Are Cultural Differences Destroying the Mets?

These Amazins sure are falling apart from the seams.

It's amazing how one insane catch by a #5 outfielder can completely break a team down.


.........


And then there was Billy Wagner's rant. As racially driven a speech as you can say in New York without crossing the line and being completely vilified.

Yet it is very clear to all of us not living in the politically correct, one wrong quote and you're out world, of the American media, what Wagner wanted to say.

Since I'm a semi-anonymous blogger I'll just say it.

Racial divide is an issue on this team.

* * * * *

Every home game last season I would take one of my many breaks to watch the Diamondbacks take batting practice. I would sit in left field in a completely empty stadium and watch Mark Reynolds, Byrnesy, J-Up and America's newest darling, Micah Owings, put on clinics in dong mashing.

To me this was as peaceful as it got. I had the all-access pass that we always wanted. That and my slightly above minimum wage salary afforded me Whattaburger about 4 nights a week.

While it was great to see the best in the world practice, what was more interesting was watching the team interaction. See, during batting practice it's just the guys being the guys. Players would gather in clusters around the field shagging fly balls, chewing seeds or dip and chatting with their teammates.

The team seemed to be pretty close.

All the players would laugh with their peers.

Doug Slaten, the rookie left handed specialist appeared to be the team's one loner.

But every day there was one group that completely clung to their own. They rarely if ever intermingled with their other teammates. They were 3 of 25 guys who appeared to be an island.

They were Juan Cruz, Livan Hernandez and Edgar Gonzalez.

Yes, they are all right handed pitchers that rely on their fastball to get ahead in the count to set up their offspeed junk. But more importantly, they were all Latin.

I did not include Jose Valverde or Tony Pena in this list. Also Latin players, they appeared to immerse themselves with the rest of the fellas on a regular basis.

I can't say I have an exact sense of the chemistry of the 2007 Diamondbacks. But from what I saw everyday before the game, during the game, on TV, and in interviews, the team seemed to be a very happy group of guys who got along well.

A team of 25 guys that were all, for the most part, on the same page.

Its leader, a shaggy haired goof ball who played harder than anyone and made his presence in the community: Eric Byrnes, a Cali boy hanging in the desert.

And the team won more games than any other in the National League.

* * * * *

You think back to the '99 Mets or the '04 Red Sox or even the '06 Mets, teams that we easily identify for having great chemistry. In each case, the team was predominantly American.

Players that grew up around the American media and comfortable handling the circus of big city baseball.

Each team had its definite share of "Latin Flavor" but was certainly identified by their American leaders.

As much as the '04 Sox were keyed by Manny and Ortiz, that season will always be remembered for "The Idiots" and "The Bloody Sock."

But not these '08 Mets.

There is a clear cultural barrier on this '08 Mets team.

Let me be the first to say that I completely understand why most of the Latin players gravitate towards other Latin players. People naturally lean on what they feel more comfortable with.

But for the most part Latin players tend to shy away from the media. Manny Ramirez has hidden behind broken English (despite a New York City high school diploma) to dodge the media throughout his illustrious career.

And it may be that the Mets are just overly Latin.

I always joke about this with some of my buddies, but honestly, how many times have you heard Jose Reyes speak in your entire life? (Profesor Reyes excluded).

And how many times have you heard David Wright speak?

Over 162 games, all players need to contribute both on and off the field, especially in New York, the media circus of the world.

Yet this entire season has been one David Wright or Billy Wagner quote after another. And you can't blame the media. It's easier for them.

And then you gotta wonder what's really going on this clubhouse.

Is it simply America vs. Latin America in there? Is this team divided? With such a large group of Latin players are the Mets not one team of 25 but two groups of 12 or 13?

Sure seemed like it coming from Billy Wagner.

The '08 Mets do not appear to have an identifiable core. They look like a team of many great individual talents, without identifiable roles.

If David Wright is the leader of this team, who is following him?

I always thought that this was a reason why the $200 million dollar Yankees faltered. Only with that team, it was not a cultural clash, as much as an ego clash.

Teams need to get along. They need balance. And as cliched as it sounds, they need to have fun.

With the '08 Mets, you don't really see any of that.

Since the Yankees turned into the US military, you never saw much of that with them either.

* * * * *

So who is to blame?

Everyone is ready to send Willie packing. This is probably the safest move right now, though not the fairest.

