Adam Rubin Applesauce - Controversy over Met reporter, Minaya puts foot in mouth, Niese's cutter, Valentine done with Marines

by Joe Budd on Jul 28, 2009 8:36 AM EDT in Applesauce

Is it just me or did Omar Minaya look like a whipped puppy dog in yesterday's two disastrous press conferences? Did Jeff Wilpon just tear him a new one? Even before the Adam Rubin questioning, Omar looked terrified, a major change from his usual cockiness. This is purely my amateur psychological opinion, I'm no Freud, but still. Anyone else think this way?

Meet the Mets

Tony Bernazard/Adam Rubin Fiasco

Guess what dominated the Met news yesterday?

The story was the subject of a great editorial from the SNY booth prior to yesterday's victory.

Adam Rubin responded in today's Daily News to Minaya's accusations.

Wallace Matthews says that the Mets killed Toto.

Ken Rosenthal picks up on the story, saying that Adam Rubin doesn't actually matter.

Mike Silva talked to a disgruntled Met farmhand who finally has his day.

NY Sports Dog, however, says that Adam Rubin is overreacting and needs to grow up.

Metsradamus gives his usually funny take.

Actual Baseball News

Oh yeah, they played baseball last night too.

Howard Megdal gives the odds on which Mets will actually play again this season.

Jon Niese has a new cutter that was on display on Saturday evening.

Around the NL East

The Phillies continue to rock and Moyer won his 10th.

There is some serious columnist fallout from yesterday's story of a fan getting killed after the game. One Philly columnist says that this happens everywhere. Another is much more realistic.

Brett Myers is planning to come back.

Fernando Tatis is not the onlyl one who can hit grand slams. Josh Willingham hit two in yesterday's 14-6 National win over the Brewers. Break up the Nats!

Around MLB

A computer glitch led to trade speculation around Red starter Bronson Arroyo. He will make his next scheduled start.

Cue the Hall of Fame speculation surrounding Pete Rose.

Bobby Valentine officially says that his time with the Chiba Lotte Marines has ended. Good timing Bobby. You want to be a GM too?

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Comments

gotta love that Ron Darling used “expurgated” which was transcribed as “EXBRAGATED (SIC?)”

by jadelane on Jul 28, 2009 9:10 AM EDT reply actions

Lots of things are misspelled

and the caps hurt my eyes.

2009 Mets---Mission: .500!

by Prince on Jul 28, 2009 11:48 AM EDT up reply actions

all caps is annoying

unless, of course, they were actually yelling the whole time. that would be funny.

"He's definitely mixing it into his repertoire. That's French for 'repertoire' " - Keith Hernandez

by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on Jul 28, 2009 1:02 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

I actually had to cut-and-paste it into another document

and run a script to get rid of the caps before reading it. And I’m glad I did — it was worth the extra effort.

by anonymous on Jul 28, 2009 1:05 PM EDT up reply actions

Props to SNY

Somehow I doubt the boys at Yank-jazeera would be as blunt in their analysis.

by dcmetsfan on Jul 28, 2009 9:22 AM EDT reply actions

For sure--between Gary, Keith, Ron and Ted Berg

it’s nice to see that SNY employs people that are honest and forthright in their analysis of the Mets.

by dtro on Jul 28, 2009 9:30 AM EDT up reply actions

I was listening to WFAN on the way home yesterday

and Benigno and Roberts were filling in for Francessa. One one hand I was extremely grateful that I didn’t have to listen to Francessa cover this story. Benigno and Roberts are at least Mets fans which makes their grousing a little more bearable.

However, they started going on and on and on about how SNY is going to sugarcoat this and they called out Gary, Keith and Ron as being a bunch of homers and how they tell it like it is. Roberts mentioned it a couple times, but Benigno never commented, while I listened, on the fact that he’s employed by SNY.

They also tore into the in-booth interview with Minaya a couple games ago saying they handled him with kid gloves, whereas I felt that Gary, in particular, asked some very pointed questions about the farm system and the overall sour perception of it.

by theflicker on Jul 28, 2009 10:20 AM EDT up reply actions

never have i ever

heard yank-jazeera. so good. +1 and you’re the next contestant on the price is right.

by pricedoutoftheciti on Jul 28, 2009 1:51 PM EDT up reply actions

Quote of the morning so far...

not surprisingly comes from Marchman.

