With the awful weekend series getting swept by the Reds behind us, we’ve had some time to reflect on the Jason Bay play that landed him his second concussion in two years.
First off, let me start by stating I am the first one to want Jason Bay gone and off this team strictly based on his performance or lack thereof. Great guy, good teammate, plays hard with maximum effort, but he just hasn’t been getting it done.
Unfortunately for Bay, there is practically nothing he can do in his remaining time with the Mets to change Mets fans perception about him, unless of course he magically hits 40 home runs for the remainder of this year and carries the Mets into the post season, then pops off another 50 home runs in his final year of his contract next year. But we’re just dreaming here plus that might not even be enough in the minds of fans. His contract and his play to date puts him in a lose-lose situation no matter what he does. The more likely scenario is he doesn’t play another game this year.
All this aside, let’s take it back to Friday night. I’m not going to get into the classless fans that booed Jason Bay as he lackadaisically stumbled off the field after crashing head first into the left field wall. All I’m going to say about that is shame on those Mets fans that partook in that awful cowardly display. There’s a time and place to boo someone based on performance and that certainly wasn’t one of those times. There’s no excuse for it no matter how bad he’s been. You cannot knock his hustle and the effort given on that play.
Could he have taken a different approach, played it off the fence, and held the batter to a double? Of course. But that’s a whole other conversation we’re not going to get into.
What struck me the most as this was playing out was, where were his teammates? At no point did his teammates ever come over to check on him. Even during the time it took Terry Collins to get out in left field to check on his player, no other player felt the need to come over to make sure he’s alright. There’s been a lot of chatter this season pointing to the camaraderie among the players on this Mets team as a big reason they’ve played above expectations this year, this was obviously not one of those moments.
Where was Kirk Nieuwenhuis who was playing next to him in Center Field? Where was David Wright and Omar Quintanilla, the next closest players around Jason Bay? Did they not see Bay crash head first into the wall? Did they not see him struggle to get up then find the ball to continue the play? Did they not see him staggering as he tried to walk off the field?
And to top it all off, David Wright then pats and palms Jason Bay on the head as he’s walking off the field passing 3rd base in a daze. Baffling! As the leader of this team, David Wright did not step up to the plate here in support of his teammate, actually no one did and that’s just wrong on many levels.
I missed this game, so i can’t really offer any insight into the teammates not going to check on him, but the fans CAN”T be booing him in that situation. What if he were carted off the field, would he have been booed then? If not, then how do you boo him when he walks off the field with assistance? Mets fans have got to be classier than that. However, I’m sure it was a minority of the fans there who booed, so I hope this doesn’t give us Mets fans a bad name like Philly fans have earned over the years. This guy only deserves to be booed when he consistently underperforms and costs the Mets in big spots. He gets an A for effort and a big fat F for results.