I think to a certain extent, the blame has to fall on Omar Minaya.

This is the team he assembled. The 25 guys he put together to perform on the field and like each other in the dugout.

There's a reason why teams value the Jason Varitek's and Torii Hunter's of the world, other than for their baseball talents. They are leaders, team players and franchise faces.

After David Wright, who's #2?

Vaya,
Sip

(Pics courtesy of byrnesblog.com, boston.com)

The Zen of Bobby V

Japanese people really love their baseball.

All baseball fans know this on some level, but I really came to understand it while sitting on a ski-lift on Miyajima Island, near Hiroshima, while struggling to have a conversation with an older Japanese gentleman who was very eager to show off his English skills. They were limited.

Eventually, Sip and I somehow figure out that the man is a huge baseball fan and we spent the remaining 5 minutes on the ski-lift naming Japanese players in America – each time eliciting a tremendous laugh from the man. Needless to say, Tsuyoshi Shinjo elicited the heartiest chuckle of them all.

All this is to say, Japanese people really love their baseball.

And so, when you watch ESPN's fantastic new documentary (look out Rhymes, I'm coming after your gig), "The Zen of Bobby V," appreciate that none of the Japanese craziness featured in the movie is the least bit shocking if you've actually been to the country.

Don't believe that a Japanese guy goes to every single Chiba Lotte Marines game shirtless and freaking out because "before baseball, I had nothing important in my life"? I'll raise you 20 screaming Japanese people thrilled to death that they are at a Jimmy Eat World concert with 3 Americans and an Irish dude.

In one scene, we see batting practice before the game. The home plate umpire is also practicing. No, wait. Not only is the home plate umpire practicing, but another umpire is practicing behind the home plate umpire and a third umpire supervisor is overseeing the entire practice. Moises Alou would have no cause for arguing a third strike in Japanese baseball.

"The Zen of Bobby V" captures Japanese culture to a T. It's much more about Japan than Bobby V, but he serves as a tremendous prism to observe the differences between American and Japanese culture. Certainly can't imagine Mets fans dancing crazily while chanting over and over, "Wil-lie Randolph. With him, together we can make our dreams come true."

The movie starts off with a quick montage of Bobby's life pre-Japan. Of course including the moment in his life that he will forever be remembered for… sneaking back into the Mets dugout with glasses and an eye-black mustache.

From that point on, it's classic Bobby V. Most importantly, you see a man who is brilliant with tremendously strong beliefs and also a complete emotional roller-coaster (some might say trainwreck).

After a winning streak, we seem him running through a sprinkler in a Japanese garden as if he's a 10-year-old. Regressing in age to about 8, he then runs inside the mouth of a dragon statue and pretends to be startled by the roar emitted by a speaker inside the dragon's mouth.

After a losing streak, he snaps one-word answers to his wife's questions like, well, an 8-year-old.

From a baseball standpoint, it was pretty interesting to hear how interested Bobby was in the then-Devil Rays job – "that's a fucking challenge." Don't think there's any avoiding the fact that the only eventuality that could cause me to pull a Bressman and change fan allegiances would be Bobby going to the Rays.

One disappointment: Really could have gone for a lot more Benny Agbayani. Certainly nobody but a Mets fan would have this criticism, but was a really cool blast from the past to see him taking some BP cuts and joking back and forth with Bobby V.

You gotta love that big Hawaiian. Seeing him in Japan brings back fond memories of his game-winner vs. the Cubs back in 2000. Those were the days.

- Nails

Everything's Not Lost Part 88: Why the Mets are More Than Ok

I strongly disagree with AFOMG and most Met fans out there.

Now lets rewind.

I had wings and beers (Sick!) with my best friend from kindergarten last night. We hadn't really hung out in 17 years but thanks to Facebook we were able to make it happen. Here's to social networking.

We talked about a lot of things. His twin brothers, now aged 11, who I had never met; Football, his love; and then baseball.

JJ is a Yankee fan- who doesn't really care- who lives a life surrounded by Met fans who do. Sound familiar?

His question: What do you think about Yankee fans like me?

I laughed.

5 years ago I would have jumped all over this kid. 5 years ago shit like this ruled my life. A Mets win and I was in a good mood. A Mets loss and I was in a bad mood. Meet a Yankee fan and I immediately question their morals. Was this kid picked on as a kid and now in need of the Yankees to make him feel good. You get the picture.

