New York fans -- who take pride in their passion and hostility, even when it's misguided -- need to take a long look in the mirror today after being shamed in the pages of a Los Angeles newspaper:
Reporting from New York -- Manny Ramirez, you're not in San Diego anymore. Or are you?
The Dodgers' left fielder sparked some boos Tuesday night during an abbreviated appearance, but he mostly generated indifference from a Citi Field crowd that displayed something resembling SoCal cool. The heckling was especially mild among those seated behind Ramirez in left field during the 4 1/2 innings he played before being ejected for scattering his bat, helmet and arm guard on the field after a called third strike.
"I've been in some hostile environments," Daniel Nussen, a Santa Monica-born Dodgers fan who now lives in Manhattan, said from his seat in left field. "This is just like another Mets game."
The only possible explanations for this are (a) Citi Field has priced out your typical, obnoxious Mets fan in favor of a bunch of mild-mannered white collar types; (b) the Mets' recent struggles have simply demoralized the fan base, to the point where they can't get their dander up over much of anything; or (c) Manny Ramirez isn't nearly the villain in the eyes of fans that the press desperately wants him to be. What say you, Manny?
"I get that support everywhere I go. "The fans have been great to me, especially in L.A. . . . People really like me."
Makes sense to me. Now, can we finally get over the phony outrage?
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I think it is mostly option C. At least that how I feel.
As an outsider it sure does seem the Mets have finally worn their fans down far enough that they can only boo thier own team.
I am a Met Fan and we are now most interested in the start of preseason football. We dont care about Manny Ramirez nor anyone regardless of drug addiction that happens to be better than our team, that list now includes everyone in the majors and minors, tavern slow pitch softball leagues as well as most little league and certain T ball leagues.
So people really don't care or are the Mets fans so exasperated that their team is just so fundamentally deficient and passionless? I work with lots of Mets fans and their eyes are cold and dead. Of course, that could be work.
My boss is a Mets fan (poor guy) and he is so fed up with the team that he has basically stopped watching.
No, I'm a Mets fan and I too am sick of their mismanagement, lack of motivation and inflated salaries. I'll check on them in August and see if they have shown up yet.
Nope, it's not work. It's the Mets. I'm looking forward to Hokey season
Oh, Craig, you're so naive. Don't you see that there's some sort of conspiracy going on here? Someone - could be Manny himself, MLB, the Player's Association, ESPN, who knows - did something to that crowd to temper it down. Maybe the people in the stands were corporate plants ordered to take it easy on Manny. Or maybe someone laced the food & beer in the left field area with some saltpeter or something. Or perhaps there was a little bit of unofficially sanctioned "partying" going on in the parking lot designed to "mellow" everyone out. Whatever it is, it's clearly a ploy to make us think that even the harshest of critics - New York fans - don't care about this issue. I mean, there's no way that apathy could be real, right? It's *got* to be the machinations of someone who has a stake in all of this!
I'm glad you're pointing out the disconnect between fans and sanctimonious columnists, but I'm also kind of tired of hearing about it. This is why JoePoz is pretty much the only print columnist I read all that much anymore.
I was @ the game last night, I'm a huge Met's fan, I booed Manny, but I have to admit, I booed Arod & the Yankees more last month. The way the Mets have played lately, my anger is more to the pathetic ownership, who likes counting $ and will sit on their hands & do nothing to improve this team.
I'm not sure how you can blame the Wilpons. The Mets have a huge payroll, it's not like they have been cheap. If you must blame someone (other than the players) I think Omar would be a good place to start, not the owners who have given the Mets one of the highest payrolls in baseball.
This article is so rude! Calling Mets fans obnoxious is really not very nice. There are so many steroid users now, the booing would have to be all the time in every game. Get over it and get over calling an entire fan base obnoxious as well.
Counterpoint: Have you been to a Mets game? If the shoe fits...
I have been to a Mets game (actually quite a few), and I did not find the fans to be obnoxious. Sorry.
I've been a Mets fan for 40 years, watching the game last night as always. The second baseman we should have had, hits an easy out to the overpaid, lackadaisical second baseman we do have – who promptly bobbles the ball and throws a lazy toss to first. Runner safe! I look at my five year old son, who’s been watching the Mets with me for four years and is a Mets fan even though his mother is a Yankee fan. I say to him “it’s a tough time to be a Met fan”. He says to me, “I’m a Yankee fan, they are winners”. To which my wife shouts out “woohoo”! Everyday this team makes me die a little more inside. So to answer the question, I would say B "demoralized fan base". Honestly, I was too busy watching the comedy of incompetence and errors to notice Manny was playing, until he was ejected.....
Mets = choke artists.
This season, they're not choke artists. They're just a crappy team.
There are fans from every team that are obnoxious, some teams have more, some have less, but all teams have them. I wouldn't go so far as to call the majority of Met's fans obnoxious, but they do have a higher percentage than most. But then, so do the Yankees and the Red Sox, it's a locale kinda thing I guess.
As to the main subject, I promised myself I would stop talking about Manny but have to just say I don't consider my outrage of Manny phony. I don't like cheaters, never have, never will. Even semi-legit tactics that, while not outright cheating, are definitely questionable leave a bad taste in my mouth. Some of it is part of the game and I can accept that, when people cross the line that's it.
He needs to know what he did has consequences, and if the rules of MLB are too weak to provide that then the people who watch him need to be more in his face about it or he won't learn and neither will those who come after him.
"Now, can we finally get over the phony outrage?"
OK, we get it. We're all "sanctimonious" (and that overused word has now become as annoying as "steroids"). Can the blogging world now find something else to write about? You're complaining so much about the sanctimony of others, that you, too, are coming across as sanctimonious. And now I'm coming across as sanctimonious by complaining about it! It's a vicious cycle of sanctimony!
How about we complain about something else, like the slow-moving cashiers at Citi Field who took a dog's age to prepare my sausage and peppers last night thus preventing me from expressing my "phony outrage" when Ramirez came to the plate.
Are Mets fans also supposed to boo and heckle Gary Sheffield, too? Maybe they just aren't hypocrites.
I would say it's a combination of a, b, and c. I know the Mets have crushed my soul into a fine powder.
I can hardly watch them anymore, so I just surf extra innings looking for my fantasy players.
OPTION D
There is no passion toward the cheaten Manny because he doesn't get seen at Citi/Shea. Blame interleague because the Dodgers come around about as often as the Seibu Lions. Look at Chipper Jones as a case to point to. New Yorkers aren't from Philly, they need a reason to hate, and Manny hasn't provided one. Another case in point though a different sport, is the upcoming 40th anniversary of "Potvin sucks" (which is still true, only now he sucks as a color guy for the Florida Panthers).
On behalf of all Mets fans, I apologize for our lack of immaturity. We'll try harder to act more foolish next time out.