“I have absolutely nothing. I knew it was going to be spectacular, but god damn. I was expecting Three Mile Island, not Chernobyl.”

"Those who fear disorder more than injustice inevitably produce more of both." -- Rev. William Coffin

by dcrockett17 on Jul 28, 2009 10:01 AM EDT reply actions

agree with Joe Budd

Omar looked and sounded terrified – could not have been less of a commanding presence.

by metsjetsnets on Jul 28, 2009 12:24 PM EDT reply actions

Agreed

You can see his hands shaking in the video.

by blains2000 on Jul 28, 2009 12:27 PM EDT up reply actions

Gary, Keith and Ron need to be investigated.

after watching them at the top of the game last night, and reading the transcript of their discussion , I am just in awe; all three of them were absolutely frank, open, spoke their minds; Gary explained the situation clearly and eloquently, Ron and Keith both made very good and interesting points. Not only that, but they seemed to be speaking English in a grammatical and comprehensible way. They should probably be fired.

by coyote522000 on Jul 28, 2009 12:46 PM EDT reply actions

Willingham

Pfffft, I bet he hit those two grand slams in different innings. What a loser. I’ll take Tatis instead, thankyouverymuch.

by JoshNY on Jul 28, 2009 12:54 PM EDT reply actions

media mistrust

One thing that has surprised me in reading comments on various sites covering this fiasco is how many people seem to loathe, not just Rubin, but the news media in general. I understand it’s not perfect – that issues like media consolidation and writer bias sometimes negatively affect the quality of our coverage – but for the most part I feel that journalists, sports and otherwise, are honest people doing the best they can to report the news accurately and place it in its proper context, to me a laudable public service. Maybe it’s just a vocal minority that’s posting these anti-press comments, but I never expected to see so many of them.

by metsjetsnets on Jul 28, 2009 1:49 PM EDT reply actions

This may just be my take on that

but it seems to me that most sportswriters are insufferable hacks. I wouldn’t really lump Rubin into that category, but, then again I’m down in DC and don’t check out the NY tabs that much, so I don’t really know. I come to a place like AA because I like to read things written about baseball that go beyond the level of mainstream sportswriting in terms of intelligence, quality and humor. I would suspect there are others who are the same. I come to AA as an alternative to mainstream media baseball coverage, and my kneejerk response to a lot of it is that it is likely drivel. Now this may not be fair of me, but for a person who got into looking at statistical analyses and the like by reading FJM, intelligent baseball discussion and mistrust of mainstream sportswriters will often go hand in hand.

Anyway, I don’t know if this is true about the big bad media in general, but it is kinda my view on the sports media.

And either way I don’t really think Adam Rubin did much of anything wrong but should be lauded for exposing the ineptitude of and lack of professionalism in the Mets front office regardless of his motives.

by dtro on Jul 28, 2009 2:20 PM EDT up reply actions

Problem is...

… it takes a certain kind of person to be a great journalist. Most of the characteristics that you’d like in a superlative beat reporter— dogged persistence bordering on the maniacal, serving the story before serving the people in it, principle bordering on self-importance— don’t necessarily make for the most likable person. (Check the Rubin explanation, and tell me the person who wrote that comes off smelling like roses.)

Put another way: You don’t have to like a beat reporter, if he’s doing his job well. Like and respect the job he does.

by LeiterMilnerFasterStronger on Jul 28, 2009 6:24 PM EDT up reply actions

Metstradamus is spot on

The Mets HR departments don’t investigate, but protect their top level (well in Wilpon’s mind) employees. This has been known for weeks and Omar claims it had to be “expedited”. Wilpon gives the shovel and Omar heaps the manure. If not for Rubin’s reports Tony would have gotten a wet noodle slapped on his wrist and off on his abusive bullying ways.

by cuseindahuse on Jul 28, 2009 2:14 PM EDT reply actions