SNY.tvBLOG NETWORKSCHEDULESTATSSTANDINGS VIDEO Headlines:

Read: Delgado, Chris Russo and Goatees
By Matthew Cerrone - Apr 24, 2008 2:31 pm

Joe M sent in the following e-mail, which read:

“I have a suggestion that I believe will resolve the issues Carlos Delgado is having at the plate this year. He needs to stop dyeing his goatee. When a man starts to do silly things to appear younger, it gets in his head and the negative effects may surface in many ways. Either let the facial hair come in gray, or better yet, shave it off completely. Santana has the best-looking goatee on the team anyway, so its not doing him any good.”

…i want to believe this guy is joking, and i suspect that he is…i mean, i hope that he is…either way, this is one of the more funny e-mails i have been sent, amidst a deep sea of anger and negativity…thank you, joe, for the laugh…

…what’s not at all funny is the following:

Yesterday, during his Mike and the Maddog show on WFAN, host Chris Russo talked about how the Mets have no possible way of dealing with Delgado’s slump, adding:

“There’s not a solution in sight first half of the season … Maybe there is in July, maybe in July they can get a first baseman, they could kill him, they could bench him, they can do a million things then.”

thanks to Peter Wade at Hot Foot for the quote

ummm, kill him, chris…is that necessary…good thing there is a Mets voice on that show to help balance him, oh, wait, that’s right, there isn’t…oh well…

For more on Delgado switching spots in the batting order, read Newsday, the New York Times, and Journal News.

64 Responses to “Read: Delgado, Chris Russo and Goatees”

  1. ToastyJoe says:

    Nothing Dog says surprises me anymore. Nevertheless, I still listen because I like to laugh at the two of them.

    • metzor says:

      Russo is an idiot. The killing him thing is a lame attempt at humor and just makes him look stupid.

      However, his other point is somewhat valid. The first 2 months you’re not going to do anything drastic like bench him on a daily basis and put in who, Easley? No thanks. But once you get mid season it’s hard to deny that his problem goes beyond a mere slump (even if most of us could tell you it’s more than a slump right now), and something a bit more extreme has to be considered, whether its moving him to the 8th spot, bringing up tatis, or as a last resort, trading him.

      But there is no guarantee that any of those things will bear better results than what Delgado will ultimately produce by the year’s end. Unfortunately Willie is in a tough spot.

      • thingshappen says:

        Why should it be a problem for Sillie, either the player does good or bad, and all he has to do is to react from that.

        OK sometimes you hold off because of certain conditions, but when it is thrown in your face, you must remove it.

        It is that simple.

        And Delgado, since last year has been throwing that $hit all around the place.

    • rM teM says:

      his beard is wierd.

  2. giuseppe franco_procede says:

    Who knows Delgado may end up as a pitch man for Just For Men with Mex and Clyde! LOL

  3. MacD81 says:

    In all fairness to Russo, I heard this and I’d be willing to put money down that he meant kill in the sense of cutting him.

    • mikey_FF says:

      You’re right … Matt totally took that one out of context. He always uses the phrase “kill him” or “kill me” … as in to insult or tear down verbally.

      Matt you took it way too literally.

  4. dave27 says:

    Totally not on topic, but do any of your friends/contacts in the NY media community have any insight into exactly what is wrong with Wallace Matthews at Newsday? Does he suffer from some sort of psychological disorder? Did the Wilpons do harm to his family? Every day, the guy puts forward another bizarrely-personal-sounding hack job on the Mets.

    Beyond that, does anyone have any insight as to why Newsday’s formerly-respectable sports division not only emplys this clown but considers him their lead?

    I’d listen to Russo for a month straight rather than read the inane rantings of Mr. Wallace Matthews…

    • Gasface77 says:

      The letter to Jose Reyes that he had in today’s Newsday was disgusting. He should be fired for that. He compares Jose Reyes to Rey Ordonez. He said that when Ordonez was coming up that it was a debate as to who was better, him or Jeter. Is he nuts…was there ever even a comparison? He is trying to imply that Reyes is headed down the same path as Ordonez. What a tool shed.

