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In a column for the Philadelphia Daily News, local columnist Rich Hoffman gives his first-
hand impression of yesterday’s press conference for Johan Santana.
Among other insights, Hoffman writes…
“In the realm of the nauseating, this was even worse than Eli Manning and the fellas parading the Lombardi Trophy through the Canyon of Heroes…The PR guy attempted to shut down the last shutterbugs and begin the news conference by announcing, ‘Johan, your public awaits.’ At which point, I gagged on some vomit…And, in that spirit, Santana raised his hands at one point and showed off all the World Series rings he won in Minnesota. Oh, wait.”
…i love the thought of this guy white-knuckling it back to philly, mumbling to himself about the off-season…
…the best part about these out-of-town columns is that they absolutely stink of jealousy…it borders on sad and laughable, especially considering that they came out on top just a few months ago…i mean, jeez, no matter the situation, their fans are just completely incapable of showing any sort of class…
…seriously, get it together, philly…you won last year…act like it…
…thanks to the great Jason B for the link…
For what it’s worth, the Mets payroll in 2006 was an estimated $101 million, while the Phillies spent $88 million.
“…seriously, get it together, philly…you won last year…act like it…”
Perfect!!!
this is the exact email i just wrote to this guy, cause i cant stand him…
“Hey Rich,
Get your head out of your ass and try to be a somewhat unbiased reporter, would you? Sorry your eagles couldn’t step it up and you HAD to watch the Giants parade. YOU didn’t have to watch anything. And as a matter of fact, if they didn’t “earn” it, then I’m not sure you have a clue. My main point with you is why hate on Santana and the press conference? Mad cause Jenkins and Feliz don’t quite have the same ring as Santana? Mad cause the Phils WON the division last year? You sound like nothing more than a jealous little school girl. And while we’re holding up our hands, lets see how many World Series rings the Phils have in the last 20 years…oh, wait. Or lets see how many playoff games they won when they gloatingly made it in last year…oh, wait. For that matter, how are the Flyers and Birds doing in championship categories…oh, wait. And the Sixers…oh, wait…But, I digress….”
tough to bring up basketball…
Not that tough. The Sixers stink too.
Sixers are a joke. They traded an icon. Let’s hope they stay a garbage-14th place team for the next 10-20 years.
As someone who was born and raised in Pennsylvania, I am embarassed by this reporters comments. Thankfully, I was born across the state from Philly in the nicer city of Pittsburgh…haha (we have our fair share of cranky citizens)….Anyway….like novanoto said….what about all the other Philadelphia teams? Oh wait…..they haven’t won anything either. The only thing teams from Philly know how to do is choke.
While I don’t live in PA anymore and now reside outside of Albany, NY, I can’t help but be embarassed for my home state. People like this shouldn’t be allowed to voice opinions…it only shows what total idiots they are…then again, nevermind…go ahead and show the world how ignorant you are.
I have to say to novanoto….great job with the e-mail! Moron’s like this should be told off more often…lol
Rich, it’s not that I don’t agree with you, but I have a feeling that if you want to sell newspapers in Philadelphia, you have to write this kind of stuff.
…And, in that spirit, Myers raised his hands at one point and showed off all the scrapes he won smacking his wife…
…And, in that spirit, Hamels raised his hands at one point and showed off all scrapes he won smacking random drunks at the bar…
–
I would think Philly writers would be more careful writing about pitchers raising their hands to anyone.
This was my email in response to his article:
Rich,
Your article reeks of a Philadelphia inferiority complex. First, there was nothing nauseating or unorthodox about the Giants Super Bowl Championship parade — considering every other Super Bowl Champion hosts similar celebrations/parades. Perhaps if the Eagles are ever fortunate enough to actually win a Super Bowl in your lifetime, you will experience something just as “nauseating” out on Market Street. As for the Mets, your continued harping on the Mets “chok[ing] away the division title last season to the Phillies” (versus characterizing it as one of the great comebacks in MLB history — which is what I would focus on if I was a Phillies’ fan or beat writer) is comical considering the Phillies played all of 3 games more than the Mets did last season (of which they lost all 3). Finally, I’d imagine that if the Phillies ever sign/trade for a top-tier All Star, any press conference held by the Phillies’ front office would be no less over the top — just like every other MLB franchise.
http://www.firejoemorgan.com
These guys sum up the idiocy of this article pretty well…
Ken Tremendous rules.
I love the way matt never fails to use the most nauseating team caps when representing our competition in his posts.
No shortage of abysmal Yankee “fashion” caps. Frankly, I’m rooting for the return of the “painter’s cap.”
Living in Philly, I can say it’s mostly a wonderful town. Great bars and restaurants, great museums and little neighborhoods, it’s walkable and has a “small-town” feel…
But when it comes to pro sports, Parcells nailed it all those years ago: “they call this the City of Brotherly Love, but really it’s a banana republic.”
