THE CURTAIN CALL CONTROVERSY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You know, sometimes I feel as if I’m living in a lunatic asylum.
Was that a condescending remark? Did I INSULT all Mets fans and even all Americans? Don’t read the blog!
No, I mean it. A presidential candidate makes a thoughtful observation in private about the fact that people, in hard economic times, tend to cling to their religion and the customs of their culture, and rather than trying to understand his perfectly plausible point, the media and his political opponents insist that what he actually did was INSULT religion itself and the whole working class and everything they do and believe.
Lest anyone think I am being politically partisan let me also make clear that I don’t think it is a big deal if a former First Lady, visiting what has recently been a war zone, exaggerates the degree to which she was in danger. I’ll go further. I don’t really think it is fair to suggest that the Republican nominee, in pointing out that an American military presence might be necessary for many decades in Iraq was actually suggesting that we should expect to be fighting a war in Iraq for 100 years.
The lunacy is everywhere now. Any moderately complex or debatable statement or gesture made by a presidential candidate is immediately turned into an INSULT, a LIE, or an embarrassing GAFFE.
Maybe this state of affairs makes sense in politics because political rivals are supposed to distort each other in order to get ahead of each other. Networks and newspapers need to distort in order to keep everyone interested in the horse race that determines ad prices.
But couldn’t we possibly keep this crap out of baseball? Isn’t baseball interesting enough? I guess not.
Carlos Delgado finally breaks out of his slump and hits two home runs in one game. This is a cause for celebration. And so this complex and intelligent man gets back to the dugout, and even though the crowd wants a curtain call, he determines that the situation does not call for it. He’s never been a big curtain call guy. He points out that he’s only done it twice, one time when he hit 4 home runs in a game. He carefully and respectfully explains his high standards for the gesture. He points out that it was only a solo home run in the seventh inning, not a game winner, not a grand slam. And he knows and we know that he’s still only hitting .205. I agree with Steve Somers and Eddie Coleman that he should still have taken the curtain call. By not taking it, he made not taking it the story of the day, rather than the two home runs. Obama, Clinton, and McCain should have also avoided making the statements they made because look at all the trouble they have created for themselves.
But doesn’t Carlos Delgado have the right to make his decision, and to have his explanation taken seriously? Do we really need to spend an entire day debating about whether Carlos Delgado INSULTED us, when there is nothing in the man’s character or past performance that would suggest that he would have wanted to INSULT us?
Will somebody please wake me up when this election and this baseball season is over? I don’t know how much more of this I can take.
April 29th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Do we really need to spend an entire day debating about whether Carlos Delgado INSULTED us, when there is nothing in the man’s character or past performance that would suggest that he would have wanted to INSULT us?
NO. This is one of those Net acronyms I try very hard to avoid, but will all you pot-stirrers (Obviously not you, Dana) STFU already???
I am still mind-blowed about the booing. Dana, you and others have pointed out to me the differences between the good old “boys of summer” days and now. But I still think booing your own team borders on thuggish. And people are on MetsBlog making lists of reasons why they feel entitled to boo .
But what is the utility outside of self-expression? Has it ever helped a players performance? It never reflects well on a group of fans– it always make them look like a bunch of yahoos.
April 29th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
I basically agree with Theresa. I, for one, never boo. I do find it classess. But I understand the following argument:
I’m a hard-working middle class guy who pays good hard-earned money to go to these games, and I’m not going to stand for a player who makes 16 million dollars and goes out there and dogs it. Delgado is hitting under .200 and makes errors while playing first base. I have the right to boo him.
I understand that argument. But the booing at Shea this season has been absurdly out of hand.
April 29th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
If that’s truly the mindset, Anthony– and I’m not convinced that that much thought goes into it– well, then it’s interesting that this is how class warfare expresses itself in this country. Oy vey!
April 29th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
The only time I think booing your own team is warranted is when a player doesn’t hustle and shows disrespect for the game, its traditions, and the fans, who ultimately make the players’ garguantan paychecks possible.
Boneheaded showboating is also boo-worthy–think of Timo Perez bouncing slowly towards 2nd base, admiring Todd Pratt’s homerun…only it wasn’t, and a potential big inning in Game One of the World Series was squandered. I’m still bitter about that.
But booing because a guy’s in a slump?
No.
No, and Hell No. That’s just chump behavior, and I hate when I see and hear it from Mets fans.
April 30th, 2008 at 1:35 am
I agree.
If you’re on the Mets you would have to do one of the following things in order to get a boo out of me:
1) Say or do something truly shameful
2) Express unambiguous contempt for your team or its fans or our city
3) Do something on the field that indicates that you have decided not even to try to help your team. I’m talking about a genuine and unmistakeable lack of effort, not merely poor play.
As I guess many of you know, I have a whole piece about Booing in my book, as well as a whole piece about Curtain Calls.
April 30th, 2008 at 7:30 am
I was so happy to see what happened in last night’s game. Not only did we get the win off of a David Wright walk-off grand-slam-single, but Carlos Delgado was greeted to CHEERS for his first at-bat. Granted, he would later be booed for striking out (big surprise there), but I was happy to see that the fans held no grudge for the whole curtain call fiasco. I was so furious the other day listening to Mike and the Mad Dog tee-off on this issue and totally blow it out of proportion. Francesa suggested that Delgado would be run out of town by the fans. I wonder now if, for the first time in his life, he’ll admit that he was wrong. I really can’t stand those two sometimes. After listening to their absurd rant two days ago, I had to go and read your book chapter on them, Dana.
April 30th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Anthony. Mike and the Mad Dog will never admit they’re wrong about anything. And if they do, they will put the spotlight on how big they are to admit they’re wrong, which isn’t really admitting you’re wrong. The tough part of playing in New York is not dealing with the fans. It is dealing with the way in which certain members of the media try to provoke the fans. If a provocation doesn’t work, as this one didn’t, they just shrug and move on to the next molehill they can try to turn into a mountain. It has nothing to do with the Mets and with the loyalty of millions. It has to do with selling ad space.