Would we have booed Pete?

[Bob Alpacadaca]

Seeing all these stories about how the mouth breathing Yankee fans are gearing up to boo Soto, and I don't get it. Trying to think of a Mets comparison.



If Pete had signed with the rival Braves or Phillies and was making his return to Citi Field, would Mets fans boo him upon his return?



https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/46aee79/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2582x1964+0+0/resize/320x243!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fea%2F78%2Fb6889d8f4bf5bea996309322c525%2F1481345-la-sp-world-series-dodgers-yankees-game4-ws1922a.jpg>



I realize people who do stupid stuff like this are pretty much capable of anything. But I don't get the booing.

[stevejrogers]

Bob Alpacadaca wrote: Seeing all these stories about how the mouth breathing Yankee fans are gearing up to boo Soto, and I don't get it. Trying to think of a Mets comparison. If Pete had signed with the rival Braves or Phillies and was making his return to Citi Field, would Mets fans boo him upon his return? https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/46aee79/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2582x1964+0+0/resize/320x243!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fea%2F78%2Fb6889d8f4bf5bea996309322c525%2F1481345-la-sp-world-series-dodgers-yankees-game4-ws1922a.jpg> I realize people who do stupid stuff like this are pretty much capable of anything. But I don't get the booing.

Darryl Strawberry's LA Dodger return?

[ashie62]

I would not have booed Pete or any other Met for that matter



I don't recall any Met that left on such a sour note where I would have booed with vigor but I am relying on memory



I read that the "leader" of the Bleacher Creatures wants them all to turn there backs when Soto comes out to RF



He suggested there will be eff Soto calls and such



As if it couldn't get much worse he is bringing a presumably out of retirement Bleacher Creature for his first game of the season



This just sounds ridiculous as I write this. Do they call that the Yankee way?



LGM

[Bob Alpacadaca]

Maybe deGrom would be comparable. I'd cheer for him.

[Cowtipper]

I'd like to think we would have thrown batteries at him.

[Bob Alpacadaca]

Some of this seems to be media driven.

[Edgy MD]

For what it is worth, Alonso is not particularly analogous to Soto. Soto spent one year with the Yankees, and really, he probably gave them the best year of his career.

[Lefty Specialist]

Depends on how the person left. Sometimes it's clear that the Mets are willing to let a person walk. If they sign somewhere else, they get cheered the first time, then after that they're just another opposing player. deGrom's an example. Took more money than the Mets were willing to offer, and godspeed. When he pitches at Citi, he'll get a tribute video and cheered. If he's ever healthy enough to pitch at Citi, that is.



If a player doesn't give the Mets a chance, bolts and talks shit on his way out the door, he gets booed.



If it's somewhere in the middle, I lean toward not ever booing. It's a biznis, and players, agents and front offices do what they have to.

[Frayed Knot]

I was at Straw's first game at Shea as a Dodger. Now obviously it was a long time ago but I don't remember too many boos and recall more being uncomfortable with so many fans seemingly rooting more for Straw to do something spectacular than they were for the Mets. I was also at Seaver's first game at Shea w/the Reds and had the same feeling.



The Mets led the game 6-0 at one point but a Strawberry 2R HR started a comeback which saw the Dodgers score three in the 6th then two more in the 9th which, as fate would have it, brought up Darryl as the go-ahed run with two outs and a runner on where he proceeded to ... end the game with a weak ground out. Had he HR'd in that spot and sunk the Mets (pending the bottom 9th of course) approximately 150,000 of the 47,000 people in attendance that day would have claimed that they Knew he was going to do that.



https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN199105070.shtmlhttps://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN199105070.shtml



btw, the final four hitters for the Dodgers in that game were Gary Carter, Brett Butler, Juan Samuel, and Darryl Strawberry, three ex-Mets and a future Met.

Carter, Butler, and Samuel all got hits.







Yanqui fans are pissed at Soto because he had the audacity to Not re-up with their team, an act which they believe is impermissible under the laws of their universe. Especially among the man-children of the Bleacher Creatures, who mostly grew up in an era where the Yanx got nearly every player they sought*, for one who had already tasted the atmosphere in the Bronx to spurn a high offer and choose not just another team but THAT other team (I'm not even sure him going to Boston would be viewed as negatively right now) is worthy of nothing but hatred and derision for his betrayal.







* 1997 was the year when Mark McGwire was dealt from Oakland to the Cardinals in what would wind up as a 58 HR season and then, despite speculation that he end up back on the west coast to be near his kid when he became a FA that winter, he wound up signing an extension with StL before the season was even finished. Yanqui fans were pissed. Not only did he sign elsewhere but he had the audacity to not even wait for the opportunity to speak with them. Never mind that they already had the four years younger Tino Martinez at 1B who was coming off the best season of his career (948 OPS w/44 HRs) so where would McGwire even play? 'Oh, reasoned some MFY fans at the time, 'he could be our DH vs lefties'. Yes that's what Mark McGwire was going to do. He was going to give up the opportunity of maximizing his probable last big contract of his career (he was 33) at a time when the possibility of breaking one of the most sacred baseball records of all time was on the horizon just so he could be a twice a week player all for the glory of wearing the pinstripes.

THAT is the mentality we're dealing with here. Throwing batteries? There might be some car batteries being tossed from the RF seats at Soto!

[batmagadanleadoff]

I can't believe that people even get worked up over this: not that the home fans will boo Soto, but the mere fact that they might boo Soto. This is big news? This is a big deal? If some maniac ran out of the stands with a knife to try and stab Soto, that'd be a big deal. But booing?



Now what would really be horrible is if the home fans booed Soto while wearing garish fur coats. Get me my fainting couch. Oh my!

