| Matthew McQueeny. 24th May, 2005 - 5:16 pm
 Doug Mientkiewicz is a refreshing guy in this world of mechanical baseball players. He is a gamer. He is just a guy who loves playing baseball and actually eats, sleeps, and drinks the game. He tries to know everything he can about every situation and engages young players, players who have worlds more talent than he does, to do the same.
Earlier this season he approached Tom Glavine in the clubhouse in Atlanta before they were to play the Braves and asked what he could expect to see from John Smoltz, the starter that day. Glavine said it was the first time anyone on the Mets had done that in his time in New York. Doug wins everywhere he has gone. Whether it was hitting the game-winning grand slam to give the United States the Olympic gold years ago, being a consistent winner with the small-market Twins, or winning a world series as back up for the Boston Red Sox. He exemplifies the pre-steroid baseball gamer. He takes pride in his gold glove defense but does not want people to think that is all he can do in baseball. His sub-standard, below Mendoza line hitting finally came to a head last night. He had had enough.
Did he start blaming a hitting coach? Those hitting around him? The switch to the National League? How about none of the above. He did something novel in today’s game. He completely blamed himself and utterly lambasted everything about his being. Enjoy.
- I've never felt like this. I've been bad before. Not this bad. This is inexcusable. I apologize to every Met fan in America right now. I'm better than this. I know you guys wrote about how good defensively I am, but I can hit . . . I'm embarrassing everybody with this. It's hard for me to look at [Mike Cameron] and David [Wright]. They're busting their butt every single night. I've never felt like this. But it ain't going to get any better until I get myself out of this. I owe more to Willie [Randolph]. I owe more to everybody than to keep doing this every night. Knee's fine. Wrist's fine. Now that lump of [stuff] that's about six feet off the ground, that's borderline. Put 'I suck' with a big picture of my face on it. A guy tonight screamed, 'Mientkiewicz, you suck.' I had to turn around and agree with him. I said, 'You're absolutely right, sir. I feel I owe you. I should pay you the admission you paid.' The bottom line is I'm better than this. I haven't eaten in two days, I haven't slept in a week. The bottom line is I apologize. I said I'm sorry to everybody in this room. I'm a career .270-plus hitter in the big leagues. This is just inexcusable. My wife’s carrying a baby. That poor child is not going to stand a chance if I keep this up.
This kind of stuff is priceless. If more players carried this kind of conviction and heart, more people would be watching. Doug Mientkiewicz will prove to be the glue of this Mets' team. In Tony LaRussa’s recent book about managing, he said that in spring training every year they need to sit the players down and remind them that they are playing to win a championship. That is not the priority of everyone in the league. That is why having Mientkiewicz on a team is invaluable. This guy wants to win every game and will not accept anything below that standard.
For the Mets fan, watch out when you clamor for Carlos Delgado now. This is a guy who chose to invoke his no-trade clause in Toronto when he could have gone and played in his first pennant race in Los Angeles. Toronto was not going to re-sign him, so in effect he chose to sit and lose. This is also a guy who chose Florida in part because it was close to his home in Puerto Rico. This is not meant to be a calling-out of Delgado. It is just about keeping perspective. Doug Mientkiewicz will prove to be the glue of this Met team. |