Those virtues are confined to a very small, sheltered, yuppie-rich area. Most of the city is in crisis. Very sad to see a once-great American city take a dive.
Anyway, back to the fantasy world of sports. . . .
I disagree. Certainly there is a significant portion of the city in crisis (West and North Philly), but places like the Northeast and South Philly are still solid communities, beyond the scope of yuppiedom. Sure, you wouldn’t know it to look at it - some areas are nicer than others, and there will always be some amount of crime… but that’s not that much different from any other major city in the northeast.
Sadly, the crime stats in Philly ARE worse than other cities in the northeast (excepting maybe Baltimore and Newark), but yeah, some of it outside of CC is somewhat community-oriented.
Anyway, we’d best shut down this non-baseball related discussion before the censors get mad. . . . Though you’re always welcome to have the last word.
Oh no doubt, the stats are worse for Philly; my only point is that there are strong, stable neighborhoods outside CC and outside the scope of the rich, just the way there are strong, stable neighborhoods in NYC once you get past the choice areas of Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Incidentally, I like Philly a lot. The crime wave is really a shame. Easily the best beer city in America in my experience, though I’ve never been to Portland, which is supposedly outstanding. I’m in DC now (”Lastingsburg!”) and it’s embarrassing.
In March there’s apparently the first Philadelphia Beer Festival… their slogan is “Philadelphia: America’s Best Beer-Drinking City.”
And don’t doubt it. For all of the trendy places to eat/drink in this town, my favorite is still Monk’s.
I actually had a great time when I’ve been in Philly. as far as beer towns go, though, milwaukee ranks higher.
Sorry — we’re talking about real beer, e.g., Belgian, German, and American craft beers. :)
No, we know, Wisconsin has some good breweries, and they’re not owned by SAB Miller.
mmm…beer…
Went to school in Philly (during the last days of the Vet). LOVED Monk’s. Any town where Yuengling is the default, “crap beer” brew choice sets its bar pretty high.
I go to school in philly right now. Its a really fun city and you’d think everyone is on the phillies band wagon but a lot of the fans here are just depressed. I mean i would be too if i was a philly sport fan. I just keep hearing non stop how johan will be injured by the allstar break…. its this ignorant thinking that really gets to me.
All I say is that we may have collapsed but the all mighty phil offense choked in colorado. tehy really hate that haha.
I find that most of my Philly friends aren’t as bitter as the “sports writer” guy seems to be. More often I hear, “wow, that sucks for us”. I haven’t exactly gotten any congratulatory remarks but I dont expect it and they certainly wouldn’t expect it from me. It’s a hard to be a Philly fan regardless of sport. I personally have a great time with it.
poor, poor philly.
They cling to the “unfairness” of the salary structure, though, because it might serve to soften the blow when the Mets reclaim what is rightfully theirs from that greenie-fueled gang of wife-beaters and hot dogs. And that’s just the fans.
A couple of my buddies are Phillies and Braves fans. It is amazing how little credit they give Maine and Perez. The Phillies fan swears that they match up well against us in those slots, and the Braves fan thinks they are potentially the Red Sox.
I personally don’t say a word. I’ll let the rotation speak for itself.
I really REALLY want Shea to get the clip of Strahan screaming WE STOMPED YOU OUT and play it after every win. Or at least after a win over the Phillies.
Strahan is incredible. And yes I’m a Jets fan!
Even better…insert Johan doing that instead of Strahan…
Note to Rich Hoffman: What you were witnessing yesterday was Johan Santana, a guy with class. You have no class … but you do an excellent job of representing your team’s fans.
Note to Rich Hoffman (and everyone else): references to “gagging on vomit”, “choking on vomit” or “throwing up a little in [your] mouth” are childish and cliched. Try being original, instead.
Did he choke on vomit when the Phillies were trumpeting their Thome heist from Cleveland a few years back?
The only thing worse than an endless stream of Bill Simmons auto-columns (chock full of “Ewing Theory,” “90210,” and other references) is other people ripping off those same tropes, and not doing it as well.
That said… this is just playing to the audience. I wouldn’t put too much stock in it.
Philadelphia is a breeding ground for poor judgment and low class. This has been common knowledge for decades.
Some free agents have World Series rings, some don’t, what can you do?
At least the Phillies have Aaron Rowand’s Sox World Series ring to parade around…wait…no they don’t.
I went to an Eagles game at the old Vet versus the Giants….about 7 years ago……we sat in the 700 section…talk about no class….a woman colleague of mine told us that ladies with eagles shirts, workboots, and zuba pants hopped up on the sink and relieved themselves because they did not want to wait in the restroom line…. Now that is class Philly style
yes…’ladies’…
My experience going to Philly baseball games is not as bad…at least with the new stadium…yet
I was there last season, wonderful stadium, horrible fans.
There was a group of fans behind us who decided it would be a great idea to get into a fistfight with a group of NYFD who were sitting in front of them. The Philly Phidiots ending up getting their asses kicked.