      • dcmetsfan says:

        In fairness, there actually were some people trying to claim that Ordonez, because of his glove, was superior to Jeter. But other than that, yeah, Matthews is a clown.

      • dave27 says:

        There was a debate for a few weeks. I remember SI did an article that April on the next generation of NY shortstops.

        Frankly, if Ordonez had the capacity to improve like most players getting 155 starts a year, it wouldn’t have been so crazy.

        • Gasface77 says:

          I guess I just try to forget everything associated with Rey Ordonez (except for his slide plays in the hole).

      • Hojy20 says:

        I really like how Matthews says last year the Mets were a world beating 13-6 through 19 games and this year they were 10 and 9, its nice that he can flog the numbers how he wants considering that the article was written after 20 games and the mets are 11-9 and through 20 last year they were 13-7. However, when you’re trying to lay blame truth isn’t always the best tool and a 2 game swing wouldn’t look as dramatic.

    • tfc3rid says:

      Mets Derangement Syndrome (MDS)

  5. Zoe says:

    While we’re at it, can we please shave Beltran’s bleached highlights?

    • mex84 says:

      So fruity!

    • MacD81 says:

      But the Mets have a long tradition of bleached hair. Just ask Mr. Piazza! We can’t foresake our traditions!

      • dave27 says:

        Or Rey Ordonez, who the aforementioned Mr. Wallace inexpicably compared Jose Reyes to in today’s gem of a column…

        • Ollie Ollie Oxen Free says:

          Hey, don’t knock Rey Rey. He probably could have done better than 1 for 18 in the World Series (Mike Bordick’s numbers).

        • dave27 says:

          Well he certainly could have gotten to Luis Sojo’s 78-hopper that Kurt Abbott flailed at.

        • Ollie Ollie Oxen Free says:

          Or at least he would have dove and made it look good even if he was like 85 feet away from it.

  6. anthony.velli says:

    Mike and the Mad Dog have 6 hours to fill every day. If for no other reason than sheer volume, they’re gonna come off sounding stupid sometimes. Matt, you should let it go. You have a blossoming website and don’t need to snipe at them like this anymore. It comes off as petty.

  7. Gasface77 says:

    I heard Russo say that and I laughed so hard. I thought to myself….maybe your on to something Chris…now I know why they call you the “mad dog.”

  8. ToastyJoe says:

    Click here for a hilarious Mike rant against fantasy football:

    youtube.com/watch?v=xsHzPYwob70

    • Prismo says:

      I couldn’t agree with you more Mike.
      I couldn’t agree with you more Mike.
      I couldn’t agree with you more Mike.
      I couldn’t agree with you more Mike.

  9. trippingac says:

    Snipe all you want, Matt. I don’t think it’s petty at all. Mr. Know it All and the Village Idiot need to be put in their place often anyhow.

  10. Rob Lowe says:

    Chris Russo from WFAN is such a freaking moron and has no idea what he’s talking about….He’s a NYC guy and loves the San Francisco Giants…Loser!!!

  11. gozer says:

    I don’t get it…Russo is echoing what Mets fans themselves have been saying since last year…yet he’s a moron for saying so? You guys just enjoy thinking that everyone out there is picking on you.

    • Prismo says:

      I don’t think any of us want Delgado to die…
      Heck, I don’t even want to see him get injured.
      I just would like to see him:
      A) Hit the ball better
      B) Get cut in favor of a better player (which we currently don’t have on our club)

  12. No_Brain_Willie says:

    Mike and Dog use the term “kill” as “berate” or “ridicule”.

    Also Matt, is it really necessarry to complain to WFAN that they dont have a mid day talk show host thats a mets fan? good god, they get incredible ratings, but they should fire one because one is a [fair] yankee fan and the other likes san fran? i guess the rest of the WFAN Mets support isnt enough…. my god, leave it alone, the guys are good at what they do

    • tfc3rid says:

      Since WFAN doesn’t come in at work here in Midtown (yeah, I know) I am forced to listen to Michael Kay…

      Think about my tortured hell…

      Yesterday got to listen to him tell everyone how the production quality on SNY is bargain basement and that YES does it all right…

    • Ceetar says:

      No, they should fire them because they’re washed up, tired of their jobs, and think everything in sports should be like it was 30 years ago.

