Met Front Office angry at 3 Mets who hate America

[Guest Edgy DC]

Why in the world should Beltran rue anything? They made him fabulously wealthy. They did because we made them fabulously wealthy. He's had a chance to play, and has played excellently when healthy, and has gotten a chance at a championship.

Why exactly should he pity himself? I don't get this. This is a press feeding frenzy of nothing.

And in nearly all news stories/blog posts about the incident, it was Beltran's name who led the pack. This means one of two things: Either the Mets were too stupid to check with Beltran and ask why he was absent (entirely possible), or they didn't care and decided to hang him out to dry with the press.

Or the press full well knew --- as it does now --- but still smells blood. Or any number of things. But most of the press outlets reported the situation with Beltran, and Beltran's doing relatively fine compared to his teammates.

[G-Fafif]

Jeff Wilpon speaks! Or is asked to by the Times and doesn't say much.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010, 6:21 PM Wilpon Leaves Hospital Flap to the Players By KEN BELSON Days after three Mets skipped a team trip to visit wounded war veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Jeff Wilpon, the team�s chief operating officer, declined to rebuke the players, saying that any discontent that stemmed from their absence should be worked out in the clubhouse. �It�s nothing for me to deal with; it�s for them to deal with amongst their teammates,� said Wilpon, who spoke after David Wright and Mike Pelfrey met with firefighters at Ladder Company 10 near ground zero as part of a Sept. 11 commemoration. �It wasn�t mandatory. You can�t get upset.� Carlos Beltran, Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez did not visit the hospital with the rest of the team Tuesday, when the Mets were in Washington to play the Nationals. The absences raised eyebrows because the players have underperformed on the field. Castillo and Perez have expressed unhappiness with their diminished roles, and the Mets have been at odds with Beltran since he elected to have surgery in January, apparently against the team�s wishes. Several teammates have expressed disappointment that the entire team did not make the trip. Pelfrey had posted a sign in the clubhouse declaring that the trip was mandatory even though the club did not deem it so. �That should be stuff that you shouldn�t have to have a meeting about and to remind people,� Pelfrey said Friday, referring to a team meeting in which players were urged to visit the hospital. �It should be, �Hey, I want to go do that and give thanks and show my appreciation.� � Still, Pelfrey said he was happy 27 players made the trip, which he said was twice as many as in past visits. �It would have been great to have all of them, but having 27 there was pretty good,� he said. Wilpon addressed the issue publicly for the first time Friday on what was an otherwise solemn event with firefighters to commemorate their efforts after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Wilpon said he would consider making the event mandatory next season so �it takes out any of the controversy.� The controversy was the latest in a string of public relations disasters for the team this year that have included Johan Santana being accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit and the arraignment of Francisco Rodriguez on charges that he attacked the grandfather of his children. The flap in Washington partly obscured the Mets� efforts Friday to thank the public service workers for their work after the terrorist attacks nine years ago. In 2001, the Mets helped store food and other supplies in the parking lots at Shea Stadium in the days after the attacks, and they were the first to wear caps honoring the police and firefighters in the games that followed. Mike Piazza�s game-winning home run during the first game in New York after baseball resumed play has become a signature moment for the team. �When you see that home run, it made us feel like we were back,� said Salvatore Cassano, the New York City Fire Commissioner. �They kept us going.�

[G-Fafif]

I was hoping we could hear from Scott Boras.

One interesting tidibit I hadn't seen before, however, about advance notice for visit.