We were treated to a typical moment of Philly delusion when after the first other Philly Phidiots were regaling their friends with stories of how badly their friends beat up these firefighters.
(Ph)Idiots.
tell me about it. I go to Drexel in Philly, and I know first hand how terrible some of their fans are. I went to the Pedro game in 06 (the one where Heilman threw the ball away to Delgado with a runner on third in extra innings), and THROUGHOUT the game I had a clan of little kids and grown men hurling racial insults at Martinez and Co. What’s more disturbing is that a little 7-yr old stood up and screamed “GO BACK TO YOUR ******* COUNTRY”. They even started a fight with a happy, flag waving Dominican who was easily the most jacked person I have ever seen. He would’ve handled them easily if security didn’t come and kick those rednecks behind me out.
The Vet was like a big game reserve for pretzel-guzzling blobs in Zubaz. I half expected the Eagles to adopt a uniform with zebra-striped pants.
Was that the game at the end of the 2001 season? If so, I was at that game also. Friggin’ Eagles fans broke the side view mirror on my car. Ugly..Ugly people!!
Pathetic… Well the last time any major sport in Philly won a championship waaaaaaaaaaaas…
1983
Philly, have fun with Kris Benson, jus tthink in 07 you won the NL East and have a great stadium, best in the NL East
However in 09 you will have come in 2nd again in both the league and your stadium, possibly 3rd in stadium I’ll tell you after DC in April.
The Phillies have just as good of a young nucleas as we do, if not better (howard, utley , hamels & rollins vs reyes, wright, OP & maine)…actually definately better, but while they are off signing Jon Lieber we got this done, deal with it, did we cry when you got the over-paid Brad Lidge?
Howard turns 29 this year and Utley turns 28. To continue to call these players young doesn’t really hold true. Especially if you are comparing them to the two 25 year olds on the Mets. If Utley and Howard are young, than so is Beltran, Church, Ollie, Maine, Heilman, Sanchez, and maybe even Louis Castillo.
In philly’s mind, inexperience = youth… completely ignoring the fact that Howard was blocked for years by Thome and Utley was blocked by Polanco.
and so is Santana :-)
For the record, Howard just turned 28 this past November and will not turn 29 until after the next season. Utley turned 29 in December 2007. Santana will turn 29 in March.
7.5 million for a potentially dominant closer in his prime is overpaid???? pretty sure billygoat makes more and is older
francisco cordero at 12 million is overpaid…not lidge in a walk year
“The Mets themselves said all of the right things - third baseman David Wright said the Phillies were still the team to beat in the National League East, as did Randolph”
so… does this mean he’s saying rollins didn’t say the “right thing” last winter?
Let the Phillies talk. Takin’ Care of Business will be blaring all season and we’ll see how much they talk.
worst song ever, just another mets PR blow up. they want to be like the redsox so they need a little theme song, and picked a terrible one at that. poor effort to establish a ‘culture’ at shea.
can we all petition to get the mets audio guy fired? i mean when i go to shea, i feel like im sitting in an outdoor bar mitzvah with that cheesy party music theme.
Better than who let the dogs out… I can’t believe they actually had that horrible group of people perform on the field before a world series game. what a joke.
i think the Mortal Kombat theme music takes the cake…..
Matt,
This is called envy not jealousy. Jealousy is when someone threatens to or does take away something of yours or you suspect or have confirmed unfaithfulness. Envy is the want of what others have.
Sorry, not the grammar nanny but you make this mistake often (as do many others) and its a pet peeve.
by the way banjo, I am in full agreement with you. Please see my comment below.
Cute, but it’s a perfectly fine usuage of “jealous” or “jealousy.” Defintion 1 of “jealous” is “feeling resentment against someone because of that person’s rivalry, success, or advantages.” “Jealousy” is “jealous resentment of another for his or her success or advantage.”
. . . which describes the Santana Envy pretty well.
Guess they’ll have to wear those awful green jerseys they wear all year next year…
Well, if we’re being grammatically correct (and I applaud that), the word you want is “it’s”, not “its”. One of my pet peeves.
Sound like Philly is pheelin’ the heat already!
Too bad NY reporter’s weren’t able to cover the Pedro Feliz signing. They were busy covering a CHAMPIONSHIP, something Philly hasn’t had since Rocky Balboa defeated Clubber Lang.
I guess they can make it up to us and invite our boys down there when they sign Kris Benson to “strengthen” their rotation.
Good God does that city suck.
easy Matt….they aren’t jealous of us, they won the division last year. In fact, most Philly fans are joking that he will blow an elbow.
Don’t get me wrong, I need Philly like i need a shotgun blast to the balls, but we are talking about a team who contributed to the disaster/joke that we were last year.
I, for one, will keep my mouth shut until we win the division, because until then they are still the division winners…..have Utley, Howard, Rollins, Hamels, Myers, and if the head case from Houston reinvents himself as their closer, they will compete with us.
