{"id":105177,"date":"2025-08-23T21:52:39","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T21:52:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/105177\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T21:52:39","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T21:52:39","slug":"the-thumb-of-all-jeers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/105177\/","title":{"rendered":"The Thumb of All Jeers"},"content":{"rendered":"

MLB<\/a>MLB<\/a>After Javier B\u00e1ez revealed the meaning behind some Mets\u2019 recent fan-directed gestures, backlash came swiftly and forcefully. But the frustration that underlines all sides of this story stems from a much deeper place.\"\"Getty Images\/AP\/Ringer illustration\"\"<\/a>By Michael Baumann<\/a>Aug. 31, 2021, 10:30 am UTC \u2022 9 min<\/p>\n

All Javier B\u00e1ez had to do was lie.<\/p>\n

After Sunday\u2019s win against Washington, the Mets infielder was asked to explain the thumbs-down celebration he and a few teammates had been using over the previous few weeks<\/a>. He could\u2019ve said, \u201cWe watched Gladiator on the team charter,\u201d or \u201cIt\u2019s about how the other team is going down,\u201d or something anodyne and forgettable. The reasoning didn\u2019t have to be particularly credible\u2014ballplayers come up with weird inside jokes all the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the two-time All-Star instead decided to drop some baking soda into the vat of vinegar that is the 2021 New York Mets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels bad when I strike out and I get booed,\u201d B\u00e1ez told reporters<\/a>. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really get to me, but I want to let [the fans] know that when we\u2019re successful, we\u2019re going to do the same thing, to let them know how it feels.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As soon as that quote went out, a baseball-watching nation put its palm on its collective forehead and prepared for the Discourse. Many Mets fans, who were already pissed off about the team\u2019s tumble out of first place, did not react well to the news that the thumbs-down was not only directed at them, but that it was code for a different digit in a different orientation. Team president Sandy Alderson quickly released a statement on Medium\u2014a press release on Medium is the Cadillac of Notes App apologies\u2014to denounce B\u00e1ez\u2019s behavior and reaffirm the fans\u2019 right to boo their own team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese comments, and any gestures by him or other players with a similar intent,\u201d Alderson wrote,<\/a> \u201care totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated.\u201d Alderson also used the word \u201cunprofessional\u201d later in his statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New York\u2019s famous tabloids jumped on the story<\/a> like a hungry dog on an unattended bratwurst. The same night, ESPN\u2019s Buster Olney wondered out loud<\/a> whether B\u00e1ez\u2019s behavior would affect him in free agency. Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay\u2014a man who knows a thing or two about PR disasters<\/a>\u2014invoked the \u201cWhat About the Children?\u201d clause<\/a>. No one captured the absurdity of the situation better than Mets owner Steve Cohen, who mused<\/a>: \u201cI miss the days when the biggest controversy was the black jerseys.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Too true, Steve. Too true.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If the Mets were still in first place, we probably would still be talking about the black jerseys. Because this controversy isn\u2019t really about B\u00e1ez, or even the fans. It\u2019s about the fact that the Mets have gone 8-19 in August, and within four weeks went from having one hand on the division title to being out of the race altogether. That\u2019s why Cohen is bad-mouthing his players on Twitter<\/a>. That\u2019s why, when Marcus Stroman criticized Daily News writer<\/a> Deesha Thosar for being negative about the Mets, Thosar was able to say she was reporting the truth about a disappointing team<\/a>. That\u2019s why the fans are booing. And that is the main reason the players are so frustrated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Mets came into this season with huge expectations and have failed to meet them. Of course everyone\u2019s frustrated. But the level and universality of that frustration didn\u2019t have to reach the breaking point we saw on Sunday.<\/p>\n

As inexplicable as B\u00e1ez\u2019s admission was, I have a lot of sympathy for him and the other Mets players who have been making the thumbs-down gesture.<\/p>\n

