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William C. Rhoden has been a columnist for the Times for 25 years. So how come I never realized how much his columns read like Daily News tabloid hackwork? It's all there:
- the column-filler one-sentence paragraphs;
- the converstiaonal tone switching from condescendingly addressing the reader to contempuously addressing the athlete;
- the rhetorical questions that go unanswered;
- the assumption the answer is self-evident;
- the snarky use of quotes without saying who he's quoting;
- building a case against Wagner on insinuations.
- deliberate reader-riling fact-picking contrasting with the rival team.
- lionization of a Yankee.
Thing is, the notion that the Mets could use some leadership is rather supportable. This is cheap shot city though.
Sports of The Times
Mets, Missing Leadership, Are Wise to Temper Joy By WILLIAM C. RHODEN
Published: July 23, 2008
The Mets played their 100th game of the season Tuesday.
Fittingly, they played No. 100 against their newest nightmare — the Philadelphia Phillies. The Mets carried a 5-2 lead into the ninth inning. Philadelphia caught them, passed them and won, 8-6.
Sound familiar?
Thanks in large part to Philadelphia, the Mets became a national story last fall when they experienced a dramatic collapse.
The Mets became the first team to lose a lead of seven or more games with only 17 to play. The Phillies tracked the Mets down, caught and passed them, and won the division. That collapse — as we were reminded Tuesday when fans booed the Mets off the field — continues to be the cloud that hovers, the shadow that looms. The first thing Manager Jerry Manuel said when he took over for Willie Randolph last month was that he was haunted.
“It weighed on me throughout the winter and spring training,” Manuel said. “We were all hoping to have an opportunity to overcome it. That’s why we felt such an urgency at the beginning of the year to get off to a good start.”
The Mets have a larger problem.
There is a leadership vacuum on this team, one not so apparent when the Mets win, but very apparent when they lose. In fact, it’s often why they lose.
On Tuesday, the Mets’ medical people advised the bruised Billy Wagner that he needed one more day of rest. Wagner subsequently met with Manuel to affirm the doctors’ decision.
Manuel said that had Wagner made the case that he wanted to pitch, that he was ready if needed, he would have called on him.
Wagner made no such case. He opted to sit this one out. Later, he told reporters that after watching the bullpen get slapped around, he had second thoughts.
Too late.
I wonder, Billy, was that the Mets’ way, the Yankees’ way or your way?
What would Mariano Rivera have done?
Wagner said that had this been September, it might have been a different story.
Guess what: There might not be a September story for the Mets.
Leadership vacuum. Until someone fills it, this team will never win that elusive world championship — or might not even get an opportunity to play for one.
Carlos Delgado is apparently evolving into being that leader, feeling comfortable and confident in his place on the Mets.
What is puzzling about players like Delgado, who is in his 13th full season in the majors, and Carlos Beltrán, who is in his 10th, is that the leadership journey has taken so long. You’d think that after watching other teams and other veterans celebrate World Series championships season after season, a veteran would vow to do whatever it takes to experience that moment.
Your never get that sense of urgency from this team.
The one “star” player who seems to be torn up by these losses, who seems upset even when the Mets win the wrong way, is David Wright. Wright’s issue in assuming the leadership of a veteran team is his youth — he is 25 years old, and is playing in only his fourth full season.
But this is not a matter of age. It’s one of responsibility. If you see a void that needs to be filled, fill it.
Toward this end, Manuel should officially designate Wright and Delgado the co-captains of this Mets. The de facto captainship has not worked.
What constitutes leadership? All we know is that the Mets didn’t have it when they needed it last season, not from Randolph, not from the core of veteran players on the roster. The cast of characters is largely the same.
Beltrán, Carlos Delgado, José Reyes, David Wright.
Manuel has been exhorting Beltrán to be more assertive on the bases, and challenging Wright to play more of a leadership role, for the team’s sake.
Leadership is multifaceted.
Jimmy Rollins excited passions before last season when he announced that Philadelphia was the team to beat. They were, and Rollins played a major role in the Phillies’ push past the Mets into the postseason.
The Mets’ new season begins now. The good news for them is that none of the drama so far this season — the ups, the downs, the firings — matters.
The Mets’ monumental collapse of 2007 hangs over the franchise like a dark cloud.
When a team suffers the kind of collapse the Mets suffered, loyal fans may not lose faith or hope, but their confidence in the team is definitely shattered.
That was why Randolph was always on such thin ice, why the team was simply a bad series away from being booed. They were booed on Tuesday.
The Mets are like a merry-go-round. They have played 100 games, though it seems like twice as many. They have traveled thousands of emotional miles. They have experienced steep drops and, only recently, a heartening rally.
For all of that, the Mets are right where they were when the season began: looking Philadelphia in the face. And losing.
Yesterday, win or lose, is ancient history. Nothing matters except where the Mets wind up when they end the season.
Between now and then, someone has to step up and fill a gaping leadership void. Or there will be no September story.
E-mail: wcr@nytimes.com
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