I truly hope that after last year, we have learned as Met fans, to keep our smack talking mouths quiet until the last game is played.
im with you. its great to have johan, i couldnt be happier dont get me wrong, but we need to go out and win. am i confident? of course, but ill reserve my celebrations for when we clinch the division then ill worry about the playoffs and beyond.
Here’s what I like about Philly:
Cheesesteak
Rocky I, II, III
Yeah, thats about it.
the greatest athlete in philadelphia history is a fictional character…enough said.
Rocky IV was awesome dude.
Here’s what I sent the guy via e-mail…
“Dear Mr. Hoffman,
As a fan of the New York Mets, I am happy to admit my bias when reading your article recent article, “SAINTana.”
It’s hard for me to envision the owners of the Philadelphia Phillies doing anything different than the Mets did, had they traded for and signed arguably one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. For the entire offseason, when the Mets were brought up in conjunction with Santana, they were dismissed as a darkhorse – not having enough prospects to make the trade. As it turns out, when it came time for teams to ante up their best offers, the Mets were the only ones left standing. And then we paid him. I suppose it wouldn’t be much different than purchasing a Bentley. You want to show it off. You want people to see it. You want them to know exactly what you got. It’s also difficult for me to see the fans of the Phillies acting any differently if their team had signed Santana.
Your presumption that Mets fans, players and ownership have forgotten about last year’s abysmal September is not only incorrect, it’s downright laughable. The collapse is fresh on the minds of everyone – how could it not be? It’s consistently brought up by the media, and it will continue to be brought up until the Mets exorcise it by winning, which they have obviously yet to do.
In addition, why should Johan have to answer questions regarding the collapse of the Mets at the end of last season? He wasn’t a part of the team then, so there is no possible way that he could answer with any authority. It’s his job to help the team this year, right now, and that’s what he has to answer for.
In a division that will be so tightly contested throughout the entire season, with the onus squarely on the backs of the Mets players to answer for last season, it’s refreshing to see ownership make a significant move to improve the ballclub. What’s ridiculous on your part is to lambaste the organization from pillar to post because they felt it right to celebrate what is one of the most significant moves in the history of the franchise, while knowing full well that the Phillies would have done the same damn thing.”
well said
I love that a guy named Mr Bananagrabber wrote such a great , well-written reply!!
jeez….bitter much?
how petty can you get, you drive two plus hours to shea to attend the press conference which commen sense tells you is going to be a love fest. and then you bash the participants???
was the guy expecting the mets to caution everybody at the conference that they are still not as good as the phillies, even with santana??? c’mon this is show biz.
why’d he bother? gas is expensive.
what a putz.
Give me a break…jealousy???? He’s a sports writer. His job is to come up with stories that will resonate with the readers during the winter doldrums….
THat press conference was laughable…Omar should have used cue cards, he sounded like her had marbles in his mouth…and enough with the “moving forward” cliche….we get it, you don’t want to talk about choking away a division title….
I think some of you have forgot there are 162 games to play…in the words of Dennis Green, “if you wanna crown ‘em, then crown their asses!”
You really don’t sound like a Mets fan
thats bc hes a phillies fan. dont you get his clever username. hey billygoat, did you miss the part where our manager and best player said the phillies are the team to beat? we’re all aware that the mets lost the division last year, the thing is we had some weaknesses that showed up down the stretch and our GM/owners addressed our most pressing need by getting the best pitcher in baseball (no josh beckett and his 5+ 2006 era is not the best). i guess we shouldnt be confident and our organization should not be happy for pulling something off that NO ONE believed they could.
This is typical Philadelphia. A low-rent, no class response. The trailer-park trash fans and Brett “Wifebeater” Myers are made for each other…..by the way, when the Phillies choked in THREE games against the Rockies, it made the collapse seem not so bad after all.
There are no words to describe how much I loathe the city of Philadelphia. A majority of my college friends are from the Philly area and/or have settled in the Philly area after college, and as sports fans they are insufferable. And sorry if I offend anyone on this board that lives there, but I hate the city too. My friends have tried to convince me to move there, but there’s absolutely no way in hell I’d ever do it. As I’ve often said, only 4 good things have ever come from Philly: The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Philly Cheesesteak, and Rocky.
Anyway, on the topic: they are just envious, as buckybanjo pointed out. They know that despite their “impressive division win” last year, they were still just an 89 win team, playoffs included, who really had no place being in the postseason. They were there solely because the Mets blew it, and now the Mets look like a much better team, while the Phillies look like they have possibly slightly improved. I can’t wait till we blow them away this season…in fact, I hope they finish behind the Milledge and LoDuca led Nationals too, just for good measure.
Why does everyone think Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard are better than anyone the Mets have?
The three of them had MVP type years and could not lead the team to anything. Numbers arent everything people… Where were they when it mattered most against the sub-par pitching of colorado?
Oh and for those who think they “led” them to a division title, it took a historic collapse for the division to land on their laps. And like a homeless person who stumbles on a crate of money, they blew the gift within a week!
ummm yeah, it also took 8 straight victories over the Muts.
