Sunday, February 5, 2012

ESPN Writer Jokes On The Mets In A Super Bowl Article

Today is Super Bowl Sunday, a day in which thoughts of the traditional national pastime are temporarily put aside for the current national pastime.  In today's matchup, the New England Patriots will be taking on the New York Giants in a much-anticipated rematch of Super Bowl XLII.

Everywhere you turn to, sports writers and bloggers are covering a certain angle of the game.  From Victor Cruz's penchant for salsa dancing to Tom Brady's overrated good looks to Madonna's halftime show, there is no shortage of material for writers to cover.  So tell me, Mets fans.  Why did one particular writer use his Super Bowl article to make a joke about the Mets?

In an article posted to espn.com this morning, Jerry Greene touched upon a gamut of topics from Wing Bowl XX (won by Takeru Kobayashi - who I guess has gotten over his three losses to Carlos Beltran in the fictional Wiener War) to chicken plucking to the actual Super Bowl itself.  However, it was a paragraph near the end of his article that caught my attention.

A few paragraphs before his Super Bowl prediction (he picks the Pats to win by two touchdowns), he provides a link to an article by Drew Davison of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  Never mind the fact that he misspelled Davison's name (Greene spelled it Davidson).  What was truly offensive was his little rip on the Mets at the end of the paragraph.  In discussing Davison's article about which five teams had the best offseasons and which five had the poorest, Greene says:



"Hey, Mets fans, which list do you think you're on?"



So nice that a fan of chicken plucking found it in him to add his two cents and a plucked feather about the state of the Mets in his Super Bowl article.  We all know the Mets had a poor offseason.  So did the Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, Oakland Athletics and Houston Astros, according to Davison's well-written article (a writer Greene can learn a thing or two from).  But of course, he chooses to single out the Mets in his weak attempt at humor.

We get it.  It's fun to rip on the Mets when they're doing poorly.  Even I, a die-hard Mets fan, do it on this site.  (Ask me about my disdain for Joe Orsulak one day.  It's a doozy of a story.)  But to do it in an article that's supposed to be about football on the most sacred day in all of sports, Super Bowl Sunday?  That's just a little overboard.

Super Bowl Sunday is the one day of the year that it's okay not to think about baseball.  The day should be all about football and all the trimmings that go with it (like the chicken wings that Takeru Kobayashi enjoys so much).  It's not a time to make jokes at the Mets' expense.  Jerry Greene can go pluck himself for all I care.  But then again, a kick through his uprights would probably do the trick just as well.

2 comments:

Solly said...

He can go pluck himself and the chicken he rode in on.

What's the Orsulak story?

Ed Leyro (and Joey Beartran) said...

I got my first personalized Mets jersey in 1992 as a 20th birthday gift. It had No. 6 on it because my fav'rit Mets player at the time was Daryl Boston. A month and a half after I got the jersey, Boston signed a free agent contract to become an original member of the Colorado Rockies. At the same time, Joe Orsulak was signed by the Mets and was given No. 6. Therefore, when I went to my first Mets game the following season in my brand new Leyro No. 6 jersey, everyone I saw said "hey, nice Joe Orsulak jersey". Of course, Orsulak didn't do much as a Met in over 1,000 plate appearances (only 60 extra-base hits and a .319 on-base percentage).

I will always hate Joe Orsulak for embarrassing Daryl Boston and his number like that. (I'd say something about it being Wally Backman's number but you'll just tell me to get over it.)