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Yesterday, before the game, Jerry Manuel was asked if the booing at Shea Stadium can be draining on his team, specifically with regards to Aaron Heilman, to which the manager replied:
“That’s a good question. I don’t know if it drains a team as much as it affects that individual. I think it does have an effect on the individual more so than the team…It’s painful, but it’s also growth.
“I’m going to say this, and I hope you all don’t take it wrong, I know you’re going to run out of here with something crazy on this: It’s very, very fertile ground for growth at Shea Stadium. It’s fertile ground for a team’s growth and development. Sometimes, fertile ground has fertilizer. But, fertilizer is a good thing. It’s a good thing. You get the greatest results, you get the most beautiful plants, when you put it in that type of fertile soil. That’s what we have the opportunity to do. Don’t take that wrong, because I know what you’re going to do with it.”
Sure enough, in the New York Post, beat writer Bart Hubbach pens a report with the headline: “Manuel Likens Angry Mets Fans to Fertilizer, New Manager Puts Foot in Mouth Again.”
In the report, Hubbach leads by writing:
“Angry Mets fans are a big pile of … fertilizer? Manager Jerry Manuel apparently thinks so, at least when it comes to their harsh treatment of reliever Aaron Heilman at Shea Stadium this season.”
…for starters, the first time manuel said, ‘fertilizer,’ he laughed, as did more or less every reporter in the room…
…also, for what it’s worth, hubbach does not write the headline…that’s a different person’s job at the newspaper, i think, so, boo to that person…however, hubbach has to know what manuel was really trying to say, like Adam Rubin seemed to understand in a post to his blog for the Daily News…
…i mean, this quote could just as easily been framed as Mets Fan = Nurturer, i.e., a person who wants the best for his team and so he pushes the players to be the best they can be…instead, the post framed of the quote as something else, leading to emotional, irrational responses like the following:
According to WFAN’s morning host Craig Carton, ‘Mets fans are under attack by Manuel,’ and so Carton is going to boo Manuel tonight at Shea Stadium.
…as much as i enjoy his radio show, carton is a joker at times, so he may have been just trying to incite a riot for ratings…which, if the case, makes him a bit disingenuous, but such is the job of talk radio i guess…if, however, he is serious, it means he is lazy for not researching this better, or it means he is crazy…
…carton also works hard, too hard in fact, to be a populist Mets fan, ‘defending the honor of Mets fans,’ as he likes to say, and in some case i think he is so quick to take up a cause he does not think the sceanrio all the way the through…
…whatever the case, it feels like hubbach and carton should be covering the Presidential Election, instead of sports, if they’re going to comb over statements and twist them in to stories for the sake of having something to react to…
[Poll=125]
cheering is fertilizer. booing is a weed. I think this is the point he’s trying to make. Am I the only person who got it?
No — fertilizer is manure. He was trying to say that in a place that fosters growth, like Shea, it’s going to stink from time to time. But, it’s part of the package, and players can grow, and become better players, from the environment as a whole, including the fertilizer.
Well firstly, he’s not talking about me; since I never boo the Mets (in person).
Secondly, if I did, I wouldn’t be offended. He said nothing offensive in that quote.
Gotta love the NY media.
While I have been known to boo, when warranted, I do agree that there was nothing offensive about Manuel’s comments.
That being said, Manuel needs to be more careful about what he says to the media. Judging from how he started his comment, he *knew* how the media would twist his comments around, yet he still made them. This could lead to problems in the future if he keeps it up. I’ve loved hearing what he has to say so far, so would hate for it to come to that.
No, of course not. You’d have to be a talk show host looking for fertilizer for your own ratings in order to interpret Jerry Manuel’s astute comment as an insult to Mets fans. Clearly, what Manuel is saying is that crappy stuff can sometimes produce good results, and although I may disagree with that when it comes to booing (I think it has done more harm than good over the years at Shea), I think it is a smart move by Manuel to suggest that this kind of crap can and should be made into something that can help the team by motivating them.
