Micky Callaway and the Miserable Mets

By Andrew Hreha

Photo creds to CBS Sports

Mets gonna Mets, And the New York Mets just Met-ed all over Major League Baseball this weekend. First, let me say that as a Pirates fan, I feel for Mets fans. This franchise is a wreck. It has an incredibly talented pitching staff, a bright young star in first baseman Pete Alonso and no clue how to put any of it together. Pittsburgh has a laundry list of issues with its baseball franchise, so it is easy to empathize with fan bases dealing with frustration. The New York Mets have a way of not just failing, but making a show of it. Maybe it’s only the city lights, but when the Mets fail, it usually is on a much larger stage than when the Pirates do. New York’s “other” team failed on a pretty big stage this weekend.
The Mets currently sit at 37-44, 11 games behind the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves. After Sunday’s 5-3 loss Cubs, many postgame questions aimed at manager Mickey Callaway involved his use of the bullpen. Callaway grew very defensive of his management plan as issues became more pointed. Finally, the skipper lost his cool. After Newsday beat writer Tim Healey said, “See you tomorrow, Mickey,” to Callaway as he was exiting, Callaway responded, “Don't be a smart (expletive) mother (expletive).” This by itself is, among other things, embarrassing. However, one explosion can be forgiven. People lose their cool all the time in sports, especially at the professional level. That intensity is only multiplied in New York City. Callaway is clearly high strung at the moment. Not only is his team not performing, but his mistakes are also starting to cost them games, and probably will cost him his job. So Mickey could have put the issue to bed, apologized and moved on. Mickey did not move on.
After leaving the press area, Callaway returned. Rather than calming down, Callaway doubled down. As he came back to the press room, he yelled, “Get the (expletive) out of here. We don’t need that (expletive).” This was only the beginning of the chaos. After exchanging looks with the same reporter, 36-year-old Jason Vargas, entered the picture. Vargas began charging the reporter from across the room and yelled, “I’ll knock you the (expletive) out, bro.” Other Mets would then get between Vargas and the reporter to defuse the situation. What is there to say? The year is 2019, and the Mets clubhouse has turned into Happy Gilmore attacking Bob Barker.

It’s not like this was the bat boy and the towel boy, or even two rookies. This was the manager and a 36-year-old pitcher. There are no words to describe the epic dumpster fire that is the Mets clubhouse right now.

First things first, Callaway needs to be fired. Yelling Healey is bad enough, and doubling down is fireable. But to then half-heartedly apologize and compare yourself to Billy Martin, as if to say, “at least I didn’t punch the guy,” is insanity. Callaway is begging to lose his job at this point. He is practically pulling a George Costanza from Seinfeld and actively trying to get the Mets to fire him. While Callaway has proven he can’t manage the Mets, maybe he can take another page out of Costanza’s playbook and try to be the head of scouting for the Yankees.

Why is baseball so soft?

By Drew Hreha 

I get it. 

It’s 2019. The hip, new, popular thing to do is to get offended at anything and everything.

Clearly, This new era of softness has made its way to the sports world. In football, laying a quarterback on the ground will cost a defender 15 yards. In the NBA, if you blow on a point guard in transition, its a foul. But baseball was different. Or at least, it was.

Lately, a topic of discussion in MLB has been over how hitters admire long home runs. What’s appropriate? What’s not? Just this week, Madison Bumgarner was upset at Max Muncy for “pimping” his home run off Bumgarner than landed in the San Francisco Bay. When Bumgarner told Muncy to “run” after hitting his home run, Muncy invited Bumgarner to retrieve the ball from McCovey Cove in order to keep him from celebrating.

I’m 100% on Muncy’s side in this situation. If a pitcher doesn’t want to watch a player celebrate, he probably shouldn’t let him launch one of his pitches 400+ feet. It’s a game. Games are supposed to be fun. Whether you like it or not, bat flips, slow trots and stare downs are fun. The same thing goes for pitchers like Marcus Stroman and Chris Archer. Watching pitchers throw with passion is fun. This includes expressions such as fist pumps, twirls and sprinting off the mound.

I wish the only advice needed for the offended here was to “stop them.” Clearly, that’s not the case, so here’s another piece of advice; Open your eyes. Fans love this stuff. Instead of adding weird and obscure rules to make games 10 seconds shorter, how about we embrace the part of the game that young viewers enjoy? Tim Anderson of the Chicago White Sox has become a national star because he plays with personality. Just check twitter. If you look at the videos going viral, from the baseball world, they are usually bat flips.

This is unique to baseball. In no other moment in sport is there so much focus on one person— and so much adrenaline within that person— than after a home run. That’s what makes bat flips so captivating.

The most recent show of soft in Major League Baseball occurred Monday night. In the first inning of the Pirates’ series opener against the Braves, Joe Musgrove threw an inside fastball to Josh Donaldson. Donaldson took offense (which in itself was ridiculously soft; the pitch didn't even hit you dude) and proceeded to ask, with profanity, what Musgrove was looking at. Musgrove answered with the same question to Donaldson, resulting in benches clearing.

No punches thrown. No blood. First inning. Both Donaldson and Musgrove were ejected from the game. There’s no reason either of these men should have been removed from the game. The only thing remotely punishable Donaldson did was shove catcher Elias Diaz. Still, that is no grounds for ejection.

And what did Musgrove do? He threw an inside pitch, answered a man’s question to him and was removed from the game. This was not only a complete Ump Show, but also an indictment of the current state of baseball.

How soft has the game gotten? So soft that we are ejecting people for being angry? Will fans be removed from games for heckling soon? Seriously. Where does this stop?

The problem remains that people will be offended by anything in this society and find an excuse to back up their fragility. Instead of encouraging softness, Major League Baseball its community need to present a united front. The umpires from Monday’s game need suspended. At the very least. Fans need to continue to retweet videos of bat flips and trash talks. Most importantly, baseball needs to look at the constant complainers and tell them to suck it up.

Life’s tough. Wear a helmet.