I have been listening to 1050 ESPN Radio, and they make an interesting point regarding today’s game and David Wright.
The hosts believe Wright should have charged the mound, when the pitcher from the Cardinals nearly hit his helmet with a fastball up and inside.
Instead, Wright did nothing.
I’d like to think I would charged the mound, but I can’t blame Wright for playing it cool.
That said, why didn’t he charge the mound?
It’s been a long and frustrating season, and Wright, who is more or less the team’s captain, is the ‘Last Man Standing,’ so to speak.
It seems like it would have been the ideal time to just take charge and let loose – at the same time, it may not be his temperament, and, if he gets ejected, then what? Or, will his teammates view Wright as being weak? Less of a leader? This is supposedly what happened to Mike Piazza, within the same clubhouse several years ago, as it related to Roger Clemens.
I don’t think there is a definitive answer, but it’s interesting to think about.
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I know if it was me, I would have charged the mound, but I was always a hot headed emotional ball player. This may not be in DW’s make-up so I won’t kill him for electing not to. He and Johan are the only reasons to watch or go to a game right now.
Charging the mound is so not David Wright’s style. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him angry.
I think if it was Sheffield, the mound would have been charged.
I’m sure he was probably very shaken and did not trust himself to move for a few minutes and he saw Pujols get plunked, i’m sure he wasn’t shocked, but a throw at the head had to be scary, don’t care if he says otherwise.
Did he show any emotion at all? Sometimes he will glare but that’s about it.
He kinda blinked a bit and got back into the batter’s box. When he walked he didn’t stare down the pitcher or anything. Just David being David.
Ok, thanks i’m sure he was angry but used self control and got back in the box, hit into DP but whatever, the game was basically over already.
Yeah, there’s no reason for him to change his style just because the team’s tanking. You can’t ask him to be someone he’s not. If he’s a cool character, that’s who he is.
He’ s had an up and down year, but I give him credit for going out there day in and day out when the rest of his mates are on the long term mend. He’s earned more respect for me this year for just trudging through and playing hard in this hell of a season.
YES!
Lets pile on!
The last Met standing, is a jerk!
Matt; shame on you.
LOL, yeah, really!
Did Pujols charge the mound? Noooo, but that’s ok because he has monster stats. If you don’t have monster stats, then you better charge the mound to prove you have monster balls!
Nevermind that Wright could get injured if it results in a bench-clearing brawl. If that happened, you know the critics are just going to spin it as a reckless move on the part of a frustrated player who didn’t put the interests of his team first.
My thoughts exactly. If he charged the mound, he would probably end up with a concussion/hamstring/calf/hip/shoulder/knee/elbow injury. Why not complain about the pitcher (not sure if it was Parnell or Figgy at that point) for not retaliating? Ultimately, it really doesn’t matter, because this team is going nowhere this season… other than the DL….
The ump warned the bench about retaliating, who needs to deal with ejections and or suspensions on top of everything else?
Look at this team. Do you really think it would matter if someone got suspended?
David Wright is a nice guy (not meant as a compliment as I wish our players were more like the 86 team or even the Phillies). I wasn’t surprised he didnt go out there but at the same time I was a little disappointed.
DW is the only “real” player left, for him to get hurt or thrown out will NOT help the team at all.
I’m glad he didn’t charge the mound mainly because of the younger players who are watching him, especially Daniel Murphy. If he charged the mound they would think its ok to do it, being camp day with lots of kids in attendance probably was on his mind too. If he had charged the mound there would have been a bench clearing brawl where Wright and some of the few healthy Mets may have gotten hurt and or suspended.
honestly when you get thrown at your skull, the last thing on your mind is…
“I can’t charge the mound, it is camp day.”
Look folks David Wright is a very good baseball player, having a pretty piss poor season in my opinion, blah blah he is hitting .300, he has done that before, his ops is nearly 150 points off right now.
David Wright did not charge the mound because he has more in common with Derek Jeter than he does Thurman Munson, Keith Hernandez, Paul O’Niell and the like.
Leaders are not worried about their “PR” they are worried about people not bowing to opponents.
I actually do not think Wright should have charged the mound today because mostly the Mets are down about sixty players, but I am sure that is not why he resisted.
That said Bobby Parnell should have planted a fastball in Albert Pujols ribs his next at-bat. And so it goes, and so it has been with the Mets since they last had a team that any toughness 22 years ago. Teams can basically walk over them without so much as an A-Rod b#tch slap ala Bronson Arroyo.
Stats aside, he was just being himself, you can put all the negative spin on it you want, i don’t agree about being more worried about image than anything but whatever, i agree to disagree on certain issues, not a problem.
Oh, Patrick.
