I Have A Theory On One Of The Mets Problems This Year

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I think it's over for The Mets this season. The division is dead, and even if they miraculously make the Wild Card (which they can only do if they pull off a deal in the next few weeks) they have no makeup of a real World Series contender. The pitching is struggling and spotty, the lineups not elite, our stars aren't performing well. It's a mess. 

So I started thinking about the game of baseball. For all the shit it catches, it has tried to get with the times. Now it does a lot of stupid shit like limiting which accounts can use their highlights and basically putting a game in jail each week with Apple TV, and I’m still not convinced they do the best job promoting / marketing their stars. However the game has come a long way to try and have more fun. 

One of the biggest ways it seems the game has tried to evolve from its etched in stone unwritten rules  and old man mentality is home run celebrations. It seems like every team has one. 

They are elaborate , they are fun, they bring teams together, they create revenue for merch, fans love them, and the clips are easy to convert to social media. 

Like I said it seems like every team has one … except mine - The New York Mets. 

Now I know you may be asking well why does that matter? Or does it matter? To which I will say let’s get back to that in one second and let me quickly explain to you a little bit about Buck Showwalter being a stuffed shirt. 

Seattle Times - First, said Ken Griffey Jr., it's not true. Second, he doesn't care what other people say anyway. And third, he'll find his usual way to get even - with his game.

Griffey responded yesterday to critical remarks published in the New York Times Magazine attributed to New York Yankee Manager Buck Showalter. Showalter was quoted as saying Griffey and San Francisco's Barry Bonds lacked "a respect for the game of baseball."

Further, Showalter said Griffey was "bored" with baseball and, along with Bonds, showed disrespect by wearing his hat backward and his uniform shirt outside his pants.

"What he said is not fair," Griffey said after the Mariners' 9-2 loss to Boston. "You know me. You've never seen me with my shirt outside my pants. So that's a lie."

None of those who regularly follow Griffey could recall seeing that. Griffey wears his hat backward during batting practice, a habit picked up from wearing the too-big hat of his father's while he was a kid.

"He doesn't understand me," Griffey said of Showalter. "A lot of people don't understand me."

Before heading to Pittsburgh for his fifth consecutive All-Star festivities today and tomorrow, Griffey added that he neither cared nor worried about Showalter's opinions.

"Why should I care about a person from an opposing team?" he asked. "I don't take the game seriously? Why, I do believe he was coaching third for the All-Star team when I won the MVP (1992)."

Griffey said he will not bother speaking to Showalter but will instead respond on the field.

"I'll do what I do best," he said. "I guess 8-for-14 last week in New York wasn't good enough. Just because I didn't hit a home run, I disappointed him.

"I'm never bored at a ballgame. I love the game. I smile. I run in. I show emotion."

That was from the 1994 All Star Game when Buck Showwalter went out of his way to take digs at the coolest player ever and likely best player in the game at that time. Proving without a doubt he’s one of the old “stuffed shirt” type baseball guys who have no wiggle room and won’t hear anything different than “the right way to play” and “how to play it the right way.” A complete joke. First off Griffey was literally the coolest player on the planet. Second, he did the backwards hat as a tribute to his dad. And Lastly, even if it bothers you he wears it like that he backs it up with INSANE numbers, so you are better off shutting your mouth. Griffey was disgusting in his prime. 

Now, why do I bring up Buck Showwalter and Griffey’s little rift? Because that little rift lays the groundwork for the kind of guy Buck Showwalter is. Someone who has to move mountains to have fun, someone who can see that letting your players be a little loose can go a long way. Instead of having fun, Buck is a real  “stuffed shirt” as we call it. 

But again why does that matter in the current day? 

We’ll, it’s my theory that while the entire league is out having a grand old time celebrating home runs, and bringing their clubhouses together, The New York Mets are run by a man allergic to fun and beating down any flare, any personality or any camaraderie the players may have. 

Now, The Mets play is abysmal at times and for sure is the top reason they stink. It doesn’t help we are a walking infirmary, but I can’t help but think if the clubhouse was a little looser or the manager didn’t have a reputation for being so lame would it help their play on the field. 

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There’s never going to be a concrete answer, but let me suggest this - maybe we try a home run celebration (my idea is a giant bag of apples), because the play on the field sure needs to change and at this point … they should try anything.