The 2011 Hall of Hate: Mota vs. Rose

The Hall of Hate voting for 2011 continues with our 7 vs. 10 seed match-up.

(7) Guillermo Mota vs. (10) Pete Rose

Why you should hate Guillermo Mota:

The question, really, is why shouldn’t you hate Guillermo Mota? This was the guy who threw at Mike Piazza’s head, ran away from him when Piazza tried to exact revenge, then publicly wondered why Piazza didn’t do the same thing to Roger Clemens in the 2000 World Series? Then, becomes a Met, shakes off Paul Lo Duca in the second game of the NLCS, and gives up a huge 2-run triple to Scott Spiezio to permanently turn the worm in that series. Then, after being outed for performance enhancers and still being resigned by Omar Minaya, magically turns into a pumpkin (difficult considering that he was never actually Cinderella), a rotten pumpkin at that, and proceeds to help the Mets blow 2007 into bits. His defining pose as a Met is the one you see above: hand wiping his face in response to the exhaustion exerted in f**king up another potential Met victory.

Why you should hate Pete Rose:

What you might remember about Pete Rose is that he purposely ran over Buddy Harrelson to try to ignite a spark in his Reds during the 1973 NLCS. What you might not remember is that it took years for the hate to subside. During a game in 1984 at Shea Stadium when Rose was with the Expos, a crowd of just short of 40,000 broke out in loud chants of “Pete Rose Sucks” during every one of his at-bats. In the top of the eighth, Rose struck out looking and, after being clearly affected by the chants, was ejected for arguing vociferously after the second and third strikes. So it took eleven years plus for Mets fans to stop booing Pete Rose, yet now, in 2011, I’m the only one who still boos Yadier Molina at Citi Field (even in St. Louis I did this.) There must be some of those fans that were there that night who want to vote. One thing in Rose’s favor in this matchup is that at least he was man enough to throw hands, unlike his opponent in this vote.

Here’s your voting box, kids: 

You have until 3 AM on Thursday to cast your vote. As for yesterday’s matchup, in a significant surprise perhaps only to me, ninth seed Brett Myers defeated eighth seed Snoop Manuel 43-31 to move on to the next round. Myers took an early lead and never looked back. Myers awaits the 1 vs. 16 winner, so he can attempt to punch them outside Fenway Park.

The number of voters went up from the play-in game to the 8/9 match-up. Let’s keep that trend going. Tell your friends: “Vote or Die.”