Between getting old, living outside of New York, watching the "New Mets bandwagon" develop and working for another team, I have lost a lot of that umph. Today, I feel like a "cool dad."

I watch most games, follow the team, and enjoy ever minute. But other things mean more to me. This was not always the case.

This change has one advantage. I do feel a lot more objective. I have a much easier time looking at the big picture as opposed to reacting to the smaller one. That is what New York does and that is especially what the New York Media does.

One day we hate Scott Schoenweis. The next day we love him.

One day we question which Johan Santana we got. The next day we love our ace.

One day Willie is the best manager in the game. The next day, Willie is the scapegoat.




I understand AFOMG's sentiments and respect the guy's opinion more than anyone's. He constantly addresses long term themes as opposed to short term shortcomings. He is smarter than every writer in the city but here is where I disagree with him.

.........

The 2007 Mets are not the 2008 Mets.

You simply can not compare a team with the best pitcher in the game with a team that did not have him.

The 2008 Mets have been extremely frustrating.

"They have yet to break out."

"They don't show emotion."

"We need to blow this team up."

I just don't see it.

If Jose Reyes, David Wright and Carlos Beltran were 35 it would be one thing. But they are not. They are all in the middle of or approaching their prime.

So unless you think these guys are done, then we are looking at a team thats 4 games over .500 who have a terribly under-achieving core of their offense.

The fact is this.

The Mets have as good a 1-2-3 as there is in baseball.

Yes, it's even as good as everyone's new darlings, the new dbacks' Webb-Haren-Owings.

And when you have this type of pitching a team can never be bad. You have an above .500 team based on starting pitching alone.

And that's all the Mets have been thus far. An above .500 team. John Maine and Johan Santana have carried this team to where it was.

Carlos Delgado may be lost. He may be a 20-70-.250 guy. So be it.

But fact is this team is 4 games over .500 with a bad Wright, Reyes and Beltran and no Moises Alou, an old guy who should be done, but has proven when healthy he can be an effective middle of the lineup guy.

The Phillies are going to lose a ton of games because of a very bad rotation.

The Braves have already lost one pitcher to age and are depending on a couple of other guys born way too close to 1970.

But the Mets have three stud arms on the right side of 30. And because of that, this team will be more than alright.

To compete against age is hard. To compete against slumps is another story.

Is Reyes done? Is Beltran done? Is Wright done?

As long as this is not the case, the Mets are the best team in the division and a top team in the league.

We can't judge this team until our lineup hits to its potential. Right now, we have three all-stars playing average baseball.


Vaya,
Sip

(Pic courtesy of USAtoday.com)

A Year of Mediocrity

Don't look now but the Mets, all $137 million of them, are 84-78 over their last 162 games.

It's a story that's only going to get more and more depressing as we move further away from our hot start in 2007. As my high school soccer coach might have said, 84-78 is like kissing your sister.

I keep preaching patience, I keep saying the Mets are just one winning streak away.

But maybe they're not one winning streak away. Look at 2005. The Mets perpetually hovered around .500, going 4 games over and 4 games under over and over, up and down like a seesaw. Just one winning streak away, we said.

Then the winning streak came. The Mets blasted through Arizona en route to San Francisco, winning five in a row (I think it was five), pushing their record to a season-best 8 games over .500.

And then, as quickly as the Mets had broken through, they instantly receded to the mean. Losses piled up, and it took a valiant late-season push to finish over .500, ending the year 4 games over .500 (natch) at 83-79.

That constant up and down has been our trademark this season. Apart from a 5-game winning streak in the early going, the Mets have been basically incapable of stringing together a dominant stretch of games.

They look great for two games, then awful for three, then good again for two, and on and on it goes until they're left at, well, 19-17.

* * * * *

I'm not a naturally optimistic fan of my sports teams; whether that's constitutional or just lesson learned after a lifetime of following the Mets is debateable.

But I still think this Mets team is better than its played, and that it will, eventually, get off on the right end of the seesaw.

I find myself reminded of another time when the Mets seemed incapable of breaking through: mid-April through early-June 2006. The timing might surprise you, but indeed, for 45 games in the early part of 2006 when we went 24-21, the Mets looked good but hardly dominant.

As I wrote at the time:

"I'm frustrated.

I'm frustrated with the Mets' inability to put together a decent winning
streak... I'm frustrated that we haven't been able to run away with the N.L.
East...

