Thumbs Down = Tone Deaf

BY JOHN JASTREMSKI

Sunday was shaping up to be one of the more average Sunday’s of the baseball season.

The reeling Mets had finally won a series, scored a few runs and beat up on the Washington Nationals. For many Mets fans, the feeling was simply too little, too late. The feeling of it being a lazy Sunday in Mets land turned on a dime the minute Javy Baez met with the media over his zoom call. Baez was asked why he along with a few other Mets were signaling “thumbs down” after a big hit or a run scoring play.

It wasn’t a tribute to the rallying cry of the 2017 Yankees, but instead it was a giant screw you to all of the Mets fans throughout the tri state area.

Baez stated after the game that the booing and negativity amongst Mets fans deserved a rebuttal, therefore Baez, Francisco Lindor and Kevin Pillar decided this would be their course of action. Baez actually had the audacity to say, the Mets fans have to be better.

My response to Javy Baez, take a hike.

Does Javy Baez realize the Mets once held a comfortable lead in the National League East that immediately transformed into a 7 game deficit?

Does Javy Baez realize that the Mets have been one of the most disappointing and underwhelming offenses in the sport?

Oh and does Javy Baez and the other Mets players realize that hey guess what, fans have a right to boo and express their displeasure for bad baseball?

The sensitivity from a good majority of Mets players throughout the season has been awfully tough to take. When Mike Piazza and Carlos Beltran first became Mets, guess what. They got booed.

On the other side of town, two first ballot Hall Of Famers Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter felt the wrath of the stadium crowd. Jeter’s response summed it up perfectly. If I watched my at bats, I’d boo too.

Javy Baez isn’t going to be a Met beyond the 2021 season, but this will forever be his legacy in a Mets uniform.

The bigger concern is the fact that Francisco Lindor, the 300 million dollar man may have been the instigator for starting the thumbs down craze. That’s a scary thought for Mets fans. Francisco Lindor is not going anywhere. He is under contract for a long, long time. He has no chance of being a successful big time Met if he’s going to be this sensitive to criticism. If he honestly believes that taking on the fans is the best way to combat criticism, he couldn’t be any more clueless. Lindor needs to take a page out of the Piazza, Beltran playbook.

Newsflash, if you don’t want to hear boos, play better.

Taking on the fans, no matter the situation is always going to be a losing battle. Imagine thinking that’s a good idea with the way the Mets have played? In 1995, Jack McDowell flipped Yankee fans the bird. In 2021, Javy Baez and Francisco Lindor put their thumbs down in the faces of an incredibly loyal, beaten down fan base.

Good luck trying to tell me what’s worse…