Boras upset with Mets for treatment of Beltran September 10, 2010 by DAVID LENNON Carlos Beltran kept his feelings in check this week after hearing that Mets ownership was angry with him for failing to attend the team-organized trip to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. But his agent, Scott Boras, is livid at the Mets for what he believes was unfair treatment of Beltran, who had arranged a meeting for his own charitable foundation that same morning in Washington. Boras questioned why the Mets would single out Beltran, who visited a veterans hospital with principal owner Fred Wilpon last winter, and publicly attempt to smear him. "What they've done is the equivalent of Campbell's soup taking one of their cans, kicking it down the aisle, tarnishing the can, and then trying to sell you the soup," Boras said in a telephone interview. "Why is management doing that? There seems to be a serious problem there." Boras also pointed out that the Mets told their players and staff about the non-mandatory trip only 24 hours before they were expected to attend. As Beltran explained, he already had set up the meeting for his foundation, which is building a high school/baseball academy in his native Puerto Rico. Boras said that Mets ownership didn't bother to ask Beltran why he couldn't make the trip - but criticized him anyway, along with Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo. Beltran, who homered Friday night, has one year worth $18.5 million left on his $119-million contract, and given his recent clashes with the Mets, it could make for an interesting winter. On Friday, when asked again about the incident, Beltran shrugged. "I'm confident that I know to do the right thing," he said. "That's how I live my life. The only thing is if somebody had a problem with me, I wish they would come to me and talk to me about it. To do it through the newspapers, that's not how I do business."

[bmfc1]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/jeff_pearlman/09/10/mets/index.html Pearlman, who aspires to be Klapisch, chimed in. Missing is the praise that 22 Mets DID visit the hospital....

Pearlman says he was wrong:

http://networkedblogs.com/7JnhQ

[G-Fafif]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/jeff_pearlman/09/10/mets/index.html Pearlman, who aspires to be Klapisch, chimed in. Missing is the praise that 22 Mets DID visit the hospital.... Pearlman says he was wrong: http://networkedblogs.com/7JnhQ

Compelling, engaging and provocative as a reporter...yet everything on his blog essentially reads as such:

Pearlman Has Thought,
Shares It Immediately

Writer thinks of things, thinks everything he thinks
needs to be expressed without regard to thinking

Later expresses regret he didn't think things through

[Ceetar]

I wonder about Boras sometimes. (I'd suspected that about the notification too. Sounds like they arrived in Washington, someone mentioned that they'd arranged a visit to Walter Reed and all were welcome to come. Pelfrey made it 'mandatory' in the sense that he thought they should all go because it was important and they're a team. Lost of course is that 27 Mets went, well more than usually go, as part of the 'team' exercise. ) Does he not realize the media over dramatizes things, that maybe the Wilpons weren't taking shots at Beltran through the media? Or does he know better as he's actually dealt with them more than us (and probably more closely than the writers)? Or is it all a bargaining ploy for Beltran (he didn't mention Perez at all..)

[Guest Edgy DC]

Good on Pearlman. He's been a depressed malcontent for a while now. It's nice to see somebody backtrack when the lights go on.

As for Pelfrey, he's got the zealotry of youth going.

[Frayed Knot]

Jeff Wilpon speaks! Or is asked to by the Times and doesn't say much.

No he doesn't say much. But what he does say is almost at complete odds to what previous claims said he said.
Suddenly the man who "was livid" according to - and this one is always my favorite source of bullshit - "a person familiar with the mood in the front office" is leaving this as an in-clubhouse matter while saying; "It wasn't mandatory. You can't get that upset"

Not that any of that stops the article from labeling an event where twice as many showed as usual "a public relations disaster" but, hey, once you call it that in print I guess it becomes one whether it deserves to or not.

[ashie62]

Is anyone suggesting the three are being singled out for being hispanic?

I doubt it, but give the tweeters time.

[Gwreck]

Probably not, but then again, there are people out there who still genuinely believe that the Mets have too many Latino players, so I guess anything's possible...

[Guest Edgy DC]

I certainly think it's highly relevant.

[Zvon]

To me this is just another example of how dysfunctional this organization has become.

Jeff Wilpon saying:

�It�s nothing for me to deal with; it�s for them to deal with amongst their teammates�

is typical. Why even add that last part?

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

Edgy DC wrote: Why in the world should Beltran rue anything? They made him fabulously wealthy. They did because we made them fabulously wealthy. He's had a chance to play, and has played excellently when healthy, and has gotten a chance at a championship.