Professional sports occupies an unusual place in the American cultural environment, in that it\u2019s a consumer good that gets baked into people\u2019s identity. If the neighborhood doughnut shop starts putting out an inferior product, customers will go somewhere else. But if the local baseball team stinks, most fans will continue to support it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That uncommon loyalty is what has made MLB and its teams so significant. But part and parcel of loving something is\u2014or at least should be\u2014criticizing it when it goes off the rails. Unceasing positivity in defiance of fact isn\u2019t love or support, it\u2019s Stockholm syndrome. People who love the Mets want the team to succeed, to feel pride from that association. And right now, the team isn\u2019t holding up its end of the bargain. So fans have the right\u2014within certain bounds of decorum\u2014to voice that displeasure where the team can hear it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The thing is, as pissed off as Dan from Staten Island is that the Mets are four games under .500, B\u00e1ez must be all the more frustrated. It\u2019s not like he doesn\u2019t know he has a .258 OBP since being traded to New York, or that he doesn\u2019t appreciate the impact that performance has had on the team. If there was something he could do to turn his fortunes around in time to save the Mets\u2019 season, you have to think he would do it. Because a slump must be even more soul-sapping to live through than it is to watch from the stands.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In that respect, I understand why B\u00e1ez, Francisco Lindor, and Kevin Pillar would get upset when their own fans get on their case, and why they would want to slyly vent some of their frustration. Getting booed or criticized sucks, even when it\u2019s justified by performance. Maybe it was a petty act, but Alderson\u2019s characterization of it as \u201cunprofessional\u201d is a little precious. If it had remained an inside joke, it wouldn\u2019t be a big deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But now that it\u2019s public, it\u2019s hard to imagine this being nearly as big a story under other circumstances. Athletes get into it with fans all the time. Once a week, some MLB team commits an inexplicable PR own-goal. And there are plenty of other teams playing their way out of the playoff race. The Padres have been just as rake-stepping-ly shambolic since the trade deadline as the Mets. And while morale could be higher in San Diego, at least the Padres aren\u2019t giving their crisis communications team as many reps as the Mets are.<\/p>\n

Which is the real problem here. Maybe Mets fans are extra frustrated because the greater New York area has more people with dyspeptic dispositions than other regions of the country. Maybe there are\u2014as James Wagner of The New York Times pointed out\u2014just so many Mets fans that the boos seem louder<\/a>. Maybe these fans, whose team has had a broadly average existence since its founding almost 60 years ago, have simply embraced haplessness as a matter of brand identity. Or maybe there\u2019s legitimately a lot to gripe about.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So many of the team\u2019s problems predate not only B\u00e1ez\u2014who\u2019s been around for only a month\u2014but the rest of the roster, as well as Alderson and Cohen. Cohen arrived on the scene this year with tens of billions of dollars in his pocket and talked a big game from the start, suggesting that his wealth<\/a> would give the Mets a leg up on teams that were cutting payroll during the COVID-19 pandemic. And it\u2019s not like the Mets had a bad offseason\u2014the Lindor\u2013Carlos Carrasco trade was an absolute coup<\/a>, as was retaining Stroman and signing Taijuan Walker. But the club also brought in James McCann instead of J.T. Realmuto and Trevor May instead of George Springer. When Carrasco got hurt and Lindor struggled out of the gate, they never quite put the even more dysfunctional Phillies and Braves to bed, leaving the door open for\u00a0the late-season collapse we\u2019ve seen this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And off the field, things have been even worse. In January, the Mets fired their new GM, Jared Porter, after a reporter said<\/a> that Porter had sexually harassed her while he was working as the Cubs\u2019 pro scouting director in 2016. A day after that report came out, Cohen promised to put a stop to that kind of behavior within the organization<\/a>. Then, fewer than two weeks later, The Athletic reported that five women who work in sports media said former Mets manager Mickey Callaway had sexually harassed them<\/a>. The Mets said they knew about an incident and investigated it, but they did not reveal the results of the investigation or whether Callaway had been punished. A follow-up report in April detailed numerous further harassment reports about Mets higher-ups<\/a> in multiple departments that the team had failed to act on.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This summer, amid a leaguewide reckoning over wages and working conditions for minor league ballplayers, the Mets came under fire<\/a> for offering low pay and no housing stipend in the team\u2019s minor league system. On July 3, Cohen promised a response to these issues by \u201clate next week.<\/a>\u201d The Mets eventually quietly started reforming the program, but no comprehensive report has yet been published<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the Mets received a tremendous stroke of good luck when Kumar Rocker, one of the best pitchers in this year\u2019s draft and perhaps the biggest star in the class, fell into their laps with the no. 10 pick. But they not only reneged on giving the Vanderbilt righty an over-slot signing bonus, they also failed to pick any other players worth reallocating their bonus pool money to, therefore doughnut-holing their entire draft class<\/a>. The club cited balky medicals in Rocker\u2019s case, but the Blue Jays seemed happy enough to sign Ole Miss righty Gunnar Hoglund for around slot with the 19th pick, despite Hoglund\u2019s Tommy John surgery. And in 2015, after the Dodgers found out that Vanderbilt first-rounder Walker Buehler needed Tommy John surgery after the draft, they signed him anyway and had their confidence paid back 10 times over.<\/p>\n

