From Phil Mushnick in today’s New York Post,

The first guy to accuse Omar Minaya of trying to sign someone through a “We Hispanics gotta stick together” pitch was Carlos Delgado, who last winter claimed that both Minaya and his assistant, Tony Bernazard, who’s Puerto Rican, turned him off by engaging in such an unsavory sell.

A year later, if a white fan merely suggests such a thing, he or she is a bigot. That makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

Phil is intentionally confusing the issue here. I’ve yet to hear a white fan (or a white talk radio host) complain that Minaya was playing the “Latinos In The House” card when trying to sign Delgado —- though it was reported on in print a number of times after Delgado and his agent, David Sloan, chose to engage in a pissing match with the Mets.

Sadly, though, I did hear several supposed-Mets fans (and at least one talk radio host) imply, if not claim outright that Minaya’s bias towards Hispanic players unduly influenced his decisions, along with the classic proposition on “Mike & The Mad Dog” that the club would be re-named “The New York Hispanics”.

A reasoned criticique of Minaya’s tactics when pursuing free agents would be welcome. And given that he’s acquired most of the high profile players he sought, I don’t think his ability to seal a deal is really in question. But moaning that the Mets have a mostly-Latino team — when several of those players are amongst the game’s brightest stars — is, if not outright bigotry, sets a strange double standard unless the complainers have aimed similar charges against mostly white clubs.