You’ll always have that. Of course, the Mets and Phils won the same number of playoff games last year.
and you’ll always have that….
believe me, i was pretty demoralized getting swept by the Rockies, but they proved to be a buzz saw having swept the NLCS too until the Sox put them in their place
ill take 8 straight wins over your biggest rival to overtake them for the division….its just a little sweeter..man, think about all those games they were crazy! just think, that 11-10 game! if billygoat hadn’t pitched two innings, if he actually had a pickoff move and didnt let jayson werth steal two bases on two pitches, it might have been a different story…..
but you know, its time to move forward
Jeez — reliving the details of a few regular season games. We’re moving forward, alright. Savor your memories. You’re not getting new ones.
Yup, good for you guys. Hold onto those wins.
Had any of those close games turned into Phillies losses no one would have noticed because they would have been lost among the 10,000+ losses your franchise already has.
good one….if you didn’t realize, it takes a long time to reach that many losses…granted, a lot of crappy teams as well…but still, the phils are one of the oldest franchises in baseball
on the other hand, the mets are an expansion team…and i dont need to remind you of their role and place in this town……………..
Here’s my favorite thing about the Phillies:
The Phillies have won one World Series Championship in their history, against the Kansas City Royals in 1980.
They have a roughly 60 year head start and still trail in championships. If that doesn’t say “quality franchise” I don’t know what does.
And billy goat will always be associated with the Chicago Cubs. You seem to know your Philly history, try learning some baseball history.
# 1 with all of us, pal.
It’s going to be pretty hard for them to attract top of the line pitching talent since CBP will ruin any pitcher’s stats. Take for example Kyle Lohse. The guy got to play on a division winning team that still has a strong nucleus of talent but it appears he’s more interested in other teams.
I posted that same observation on beerleaguer a few days ago. nobody got back to me.
Very hard. You take a short term deal and you lose money, because your ERA is through the roof. You take a long term deal and the Philly fans instantly resent you and turn on you, calling for your head because of their basic, deeply engrained resentment and JEALOUSY of anyone successful. Have fun, guys!
ahhhhhhhhhaaaaaaahhhhhh….eat it philly fans.
Best regular season Giant win was when the Giants sacked McNabb 12 times…..I was at that game and nothing was sweeter than sending those arm flapping Eagle fans (fly eagles fly) back down the turnpike silent. Of note….a bunch of those Eagle fans where also wearing Phillies hats that day….for the first time I can ever remember….and our section is right next to section they give to opponents fans…..Hey Philly….Bring It…..
that was amazing. That was the last day of the baseball season, and I actually did a double feature that day: my dad and I went to the Mets game, watched Tom Glavine stab us in the back, then boarded the train, took a bus out to Giants Stadium, and watched them dominate the Eagles. We actually debated not going to the Giants game because we didn’t want to see another Philly team rip our hearts out (the Giants were 1-2 at that point after barely beating the Redskins the week before). I remember saying to my dad after that game that the Giants were gonna make up for the Mets by having a special season, although I had no idea how special at the time.
I live in this area so I’m around these people constantly. He just sounds like another trashy Philly drunk who thinks Pedro Feliz and Geoff Jenkins will win them a title.
Very, very jealous. But I love it. Keep hating.
That article cracked me up. If I didn’t know better I would have thought Wallace Matthews had written it. I still can’t figure out what his point was other than being jealous. So he’s upset the Mets rolled out the red carpet for the best pitcher in baseball? As if the Phillies wouldn’t have done the same. When exactly did the Mets gloat about them winning the world series in 08? In fact as he begrudgingly mentions later the Mets players and coaches have all listed the Phillies as the team to beat. So where is the arrogance he speaks of??
Its so sad and wreaks of low class, minor league journalism
here’s what I just sent to this guy…
“Hey Rich,
How many rings do Utley, Howard, and Rollins have? Oh wait…
How many world series titles do the Phils have to in the past 24 years? Oh wait…
How many postseason wins do the Phils have in the past 15 years? Oh wait…
Anyone who wonders why the rest of the country thinks Philly fans have no class… need only read your column to find out (it’s a perfect example of classless Philly fans and their pandering media).
See you in October, Rich. Oh wait… you won’t be there.”
hahha, i love it.
id take our nucleus over the phillies, wright and reyes are 24-25 beltran is 30. howard rollins and utley are all 29-30.
Yea, but Howard, Utley, and Rollins all hit more homeruns and a higher average than those crappy guys!!!*
* response of average Philly fan, who is too stupid to realize they play in the best hitters park since Coors Field circa 1996.
Philly = WORST CITY EVER
Philly fans will never change. Same behavior over and over. Always sour grapes, but if they win, you’ll never hear the end of it. It’s just amazing how short it took them to go from gloating about winning the division, to crying about the Mets acquisition of Johan.
One has to wonder why the Phillies were not in on Santana themselves. They don’t have prospects? They don’t play in the #4 media market in the country?
