Note: Last Night’s Family Meeting
Following last night’s loss to the Brewers, Jerry Manuel held a 28–minute, closed-door meeting with his team, which he simply described as a ‘family talk.’
According to Manuel, he was the only person to speak.
Manuel later talked to reporters, and explained:
“It was just to get things in order… We talked about a lot of things, private things, some things we saw that were out of order… I’ll give you this, the whole was to say that we have enough, we have enough, we’ve got enough in here to do what we need to get done, so let’s get it done… I think, if we play the game consistently, competing in the right way, executing the little things, it gives us a chance… I just don’t want us to feel sorry for ourselves. That’s the bottom line. You know, we gotta do what we’ve gotta do, we are who we are… I just don’t want us to feel sorry for ourselves…
“It’s hard not to (let the losing and negative outlook seep in), because that’s what we’re based on, the wins and losses. So when you lose as many as we have, in a row, in tough month, you have to check that negativity at the door. Sometimes that seeps in and then you have to address it… Again, the whole key to that is that when that seeps in, individualism seeps in, and we can ill afford that as a group. How we are designed now, we can ill afford individual things to seep in. Period.”
…from what i can gather, manuel basically told his team he does not want them to retreat, give up hope, shrug off teammates and start playing only for their own stats, while not working together as a team in an effort to win as the Mets… essentially, his talk to the team was to say stay positive, focus on what the team is able to do well, focus on the little things, work together, pick eachother up, and move forward as a team…
Manuel also said he will have the entire team travel together on an 11 a.m. bus to the stadium today.
In an interesting post to his blog for Newsday, David Lennon explains, “Barely anyone takes the bus, except for maybe the broadcast crew and support staff. Players usually like to get to the ballpark early — even for day games. Symbolism aside, it’s a bit extreme, but the Mets are in a tough spot”
Later in the night, David Wright was asked if he agrees with Manuel, in that the team has enough talent to ‘get it done,’ which he responded to by saying:
“I do. Hopefully everyone in here feels the same way, because, if they don’t, we don’t want them here. So, I think we have enough, but we have to do little things right, prepare the right way… We have to really do things and win based on preparation, based on doing the small things right. We can’t go out there and beat people purely with talent. We have to be aggressive and do things the right way… When things aren’t going right, obviously people look for reasons why. When you win, there’s no problems, there’s smiles on everyone’s faces. When you lose, you try to pinpoint different things. Like I said, just have to prohibit the individualism Jerry was talking about and go pick each other up… We have to try to have each other’s back, because it’s unrealistic to think we’re going to go out there and play perfect baseball every day.”
…it all sounds great, but it only matters what they do between the white lines… and, of course, i’ll be watching… Lets’ Go Mets…
