Good For Carlos

The New York media this morning is making a huge big deal over the fact that Carlos Delgado hit two home runs in the Mets win over Atlanta yesterday and didn't acknowledge the fans and take a curtain call for each one.

Count me in the group that applauds Delgado for not doing it.

It's been a real struggle so far this season for the Mets first baseman, and he's been hearing the boo-birds big time at Shea Stadium. He had just one home run and a .186 average coming into yesterday's game, and heard the jeers during the players' introductions. But he went deep twice yesterday, and ignored the fans who wanted him to come out of the dugout both times. And the press here seems to think it was Delgado's way of giving the Mets fans The Middle Finger.

But he explained it after the game, to the New York Post:
"The way I look at it, I hit a solo home run in the seventh inning. I've got great respect for the game, and I don't think it's the place for a curtain call."

Amen to that. I wish more players would follow Delgado's lead. Those curtain calls for the most part are simply idiotic, especially the ones when a team is losing, and losing badly. Curtain calls should be something special, like when someone hits a home run to win a game or sets some kind of record. (It makes me think of when Roger Maris hit his 61st home run in 1961, he had to be pushed out of the dugout by his teammates to acknowledge the applause, and it was only because he was such a modest man he at first didn't want to do it. I wonder what he would think of all of this.) The Mets fans in 1986 started this crap of demanding that every time someone on the home team hits one out it's cause for a huge celebration. And now the press seems to think it was Delgado's way of telling the fans to shove it that he didn't come out and acknowledge their cheers and take a bow.

No matter what Delgado's motivation for not coming out and staying in the dugout, I respect the fact he didn't come out. Good for him.