If the doo-rags, high speed Hummers, bling and jones for jailbait wasn’t enough circumstantial evidence to condemn Mets rookie OF Lastings Milledge, take a gander at the following item from the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand.
Willie Randolph reprimanded Lastings Milledge for celebrating his first major-league homer – a dramatic game-tying solo shot in yesterday’s 10th inning – by taking a detour to high-five fans on his way out to right field to start the next inning.
“It will not happen again,” Randolph said after the Mets’ 7-6 loss to the Giants in 12 innings.
Milledge seemed a bit embarrassed that he had to talk about the high fives instead of his home run.
“It was a rookie mistake,” Milledge said.
Oh please, enough with the fake contrition, Lastings. Here I was, just two days ago, defending you as best I could, but now, I think I’ve come around to Mike McGann’s way of thinking. Clearly, any so-called major leaguer that goes out of his way to acknowledge the paying customers is a disgrace to the uniform and more than deserving of censure. Not since the days of Gregg Jeffries have the Flushing patrons paid witness to this kind of thuggish behavior.
nothing like reigning in a tremendous young talent who might actually *attract* younger viewers/fans with his natural demeanor on field – let’s put a stop to that right now. mlb’s avg fan has got to be what, 46 yrs old these days?
I think MLB’s ratings are stronger than they’ve been in twenty years, but thanks for that ‘factoid’ cc (at least, they’ve been very strong in the post-season the past 5-7 years, according to Nielsen). And it’s not like young’ uns aren’t buying up every throwback baseball jersey on the planet. Yeah, 46yrs, that sounds about right.
You know, if Lastings just stopped homering to tie games, or scoring game-winning runs, this wouldn’t be a problem. He should listen to Tim McCarver & work a walk, since it’s just as good, & not nearly as problematic PR-wise.
I was wondering, when I saw that, whether it would be read as somehow showing-up Benitez. I do know that I’ve never seen it done before, and thought it was actually pretty cool — it wasn’t about him, it didn’t happen when Benitez was on the field (and therefore seems less vain than a curtain call), and it was, as GC pointed out, weirdly populist in a way baseball usually isn’t. So yeah, it’d be a good idea to tamp that shit down.
I don’t know how good Milledge will be. But I do think that if he doesn’t screw himself up Strawsomely and is left alone to do his thing he will be beloved by Mets fans. I already love him, in large part because he really does seem to know and care that the fans are there. Somehow it doesn’t surprise me to see it spun this way, though. It’s a racial catch 22 — if Milledge is too surly to the fans, he’s a thug; if he’s not surly enough to the fans, he’s…a thug?
Baseball fan and Met fan for 25 + years. saw it – loved it! You wonder if sometimes players even notice that there is an audience – Its not like a play, opera or other musical/theatrical performance – its a baseball game for Pete’s sake. I think many take it way to serious. It’s so nice to see the players get as excited as the fan for a change.
If can’t get excited about a rookie taking the GOAT of the 2000 world serous deep then you really aren’t paying attention.
“if he’s not surly enough to the fans, he’s…a thug?”
HUH?!? Can you at least stick to facts? Nobody called him a thug for high-fiving the fans. God, I hate the internet.
true ’nuff, no one called him a thug for high-fiving the fans. Still, it’s kind of amazing that Milledge is under this kind of scrutiny after less than a week in the big leagues — can a day go by without one more accusation of a breach in decorum? If he’s not wearing a gold chain, he’s fucking a 15 year old. If he’s not carving up Fortunate Son Schuerholz’ thigh, he’s trying to run over Mike McGann in a Hummer. If he’s not hitting a crucial double off Matt Morris to tie the game at 3-3…he’s taking Armando Benitez deep for his first big league HR.
sounds like public enemy no. 1 to me!
This is only going to help build the Lasting Milledge brand in the short term.
I refuse to stick to facts.
So, yeah, maybe not a thug. Feel free to substitute disrespectful, indecorous or any one of the other words that convey the same loaded message we’ve been discussing since the guy got called up. Anyway, sorry I broke the internet, Rog.