah, that thing I wrote yesterday, you might as well forget it.  I’m done hoping for this team to grow a set.  It’s too much to ask. The kindler, gentler generation, the whiners, the softies, the ones who want to give trophies to every little leaguer no matter what the score is, they’ve already won.  They’ve won a long time ago.  The door has been flung wide open by the people in charge, and the softies have infiltrated the premises and there’s nothing anyone can do to get them out and keep them out.  Squeaky wheels get grease, whether they actually roll or not.

So can I at least get 18 outs from R.A. Dickey?  Or is that too much to ask as well?