Met Front Office angry at 3 Mets who hate America

[Guest Edgy DC]

Gary: "Ollie sure doesn't want to get behind on Pujols here, does he Ronnie?"

Ron: "No he doesn't but, ohhh, there's ball three. That could have gone either way and Ollie is not happy about it."

Gary: "No he's not and he's letting Laz Diaz know about it! He's got to get back on the mound and pitch here!"

Keith: "...get back, Ollie..."

Ron: "It's too late! Diaz has tossed him! And what's he doing now?"

Gary: "He's burning a picture of Julia Roberts! He's provoking the crowd and Diaz by burning her publicity picture from Erin Brokovich!"

Keith: "... loved that movie..."

Ron: "Where did that come from?!"

Gary: "Trust me, Ronnie, you don't want to know. Bob Watson from the commissioner's office is now on the field trying to calm the sit... and OHHH! Ollie has taken him down with a flying scissor kick!"

[metirish]

Dying over here.....not that Ollie would care

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

"And now he's putting ball four... through the ESPNDeportes announcers' table! HOW DID THAT GET OUT THERE?"

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

He has to start arriving at the park in a luchadore mask.

Or better, the Mets "say" they've released Perez at the same time a masked lefty arrives...

[Ceetar]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: He has to start arriving at the park in a luchadore mask. Or better, the Mets "say" they've released Perez at the same time a masked lefty arrives...

Just have him legally change his name to Johan Santana. That should keep fans suitably confused.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Gary: "He's burning a picture of Julia Roberts! He's provoking the crowd and Diaz by burning her publicity picture from Erin Brokovich!" Keith: "... loved that movie..."

My favorite part.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: He has to start arriving at the park in a luchadore mask. Or better, the Mets "say" they've released Perez at the same time a masked lefty arrives...

I'm not in favor of premeditated murder. In fact, I've come out against it on a number of occasions. Sometimes verbally, even.

I'd just like to point out that if one were so inclined to resolve the Ollie situation in a violent way, "pretend-releasing" him then having "him" come back in a mask-- only it's actually, say, Jamie Moyer-- until his contract's expiration would be an excellent way to facilitate such a resolution.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I wonder... are there any rules against a player playing in disguise? I would assume that the mask would have to be a color from the team's uniform. (I'm thinking of Shinjo and his orange armbands; he couldn't wear the red he preferred.)

So Ollie would be allowed to pitch in a blue, orange, or black mask, but not a yellow or green one, for example.

They might as well try it. These last 22 games are shaping up to be absolutely dreary. If everyone's level of interest is as low as mine currently is, the Masked Met will go virtually unnoticed..

[G-Fafif]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I wonder... are there any rules against a player playing in disguise?

Fans will be coming to Citi Field dressed as empty seats.

[G-Fafif]

Also courtesy of Mets Police, Carlos Beltran's visit, with Fred Wilpon, to a veterans hospital last November.

"These are the guys I will think of every time they play the 'Star Spangled Banner' before every game," said Beltran. "This place is a real Hall of Fame..."

Why wasn't David Wright part of this visit? And why does he hate America?

Somebody needs another boot in his ass. Where's Charlie Daniels?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtZ5YsvREi4

[ashie62]

Edgy DC wrote: If it's non-mandatory, it's non-mandatory. If the News cares so much about the wounded at Walter Reed, they can spend more time writing about them and advocating for them, instead of using them as an excuse to beat up on players. I read about a wounded vet yesterday who was visited by 14 Mets. Met after Met tromping through his room. He didn't say anything about the Perez slight leaving a sore spot.

Thank you.

[ashie62]

IMHO, Simply please keep wounded vets in our prayers. Amen.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: He's still my favorite Met this season, but fuck R.A. Dickey on this one.

Somewhere, I must have missed something in this thread. I don't see where RA Dickey did or said anything inappropriate regarding the visit.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Dickey didn't say nuthin'. But I know what he wanted to say but kept to himself. So fuck him. Fuck you too. And Charlie Daniels.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

I'm not sure that his being annoyed with, say, Ollie blowing off this stuff to jack off to hotel porn would put him in the same area solar system as Charlie Daniels.

AND GET OUT OF MY HEAD!

