Carlos Delgado Never Got Called Asshole (Not Like the Mets)
One of the best things about being a Mets fan (wait, there is something, really) is that you're expected to belittle the team as much as love them (for out-and-out loving them is just not New York). Still my favorite all-time Shea moment goes back to a game in the 1980s when a rotund dad with his chip-off-the-old-rotund son explained to his offspring when Darryl Strawberry worked a pitcher to a 3-0 count: "Great. This is when Darryl is most dangerous. He'll take the next pitch, foul off the second, and swing and miss on the third," only to have the equally talented and troubled Strawberry do just that. Then father and son team grunted together.
Today the Mets leave me grunting. They have wisely traded for Carlos Delgado, a very good (if a bit older than you want, but welcome to New York where you have to win now) first baseman to make up for the bodies pretending they were first basemen last year. (Marlon Anderson is to a productive MLB first sacker as Pam Anderson is to an Oscar winning actress, yes, even Marisa Tomei). Delgado, in addition to knocking the snot out of the ball, also had this endearing quality: he thought the U.S. shouldn't be fighting Iraq. And to prove it, he would quietly sneak into the clubhouse at any "God Bless America" playing at the seventh inning stretch since 9/11. He was a man after my own blog.
But now we get this news from ESPN:
"The reason why I didn't stand for 'God Bless America' was because I didn't like the way they tied 'God Bless America' and 9-11 to the war in Iraq, in baseball," he said when he joined the Marlins [the team that just traded him to the Mets] in January.
"I gave him [New York chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon] my views on that subject and I also said I would not put myself in front of the team," Delgado said. "The Mets have a policy that everybody should stand for 'God Bless America' and I will be there. I will not cause any distractions to the ballclub."
And lord knows how distracting First Amendment rights can be.
Today the Mets leave me grunting. They have wisely traded for Carlos Delgado, a very good (if a bit older than you want, but welcome to New York where you have to win now) first baseman to make up for the bodies pretending they were first basemen last year. (Marlon Anderson is to a productive MLB first sacker as Pam Anderson is to an Oscar winning actress, yes, even Marisa Tomei). Delgado, in addition to knocking the snot out of the ball, also had this endearing quality: he thought the U.S. shouldn't be fighting Iraq. And to prove it, he would quietly sneak into the clubhouse at any "God Bless America" playing at the seventh inning stretch since 9/11. He was a man after my own blog.
But now we get this news from ESPN:
"The reason why I didn't stand for 'God Bless America' was because I didn't like the way they tied 'God Bless America' and 9-11 to the war in Iraq, in baseball," he said when he joined the Marlins [the team that just traded him to the Mets] in January.
"I gave him [New York chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon] my views on that subject and I also said I would not put myself in front of the team," Delgado said. "The Mets have a policy that everybody should stand for 'God Bless America' and I will be there. I will not cause any distractions to the ballclub."
And lord knows how distracting First Amendment rights can be.
posted by George at 6:06 PM
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