Finally, as the big league club was dropping in the standings like a penny thrown from the Empire State Building, star pitcher Jacob deGrom was shut down for two weeks with elbow inflammation that turned into a monthlong IL trip and now a likely season-ending injury. Noah Syndergaard, who was an elite starter when he last took the mound two years ago, is also lagging behind an optimistic rehab timetable, and it\u2019s quite possible he has thrown his last pitch with the Mets. The very morning of the Great B\u00e1ez Thumb Incursion, the club couldn\u2019t get its story straight about whether the big right-hander had contracted COVID<\/a> or suffered a \u201cnon-baseball injury<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every team has embarrassing moments, frustrating losses, and instances of moral failure. The Mets could have weathered the thumb incident, the August collapse, and perhaps even the reports about the organization\u2019s leadership and overall culture.<\/p>\n

But only if these incidents were anomalies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, it took me 1,700 words to get to this point because it takes that long to even list a representative sample of the ways the Mets have embarrassed themselves\u2014and by association, their fans\u2014in the past few years. Why should the fans continue to give the team the benefit of the doubt? Why shouldn\u2019t they boo?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like most Mets cataclysms, this incident will fade into the background. B\u00e1ez\u2019s free-agent stock won\u2019t be affected. Lindor and the fans will make up because, with 10 years left on the shortstop\u2019s contract, they really don\u2019t have any other choice. But blowups like this will keep happening. Not only because they happen all over sports, but because the Mets\u2019 senior leadership keeps pushing blame downstream. Fixing a problem requires proactive leadership at all levels, not just appointing a fall guy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Again, the relationship between fan and team is an emotional attachment. And as in any relationship, trust, once lost, must be earned back. In this case, that can happen through winning, through good community outreach, and by doing right by those within the organization.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sure, the Mets\u2019 players could stand to be a little more circumspect in front of the public going forward. But it seems that every time Alderson responds to a crisis\u2014whether one as petty as the thumb incident or one as serious as the team\u2019s toxic workplace culture\u2014he takes a screw out of his Hall of Fame plaque. And while Cohen continues to talk a big game, his Twitter bravado can\u2019t mask the fact that his very expensive team is fatally flawed, and he has more power than he lets on to fix both the roster and the corporate culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alderson and Cohen alone have the ability to paint over the Mets\u2019 legacy of curious self-sabotage. A legacy that, for all its staying power, fans would be willing to forget in an instant if \u201ccount the rings\u201d became available as a motto. Maybe after such a tumultuous season, they\u2019ll take that opportunity. If not, the fans in the stands know how to react. They\u2019ve had plenty of practice.<\/p>\n

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