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In an article for Newsday, David Lennon writes that Jose Reyes will be much more serious this season. Reyes, as quoted by Lennon…
“No more handshakes. People kept saying we got teams fired up when we did those handshakes, so now I want to focus more on baseball. Nobody said anything to me, but it’s because of what happened last year. That’s why I’m taking this year more seriously. In 2006, everybody loved [the handshakes], but now it’s different. I’m going to enjoy the game, but I’m not going to do the handshakes with the guys. I don’t want people to talk about that. I just want to play baseball. I want to take care of business on the field.”
Brian Schneider, as quoted by Lennon…
“For some guys, it’s all right if they do it in the dugout, but if they do it outside… sometimes people have a problem with it.”
…our little boy is all grown up now…honestly, i feel two ways about this…first, it is nice to see reyes maturing and taking his role on the team more seriously…the dancing and the handshakes outside of the dugout were sometimes a bit much…on the other hand, i always love his celebratory dances…they were part of the fun of watching him play, and i hope he doesn’t become too serious where it takes away from his enthusiasm for the game…it’s too bad that players on other teams are influencing his behavior with how they feel about his “antics”, but it seems that the whole team seems much more focused this year, including David Wright who has cut-off his promotional appearances, and polls regarding which song he should approach the plate to…
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First Off… I thought it was AWESOME that D-Wright let his fans choose his Batting song. That will not take away from his focus. It gets the Fans more invloved and connected to the players.
what wouldve been awesome is if he overlooked all the cheesy hip hop the fans voted on and actually selected my write in for the intro to money for nothing by dire straits.
where can we vote for his song?
Oh Please. Did anyone notice how the Red Sox celebrate after home runs? It makes Reyes’ handshake look like nothing and nobody dares say anything about it. Sometimes baseball players take themselves too seriously. Maybe putting a little fun back into the game will make it into a national game again.
seriously .. “manny being manny” with his hands in the air even when losing and that kind of stuff. Baseball has always taken itself too seriously, and Jose was one step away from that .. I think this is bad news. Unless he channels it into hitting and goes on a tear, then I’ll reassess ;)
This is B.S. I don’t like this at all.
is nice to see reyes maturing and taking his role on the team more seriously…the dancing and the handshakes outside of the dugout were a bit much…
Well his role on the team was to be full of energy and enthusiastic. Now appearently he can’t do that. ASk his teammates why they loved Reyes most if not all said they love how energetic he is.
Oh well, get ready for a Mets team with no personality.
David Wright cutting off promotional appearences and Reyes not being able to be himself are completely different and have nothing to do with each other.
He’s still gonna be energetic … and you can bet he will still do the handshakes. I’m betting he does them in the dugout only. Which is fine. I think what he’s saying is he will cut the crap on the on deck circle etc.
How can you not like this approach by him? He’s showing great signs of maturity.
From the way the article is written it sounds like Reyes is saying, “no more handshakes”. THAT’S BULL!!! I can’t believe he would say this. The whole essesnse of Jose being Jose - are his handshakes and the never fading smile. I agree 100% with Benny Blanco - Reyes gotta be Reyes. I don’t care what the other teams think. Let them hate us - they do anyway! Reyes doing handshakes doesn’t make him less mature - it’s a personality trait that has nothing to do with playing baseball - it’s just being a fun guy who likes to have fun. Why would you be ok with him toning down fun? - isn’t that what you come to the game for, isn’t that why baseball is there to begin with? Or do you enjoy just sitting in front of the TV biting your nails for 3 hours? I love Reyes the way he is - when he just came up in 2004 every game the announcers kept talking about his smile and his love for the game. I hate the fact that he’s cutting so much of it off….
Why isn’t it possible for him to be himself and have fun … and be serious when he needs to be serious? Some of you people act like he’s going to be a zombie now because of a quote in a newspaper article. Did you happen to see his interview yesterday? Did it seem like he was not smiling or being himself? Did it seem like the Mets gave him a lobotomy and he will only frown from this day on?