It's not as if Beltran didn't have other teams willing to make him quite wealthy. The Mets may have been the highest bidder, but I feel confident that he would have had other teams willing to shower millions of dollars on him had he decided to spurn the Mets. Had Beltran chosen to sign elsewhere, he almost certainly would not have been subjected to the same level of fan and media scrutiny that he has endured as a Met. He had options and I think in retrospect he has reason to possibly regret the choice he made.

For instance, he was frequently booed in 2005, he caught a lot of grief for watching Wainwright's curve in 2006, the Mets (Minaya) second guessed him for having knee surgery this off season, and now he is being scapegoated for missing the visit to Walter Reed Army Hospital. Carlos Beltran is one of my favorite Mets, but I think he has ample reason to possibly second guess his decision to sign with the Mets.

Apparently, you feel differently. It won't be the first time we have disagreed and it almost assuredly won't be the last.

[Guest Edgy DC]

You makes me out like I'm some sort of Disagreeing Danny.

I just think virtually none of this is the Mets' fault. As for tabloid journalists in New York behavng horribly, and Met fans having among them an unhealthy quotient of abusive fools, none of that is news, or should be to Carlos or any other high-end free agent. But I think all top-paying teams (outside of maybe the Dodgers) have legions of abusive fans. Heck, ask Chuck Knoblauch about the sweet gentle Morman fans in Minnesota. I doubt this wave wouldn't have happened had he still been an Astro and everything else shook out the same way. The only thing to regret is living in a culture that allows this stupid I-love-America-more-than-you nonsense to persist. Or that swallows the deliberate nonsense they're fed (every season!) that suggests teams and players failing on the field are moral failures.

In the meantime, signing with the Mets has brought him an unthinkable amount of opportunity --- including the opportuntiy to build the high school he's working on.

If a cool person keeps his or her head, he or she lets this pass, and tomorrow the tabloids will find somebody else to tell people to hate.

[ashie62]

You stereotype Mormans but complain about I love America nonsense. You can't have it both ways.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

? Quotes?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Ashie, to what, please, are you referring?

[ashie62]

Edgy DC wrote: Ashie of all the weird things... what the hell?

You characterize and in effect stereotype abusive Twins fans as sweet gentle Mormans which seems wacky and cruel to me and then strongly opine that defining levels of patriotism is nonsense (which I do agree).

It just seems like two very at odd points of view in the same argument.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Actaully, I was tired and meant to refer to Lutherans. (Mormans in Minnesota? Did I really say that?) More to the point, I thought it was clear that I was being ironic, referring to fan abuse that actually isn't as distinctly characteristic of New York as might be suggested. My case in point was a three-day hatefest Twins fans threw for Chuck Knobloauch that strangely came years after he was traded to New York.

I was actually trying to ironically explode a stereotype. Fan abuse is virtually everywhere. And it can and has been inflamed by self-serving journalists virtually everywhere.

[ashie62]

I understand.

[Zvon]

Edgy DC wrote: Fan abuse is virtually everywhere. And it can and has been inflamed by self-serving journalists virtually everywhere.

(this question is not specifically meant for you Ed, but everyone)
Which do you think comes first?
The fan reaction or the spin?
Do the fans tell the journalists what to write or do the writers tell the fans what to think?

[ashie62]

The spinners enflame the masses.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

Ashie62 wrote: The spinners enflame the masses.

The masses are crazy, the Spinners were cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR2T1fXP9NI

[G-Fafif]

I adore the Spinners -- explosively and definitely not ironically.

[ashie62]

G-Fafif wrote: I adore the Spinners -- explosively and definitely not ironically.

And f.a.f.i.f is one of the spinners contributing to this mess..yuck yuck

[G-Fafif]

Ashie62 wrote: G-Fafif wrote: I adore the Spinners -- explosively and definitely not ironically. And f.a.f.i.f is one of the spinners contributing to this mess..yuck yuck

Not anymore. Too busy preparing myself for the Rubberband Man.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Remember, when people try and stick this in your face as a fan, the Phillies tore down a whole stadium dedicated to veterans.