When I read drivel like this, I just can’t help myself – I feel the urge to attack each sentence in order to prove, for what seems like the umpteenth time, that the state of American sports writing is mired in the dark ages. Nearly everything I read in the mainstream sporting press is poorly-researched and poorly argued and this piece (of crap) by Jeff Passan is no different.
This article has two main flaws. Let’s begin the debunking...
1. The New Mets. This is perhaps a subjective point but I would argue that the “New Mets” were really born on the day that Pedro Martinez signed with the Mets, and not when Beltran backed into a decision that was already made for him (there were no other suitors for his services besides the Mets and Astros). To say that “the Mets still were a team with no identity” sounds strange to me. Pedro is the identity of these Mets right now. Pedro is the one that gave the franchise credibility and he’s the anchor of their pitching staff. He’s the one that was able to convince Delgado to waive his no-trade clause and join the team. He’s the one that convinced Beltran to leave Houston and join him in New York. He’s one of only three players on the 2006 Mets with World Series experience (Tom Glavine and Orlando Hernandez are the others). Pedro adorned the 2005 Mets media guide. Pedro sells the tickets. Pedro’s the one with the one-liners and the funny faces. Pedro IS the Mets, as much as any one player can be the Mets. Without disparaging Carlos Beltran, he’s lower on the Mets-identity totem pole than Jose Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Delgado and perhaps Billy Wagner.
2. Hybrid Car. This one point particularly chaps my ass. For Passan to assert that the Mets are an assemblage of homegrown talent and to contrast them to the Yankees “who continue to throw dollars around as a substitute for building a team from within” is flat-out wrong. As of this writing, the Mets last played on Sunday, July 16th. In that game, 18 of the Mets 25 active players made an appearance. Only three of those 18 are homegrown Mets (David Wright, Heath Bell, and Aaron Heilman). Of the 25 players on the Mets active roster, only five are homegrown (the aforementioned three along with Jose Reyes and Mike Pelfrey). Five players out of 25 doesn’t seem so homegrown to me. And while it might be accepted among casual baseball fans that the Yankees are buying while everyone else in baseball is building, I wonder what Jeff Passan’s answer would be if I told him that seven of the Yankees’ 25-man active roster are homegrown. The Mets have spent the past two winters re-shaping their team through free agent acquisitions and splashy trades. I don’t begrudge them that at all. I only chafe when people look at the Mets and think that their success in 2006 has been through a formula different from the one employed by the Yankees and Red Sox of recent vintage.
I realize that most of today’s sports writing is meant to agitate and instigate, to spin and to entertain, and I also realize that most baseball fans don’t think critically about what they read in articles such as this because sports isn’t life and death to most people. So what’s a little inaccuracy among friends? The point is that it matters to me. I love sports and I love sports writing and stuff like this makes me realize that not enough people feel the way I do.
This article has two main flaws. Let’s begin the debunking...
1. The New Mets. This is perhaps a subjective point but I would argue that the “New Mets” were really born on the day that Pedro Martinez signed with the Mets, and not when Beltran backed into a decision that was already made for him (there were no other suitors for his services besides the Mets and Astros). To say that “the Mets still were a team with no identity” sounds strange to me. Pedro is the identity of these Mets right now. Pedro is the one that gave the franchise credibility and he’s the anchor of their pitching staff. He’s the one that was able to convince Delgado to waive his no-trade clause and join the team. He’s the one that convinced Beltran to leave Houston and join him in New York. He’s one of only three players on the 2006 Mets with World Series experience (Tom Glavine and Orlando Hernandez are the others). Pedro adorned the 2005 Mets media guide. Pedro sells the tickets. Pedro’s the one with the one-liners and the funny faces. Pedro IS the Mets, as much as any one player can be the Mets. Without disparaging Carlos Beltran, he’s lower on the Mets-identity totem pole than Jose Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Delgado and perhaps Billy Wagner.
2. Hybrid Car. This one point particularly chaps my ass. For Passan to assert that the Mets are an assemblage of homegrown talent and to contrast them to the Yankees “who continue to throw dollars around as a substitute for building a team from within” is flat-out wrong. As of this writing, the Mets last played on Sunday, July 16th. In that game, 18 of the Mets 25 active players made an appearance. Only three of those 18 are homegrown Mets (David Wright, Heath Bell, and Aaron Heilman). Of the 25 players on the Mets active roster, only five are homegrown (the aforementioned three along with Jose Reyes and Mike Pelfrey). Five players out of 25 doesn’t seem so homegrown to me. And while it might be accepted among casual baseball fans that the Yankees are buying while everyone else in baseball is building, I wonder what Jeff Passan’s answer would be if I told him that seven of the Yankees’ 25-man active roster are homegrown. The Mets have spent the past two winters re-shaping their team through free agent acquisitions and splashy trades. I don’t begrudge them that at all. I only chafe when people look at the Mets and think that their success in 2006 has been through a formula different from the one employed by the Yankees and Red Sox of recent vintage.
I realize that most of today’s sports writing is meant to agitate and instigate, to spin and to entertain, and I also realize that most baseball fans don’t think critically about what they read in articles such as this because sports isn’t life and death to most people. So what’s a little inaccuracy among friends? The point is that it matters to me. I love sports and I love sports writing and stuff like this makes me realize that not enough people feel the way I do.
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