It seems like he’s taking away from his personality - a personality that NO ONE in NY had a problem with in 2005 or 2006 or even first half 2007. Everyone all of a sudden has an issue with it when reyes is hitting .200 It’s nonesense. Jose shouldn’t “STOP” anything - just work on your skills and concentration in between games and be ready to come out and play. Showing emotions and coming up with clever handshakes has nothing to do with how concentrated on the game he is. I don’t get you people with your “just play the game” bull…the game is supposed to be fun….you’re just like the people who got post-touchdown celebrations banned from football - i’ll bet you hated those too…
“I don’t get you people with your “just play the game” bull…the game is supposed to be fun….you’re just like the people who got post-touchdown celebrations banned from football - i’ll bet you hated those too…”
First of all … read my damn posts before you make accusations. I said I do not believe he will stop doing handshakes. I repeated that about 5 times if you take the time to read. I never said I had a PROBLEM with it. I don’t. Stop taking whatever you’re angry about in life out on me.
The fact that you’re getting so worked up over a quote that he made in a newspaper is a problem in itself.
Agree….. Random Carlito’s Way Character
yes i agree. what separated the mets from other teams, the no-personality yankees in particular, was how enthusiatic reyes was. maybe not a full out dance in the ondeck circle, but he best be at the top step after a delgado blast
Nah, I agree with Benny Blanco. you are gonna look at Reyes this season and see Kevin McReynolds!
LOL … Kevin McReynolds … thats ridiculous.
LMAO K-Mac in the house…
i dont like this either. you shouldnt let other teams dictate how you act on or off the field. no one had a problem with it in 06 bc we steamrolled, in 07 suddenly it was a classless immature display. if you go out and play the game and win who cares what other teams think. its just like football, you dont want to see TO spike the ball on your teams logo then keep him out of the end zone.
ps: we didnt lose last year bc of handshakes.
TRue.we didnt lose because of handshakes, but how do we know they didnt rile up teams like the Nats and the Marlins who had nothing to play for, but yet they played like world beaters that last week of the season.
Honestly, I couldn’t care less what other teams think of the Mets, or what fires them up or whatever.
But I’m glad Reyes is growing out of that. Dance all you want once you win the game, but stay focused while there’s still work to be done. His over-enthusiasm early in the year and his sulking late in the year were flip sides of the same coin. I’d rather lose both than keep both.
he’s going to be energetic. just energetic when it counts…on the field of play doing the things that win ballgames.
devoting your energy to post-play dances and handshakes does not win ball games.
no more handshakes…
I don’t like it..
I understand discipline, but part of the joy of watching this team is the young fire and passion you see from some of the players…
I get it…we collapsed in 2007. We need to focus, but lets not get out of hand here
Come on … do you really think he’s going to stop doing them? He’s just saying he’s going to tone it down … don’t take it so literally.
When he said he was no longer going to be doing these handshakes….ummmm….I pretty much took it as….ummm…he’s no longer going to be doing these handshakes.
You missed my point. Whether he does them or not is immaterial, it’s that he seems to think toning down his passion, fire and excitement is essential to becoming a better on field presence.
I think people put too much stock into quotes from papers. That’s my point. Everyone needs to relax. He’s not going to turn into a statue with no personality.
jose,
handshakes, high fives, and knucle raps are fine….just cut out the dancing and styling.
enthusiam is one thing showing up the other team is another. its called being a professional and nobody wants to take away his energy but there are ways to express yourself without showing up antoher team. they were celbrating 10 feet away from home plate last year but he wasnt celebrating when he hit 200 in sept. it wasnt so funny then. Or when he was jumping around in the 9th inning of a game with a towel wrapped around his head. I remember loosing that game in extra innings. He is the life of he team but I love that he realizes he has to tone it down.
