Mickey Callaway says the pressure of New York is getting to the team

by Tim Reilly June 04, 2018

Things are not going the Mets way of late, and that’s putting it lightly. Mets Law: “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong” has been in full force these last few weeks.

Mickey Callaway has quickly learned over his first two months what life has been like for the vast majority of this franchise’s existence.  While new on the job, Callaway is now leaning on an old excuse. When in doubt, blame New York.

Is @Mets manager Mickey Callaway making excuses or just telling it like it is? pic.twitter.com/tYLSmrVtHK

— SportsNet New York (@SNYtv) June 4, 2018

You’re better than that, Mickey. This is a lazy fallback excuse that I’m frankly tired of hearing. 

New Yorker’s don’t ask its players for anything more than what they give themselves on a daily basis at their respective jobs. We hustle our asses off every day just to get ahead in this market – no matter what we do. There’s no reason we should expect any less from the team we root for.

Do we love a champion? Absolutely. But it seems to be constantly overlooked that to simply earn our respect we just ask that you show some effort. Make us know that you give a damn about what happens out on that field. Play with your heart on your sleeve and you’ll win us over. Win and you'll never pay for a drink in this town. Right now we're not seeing any of that. 

It’s a lot of shoulder shrugs, hands up and the same old excuses as losses pile up night after night. 

For my own reasons, I’m not the biggest Steven Matz fan. At the same time, I earned some respect for him when I saw his reaction in the dugout after a few mental lapses cost the Mets the game on Sunday. That raw emotion after feeling like he let his team down like he let New York down, was a real moment. I’m down with players that have that in them.

steven matz is all of us pic.twitter.com/jhfSFzDO5I

— Shannon (@Miss_Met) June 3, 2018

At the same time, if I showed the same effort that Jay Brue did on a short fly ball on Sunday at my own job I’m going to hear about it. That’s a lack of effort and focus that allows your competition to cruise by you in all walks of life. 

The “New York” excuse just doesn’t fly with this roster. I don't want to hear it muttered again. It’s not a young group. This is a roster of veterans and guys that have been playing in Orange and Blue for a number of years now.

New York isn’t the reason this team is underperforming. New York isn’t the reason a new player lands on the disabled list every other day. New York isn’t the reason this team continues to make Little League-like mistakes.  New York isn’t holding back that team across town that keeps winning games.

New York is just the reason you’re all being held accountable for your own actions. Get used to it.

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