...Doug Mientkiewicz blamed himself for grounding into the double play in the first place. Batting .197, Mientkiewicz beckoned a group of reporters to his locker and pleaded with them to blast him in print. "Lay it on me," Mientkiewicz said. "Call me out. Put me on the front page."He added: "It's tough to look at my teammates anymore. I'm embarrassing everybody. I apologize to every Met fan in America. There's no excuse for this."
Mientkiewicz said that he had not slept in a week, had not eaten in two days, and he offered to refund the price of admission to one fan who had jeered him during the game. When he finished lambasting himself, he said, "This was therapeutic."
Wow -- not the kind of words you expect to hear from a professional athlete these days. I still like the guy.
Interesting comments from Minky. He is a stand up guy from what I've read - the ball nonsense included since that was a CHB story from the beginning.
ReplyDeleteI am decidely mixed on Randolph. On some levels I think he has done okay. But the club is still .500.
They have beat the tar out of Cincy, Phil, Milw, Hou (who suck this year). And done not so well against StL, NYY, ATL.
with the additions of Pedro and Beltran and the emergence of Wright maybe they should be a little better?
But maybe not - he has NO bullpen. They are right about at their Pythagorean wins (one under 23 versus 24 expected wins).
I think the jury will be out for another few months.
I would argue those are "refreshing" comments from a pro-athlete. Although, I am not sure that the media is the right place to air those thoughts. Emotions are the very things that are easily misinterpreted and easily used out of context. I hope he turns it around, for his sake.
ReplyDeleteAs for Randolph, David has a point, but I think that we'll see the Mets competitive until late August and maybe even into September. That is an improvement and I think it's in part to Beltran, Pedro, and certainly Randolph.
But what do I know?
Dino - I disagree with you on both fronts.
ReplyDelete1. Mientkiewicz said those things presumably in the locker room after the game. The post game locker room is like the Jurassic park forest. Crawling with reporters and their notebooks and taperecorders searching for victimes just like the velociraptor hunting for Jeff Goldbloom. This is no different than Pedro saying "tip your vap and call the Yankees my daddy." Emotions happen. Players know that reporters will print what they say. So it was fair game.
2. As for the Mets - just remember that last year they were in contention in August, thus foolishly leading them to trade Kazmir for Zambrano. And went just 24-44 (or something like that) after that trade and the Benson trade. And that team was not very good.
Oh and one other note - was it not just one ear ago that we were talking about Graves being on pace to shatter the single season save record. and now he is released.
Danny Graves gone -- wow. " Graves' latest tough outing raised his ERA to 7.76. He was 1-1 and had 10 saves in 12 chances." Compare to Keith Foulke's 7.23 ERA, 2-3 record, 11 saves in 13 chances. (Better not flip off any fans, Foulke.)
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ReplyDeleteX - I don't think I made myself clear. I think Dougie's comments are the type he should have kept to himself. A la Pedro, those comments will come back to bite him on the ass.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Mets, I'll hide behind my comment, "But what do I know?" (This is why I liked Moneyball so much - heh).