Was that stuff really all that distracting? As much as people want to make baseball out to be some professional gentlemen’s game it’s just a damn sport. It’s fun, it’s entertainment, and if you’re too stuck up and easily offended by special handshakes (no noes!!!) then grow some thicker skin. Now if Reyes dropped his pants and ran around the backstop yeah I can see that as incredibly distracting. Maybe I’m the only one who doesn’t take this game all that seriously. People said they were devestated by the Mets collapse. Why? It’s just one season. It’s just a game.
Its not that he was disruptive to his team its just he fired up the other team. In football you never want to give the other team bulletin board material before the game because it lights a fire under some guys and then work harder to be better that game. When Reyes dances and does his thing, he’s making the other team want to beat him more and it could give that team more motivation to go out and beat him. I’m going to miss it as a fan but Reyes will still lighten up the team in the dugout and clubhouse so don’t worry. Him and pedro will be just fine!
I gotta tell you I would HATE to be a fan of a team than needed another team’s handshakes to motivate them to *really* try to win. That must suck….
i second that. besides that bulletin board stuff is completely overblown b.s. i mean the bulletin board material that Plaxico gave the Patriots really worked in NE’s favor didn’t it? Oh wait a second…
its not that you need motivation to win its just it pisses you off which gets your adrenaline pumping more making you stronger. I’ve been to the gym were I am giving it 110% and lifting my max and then someone did something to piss me like bump into me and then all of a sudden I get pissed off and the adrenaline starts to pump and I add more weight and can lift it. Some of those homeruns in the late innings might have died at the warning track if the adrenaline wasn’t pumping or the batter would have been later on the swing and missed it!
ughh i think if you’re up in the 10 or 11 or 12th inning with the game on the line your adrenaline is pumping as much as it can. the last thing that should be in the player’s mind then is disliking someone’s handshakes…
The Marlins don’t need handshakes to motivate them. Believe it or not, the goal of every baseball team is to win baseball games.
metsfan - i completely agree. the whole point of professional athletes is that they go out and give their 200% every time. if they don’t - then it’s the management’s job to recognize that and get rid of them. besides, do you want to be crowned a champion who didn’t beat guys when those tried the hardest?
Oh great, The Skankees of Queens.
Mr Wilpon; “It’s the manager, stupid!”
Exactly, the Mets have to have fun. They can’t go out there “all business” like the yankees, at least I hope they don’t. Reyes was like that his 2nd year with the club. He shaved off his locks and didnt’ smile. He always looked angry and it didn’t do him any good. Hopefully this is just a new season resolution that won’t pan out and he’ll be himself again when the situation calls for it.
Tthe best part of the 86 team that they not only won, but they won in a way that pissed everyone else off. By styling, showboating, taking curtain calls for first-inning solo shots, and genuinely seemign to have fun with dominating the game.
Now that the team has Santana and Pedro, it’d be great to bring that swagger into Shea’s final year. But, this is the new-media era of sports. Milledge got run out of town for sharing his joy for the game with the crowd, and now even Reyes is getting whitewashed.
Speaking of Pedro wasn’t he a dugout prankster himself? He always seemed to be cheering everyone up all the time.
Great point about ‘86. And remember, Reyes, Degado and the gang were dancing about in ‘06 as well. The collapse of ‘07 shouldn’t turn this team into some soulless machine. This team needs to find its character and stay true to it, just like in ‘06.
100% agree. theres nothing wrong with confidence or arrogance or whatever you want to call it if you are winning games. i personally would love to see this season be alot like 86 with that same attitude. you can never have too many curtain calls.
the 86 team! are u guys all smoking crack…this team cant touch that team..you are all the same people that thought we would cruise last year and we will win the world series this year..we havent proved shit. the same arrogance is what got us with our tails between our legs. the only dancing that reyes was doing after sept was at his sister wedding in DR..and at that wedding his uncle slapped him in the head and told him to stop being so provacative with his own cousin. He realizes that he looked stupid and all that cockiness that the 86 mets showed was because they abused teams, physically and mentally. they won 108 times. 20times more than the dancing fools that were bored at times last year. You all cannot be mets fans if u seriuosly think we have this in the bag or that we should be celebrating before we accomplish anything. the real mets fans are pessimistic and when santana was traded we werent confident until it was announced that he was signed.and stop talking about the juiced up yanks cause right now thaey have more problems then we ever had.