The Mets look to me like a team in need of a spark."

I wrote those words June 7, 2006. That night, a Wednesday, the Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 9-7, and they wouldn't lose again until the following Friday, winning 8 straight in total.

The winning streak reached its orgiastic peak with a 3-game sweep of the Phillies on their home turf. It was tone-setting, season-defining. The Mets had finally broken through, and from that point until the NLCS, the rout was on.

That was a magical season, but it had, for a time, the same frustrations as any other. One morning I vocalized those frustrations; that evening they began to melt away.

Here's hoping today's post has the same effect.

- A.F.O.M.G.

The Tipping Point

The vultures are circling around Willie Randolph.

It started with the crazies on the Fan. It continued with Tim Marchman in the New York Sun last week. It intensified at Bar/Grill in Brooklyn Heights with one of Nails' patented rants. And it exploded on to the message boards of Y2K yesterday.

The people are calling for his head. Truth is it's tough to blame them.

* * * * *

I don't think the Mets' uninspiring first 32 games are Willie's fault. I think it's the fault of guys like Carlos "Team to Beat" Beltran hitting .218, or Reyes hitting .254, or Castillo .242, or Wright .262 (I won't even mention the ghost of Carlos Delgado).

And I think it's the fault of Aaron Heilman having a rough go of it in the early going, and Oliver Perez, and Jorge Sosa.

Bottom line, the players aren't getting it done. But I feel an old adage coming on, don't you? You can't fire the players so you fire the...

Rick Down died for the 2007 Mets' sins. The team was languishing, underachieving in the dog days of summer. The Mets made a move to jump start the team, jettisoning Down in favor of Howard Johnson and Rickey Henderson.

It was, we prayed, 2007's answer to the Yankee Stadium massacre of 2000, when the 27-28 Mets fired three coaches, won the night's ballgame, and won 67 of their remaining 107 games. In 2000 it worked.

Last year, not so much.

* * * * *

Because of the way last season ended, this year is quite unlike any other, ultimately, in Mets history (and I say that as somebody who despises hyperbolic sports writing). The Mets aren't looking for a jump start, they're looking for something like a rebirth.

One thing everyone -- you, me, Omar, Willie -- agrees on, is that the Mets are better than they've played. The problem is it's been that way far too long.

For other talented teams, a 17-15 start wouldn't be the end of the world. It'd be a matter of working out the kinks, or finding the right lineup or bullpen configuration. Hell, the Yankees have played sub-.500 ball for 40 games the last 4 seasons it seems, and then all of a sudden something clicks and they realize they're the Yankees.

The problem for us is that we can't hang our hat on the team waking up and realizing they're the Mets, because waking up and realizing you're a Met means memories of Heilman serving one up to Yadier Molina, or Franco giving up a grand slam to Brian Jordan, or Benitez blowing Game 1, or Rogers throwing Ball 4, or the team losing 5 straight when one win would've meant the playoffs.

There is no inherent magic for the Mets to unearth. This Mets team, like every Mets team, has to make its own luck.

For almost 162 games now, the Mets haven't made any luck at all. They've looked lackluster. They've looked joyless, directionless, they've looked... mediocre.

* * * * *

I've said for a long time they're one winning streak from turning boos in to cheers, and I still believe that.

So what then?

To those calling for Willie's head... I hear you, but I'm not there yet. I'm giving him until June 1, roughly the one year mark of when things started to go south, to turn things around.

On June 1 we'll have something like 50 games in the books; that was time enough to blow it in 2007, and it'd be time enough to nail it in 2008.

The thing that I keep coming back to is the question of who I blame it on, and right now, I'm not satisfied that it's the manager's fault. I still think it's on the players.

There's comes a time when you can't fire the players so you fire -- no, not Rick Down -- you fire the manager. If the Mets play sloppy, uninspired ball for 2 months of this season, on top of 4 months last season, that'll be enough.

The reasons why a manager fails to get the most out of his players goes beyond what you or me can ever know. As much as New York fans think they know everything, on this one we know nothing. We're not in the clubhouse; we're not on the planes or buses; we're not out there near the batting cage.

But that doesn't mean we don't know players falling short of their abilities when we see it. Or more importantly, it doesn't mean we don't know when an entire team is falling short.

Willie's reached the tipping point. He's bending now. I say give him to June 1 to break.

- A.F.O.M.G.