[Gwreck]

Lefty Specialist wrote: When he pitches at Citi, he'll get a tribute video and cheered. If he's ever healthy enough to pitch at Citi, that is.

Funnily enough, I was flipping through the out of town games tonight on MLB.tv and there he is in the Houston-Texas tilt, throwing seven shutout innings in a 1-0 game, looking like the DeGrom we are knew and loved.



Texas comes to New York in mid-September, so a decent chance he pitches again in Citi Field (if he stays healthy).

[metirish]

I don't think the City Field crowd would have booed Pete , hard to know though as there are plenty of knobs in that crowd

[Fman99]

This is of course what makes them YLDBs. That's not new in 2025.

[Gwreck]

Edgy MD wrote: For what it is worth, Alonso is not particularly analogous to Soto. Soto spent one year with the Yankees, and really, he probably gave them the best year of his career.

The closest comparison is Mike Hampton: trade for one year of a star, performs well, performs well in playoffs for a team that makes the World Series, leaves afterwards.



Soto of course did not feed some bullshit line about why he chose his new team…

[Benjamin Grimm]

It would also be about the circumstances. If the Mets made a strong bid to keep Alonso, as the Yankees did for Soto, and he rejected it to become a Yankee, yeah, I think he'd be booed. If he rejected it to become a Mariner, then still boos, but probably less. But he didn't even get a big offer from the Mets, so who could have reasonably been angry with him if he had accepted one from another team, whatever team it might have been?



The Mets let deGrom go. He had a high asking price and a high injury risk. Few people would fault him for taking that deal with Texas, so I wouldn't see any reason to boo him.



Darryl Strawberry clearly wanted out. (He's since publicly regretted that stance.) I could see an argument for booing him, but I don't remember what his reception was, and I was at Shea that weekend in 1991.

[stevejrogers]

Edgy MD wrote: For what it is worth, Alonso is not particularly analogous to Soto. Soto spent one year with the Yankees, and really, he probably gave them the best year of his career. The closest comparison is Mike Hampton: trade for one year of a star, performs well, performs well in playoffs for a team that makes the World Series, leaves afterwards. Soto of course did not feed some bullshit line about why he chose his new team…

RIGHT! No idea why that slipped my mind in favor of Strawberry.



Maybe the aspect of “one of the fanbase's most bitterest rivals” was what I was thinking about as well.



Let's see…other Met postseason award winners…Clendenon finished with 61 games as a 1972 Cardinal…3 games at Shea…Al Weis finished his MLB service as a Met…Ray Knight's first time at Shea as an opponent wouldn't be until 1993, but on the field in 1994 as the Reds' 3B coach…we know about Hampton…So Murphy's return in 2016 with the Nationals would also be apt for a negative reaction.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Losing out on Soto was the best outcome for the MFYs who got several free agents like Fried and Goldschmidt instead. And carlos carrasco!

[ashie62]

Lefty Specialist wrote: When he pitches at Citi, he'll get a tribute video and cheered. If he's ever healthy enough to pitch at Citi, that is. Funnily enough, I was flipping through the out of town games tonight on MLB.tv and there he is in the Houston-Texas tilt, throwing seven shutout innings in a 1-0 game, looking like the DeGrom we are knew and loved. Texas comes to New York in mid-September, so a decent chance he pitches again in Citi Field (if he stays healthy).

I watched this. It was something to see. He's back

[Centerfield]

Edgy MD wrote: For what it is worth, Alonso is not particularly analogous to Soto. Soto spent one year with the Yankees, and really, he probably gave them the best year of his career. The closest comparison is Mike Hampton: trade for one year of a star, performs well, performs well in playoffs for a team that makes the World Series, leaves afterwards. Soto of course did not feed some bullshit line about why he chose his new team…

This is right. And if I recall, Mets fans booed the shit out of Mike Hampton.

[Edgy MD]

I couldn't find the photo, but that was the day the sign guy — that, at the time, was trying to position himself as the New Karl Ehrhardt — infamously held up a sign trying to taunt Hampton by calling him a "LOOSER," which ended up being an own-goal against all of us.



Vilifying can feel righteous, but it doesn't exactly help the culture put its best foot forward.

[kcmets]

I read somewhere that all of Dolphin Face's kids have PhD's

so I guess the decision to find better schooling has paid off.



I wouldn't have booed Pete if he went to PHI or ATL, I'd boo

the front office for letting him walk.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Pete barely got the FOs attention over the offseason and I would not have been surprised had he gone anywhere else. I wouldn'ta booed him.



The very worst fans are the ones who boo the second-tier guys when they return for failing to be superstars, like Duda. Those fans have no class and are ignorant and hateful.

[Centerfield]

I always assume the Citi/Shea crowd will make the wrong decision. They booed Piazza, Lindor, Beltran. All of this while they played for the Mets. Just stupid behavior. All while taking pride in it. And thinking this makes them edgy or tough or some other bullshit. You're just being an ass.



Same guys who boo Diaz when literally every other guy who's pitched the 9th inning this year has failed to record the save.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Still can't get over this thread. Fans might boo Soto? What a shocker. Baseball fans have been booing baseball players since the game was invented.

Bob Alpacadaca wrote: I realize people who do stupid stuff like this are pretty much capable of anything. But I don't get the booing.

Yes, capable of anything. Call Kristi Noem and tell her to bring her big, fat, fake lips to the investigation. Any fan who boos a baseball player might also steal our nuclear secrets and blow up half the world. They're capable of anything.

[Bob Alpacadaca]

The best part of Yankee fans turning their back on Juan Soto is seeing how many of them bought jerseys with names on the back. Do they not know? Best one is the guy in the top left with RUTH 3 on his!







https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GrG6Kz1XIAANv0K?format=jpg&name=small>

[metirish]

I'm booing Pete right now after that throw