Jerry understands that although somethings aren’t pleasant (”booing”) they are meant to bring great results. At least he understands why the fans boo. Its to make the players tougher…to have them “grow”. Jerry understands…and to take it out of context is complete BS.
But whats even better is that Jerry actually says things with substance that CAN be taken out of context. Its so must more refreshing than…”Aaron will be fine. He’ll grind it out. I trust my guys.”
Even……to this day….you are still all about Willie. It’s astonishing actually.
Looks like Carton and/or Hubbach read this site (1 person voting that they were offended).
cuban really is tony bernazard. haven’t you noticed?
yes…but he has a point. Bashing Willie blindly is useless and ridiculous right now. And guys who do that are just idiots.
But comparing/contrasting Jerry and his effect on this squad to Willie is a worthwhile thing to point out. I stated this on the earlier fertilizer thread, but I see a more proactive approach with Jerry as opposed to a reactive state that was indicative of the former manager.
and that is good.
actually….i state it down below on this thread. oops…thought I was on the M&MD thread.
I’m a crackhead today. no coffee.
Well, Danny, be glad you are not in the public eye, like Manuel. That “crackhead” comment would get you thrown in rehab!
give me a break… the NY media is ridiculous. it’s bad when you can predict that the rags will interpret things the wrong way to make controversy and sell their garbage.
And I do agree with “Don’t Mess” that, for the most part, cheering is fertilizer and booing is a weed, and I expect to see a lot of cheering sustenance for the Mets in this coming homestand. I think Manuel’s main strategy, in trying to improve the home record by resting guys on the road is to build a sense of good feeling in the franchise as a whole by having a lot of feel-good wins at home. That being said, it’s interesting that this year, unlike last year, the Mets are playing pretty well at home.
I’m offended by the idiot who wrote that headline. He must think we’re idiots if he thinks we can read the actual quote and then actually buy into his headline.
Jerry Manuel for President. Right now. I love this guy
Can we write him onto the ballot?
Carton is a clown. Where did this guy come from anyway?
this is a non-event. i love how mainstream journalists claim that bloggers are mean and sensationalist mud-slingers, when they do the same thing to sell a paper or two. have they looked in the mirror lately?
I would actually like to take the time to applaud your screen name — seriously. If one tenth of the things we hear about that guy are true, he’s a parasite that needs to be flushed. . . . I don’t think the “fertilizer” metaphor carries over to the front office.
If half the things in that article in Gotham Baseball (Matt linked here last week) are true Bernazard the real issue
Too bad they’re not…because nothing that Gotham Baseball writes is ever true.
Thanks, Tony! (I can tell by the screen name)
I think you may be off here, “toomanyuniforms.” After all, Bernazard both has, and inspires, a lot more than “a drop” of venom!
How could anyone possibly take offense at what Manuel said?
And now Bart Hubbach is up there on my list of Guys That I Will Never Take Seriously (along with Larry Brooks and other sensationalists of his ilk).
Can we name the list “The Wallace Matthews List of Journalists Who Can Never Be Taken Seriously”
Sadly, there are people who go to Mets games who get all their Mets-related news from sources like the Post and the talking rear ends on the FAN. And these people will probably have a few beers and boo.
I love how the mainstream media bashes bloggers for things like poor research and kneejerk reactions, yet has no compunction about obviously spinning words to mean something different from what was actually said. They’re trying to be the story, rather than report on it, and it’s ridiculous.
What’s funny is that they include the whole quote, which so *obviously* doesn’t say what the headline claims it does. If they were going to do such spinning, you’d think they would have cut out the parts of the quote that completely undermined their attempt at spinning.
90 to 1. Is this the most one-sided Metsblog poll ever?
And the 1 was a Yankees/Phillies/Braves fan.
Maybe it was Craig Carton.
It was Willie.
are the “journalists” who cover the mets bright enough to cover the actual game or is it too complex for them? it seems they’re only capable of creating drama about managers.
jerry manuel doesn’t wear an american flag lapel pin.
Hah, I hear he’s also a muslim….
Haha. NIce.