Danger Will Robinson

By Metstradamus
Posted Thursday, April 17, 2008

I'm all for venting frustration. I'd be a hypocrite if I don't anyone not to boo ... so I'm not going to do that. But I'm just here to warn you ... we're heading downhill and our skids are greased with Mop & Glo.

Backlash can be a scary thing. And the newfound propensity to boo by Met fans, and boo anybody and everybody in the process, is starting to incur some of that backlash. Consider how Johan Santana reacted after being booed during his home debut after a so-so debut:

"If they boo, that's fine. That's the history they have from not being so good, I guess,"

I didn't think too much of that quote, because Santana hadn't been here last season ... he was probably more baffled than angry at the notion of being booed. But then when you combine that with what I read in the New York Times today, you start to notice a pattern. First, Scott Schoeneweis:

“I don’t really want to care about the fans anymore,” he said. “If they want to boo, let them boo. I’m not going to take them out to dinner.”

Now, Billy Wagner:

“If they’re booing for ridiculous reasons, you just let them look like idiots and go about your business,” he said.

This, friends, is not a good sign. One would hope that the booing would cause professional athletes to reassess their lives and motivate them to step up their game a bit. But that doesn't always happen. And when it starts to create reactions like the ones above, then quite the opposite is happening. It's making this group of players tune out and not care. With reactions like the ones above, I fear we're on the fringes of a Bobby Bonilla moment.

Without sounding like I'm defending anybody on the Mets, I do understand this reaction ... this backlash, on a human. Because when you only hear visceral, extreme reactions when things go wrong at your job, what do you do? And I'm not talking once or twice, I'm talking constantly, and without sufficient reason as in the case of Johan Santana on Saturday. What do you do if you felt unappreciated at your gig? Perhaps part of the reason we boo is because some of us actually do get that from our bosses, where we go weeks without a word from them until something goes wrong ... and then holy hell breaks loose. We then, as is human nature, go to the ballpark and take it out on millionaire ballplayers. Of course, we don't expect millionaires to have human reactions to our booing because ... well, they're millionaires. They have to just deal with it, or at least act like they're dealing with it.

Side note: this is why I'll always love Paul Lo Duca, no matter what you may think of him after his departure from New York and his subsequent appearance in baseball's Mitchell Report ... because no matter how he felt or still feels about the Mets organization, he always appreciated and loved us Met fans, even when we booed him. And that's why I'll stand and cheer when he steps to the plate as a visitor in Shea Stadium.

So the question then becomes, as usual: what do you prefer in your athletes? Do you prefer the ones who bust their butts and are mindful of the paying customer? Or "I'm not going to take them out to dinner"?

Now let me stress, I would never tell a Met fan ... or a baseball fan for that matter ... not to boo. It's our right as American citizens to boo. I'm merely suggesting that we save our boos for when it's necessary. 2007 or no 2007, was it really necessary to boo Johan Santana during the home opener, after two outstanding outings on the road? Think about that before you answer. And think about what the spectre of 2007 has done to you. Because you know what I think happened to us? I think that when the Phillies passed along the curse of 1964 to us last September, I think we became Phillie fans.

Or at least we became what Phillie fans have always been rumored to be: which is a group that boos for the sake of booing. We've done this before, think Carlos Beltran during Opening Day 2006. Zero for four on the season: "BOOOOOOO!" But this is different. This is like all of those tortured souls of Phillie fans past have been released from their prison of hell and have invaded our bodies. No, while Beltran's boos on Opening Day of '06 was a mere gentle reminder that "we've got our eyes on you", the 2008 version of boo is that of a jilted lover ... and not just the kind of jilted lover that calls you on the phone and then hangs up. It's more liket the jilted lover who puts sugar in your gas tank.

Is that how you want to be remembered?

So by all means boo. Boo when a late inning home run cripples you. Boo when you see a guy not hustling. Boo when the effort isn't there. Boo if you see Bobby Bonilla in the building (yeah, like he's that stupid.)

But choose your boos wisely.

***

(P.S. I ran a poll on my blog asking whether it was appropriate to boo Johan. The vote, as of this moment, was 143-19 in favor of "no". So it seems that the majority of folks would agree that booing with purpose is better than booing for booing sake. And that's 143 people that deserve to be taken out to dinner by Scott Schoeneweis. And since I'm one of those 143, may I suggest Bar Americain on 52nd street?)