The Mets have played their first spring training game and emerged victorious with a minor league team as the regulars were pulled due to the inclement weather yesterday.
Jerry Manuel, David Wright, John Maine, Jose Reyes, Johan Santana, and others have been interviewed at great length, and it's apparent that they are excited for this year.
They want to win, and they know they have a lot to prove to themselves, the management, and the fans.
If they do not succeed this year, if relatively healthy, major changes will be made from the top down, and no one in the Mets organization wants that to happen.
Sadly, a lot of fans are very negative because management and the roster were not shaken up enough this winter.
They have already doomed this group to failure, which is not how it should be for a fanbase.
I would love to chalk it up to passion, but I'm not entirely convinced that is the only reason.
We should be rooting for the name on the front, not the names on the back, and the players should be playing for the Mets, not for themselves. Individual statistics are secondary to team wins, but fans only want to talk about individuals and what they need to improve on, its a 25 man roster for the season.
They win as a team and lose as a team, no sole heroes or villains. Its easy to make a starting pitcher like Johan Santana the innocent victim when the bullpen blows a lead that the whole team worked hard to preserve.
These things happen, he's not an innocent victim any more than if Jose Reyes steals 6 bases or David Wright drives in 10 runs by himself, if they lose its as a team, their individual contributions do not matter at the end of the day.
Fans are not innocent victims either, when they boo their own players for anything other than blatant laziness or indifference, we are sending a message of disapproval for good intentions but failed attempts.
Management, employees, players, and fans are all a part of the Mets family. Yes, there will be disagreements and arguments from time to time, but we are all in this together.
There is no doubt that the last few years have been very upsetting, but for a fanbase to be negative so early in spring training at seeing many of the same faces on the team is not productive in the least.
Yes, the Mets players do know that a winning season will get the fans on their side, but I am very irked by the fans who are acting like the last few disappointing seasons were done on purpose by the players who "only show up for a paycheck."
Can't we all just support each other?
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