      • No_Brain_Willie says:

        So WFAN should fire them because they want worse ratings and can lose money?

        • Ceetar says:

          1. You don’t know what their ratings actually are.

          2. Plenty of their ratings are because there are no other options.

          3. Plenty of the ratings comes from things like exclusive interviews with Willie and Joe.

          4. The timeslot has a lot to do with it too, rush hour in the car for example.

        • metsfanbook says:

          They get a lot of their ratings because they’re on when people are driving home from work. I really wish we had an intelligent Mets-friendly alternative.

          I really feel for Delgado, as I felt for Piazza and Hernandez when they began to lose it in their mid-thirties. You feel loyalty and compassion for these guys, but then you get understandably impatient when they can’t get a slugging % above .300. Russo, for once, is right. The Mets can’t do anything major in the near term. We just have to hope. And it would be helpful if we cheered encouragingly and didn’t just boo, but we all know you can’t control that right now with the mood Mets fans are in. Still, this is very sad. And hoping against hope, I’ll root for him until it is absolutely clear that he’s not coming back.

  13. cbabbino says:

    Delgado is doing so bad, he couldn’t hit a homerun off of Heilman if given the chance.

  14. koosman3669 says:

    Gee, I thought you would have given Mestradamus a shout out on the kill Delgado article Matt.

  15. mza4eva says:

    Sometimes (like in Ol’ Yeller) you need to take that old dog out back…or as my parents told when I was young, take to a farm with wide open fields to play in. So maybe we need to take this dog to the farm with lots of wide screen tvs for him to watch his sports on.

  16. kingrw says:

    the killing him comment was clearly his dopey tongue getting tied. he was doing his patented russo-speak…

  17. Slob says:

    Chris Russo should be arrested at once. He threatened Carlos Delgado’s life.

  18. smc says:

    Well, at least he’s right in one aspect, you can’t do anything do a long-time, successful professional baseball player in April. Many a slump have even Hall of Fame players had in April. Let’s see where “CD” is on June 1.

    As far as Matthews goes, I never read him until someone on this blog points out an article written by him. It seems like he is negative on the team in most of these cases. This particular “letter” was very superficial– it would have been notably more powerful if it discussed some more of what happened last year (like Reyes’ slump at the end) and what he is trying to do to overcome that. What I really don’t like about Matthews’ writing is that there is no balance– like some positive developments. Reyes has picked it up in recent weeks. Does he ever mention some positives about this season thus far like Church, Pagan, Sanchez returning, Figueroa? Or how about the fact that we took 2 out 3 recently from the Phillies? And I am more comfortable at 11-9 this year, with Pedro and Alou coming back in the next few weeks, than we were at 13-6 last year. It was about this time last year we started to stall.

  19. Adam Rubin is reporting that Schneider was sent back to New york with an infected left thumb and may require a DL trip.

    • Bruce Boisclair says:

      How’d that happen? On that foul ball that “went through the wickets”?

      • doesn’t say. Rubin just mentions that Schneider was sent back to New York because of the thumb. It’s his left thumb and the foul ball hit his right hand, so I would have to guess it happened some other way.

        • sheahey81 says:

          Casanova stinks… If Schneider hits the DL we need a good back-up until Castro gets healthy.

          Speaking of Castro… where are you???

  20. viktor06 says:

    I still think we should deal Heilman for Thames. Thames will hit 20HRs in 300-350 at bats and we dont really need Heilman now, with Sanchez back, Wise coming off DL and Muniz in shape

    • Another Matt says:

      The only problem there is:

      (A) Heilman’s stock is so low at this point the Tigers might not even go for that

      (B) Thames’ other 280-330 ABs will all result in outs.

  21. arudeawakenin says:

    maybe we can move Johan to 1st, he certainly has a better bat. Delgado can cover 1st when Johan’s pitching.

  22. Kellman says:

    Hey Matt, do you like M&MD?