If he really does stop doing those daps altogether, I’ll miss them.
I, for one, never liked the handshakes…especially when they occurred on the field. So I will not miss this. Bring on the Reyes focused on beisbol.
Who cares about handshakes? I am more concerned about him standing in the batters box when he hits the ball in play and his upper-cut swing he developed after the break. but if that was the handshake’s fault, let’s roll.
Is it just me or is Reyes’ english a little bit better than it was last year? I mean, it’s still not great, but I definitely think it’s better than last season.
What I don’t understand is why it’s a problem when Jose Reyes does it, yet I hear virtually nothing about other teams doing it. It’s something done by almost every major league team, but it’s only a problem on the Mets for some reason.
Even on the “all business” Yankees, Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera have their own little routines. The Marlins, who were supposedly so galled by the Mets’ “antics” had well choreographed dances in the dugout.
I feel like this was just another way to pile on Jose and blame him for the collapse, when the blame can be laid at a million different doorsteps.
I gotta agree with Shea. This talk always drives me crazy because EVERY team does this business but yet for some reason it is always portrayed as if the Mets/Reyes invented these dances/handshakes.
I’m all for not disrespecting the other team but Reyes is hardly the only *over-reactor* in the league. I can’t even watch Carlos Zambrano when he gets a called third strike…he looks like he is having a seizure out there.
not to mention i think its safe to say the marlins were pretty familiar with the “antics” by the last day in the season i doubt they suddenly got fired up by it before game 162, pretty sure the beachballs glavine was throwing at their hitters was more the cause of their explosion of offense that day.
because those dances/handshakes/etc take 1/10th the time.
there is a huge gap between a 2 second bash brothers forearm bash and a 20 second Jose Reyes dance/handshake.
It was over the top.
I don’t care if they dance around the on-deck circle firing six-shooters into the LaGuardia-bound planes. Just get on base and throw strikes.
Hilarious comment, but I was pretty sure the planes flying over (or in recent years, around) Shea were heading TO LaGuardia.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, or just annoyed by my off-topic remark
I meant FROM LaGuardia
Who cares. Just shoot the planes.
Overreactions by most. What Reyes is essentialy saying is that he will be more responsible for his actions as to not adversely effect his team…nothing wrong with that.
Big year for Reyes coming up. I think we will see what Reyes will become, completey dominat for the long haul.
who are you, Sandy Alomar?
Does anyone remember the game where Jose was jumping around the dugout for an hour with the towel on his head… and he slapped Gotay in the head … and Gotay almost punched him?
This is the type of stuff that I think Jose is saying he’s going to stop doing. He’s not going to stop being himself … he’ll still do the handshakes IN THE DUGOUT. You can bet on it.
It’s called growing up. Stop over reacting and stop worrying about the Yankees, people!
Yeah….I actually don’t mind the dances….when we’re winning the game…but I remember one game during that horrible September stretch where Jose was dancing after scoring, and we were still down by 2 runs….that’s what really needs to get toned down.
thank you..i just said the same thing.i remeber that game with the towel..we lost in extra innings and he was all dejected and felt stupid.WE ARE NOT THE *^ team.thats the sense of entitlement that got us in trouble last year.
Isn’t it crazy how everything always goes back to the Yankees? Like you said below … enough with them, stop comparing everything little thing the Mets do with them.
Adversely affecting his team? Come on now. Give me a break.
Reyes has always been scrutinized over his whole career. First he was “injury prone”, then he was “undisciplined”, then he was “unfocused and cocky”. Blah blah blah.
