Wallace Matthews Spits in Glavine's Champagne (split)

[metirish]

Wally does his best to dampen the mood.

Wally is a wally

[Guest Edgy DC]

He lived in Connecticut? What a bastard!

And he struck out Floyd on a curveball.

[Guest Kid Carsey]

I stopped here ...

the way Mets fans have embraced Glavine as if he were one of their own,
born and bred a Met and bleeding orange and blue

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'm not even going to bother reading it, and that excerpt that KC just posted shows me that I'm not missing anything.

Fans haven't embraced him. Five years later, they still haven't forgiven him for pitching for the Atlanta Braves.

I don't think we need to expect our players to be "born and bred a Met and bleeding orange and blue."

It's stupid enough that some fans feel this way. In an ideal world, a sportswriter would know better.

[metirish]

Wally uses the fact that his family never did move away from Atlanta as proof,does Kenny Loftons family move every time he gets traded or signs with a different team....fuckin stupid stuff.

[stevejrogers]

="Yancy Street Gang"]I'm not even going to bother reading it, and that excerpt that KC just posted shows me that I'm not missing anything. Fans haven't embraced him. Five years later, they still haven't forgiven him for pitching for the Atlanta Braves. I don't think we need to expect our players to be "born and bred a Met and bleeding orange and blue." It's stupid enough that some fans feel this way. In an ideal world, a sportswriter would know better.

The Reds put Tom Seaver in their HOF (there are stats to back up that induction) and fans gave him a warm reception. I'm sure if the White Sox ever brought him back in a "Lets Honor Those Who Obtain Great Achievements As A Chi Sox" day Seaver would be treated warmly.

They know he has a scripted interlocking NY on his HOF cap and that he will always be known for his Met days and will never be known as a Red or a White Sox, no matter how many times his no-hitter, 3,000th K or 300th win are shown. And Lord knows I doubt he ever actually changed his main residency from CT or California to Cincy or Chicago.

Just because a player is known for another city shouldn't affect how a stop on the road feels about him unless it wasn't memorable at all or circumstances cause the player's time in the city to be one hiddeous experience (Alomar, Roberto for example) If Met fans want to soak up in having someone do something like that in a Met uni why the heck not.

Look at it this way, I'm sure Wally is one of those lamenting the fact that Gwynn and Ripken were the last of a dying breed, if that is the case then no future accomplishment outside of Derek Jeter's 3,000 hit as a Yankee or Bonds record breaking homer as a Giant should be celebrated by the fans of whomever's laundry the player is playing for.

Come on, give me a break. Once you become an entry on the All-Time Roster or your name gets printed in a media guide as a Met employee you are and always will be associated with the New York Mets organization. Or any organization for that matter, course as in Glavine's case he is still looked upon less than fondly for several reasons by Met fans, though most have to do with his lack of effectivness and percieved whinning when things haven't gone his way more often than not rather than his Brave heritage, but he still is a member of the Mets family and if fans and the organization want to embrace his accomplishment and treat him warmly then that is their progative.

That kind of attitude of Wally and others is quite cynical and reeks of someone being a party pooper for the sake of being one.

[Guest Edgy DC]

It's an easy enough article to write:

Wally wrote: In reality, Glavine is as much a part of Mets history as Warren Spahn, who posted his 360th victory as a Met in 1965. But, like Glavine, the bulk of his wins - 356 of them, to be precise - came as a Brave. First Boston, then Milwaukee.

Glavine

Spahn

Edited August 6, 2007 by Guest

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

I congratulate Glavine on his outstanding career and his 300th victory. He will certainly be enshrined in Cooperstown someday and he should go in as a Brave. As long as he plays hard and gives his best effort while playing for the Mets (which I have no doubt he has done so), then I will pull for him to do well. Hell, I hope he wins 7 or 8 more games this season.

Glavine has a wife and 4 kids. His kids started school and made they're childhood friends while living in Atlanta. I am not going to fault him (or any other player) for keeping a stable home where his wife and kids are (presumably) happy.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

"But the fact is, Glavine has never really looked comfortable in a Mets uniform and you've never been fully comfortable with him wearing one."

OK, support this how? Why is he allowed to make a claim like this? What. is the jersey too tight? Do the pinstripes give him a rash?

How, exactly, Wally, can you say Glavine looks "uncomfortable?"

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

"But the fact is, Glavine has never really looked comfortable in a Mets uniform and you've never been fully comfortable with him wearing one."

Just because Wally has been and apparently still is uncomfortable with Glavine wearing a Mets uniform, gives him no authority to state how I feel about Glavine's tenure with the Mets.

[seawolf17]

See, Edgy? Exactly the same.

Who cares where he lives? Wally, just shut up. And take Joe Morgan with you.

[stevejrogers]

Just to show where Wally is coming from, when the Knicks retired Patrick Ewing's 33 a couple of years ago Wally remarked about the hypocrasy of the fans giving him a standing O and treating him as a legend based soley on callers to his show and talk radio as well as newspaper letter writers ripping him for never winning a championship, being a surly ahole who never did embrace the city and its fans and forcing a trade out of town that the Knicks haven't recovered from because he wouldn't accept a non-main guy role on the team.

Basically calling out the Knick fandom for whitewashing the past because they were honoring a class A jerk who never won and acted like he didn't want to be here, wanted to be a glory hog even when his contract and diminishing skills were hurting the team and gave some of the dumbest quotes during the NBA labor mess in 1999 IIRC he was the one with the "We make a lot but we spend a lot" quote, rather than realize that fans do see beyond the warts and when its time for that player to be honored they want to be able to thank that player for the good times.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I can't figure out Steve's opinion there.