[Frayed Knot]

Lupica now chimes in on this topic, saying that it's time for 'the gang of three' to go because the fact that they didn't go on the hospital trip means they obviously want no part of being on the team.

Don't bother beyond the first paragraph, it doesn't get any better.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

If I weren't such a pajama-wearing naive pollyanna fan, I'd suspect the Mets themselves of whispering this story into Lupica's ear.

Otherwise I'd find it odd that the three alleged malingerers (plus a fourth guilty party) happen to be the same four players whose contracts are most onerous for 2012 and who seemingly cannot be traded.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Holycrapfindarealstory!

[bmfc1]

Three Mets (Gee, Parnell, Thole) visited Ground Zero yesterday:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/sports/baseball/10mets.html?ref=baseball

It might have helped stop the "controversy" if Beltran, Perez and/or Castillo also went.

Gee didn't go to Walter Reed--he was excused as that night's starter--and he went yesterday.

Edited September 10, 2010 by Guest

[Guest Edgy DC]

Or it might have been seen as the insincere baldfaced attempt to suckup for good publicity that it actually would have been.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

The Mets make me want to puke.

[Ceetar]

bmfc1 wrote: Three Mets (Gee, Parnell, Thole) visited Ground Zero yesterday: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/sports/baseball/10mets.html?ref=baseball It might have helped stop the "controversy" if Beltran, Perez and/or Castillo also went. Gee didn't go to Walter Reed--he was excused as that night's starter--and he went yesterday.

Interesting how that story throws in the big about them going to Ground Zero, then rants for a couple of paragraphs about the Walter Reed thing, specifically Beltran.

[G-Fafif]

Dave Lennon in Newsday says the Mets are at fault for having Castillo and Perez around and all. Give him a few more grafs and he'd blame Bill Shea for facilitating the birth of the franchise.

The Mets, by Lennon's reckoning, made this an embarrassing story, not those who reported a non-event as something So Much More.

Also, note description of hospital and soldiers. I would have thought their critical importance and respect were implicit. But when you want to pound a nail, get the heaviest hammer you can find.

Lennon: Soldiers at Walter Reed deserved better September 9, 2010 by DAVID LENNON The Mets have stumbled through some embarrassing moments this season. But they reached a new low this week in the wake of a team-organized trip to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. That's right. Think about that for a second. The Mets transformed something as positive as an afternoon visit with wounded soldiers into a controversial standoff between the team and the three players who did not attend the event - Carlos Beltran, Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez. Given the trio involved, it's not surprising that this became the mess that it did. Castillo and Perez have felt alienated for a while now, and Beltran to a lesser degree after his public scuffle with the Wilpons over his January knee surgery. It's also understandable that the Wilpons were furious at these three players for their actions. The team's chief operating officer, Jeff Wilpon, traveled to D.C. specifically for the Walter Reed visit, and his presence served to emphasize the importance of the annual event. The Mets also had a clubhouse meeting the previous day to urge everyone to attend. The message obviously got through. The Mets had an unprecedented turnout - 29 of the 33 players on the roster made the trip, with that night's starting pitcher, Dillon Gee, the only one who was told not to go. The team had so many players show up, in fact, that the chartered bus was not big enough and the overflow had to drive to the hospital. But instead of the focus being on the large Mets contingent - the highest attendance for any of the team's charitable endeavors - anger was directed at Beltran, Castillo and Perez, from the higher levels of the organization to some corners of the clubhouse. That's as much the fault of the Mets as those three players, who were cornered by reporters the following day and grilled about their decisions to skip the hospital visit. Beltran explained that he had a meeting that morning for the baseball academy he is building in Puerto Rico, but privately, he was fuming about being called out on his decision. The other two didn't provide much of an explanation. Castillo suggested he was uncomfortable with the idea and said, "Sometimes when you see people with no legs, no arms, [from] when they fight, and to also be in the hospital like that, I don't like to see that." Perez declined to discuss it, and really, he didn't have to. As manager Jerry Manuel said, in trying to put the matter in perspective, "That's an individual thing." Which is why the Mets, at least officially, told the players that attendance was not mandatory. Even so, the whole episode turned into a witch hunt, with the most isolated players on the Mets - Beltran, Castillo and Perez - ostracized even further. Ultimately, they had to understand the consequences of their decisions. Fred Wilpon, the team's principal owner, is a co-founder of Welcome Back Veterans, a charitable organization for veterans and their families, so this was a particularly sensitive issue. The Mets, as a team, could claim the moral high ground here, but both sides look terrible. In their difficult relationship with at least two of the three players - Castillo and Perez - they allowed the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a critically important hospital and its respected soldiers, to be dragged into the muck of their own team's infighting. The Mets reached the point of no return with Castillo and Perez months ago. The only reason that neither has been released by now is prohibitive contracts. Castillo is due another $6 million next season in the last year of his four-year, $25-million deal; Perez has another $12 million coming in 2011, also the final season of his contract. The lesson here is that the Mets needed to jettison both players as soon as they realized they were done in New York, which was a while back. As one Met asked Wednesday, "If they don't want someone, why are they still here?" A team official said Castillo and Perez are expected to be Mets through this season. That could mean some nasty treatment at Citi Field if they ever venture from the dugout. What the Mets and their fans think of Castillo and Perez is one thing. But both sides should leave the Walter Reed Army Medical Center out of those messy divorce proceedings. The hospital and the soldiers deserve to be treated with more dignity than that.

