Larry Jones once said that Mets fans booing him and chanting his name (his real name) motivated him to do well.At no point was that more evident to me than on February 29, 2008, when I was in Orlando chanting Larry's name so loud at a spring training game that I could be heard all the way back in New York ... if you turned on ESPN's coverage of the game. Could a professional baseball player be motivated by taunts during a spring training game, you ask? Well, Larry went 2-for-3 in that meaningless game so you tell me.
In the years that have passed since Larry made his "Yankee gear" crack, the booing, chanting, and general hate has subsided. It's a tad disappointing when you put that up against Brewers fans booing Gary Sheffield furiously 17 years after he admittedly threw balls into the fifth row of the stands. But it happened. Maybe part of it is a brand new ballpark taking the focus away from rattling the opponent and shifting it towards the Acela Club. Or maybe it's because that brand new ballpark that replaced the old ballpark that Larry named his kid after because he practically freakin' owned it.
That's what makes it ironic that it was Citi Field that has now housed Jones' most frustrating game vs. the Mets to date which included a foul pop that fell inches in front of Larry, and a bizarre infield fly where Jones dropped the wind blown pop-up, and Brian McCann went to tag the runner who was already out while Angel Pagan raced to the vacated home plate (Angel Pagan? Heads up baserunning? Is this Bizarro Pagan?) with the fourth run of the game (McCann was obviously returning the favor that David Cone paid to the Braves in 1990.) But with the atmosphere ripe for a famous "Laaaaaaa-rryyyyyyy" chant, none was to be heard, at least audibly on television. Has the ballpark finally softened Met fans? Have we finally learned how to tame the beast that is Larry Jones? Or is Larry just getting old? (He gets older on Saturday ... and he's 9-1 on his birthday. Uh-oh.) Or are the burgers just really, really good?
It was merely the biggest and strangest of twists in a 5-2 win that featured more of them than the most recent episode of Survivor (J.T. ... dude.) Between Larry's fly pop follies, Bizarro Pagan's heads up baserunning play, Stimulus' first career bomb that almost hit the bridge, and Hisanori Takahashi coming to the rescue of John Maine and his two arms which both refuse to cooperate, who the hell can remember that Jose Reyes batted third?
7 comments:
My family and I have taken to calling Ike "The Boss" due to him resembling a young Bruce Springsteen, and we sing "Glory Days" and "Born to Run" every time he's on the screen. Good times all around!
I thought I heard a Larry Chant trying to come to life but it quickly faded. I can't afford to go to too many games anymore and there are probably many fans like me who can't either. So don't expect it to be the way it was at Shea to be at Shi*i field and not for nothing, but the powers to be should buy out Citi Bank and rename the place Shea Stadium. Say what you want about the Highlanders but they always seem to outclass us and win...Alright , I've said enough .
I have a good feeling about the new, reconfigured lineup. Reyes is not the ideal No. 3, but he's certainly more suited to it than Wright. On the SNY broadcast last night they mentioned that Wright's career slugging percentage in the No. 5 position is much higher than his slugging numbers as a No. 3. That means David Wright performs better in the No. 5 spot, and, with baseball being a "performance" business (what line of work isn’t a “performance” business, anyway?), it seems dropping him a few slots is the proper move to make.
And how can you not love what you've seen thus far from Ike Davis? He looks like he belongs. Him hitting the ball into a neighborhood that only Delgado and Dunn have visited, if that portends similar clouts in 2010 and beyond, that's the equivalent of meeting the woman of your dreams and learning after the third date she's a Springsteen fan.
i've never seen or heard of a mlb pitcher with 2 bad arms.pack your bags, johnny maine, it was nice to know u.
So who is the Hall of Hate's No. 1 pic for the worst Met enemy? We were talking about your hate list, and figured I'd ask. (My own pick is Larry!0
http://subwaysquawkers.blogspot.com/2010/04/dog-days-at-citi-field-but-what-about.html
Sorry Metstra, I forgot how much I hate Larry because I've been concentrating the hatred like a magnifying glass on Oliver Perez (who's done well for him in his last two starts) and mainly the ownership. I used to HATE virtually everyone on the Braves roster, then more recently the Phillies, but lately it just irks me that the Mets Mismanagement can't (or more correctly WON'T) put together a team to compete with them.
I miss hating Larry and the Braves. It seemed much more rewarding than hating Victorino and the Phillies.
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