Wallace Matthews Spits in Glavine's Champagne (split)

[stevejrogers]

Part of my point also was that Matthews rationalized his belief that Knick fans were hypocritical in their treatment of Ewing based on calls to radio shows, and whatever he could gleam from letters to the papers.

It is like you can�t base all of Met fandom by just here on the Cranepool Forum, or other forums, or who is calling up Mets Extra. Is the majority opinion 100% pro Glavine? No probably not, he will have that A on his cap in Cooperstown, won a ring as Brave, and 47 probably will be retired by the Braves. Never mind the fact that Glavine probably ranks high in the list of most wins against the Mets, or the fact that he was a member of the Brave team that kept stifling us year after year, specifically the 1999 NLCS.

Have the majority of fans warmed up to him? Yeah, they probably have. He seems like a nice fellow off the field, and he doesn�t have any of the stories that many athletes do when it comes to off the field meetings. Despite not being the Tom Glavine of 1993 when we got him in 2003, Glavine has put up a decent enough performance to garner affection from the Shea faithful. To say nothing of his postseason performances, and there is some hope that Glavine just might be able to break the all-time postseason win mark in a Met uniform.

Likewise despite all the hate heard on WFAN and 1050 ESPN Radio, as well as letters to the Post, Newsday and Daily News, (usually agreeing with some form of bile hurled at Ewing by an author of an article or host of a show) Patrick Ewing was, and still is, one of the most beloved figures in this town. Did he deserve his detractors? Yes he probably did, and he defiantly didn�t help his cause by being a surly jerk to fans and the media. However, the majority of those who went to MSG, and who watched and listened to the games probably didn�t care for the backstage nonsense. While it�s true that Ewing failed to bring the NBA championship back to New York, and made a lot of �guarantees� that did not come to pass, Patrick Ewing gave Knick fans many, many, many great moments to celebrate. So that was what Knick fans, wanted to give back to Ewing that night.

No it wasn�t hypocritical because there really is no way to gauge the opinion of the fan base by those calling up talk shows, posting on an internet forum, or writing letters to the editors. Take them all in the mix and you will have some form of understanding, but Matthews falls in the trap of taking views of a minority and thinking it is the view of the majority. Or even worse, (and I�ve heard this sometimes being said about radio hosts) taking his own view and trying to make it seem like the majority opinion.