[G-Fafif]

More media self-examination on NothingGate. Adam Rubin says it couldn't help but be blown up since there was evidence of an internal snit and, well, that's a story.

Unless the Mets were slicker, and it wouldn't be. Until then, Adam and the other Tweeting magpies carry a professional obligation to be used by the Wilpons.

Reviewing Walter Reed no-show episode September, 10, 2010 By Adam Rubin By now, you know Carlos Beltran, Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez did not attend a team-sponsored trip to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center to visit wounded servicemen. And because it involved skipping a visit to amputees who serve the country, it inevitably will create backlash and make those players look particularly bad. They deserve that, too. Still, there are certain points that need to be made: I suspect that if the Mets had a team-sponsored bowling event, the same three players would have blown off the event. Let�s face it, the Mets publicly feuded with Beltran over his right to have surgery, clashed with Perez over whether to go to the minors, and buried the southpaw and Castillo on the bench. Strip aside the charged aspect of it being a hospital for servicemen and the three players likely felt, �Why should we go out of our way to do something optional that�s important to the team�s ownership?� (Yes, Fred and Jeff Wilpon are paying them a combined $180 million under their current contracts. And, again, yes it looks really bad to skip out on a team function given the venue. I�m not suggesting it�s a valid reason, if it�s their reason at all.) The fact that it was three disgruntled players that did not go strongly suggests it mostly has to do with an axe to grind with the organization. But, in fairness, two of the three offered alternative reasons: Beltran, after the no-show received scrutiny, said he had business to attend to regarding a start-up high school he�s spearheading in Puerto Rico. Castillo said he was too squeamish. Believe the excuses? Well, that brings us to the next point: While it can be argued it�s relevant that those three players did not participate in a team event, it�s generally distasteful to scrutinize other people�s moral compasses. These are not Washington politicians. They are ballplayers who happened to be in Washington during the course of a season. Isn�t it better to leave alone what Johan Santana thinks about Hugo Chavez? Do you really want to know Rod Barajas� stance on Arizona�s immigration law or what Carlos Delgado thinks about the war in Iraq? No one asks you how much you donate to charity. It�s a private matter. So why didn�t this just slide by? Well, here�s the chronology: Reporters are allowed into the clubhouse 3� hours before the first pitch. When the New York media contingent entered Tuesday in Washington, there was only one Met in the visitors� clubhouse -- Dillon Gee, who was excused from the visit because he was making his major league debut that night as a starting pitcher. Not long afterward, Beltran, Castillo and Perez walked in together. A good deal of time later, the rest of the team entered en masse, some still wearing name tags from the visit. It didn�t take a CIA operative to figure out who did not attend. As I mentioned, scrutinizing someone�s charitable nature is distasteful. And reporters didn�t Tweet right away that those three did not attend, even though it quickly had been confirmed. So how does such a story make it into print? Well, No. 1 it�s New York, and once one media outlet goes ahead with it, the floodgates open. The first people to report it felt it was responsible because people in the organization began griping about the no-shows to a team function. David Wright was on the record with at least a veiled statement saying he wished the attendance had been better. And given that only four of 33 players did not attend, it again didn�t leave much wiggle room as far as what he was implying. Word also filtered that the Wilpons were particularly perturbed. It became obvious they didn�t mind the no-shows being publicly exposed. And there it started. (Really, the only media issue in this case, in my view, is that the initial reports proceeded before the scrutinized players were given a chance to respond. But because the initial reports were about others in the organization being upset, it was hardly a big deal, since the other side was presented hours later.) Which brings us to the final issue: If the Mets did a better job of presenting themselves to the public, these types of stories would be minimized if not outright quashed. If the Wilpons or other players were incensed with the trio, why not just air them out privately? There are strong parallels to the surgery issue with Beltran back in January. If Beltran had surgery without the team�s permission, call up agent Scott Boras and scream at him. Call up Beltran at scream at him. By encouraging a star player to be lambasted by the media, you may look better than him in public opinion in the short term. But that comes at the expense of fracturing a relationship that you need. If Beltran remains with the Mets next season -- and only his $18.5 million contract is making that foreseeable -- how can they now possibly broach the topic of right field with him given the erosion in goodwill? It makes it tougher. And makes this week�s whole episode and how it played out more regrettable.