Maybe instead of ripping the Mets for a great move, he should question the Phillies for whiffing on Rowand and signing bargain-basement free-agents like Jenkins and Feliz to fill obvious holes in their lineup.
Or maybe he should just question the Phillies organization for so overzealously trumpeting their divsion title as it it’s all they even aspire to. Do they really call last season a success? Funny, I don’t even see the Cubs, who never win anything either, being overly excited about winning their division and getting swept out of the playoffs.
In the end, I think it’s awesome that we FINALLY have a rivalry with the Phillies. As a Giants-Islanders-Knicks fan I’ve always had cause to loathe their other teams (and similarly little scorn for Boston). It feels really good to hate this team, and will feel so good to put them back in their place.
Santana didn’t want to go there, that’s why.
why would any pitcher want to go to a stadium that makes my HS field look like RFK.
exactly
which high school field are you talking about? Our pitchers always used to do a pretty good job of making every field look like CBP, even the ones without fences…
“Bah, Santana’s grapes are sour anyway!”
I’ve got two words for this Hoffman guy -
Whatever I’ve learned not to pay attention to anything written by anyone from Philly, they are all a bunch of dirty jealous scumbags…LETS GO METS
Philly really has no reason to talk. Yes, they played wonderfully down the stretch. But it wouldn’t mean anything at all if we hadn’t had a such a HISTORIC collapse.
They should be screaming that they should have won the division hands down without any help from us. Until that happens they’re all jokers.
I’m sure if the Phillies somehow landed Scott Kazmir, this reporter would also note his lack of World Series rings. Oh wait…
I think we all should email this clown. Here is what I sent him.
Its funny how you can spend a whole article blasting the Mets while they said nothing but respectful things about the Phillies.Maybe the Sillies would have grand press conferences like the Mets did if they bothered to spend some money. Philadelphia is not a small market by any means so dont play that poor role. Also no one cares about the Sillies anyway so a grand press conference would just be a waste of catering. You can mention that collapse all you want but no team in baseball has ever lost as much as the Phillies and what a waste it was for the Sillies to even make the playoffs since they couldnt even muster the talent to win a game. I hope you have fun reporting this season as your beloved team fights for second place. And deep down you know I am right.
Bitter stuff, but hey, he’s a Philly writer, that’s their business…. Worse is the fact that the Wally Wallaces and Klipisch’s are local guys who consistenltly write more hate about the Mets everyday
Rich Hoffman titles his byline for this piece by the way, “New York disgustingly canonizes new ace before he even pitches.”
Please - when we play second fiddle to the Spankees and Clemens’ woes on the front pages of the local papers, the entire city of New York is not building a monument to Santana just yet.
With the Giants winning the big prize & the Mets aquiring arguably the best pitcher in all of MLB, this writer, for the lack of having anything newsworthy in his own jurisdiction, decides to put a Philly spin on a New York story.
Maybe Rich is related to another Hoffman from San Diego and is just blowing it entirely.
As I read in Maxim, Philly is a glorified pitstop between NY and DC
hey everyone, im brand new to posting on this site but read metsblog.com every day…sooo pumped we got santana!!!…but i was thinking about 2009 and the FA’s available…assuming we let pedro, delgado, alou, el duque go after this season…thats about $35-37 million in payroll…which would put us at about $105 million without upgrading…jeff wilpon said they could add payroll too if need be this season…assuming they dont and stick with this team they would have 2 spots open in the rotation and 1b open (assuming nando is ready to take over in LF)….i know this is probably a pipedream and i may get slack for it, but couldnt they sign ollie to $13 mill per season, sabathia at $18 mill per and texiera for 1b at $17 mill per season…which would bring their payroll to $150-151 million….do you think they would go that high…it still doesnt exceed the luxury tax so im guessing they wouldnt be opposed to it…
Even on ESPN it had minimal coverage compared to the Shaq trade, Clemens steroid saga, and expectedly, the Super Bowl. I wrote in an earlier post that its all about the Mets getting snubbed with East Coast bias, too. Hell, outside of ESPN showing the press conference once, they have barely discussed it on first take or any of the other shows that talk about current events and issues…
As for Philly fans, they need to stop and take a breath and realize that they aren’t as good as the Mets. They won the division by ONE game and one game only. It took one of the worst late season collapses in baseball history for them to accomplish that and they got swept in the first round of the play offs by an expansion team with significantly less established talent. Its starting to get old how the national media and Philly fans can only view baseball and other sports through the sort term…
…Does anyone honestly think that if Pedro were even around for 50% of the season last year that we wouldn’t have finished with at least 4 or 5 games on the Phills? Add him for a hopefully full season with our new ace and I think its absurd that any Phillies or Braves has anything to say other than, “we’re F*^CKED”.
Anything can happen, but lets be real, the Mets are substantially better than both of teams…Met fans need to stop thinking the worst and say what we all know…
Unbelievable. Mounting one of the biggest combacks in baseball history ISN’T enough for this jagoff.