[Elster88]

That surprises you?

[stevejrogers]

Wally went out of his way to rip Knick fans showering Ewing with affection that fitted his time in New York based on "Knick" fans hating on Ewing through radio/tv talk show calls and newspaper letter writers, especially the last few years of his time in New York.

Mathews never stopped to think that if they were the same Knick fans that couldn't wait to turn the page, that blamed him for handcuffing management and the fact that the Knicks still haven't won a championship since 73, they certaintly had the right to take the time to appreciate and honor the good times that Ewing brought them rather than turn the ceromony into something that right know baseball wants to avoid with Barry Bonds.

[DocTee]

My head hurts from that run-on and my eyes do too and I don't mean metaphorically I mean they actually hurt from trying to interject punctuation into those posts and being able to read them and make sense of all that too

[stevejrogers]

Wally went out of his way to rip Knick fans showering Ewing with affection that fitted his time in New York.

This was based on "Knick" fans hating on Ewing through radio/tv talk show calls and newspaper letter writers, especially during the last few years of Ewing's time in New York. Right around when he was fighting with management about wanting to remain the central focus of the offense and refusing to redo his deal.

Mathews never stopped to think that even if they were the same Knick fans that couldn't wait to turn the page; that blamed him for handcuffing management and the fact that the Knicks still haven't won a championship since 73, they certaintly had the right to take the time to appreciate and honor the good times that Ewing brought them. Rather than turn the number retirement ceromony into something that right now baseball wants to avoid with Barry Bonds.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'm going to agree that it's the run-ons that that make reading Steve's post difficult.

What I'm getting from Steve (could be wrong) is that Ewing was worthy of hate --- billious hate --- and so Matthews' was spot-on in criticizing Knick fans.

I don't know enough about the Knicks after I left New York, but if half of what Steve is saying about Ewing is true, then he and Glavine aren't analagous at all, and Matthews had a much better case then.

[Vic Sage]

gee, i got the opposite from Steve's post (showing how badly phrased it is). That is, he understands why Matthews dogged Knicks fans for celebrating Ewing, but thinks Matthews failed to understand that fans had a right to celebrate the good times Ewing had, and had a right not to turn it into a Bonds-ian hatefest, whatever Ewing did or didn't do during his Knicks tenure.

If that isn't Steve's point, then it should be. And, what Matthews similarly fails to comprehend is, whether or not Mets fans are comfortable with Glavine, and/or vice versa, they absolutely have a right to celebrate a great accomplishment performed in a Mets uni.

[G-Fafif]

="Edgy DC"] ="Wally"]In reality, Glavine is as much a part of Mets history as Warren Spahn, who posted his 360th victory as a Met in 1965. But, like Glavine, the bulk of his wins - 356 of them, to be precise - came as a Brave. First Boston, then Milwaukee.

It must be awesome to be Wally Matthews and get paid to write the first 800 nonsensical words that come into your head.

1) The statistics...as Edgy helpfully outlined them.

2) The postseason...you make three postseasons starts (and pitch very well in two of them) for a team that's been in the postseason seven times, you are a reasonably significant part of that team's history.

3) Two All-Star berths, neither of the "crap, we need to name a Royal" variety, indicate you were one of the better players on your team twice.

4) Though it made me cringe circa 2003, the Mets have made Tom Glavine one of the faces of their franchise. He may not be true blue and all that, but who is?

5) What a fucking idiot. He's actually made me rush to the defense of Tom Glavine.

And quit kicking around Warren Spahn, you numbskull. His half-season as a Met pitcher and pitching coach wasn't a raging success but it gave us this crucial episode in the development of Frank Edwin McGraw as captured in this passage from Screwball reflecting on what happened when Tug forgot to bring his "baseball hat" on his first road trip and his baseball shoes on his next:

]Spahn was so different from me, it was unbelievable. He was terfficially organized. I was scattered around. He was strict. I was loose as a goose. He was calm and poised. I was coming apart at my mental seams half the time. He was right. I was wrong. He even said, "Look, I'm not going to narrow it down to items of clothing. The next time you forget anything, you're fined" And that kind of cured me.

Edited August 6, 2007 by Guest

[Vic Sage]

] He was clam and poised.

he was? That was so shellfish of him.

[G-Fafif]

Too Shea. And fixed.

[stevejrogers]

Matthews is also the same guy who thought Yogi Berra was being a "fake, phony, fraud" for burying the hatchet with Steinbrenner back in 1999.

I don't know his reasoning but going back to continue your legacy, and letting your grandchildren experience the same general place that you played on sounds resonable enough to end a feud. Not to mention it probably was a great boost for the Berra family to have the Yankees linked with his museum and Berra merchandise.

Good old Wally, always finding that cloud behind every silver linning!

[Willets Point]

G-Fafif wrote: 5) What a fucking idiot. He's actually made me rush to the defense of Tom Glavine.

Greg wins this thread!

[Farmer Ted]

Feel free to rant.

http://www.firejoemorgan.com/

[Guest Edgy DC]

That rip on Ian O'Conner is funny as hell.

[DocTee]

Joe's wikipedia page has already been updated to reflect his most recent gaffe.

[Theoldmole]

Glavine is a Met, and beloved.

[Elster88]

avi

[MFS62]

I'm going on record right now to predict that when both New York ballparks are completed, Matthews will like the new Yankee Stadium and write at least one column about "what a poor excuse for a new ballpark" the new Mets' home is.

Any takers?

Later