It’s gotten to the point where you can’t even do simple arithmetic. Wright is OPSing .898, a whole 20 points under his career average and 65 points under his career high. I don’t know where you got 150 from, but you’re wayyyy off. And that’s .328, not .300. Boy, I wish all our hitters were having “piss-poor” years in which they were third in the NL in average and 15th in OPS.
Just so you can understand how stupid your comment is, here are some players who have a lower OPS than David Wright: Carlos Lee, Jayson Werth (even though he has 23 homers!), Matt Kemp, Chipper Jones, Brian McCann, Ryan Howard, Ryan Zimmerman, Matt Holliday. That’s just in the NL. You want some AL guys? Evan Longoria, Nelson Cruz, Jermaine Dye, Jason Bay, Ichiro, Damon, Victor Martinez, Derek Jeter, Nick Markakis. I could go on all day.
I guess all those guys are having “piss-poor” years, too, since they’re not living up to your standard for having a good year, which is apparently OPSing over 1.000.
10 minutes before getting on this topic, they were debating Eli Manning’s career numbers vs. Joe Namath at the same stage and wondering why Eli gets so little respect in NY. They found a way to insert Derek Jeter into that discussion, obviously to point out how he combines the best qualities of both….because god forbid talk radio in NY goes on for 5 minutes without someone praising Derek Jeter.
Why does’nt someone ask these two clowns why St. Derek has never charged a mound – we know from the years and years of Yankee fan whining that he gets hit alot, never mind that its because he lunges over the plate like someone left a fifty in the left-hander’s batter’s box. Listneing to these guys criticize Wright in a season where he has been criticized for everything else is a joke.
Why would he charge the mound? What does this do? We don’t play the Cardinals again. Maybe they should criticize LaRussa, who has been ordering his guys to hit opponents for over 25 years.
Wright has watched his entire team go down this year – he should risk injury fighting with a worthless punk like Brad Thompson?
And bringing up Piazza? Come on. He’s not the one who should have charged the mound that night (and some might remember he was already blocked off by the umpire anyway). Maybe it was Mike Hampton’s weak response of hitting Tino in his gigantic rear end, or the lack of support from anyone but Lenny Harris and John Stearns (a coach) that made that team question it’s fortitude…but Piazza was rightfully bewildered by Clemens and was too confused to want to fight him.
La Russa admitted that he wanted Thompson to pitch inside to Wright because he had been killing them all day, but the ump clearly made the correct call by warning the teams, La Russa said it was a mistake to pitch that high and inside.
You expect Tony the Liger to say “Hey what goes around comes around, up and in if need be!”
No of course not, i just meant that La Russa made it sound like he was embarrassed that it happened that way, that’s all. I’m sure he wsa not as embarrassed as he was trying to show to the media.
wright probobly didnt want to get ejected… considering we have nobody left to play.
i mean… who would have played 3rd base?
i didnt get to watch the game today. was it early or late in the game.
Matt – stop listening to so much talk radio. you are starting to sound like them.
It happened in the 6th inning, i think, did not watch the game myself but was following it on Yahoo.
Is charging the mound even part of the game anymore? Seriously when was the last time anyone actually did that?
Seems like it used to happen a couple times a month or so across baseball, now if it happens more than 2 or 3 times a year I would be shocked…
Its not a part of the game any more, at least to the degree that it was, even if he did make one move towards the pitcher, Molina would have grabbed him and shoved him at Shef, who would have taken matters into his own hands.
omg this is the stupidest thing to write about, why didn’t david charge the mound? I would say its because that’s not david’s style. It’s just not him, get over it jeez maybe we should be more concerned with how every player that puts on a mets uni ends up writhing in pain
Can’t ask DWright to be someone he’s not. As fans, we’d love to see him take his frustration out on that Cardinals punk, but that’s just not him.
That being said, I honestly believe batters should be allowed to charge the mound, bat in hand, when a pitcher throws at their head. That is literally career-threatening. Punks like Joba and this nobody today can nearly kill a batter with their weapon (the ball) and get no suspension but if Wright ever charged the mound with his weapon (the bat) he’d get 20 games. Ridiculous doube standard.
And if Wright took a few swings at that Zima-drinking, steroid-encouraging, drunk-driving fruit loop LaRussa, that would have been great.
I agree, it is a double standard, but the Mets could do a protest of some kind, right? Or would they have had to do it already? The Mets and Cards are done for season, if Lindstrom of the Marlins throws at David again like he is notorious for, that’s another story, bring on the brawl.
non-issue. Thats not his style. One of our pitchers should have taken one for the team. If I was manager, I would have made a pitching change at some point and brought in my 12/13th guy and had him nail a batter. If he wasnt thrown out, nail the next guy too.
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