Mets 2008 – Chapter 2: Met Fans Are Retarded – Volume 942
After the debacle that was Opening Day at Shea I promised myself that I was going to take some time and not go to any games for a while. My co-worker promptly found under face-value tickets on eBay for Johan Santana’s first Shea start on Saturday packaged with tickets to the Mets/Nationals game on Tuesday. So, we ended up getting another 2 games for $20. I mean, I can’t be held responsible for deals like those.
Saturday’s game was…… not good. Santana surrendered an early 2-run lead giving up 3 home runs and striking out 7 over 6.6 IP. He then left the mound to a chorus of Shea Stadium boos. I’ve been to two games now and thus far Santana, Aaron Heilman, Luis Castillo, Jose Reyes, and Scott Schoenweis have all received their share of fan hate. Shea has become a terribly contentious environment and it’s no wonder why the Mets record last season was better on the road.
Now, I understand the fans are bristling. I understand we’ve spent an entire off-season listening to how badly we bombed last season. I understand we’ve had yet another entire winter listening to barbs from fans of that other team. The problem is this: we take the barbs from the other fans but we shouldn’t be bringing those things into the stadium. Look, Shea is the one place where everyone wants the same thing. We want the Mets to do well. There are no Yankee fans mocking your epic failure last year in Shea. It should be a positive environment for the home team… that’s why it’s called home-field advantage. Creating a hostile relationship with your new ace in his first home start is not good. Of all of the things I hate about being a New York Sports’ fan, the booing of your home players is the worst. It doesn’t solve anything and it leads to a team having a better road record than home record and missing the playoffs by one game.
I understand the Met fan wanted the team to get off to a fast start and prove they were unaffected by last year. But forcing the team to press like it’s August in April is not good. Booing a guy off the mound in his first home start after he handed the team two excellent road starts is stupid. Booing Schoenweis or Heilman as they’re coming in to the game is stupid. It’s not going to make the team play better. The Met fan is creating a hostile, poisonous home environment for a team that really needs to play well at home in a division where any of three teams can legitimately take the title. Citizen’s Bank Park – in Philadelphia, one of the most contentious, vile sports’ cities for visitors in the country – is a more welcoming home environment for the Mets’ than Shea. Think about that for a minute. When the Mets play in Citizen’s Bank Park, there is a strong contingent of Mets fans. They occasionally start pro-Mets chants. THAT is more welcoming than Shea. How does this help the team? Congratulations, twits… you’re booing your own team and making them worse. But hey, you paid for your ticket. Who cares if they win or not as long as you get drunk, boo, and giggle with your boy ‘dat joo showed ‘dem bums.
Now, I’m not saying there’s never a good time to voice displeasure… but we went through this 2 years ago with Beltran. Beltran got booed after striking out on Opening Day. Santana just got booed for 6.2 IP, 7K, 2BB, 4ER. That’s not a boo-able line, you idiots.
Here’s the difference: even though the Yankees are currently 6-7, the Yankee fan understands that it’s April. The Met fan doesn’t. The Met fan wanted the team to be 10-1 right now after sweeping the Phillies and the Braves. They’ve set up this completely unrealistic need to play .750 baseball all season. They’ve turned on Scott Schoenweis already and he’s given up exactly one earned run. Now, I did complain last week about their bullpen problems, but I’m at least willing to give them a chance to get going. I don’t want to go to Shea and watch a team that doesn’t even want to be there because their fans are awful. Why would you make your team not want to play at home? What does that help?
Stop being unrealistic, you dummies.
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Way to lash out at the fans just 24 hours before one of your own died at Shea.
You are a f’ing ghoul, dude.
Aaron C.
16 Apr 08 at 10:39 am