I know poeple like this. They arent just Philly sports fan, they’re people who have a “problem” with NY.
Whatever, eff him and his teams. I could really go for some scrapple right now though. Man I love that stuff.
it’s called an inferiority complex. Boston has one too. The thing that really scares me is if Philly ever goes on a tear the way Boston has over the past 5 years or so.
…oh wait, what am I saying. Philly will NEVER win any championships. Worst. Sports. City. Ever.
Actually, wait, let me rephrase that. Worst. City. Ever.
By the way, I got in an argument with a Pats fan a few days ago about how the only reason NY has more championships with Boston is because we have 2 teams in every sport, so I countered with: “If you took the 2 biggest cities that are closest to NY, Boston and Philly, and combined them, you’d have more teams than NY, and yet, still, less championships. SUCK IT”
Man, I cannot wait until Santana faces the Phillies
I wrote him an email too.
Subject: Got grapes?
Message:
Specifically, Mr. Hofman, the sour kind of grapes. You know, the ones you have because your team’s major offseason acquisitions were Brad Lidge and Pedro Feliz.
Here’s a little newsflash for you: The Mets were the team to beat last year, and they’re the team to beat this year. The fact is, the team to beat sometimes gets beat — as they did last year. But please, try not to give the Phillies too much credit for the Mets’ collapse. The fact is, the Mets stunk it up. They plain ol’ played badly. The Phillies? They played okay. They beat the Mets a bunch of times, no lie, but the fact of the matter is the Mets beat themselves.
And yes, Chase Utley is better than Luis Castillo, and Ryan Howard is better than Carlos Delgado. No argument on those. But Jimmy Rollins better than Jose Reyes going forward? You’d find trouble getting anyone but Pat Gillick to agree with that one. Call it a toss-up, and that’s me being generous. And you very conveniently didn’t mention the positions that the Mets are worlds better at — the starting pitching, the closer, the rest of the bullpen, third base, center field, left field. Have you SEEN the Phillies’ rotation? Cole Hamels is great, sure. But there’s a reason Myers was pushed to the bullpen last year. Moyer’s 900 years old and carrying a 5 ERA into this season as your #3 or 4 starter. Kendrick put up a good record and solid ERA last year, but his K rate and BAA are awful, which bodes poorly for him going forward. Oh, and don’t forget Adam Eaton. I don’t need to say anything about Adam Eaton.
Next time you write a column, try to be less of a homer who riles up his fanbase, and maybe instead act like, oh, I don’t know, a journalist.
Thanks.
-Andrew.
I’ve been posting about Philly fans for a long time, having lived in the area for about 10 years now.
They are the worst sports fans on the face of the earth. One poster above got it exactly right when he wrote that if someone else wins, all you hear is sour grapes, but if they win, you will never hear the end of it.
Thankfully, they don’t win very much and they haven’t won a championship in anything in 25 years and counting.
F Philly.
Eat your hearts out, Philly. The Giants are Super Bowl Champions again, and the Mets are primed for a World Series run.
Lick it up, you slimy filth.
hmm….sounds oddly familiar to the little bro complex you guys have with that team from the Bronx
The Philadelphia Phillies phounded in 1883, 97 years later won their first world championship and still wait for their second. Sounds oddly phamiliar to phutility.
I go to school in Philly and have to deal with these people on a daily basis. Matt is so right the columnist and fans are jealous.
And I forgot while he was writing the column the Phillies were polishing their rings….oh wait
fire joe morgan picked up this story, so if you want to read this guy get torn a new one by the guy who plays dwight schrute’s cousin, check it out.
“In the realm of the nauseating, this was even worse than Eli Manning and the fellas parading the Lombardi Trophy through the Canyon of Heroes”
Can somebody please indicate for me anything that could possibly be regarded as even slightly nauseating about a ticker-tape parade?
This is great — I read the article this morning and sent the following email immediately (glad to see the rest of you guys were on top of it as well):
Seriously, Rich, are you kidding me with that article?
I mean, I know all about the insecurities that cities like Philadelphia and Boston share when it comes to NY, but I didn’t realize how surely that extended to journalists as well. If I had more time, I’d go piece by piece and pick apart the article that you just wrote, but instead I’ll just make two main points.
One, even with the Mets playing the worst possible baseball in September, the Phillies only won the division by 1 game. 1 game out of 162! Now, you guys added Pedro Feliz (somehow, the Phillies managed to DOWNGRADE offensively at 3B), Brad Lidge (smart move — have to love a guy with that makeup in Philadelphia) and lost Aaron Rowand (heart and soul much?). As for the Mets? Well, we simply added the best pitcher on the planet and essentially, Pedro Martinez (he only started 5 games last year). Hmm, I wonder who improved more.
