The New York Mets’ new closer, as interviewed in today’s Newark Star-Ledger by Don Burke (link taken from Repoz and Baseball Think Factory).
Those people, it doesn’t matter how successful you are. I don’t get it. They boo you. They scream at you. Anybody who’s going to boo you when you don’t hit 100 miles per hour, what does that tell you? There are some fans who are fantastic, who were very supportive, and made you feel welcome there. But, for the most part, you had the guys who just came to the ballpark to yell at you. If you’re having a bad season there, forget it. You can’t get out of that funk. They won’t allow you to. You have to go into Philadelphia and become so thick- skinned, somebody that you’re not. It’s hard.
Q: How do you think you’ll be received when you visit Citizens Bank Park this season?
A: Oh, I’m going to have a big, old bull’s-eye on my back. But I’m going to approach it like I do everything else. I’ve got three hours to spend with you. You want to spend your three hours yelling at me? Go ahead. Then I’ll go home and go to sleep. You’ll get to tell your grandkids that you yelled at me for three hours. If you want to stand there and yell at me — as long as you’re not saying anything about my family — you can call me whatever you want to call me. I don’t care because I think it’s hilarious. I spent most of my time (in the bullpen) laughing at these people. I think Major League Baseball should have some of these fans come down out of the stands. One’s going to hit and one’s going to pitch and it’s going to be in a big situation. Let’s see how easy it is. They sit up there and tell me how easy is it. ‘I could do that. You bum. You (stink).’ All right, find out how it is. Come down here.
Q : Are Phillies fans as bad as it gets?
A: They’re easier on the visiting team. I’m sure they won’t be easy on me this year. But if that makes your day, if that makes it special for you, go right ahead.
2 years pitching in Philly and Billy Wagner never copped on to the humorous ironic booing that Phillies fans do when say, a fan drops a foul pop in the stands or when he didnt hit 100 mph (back in early 2004 when he routinely done so)? Philly dogkickers are a fact of life, but considering that the games Wagner blew last season were almost all critical games, his shakyness coming into tie games and looking at his dismal post-season record with Houston, he has yet to prove himself as a serious crunch-time pitcher and if he ends up as the Mets next Armando Benitez, he may end up looking back on his Philly tenure with a bit more affection.
Personally, I’m waiting for the mandatory, “You know, they boo Santa Claus there,” comment.
This is absolute crap. Billy Wagner was loved in Phila, and as Chuck pointed out, the booing of the radar gun was meant as a joke. Mets fans, get ready, because Wagner is as stupid and sensitive as they come. Why are the idiots the ones that insist on never shutting up?
Yep, followed up by the mandatory Donovan McNabb draft-day footage…
Brian- Wags will be Wags and with this latest commentary, he has elevated himself to the heel status of J.D. Drew and Scott Rolen to Phillies fans. Of course this means that Wagner will routinely come into CBP and kill the Phillies in the same way that Rolen and Drew does.