The 2011 Hall of Hate: Bernazard vs. Hebner

We roll on with another first round matchup for the Hall of Hate:

(3) Tony Bernazard vs. (14) Richie Hebner

Why you should hate Tony Bernazard:

Snoop Manuel gets a lot of blame for being a horrible manager. Now consider that he owes his shot at managing the Mets to Tony Bernazard who, as Mets Vice President of Player Development, somehow acquired much more power than should be allowed to a Vice President of Player development. He orchestrated the firing of Willie Randolph, giving Snoop the team for two and a half seasons in which he ran the team into the ground. Also offended Carlos Delgado by speaking “Street Spanish” during negotiations, where Delgado called him the “highest paid translator on the planet”, and challenged the Binghamton Mets to a fight while shirtless. Yeah, all that serves to develop players.

Why you should hate Richie Hebner:

We’ve come a long way in assessing value. We adjust a players stats for the park he plays in, and the era he’s a part of. A lot of you young’ns don’t remember Richie Hebner. Read up on him. Read about how he never wanted to play in New York, was a defensive liability at third base, and about how he flipped the bird to the Mets fans who bothered to care in 1979 (I was there nine times that season … 0-9), Hebner’s only season as a Met. Now … adjust what you read to this era. Imagine how much we’d hate a guy in 2009 who flipped the bird, couldn’t catch a cold, and jumped on the first train out of Flushing the first chance he got. If Jose Reyes can get flack for taking three lousy at-bats off at the end of a meaningless season, Richie Hebner deserves your era-adjusted scorn.

The bracket has come up chalk so far, with Cole Hamels defeating the SNY Commercials by a score of 56-33 (the most votes we’ve had in the first round … I knew you’d like that matchup), and moving on to face Oliver Perez. Let’s see if Hebner can pull off the Richmond Spiders type upset and move on to face Yadier Molina in the second round. Vote here: 

P.S. Speaking of voting, our friends at Mets Police have alerted us to a survey that the Mets have been sending out, and one of the questions regards which Mets blogs you read. For some reason I can’t even begin to explain, I’ve made this list. I’m told that the winner gets a coupon from Panera bread for a free chocolate chip cookie, along with “Fred Wilpon Reads the Work of Jeffrey Toobin”, free from Books on Tape. The blog that finishes last gets torched in an eternal fire. So if you got this survey, vote with your heart. But if I finish last, I don’t think my fragile ego can recover. So vote for me.

Or don’t. As long as you vote in my Hall of Hate, we’re cool.