[Ceetar]

I'm considering unfollowing on Twitter all the beat writers. I actually think my feed/knowledge/info would be better for it. I unfollowed Rubin the other day anyway for his cruel interview with Wright, and i'm just not sure they're providing much value to me.

Why are we still talking about this 2 days later? Steve Popper questioned the cruelty/hatred of Manuel countdowns and wishing people to lose their jobs yesterday, and he may have a point about people maybe taking it too far, but even though the Mets are out of it, stories about Towers possibly getting a GM job elsewhere, the rookies the Mets are playing and how they fit into offseason plans, and possible managerial replacements are much bigger stories and they're all sitting there for the writing.

[MFS62]

As has been noted, Beltran had visited the GIs with Wilpon at an earlier date.
Beltran was absent this time because of a scheduling conflict. He was at a meeting for a high school he's building, THAT SCUMBAG!!!!!
For Lennon to say

Given the trio involved, it's not surprising that this became the mess that it did.

is a cheap shot from a writer who apparently didn't do any research as to why Beltran couldn't attend.

Later

[dgwphotography]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: If I weren't such a pajama-wearing naive pollyanna fan, I'd suspect the Mets themselves of whispering this story into Lupica's ear.

Of course they are. I can see Jeffrey still being pissed over Beltran's surgery in January, thinking that he basically gave up this season in order to be 100% next season for his contract run.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I don't know how we get from suspicion to "Of course they are."

Anyhow, if this campaign were being fed by the Mets or being merely fed by hate, it's just as shameful for the beat writers who got caught up in it. If it was a bowling event, he suspects the same three players would have blown it off? Can you elaborate or are you just going to take a shit swipe and allow the hatred to fill in the blanks?

Here's some weed for David Lennon's pipe.

[Vic Sage]

how can they now possibly broach the topic of right field with him given the erosion in goodwill?

uh, you start by hiring a GM who hires a manager who says: "Carlos, you're in RF now."
Good will doesn't enter into the equation. He gets $18.5m, and he'll play where the manager tells him to play. It's not like they're asking him to pitch.

[HahnSolo]

Missing from just about every article linked in this thread is actual evidence that Met hierarchy is in fact angry about what happened. Are there any quotes (attributed or unattributed) that I missed? All I see things are like Rubin says "word filtered that the Wilpons were particularly perturbed".

[Guest Edgy DC]

We also get this from Lennon: "It's also understandable that the Wilpons were furious at these three players for their actions."

Not only is it not paritucarly understandable, but the only thing we have from you suggesting it's true is innuendo.

Then he finishes with this:

"What the Mets and their fans think of Castillo and Perez is one thing. But both sides should leave the Walter Reed Army Medical Center out of those messy divorce proceedings. The hospital and the soldiers deserve to be treated with more dignity than that."

You're jiving here, right?