Two, Utley, Rollins and Howard are all better than the corresponding guys in NY? Ambiguous, but are you trying to say that you have the advantage at 2B, SS adn 1B? 3 positions on field that holds 9? Nice. Problem is, we’re not even that sure that Rollins who is much older than Reyes, will be better this year. Yeah, he was better in 07, but no, he wasn’t better in 06. You do have 2B and 1B for sure, though. Congrats on that. Hopefully, people will forget that Brett Myers sucked in the rotation (and was moved to the bullpen) and just be tricked into thinking he’s good now. Otherwise, you’re going to have to pray that you don’t come to Shea with Durbin, Kendrick and whoever you stick in the 5 slot, because our #3 and #4 pitchers both won 15 games and posted sub-4.00 ERAs.
Believe me, the Phillies are the team to beat because they won last year, but beat is what they’re going to get. The Mets will win this division by at least 5 games and yeah, I’d love to put money on that.
Phils pitchers who won games vs Mets last year:
Tom Gordon (2)
Antonio Alfonseca
Geoff Geary (2)
Jamie Moyer
Brett Myers
JD Durbin
Kyle Kendrick
Adam Eaton
Mike Zagurski
Don’t know how many games were started by those #3 and #4 15 gm winners, but as they say, the game isn’t played on paper. Otherwise, those big ‘winners’ wouldn’t have lost the division to a team full of lousy pitchers.
Yes, but at the end of the day, on paper and in reality, you and this “journalist” have to live in that gun-crazed hellhole of a puny third-rate “city”.
Hmmm…now I get the origin of the envy.
Yeah, Philly can’t hold a candle to the wonderful neighborhood of chop shops and airport runways that is Shea-ville.
Talking trash right back at him is besides the point… to that end, I loved Bananagrabber’s e-mail. Sent him this earlier today, before I read that one…
Thanks for your thoughtful article; I learned a lot. For instance, I
never really realized how thoughtless or stupid (or nauseating) it was
for a professional sports franchise to celebrate a happy event
publicly for its fans. Fans’ being optimistic about an upcoming sports
season? Classless. And picture-taking… with cameras? Well, that’s
just offensive…
It’s a shame that New York beat writers weren’t able to give the same
careful, unyellowed consideration to Pedro Feliz’s signing. You see,
they were busy chronicling a Super Bowl championship and its aftermath
(one without burning cars, looting, or Reagan in the White House).
PS I lived in Philly for 6 years. It’s a great
town… and it’s a lot more charming minus the screaming inferiority complex.
Maybe I am a biased Met fan but I cant agree with their top 3 position players being better than ours. Wright, Reyes, and Beltran are all 5 tool players and 2 are 25 yrs old with the other under 30. Rollins, Howard, and Utley are older in age and except for Rollins they are not 5 tool players. Howard is a 40 to 50 HR hitter and Utley hits for high average. Reyes, Wright, and Beltran all steal bases, play great defense, hit for good average, drive runs in, and score a ton of runs. I would take our top 3 now and going foward any day over their top 3.
As for pitching its not even close. We now have the best pitcher on the planet, under 30, in his prime years. We have a healthy Pedro Martinez who at 80% is better than 95% of the league at 100%. We have two 26 yr old 15 game winners, and our fifth starter is equal to or better than the Phillies number 3 thru 5 starters. 1 thru 5 our staff is top 3 in baseball. They have Hammells and ??? Our pen, especially if Sanchez is healthy blows away their pen. Lidge is a mental case. Not the mental make-up you want in your closer. Watching balls getting crushed out of that park and he will break down.
So our offseason moves in comparison:
We lose Glavine and 4 prospects we werent going to use this year anyway, and Milledge (who would maybe give us what Church will this year anyway). We gain Church, Schneider (a great defensive catcher and similar numbers to LoDuca), and Johan freaking Santana. Also we get back a healthy reliever in Sanchez who was pitching insanely when he got hurt, and Pedro Martinez who when healthy is the best #2 starter in baseball except for maybe Haren in Arz.
They lose Rowand who was their heart and soul. They gain a mental case closer in Lidge. Feast or famine Feliz. And another feast or famine player in Jenkins. Lets see….would they rather Lidge, Feliz, and Jenkins or Santana, Church, and Schneider? Not even close. And thats what the NL East race will be. Not even close.
Don’t forget Pedro and Duaner among your 2008 additions.
Is there any baseball fan that thinks the Mets would have blown that lead if they would have had Santana on the team last year? If this guy thought the press conference was ‘nauseating’ wait until he sees SAINTana in person shutting down his boys on the field. Met fans, get ready to hear ‘You’ll blow the lead in September like you did last year!’ followed by ‘Your title isn’t valid because you bought it’ followed by ‘Oh no, not another nauseating trip down the Canyon of Heroes!’.
Someone might also remind this clown that the Eagles who came closest to making an appearance in Super Bowl XLII were Don Henley and Glen Frye.
Hey Rich,
You think the Santana press conference was bad? Wait until the press conference when we sign Ryan Howard!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Have a great season.
P.S. Enjoy Anna Benson