The guy can’t even be himself because he catches crap for it.
We should be lucky as fans, to have such an energetic player like him on the team. It makes the games more enjoyable to watch.
Do I think he’ll be a walking zombie out in the field? No. I think the best case is a happy medium where he is focused on the game, yet still has fun doing it.
Check game 161 that the Marlins flatout said pissed them off.
Adversely affecting the team in the sense of kicking sleeping dogs.
There’s your break
like i said above i really doubt that all of a sudden in the 16th or 17th game played between the teams that the marlins got fired up by the same stuff the mets had been doing all year. with glavines stuff that day he probably couldnt get HS hitters out.
Boohoo.
People can use Reyes as an excuse for that all they want. The Mets and Glavine laid an egg. They were flat.
Keep blaming Reyes if it makes you feel better.
Where did the video go? I don’t see it in the post
can everyone stop talking about the yankees. its 2008.yanks havent won in 8 yrs. plain and simple anyone who has played sports know that if someone shows u up and then they loose they look like idiots. that was us last year.we were too cocky,overconfident, sense of entitlement, all that shit and we looked like what we were.the biggest late season collapse in baseball history. we will never b the yanks and dont want to be.We are the mets. our identity isnt dancing in the dugout.
also the 86 mets won 108 games they didnt blow in the last 2 weeks in the season.that confidence was earned.
If I noticed anyone, it would probably be Pedro before Reyes, and good luck getting him to change. This is really stupid. As a matter of fact, where’s Pedro’s pledge to change? These guys are out there to have fun, sure they’re getting paid millions of dollars to win, but they love the game and have an energy for it instead of sitting there like a bump on a log.
Look at Bret Favre. Does anyone complain about him carrying guys off the field and throwing snowballs?
as long as he keeps diving into bases and rounds 1st sharply to turn 2b into 3b: i’m good.
RIP, high energy Reyes. We hardly knew ya. Too short a life for such a bright and burning star. We will miss you dearly.
Does anybody seriously believe he’s going to hold to this though? It’s one thing to say something in spring training…but in the heat of the games…the enthusiasm takes over…
I’m not gonna RIP Reyes just yet…
Handshakes are more fun when the hands have rings on them.
Rule of thumb when deciding on issues like these….if it’s not ok with Keith Hernandez, it’s likely something not worth doing.
Glad Reyes is retiring this for now. Though I enjoyed them to some extent, they typically were too theatrical and over-used.
Long overdue!
Reyes is an elite ballplayer(coming from a Braves fan) also.
The punkish histrionics only took away from his game.
His antics screamed of low class bush league, not befitting of a man of his talents.
He’s an elite player this will only help both him and his team.
The fact that you hate it makes me love it that much more…
low class bush league, like complaining about the umpires??
;P
Guys like Jose and Pedro bring life to the team. It’d be a shame if all this peer pressure got to him.
Maybe he meant no more handshakes, like the ones that normal people do. Here’s to hoping…
This is BS. This is that Yankee propaganda BS that having fun while playing a child’s game is immature or unprofessional.
You want him to tone it down a bit? Fine. But to call it immature is total BS and I call shenanigans.
i love the handshakes but i understand reyes trying to make a piont. But now a days nobody can actually do what they want. Pettite is a great and doing what he needs to do but come on nobody talks any real trash or reyes being afraid to offend someone. Who the hell cares. Beltran only called out rollins and hes suddenly bad boy comeing out of his shell? We could sure as hell use a modern day ty cobb. even though hes a ass as well as john rocker but they say what they want and they call it as they see it. Not anything racial as both have had problems w/ but about the game. i really hope milledge and delmon young become the next bash brothers or something.
he is a vet now, so being totally focused on the game, and being the best player on the field that he can be, is a major benefit to the team.
He can certainly still have fun, smile, celebrate a victory, just with a bit of professionalism thrown in.