I’ll have to think about what you’ve said here. There’s a lot.

I will say this about Hagin: he’s growing on me. And I don’t think he’s a racist at all. (In fact I was actually kind of surprised by a conversation that Howie & Wayne had about 6 weeks ago where Howie mentioned Cliff Johnson and said “I know he’s one of your closes friends”.)

Hagin gets frustrated by Reyes, but he sings his praises too. I think what he finds frustrating about Reyes is that he goes to sleep sometimes, but he never stops talking about what an immense talent he is. Also, he’s been gushing about Endy Chavez and says watching him play regularly has been a real treat. He hadn’t realized how great a defensive player he is until this year.

What drives me insane about fans of the other New York team is their selective memory. Quick to point out the 26 championships, they forget the years when they flat out sucked like it never happened. I remember though and it makes me smile!

One last pet peeve…that other team has never had names on the back of their uniforms. So if you are such a die hard fan of those other guys…why do you put their names on your back? I know who wears #2 and I hate him!

David, I think Hagin stinks, but I don’t think we should assume his opinions on players are race-based. Give the guy the benefit of that doubt.

I have always admired Delgado for what appears to be good character and bearing, intelligent, forthcoming interviews, and of course a terrific career. I was surprised to see his game fall off so fast in 07 and 08, and watching him now makes me think that The Gangsta has renewed his game, maybe along with Hojo. It is precisely since the manager-change Delgado has been on fire. Remember, the Gangsta sat him down a few games early on, which Willie never did…and since then, wow!

My beef with the radio broadcasters is how condescending and biting they are. And when Wayne Hagin says, “Ï like to see him…” work the count or steal on the first pitch or whatever, as if it is HIS opinion or approval that Mets fans and players seek. Those two just sit there on their soft cushions and kill the players. If a player performs well, it is “he finally managed to get it right” and if he fails, it is “That’s not getting the job done.” The announcer’s job is to tell what is happening, paint the picture, but not pontificate. For the announcer, if a Phillie homers, it was a good hit, not a Met pitcher’s failure. The fans can make their own judgements.

Of course Wayne has his favorites, who can do no wrong, and who happen to all be white…Church, Schneider, Wright, Trot Nixon. From what i have heard, he has been brutal in his treatment of Reyes, Ollie Perez, and Castillo, probably others too.

Howie’s Mets stories are a big plus, but his job during the game does not include second-guessing the manager, telling us what to think about a given play or player, or getting offended when the Mets do not hand him a victory. He has to be more professional.

When the announcers act personally offended at no victory, it feeds the fan and talk radio disenchantment, and takes away from the beauty and essence of the game, which includes knowing how to lose gracefully.

I am a bit embarrassed, as a Met fan, at what “homers” both of them are, saying “He´s GOT to get this guy here,” instead of “The Mets (or the Phillies) want to see him get this batter” or the like. They need to keep more objective, not totally pro-Met. The great Bob Murphy was a Met fan, but he demonstrated a love for the whole game, not just for his team, and knew how to describe the game evenly.

As for Cohen-Hernandez-Darling, I consider them to be really great announcers.

I’ve admitted that I thought Delgado was done. He was terrible in April, hitting .204. He’s 36 and with all the talk of the steroids era being over I think a lot of fans put things together (wrongly, it seems) and just thought he was ‘done’.

And it wasn’t just that he wasn’t hitting. His effort seemed lackluster on defense. In fact, I would say that was really where some of the harshest criticism came from.

Add to that his failure to try to mend fences with the fans on the curtain call incident and you have discontented fans.

On top of that, Delgado was one of the primary recipients of the uneasy that hung (hangs?) over the Mets in 2008 thanks to what happened in 2007.

As for Howie & Wayne, I would say that it was mostly Howie who was down on Delgado. I think Hagin was much more forgiving. In fact, I’ve noticed in the past few weeks that during the games it’s usually Hagin and not Rose who’ll say, “I talked to him before the game” when talking about Delgado. I’ve wondered if there was frostiness between Delgado & Rose.

BA (Slugging) — 2008 thru July 24
——–Chase Utley—Carlos Delgado
April –.352 (.741)–.204 (.333)
May —-.259 ——–.258
June —.266 ——–.229
July —.243 ——–.397
Post All Star break
——–.217 (.304)–.458 (.792)
Overall .287 (.566)–.261 (.447)

So Utley overall has better numbers, and 6 more HRs, but amazingly their performances to date are fairly comparable, and Delgado is catching up. Even so, until a few weeks ago Delgado was hounded and humiliated by boos and venom from his home town fans, bloggers, even some of the Mets own sportscasters (Howie Rose and Wayne Hagin, especially). Small wonder that he is hitting only .229 at home, but fully 60 points higher on the road (.289) for 2008.

Utley, after the fast start, had millions of All Star votes and is widely considered one of the best players in the game. Fine. He is, and he is having a good year, especially since offense around the league has settled a bit in the post-steroid era, and he did deserve to start for the NL in the all star game. But Delgado has been badly treated all around, and there may be a lesson here for the obnoxious boo-birds at Shea. I hope people are noticing and adjusting.

The other day I wrote that I was pessimistic heading into Santana’s start, but funny enough I was pretty relaxed after the loss on Tuesday night. As Santana walked off the mound after the 8th I wanted him back out for the 9th, but part of me was saying, “it doesn’t matter”. If Wagner were healthy it would matter, but without Wagner even losing it at this stage would only be one game. In fact, I’d almost welcome that to see how the Mets responded”.

I know that sounds odd, but it’s how I felt. I really was half wondering how the Mets would respond to losing Tuesday’s game as they came up to hit in the bottom of the 8th. And what a response. They won both games and, I think, did more damage to the Phils and their attitude (& their belief that the Mets are soft) than if they’d swept Philly. I’m now pretty confident heading into the last 60, although I just can’t imagine Delgado keeping this up the rest of the way.