Hey Paul (like we’ve met, right?), I see you’re getting hammered in the media lately. On Thursday, pressed for comments about your blow-up with the umpire,you said to reporters, “You need to start talking to other players….Some of these guys have to start talking. They speak English, believe me.” The result was that “Daily News” reporter Peter Botte began his story with “Paul Lo Duca announced…that some of his Spanish-speaking teammates need to be held more accountable by the media.” The article made you sound like a racist. Exasperated, you said the next day, “Right now I’m a gambler, a racist, and I like 18-year-old girls. That’s the perception of people in New York about me. Is any of it true? No. None of it. Yet no one knows that.”
Paul, as the self-appointed representative of people in New York, I’m here to say in this letter that you will likely never read that the people of New York are able to perceive shoddy journalism and passionate players when they see them.
No one is going to deny that going bug-eyed nuts on an ump and throwing stuff from the dugout was unprofessional. But likewise no one is going to deny that, since that moment, the Mets have been playing as if someone lit a fire under them. New York fans care about results, and the results are indisputable.
Journalists, on the other hand, care about stories. “Paul Lo Duca just wants to be left alone” is a boring story. “Paul Lo Duca is a racist” is an exciting story, especially if journalists think that fans are stupid.
Some are. Many are not. Again, as the self-appointed representative of the people of New York, I can tell you that, for the most part, we were able to look at your initial statement and its interpretation and say, “Oh for crying out loud, he didn’t say anything remotely racist.” Saying your fellow players “speak English” is a common vernacular having nothing to do with race. We’re smart enough to know that reporters are perfectly capable of taking your statement about liking 18-year-old girls not being true and turning out a story headlined,”Paul Lo Duca admits to preferring 18-year-old boys.”
The people of New York appreciate a player who cares enough about his game and his team to get so worked up that he puts himself out there. In the short term, yes, it was inappropriate conduct. But it got the job done. It got the Mets going. THAT is what the people of New York know. So don’t worry about the journalists, and with any luck we’ll see you at the All-Star game.
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I can interpret it as LoDuca hinting that perhaps some members of the media have language-barrier problems talking to other players. The media doesn’t like it when you remind them of their shortcomings, so they’re liable to turn on you.
Actually, I think if the people of New York were actually able to percieve shoddy journalism, they would have boycotted the News and Post a long long time ago.
Unfortunately, most New Yorkers (and yes, I live in Manhattan) just are not that bright. Or they are that bright and just love to take part in sensationalism they know isn’t the truth, for the fun of it.
Exasperated, you said the next day, “Right now I’m a gambler, a racist, and I like 18-year-old girls. That’s the perception of people in New York about me. Is any of it true? No. None of it. Yet no one knows that.”
Next Daily News headline:
Lo Duca Admits: “I’m a Gambler, a Racist, and I Like 18-Year-Old Girls!”
I think he was saying that other players talk bad about the umpires, but not publicly. If other players would speak up, players both from his team and other teams, perhaps the MLB would do something about the state of umpiring today.
3 or 4 of the Detroit Tigers players have been seen on camera making comments to the umpires this year. At the same time, the announcers have, in a round about way, agreed that the umpires are generally less than they have been in the past.
Perhaps it was that MLB forced several of the experienced (read: OLD) umpires out of the league before there were enough good replacements available.
Huh. I thought Lo Duca accused the MEDIA of being racist….
Not sure I’d disagree…
wait…what’s wrong with liking 18-year-old girls?
>>Actually, I think if the people of New York were actually able to percieve shoddy journalism, they would have boycotted the News and Post a long long time ago.
Don’t forget the Times. They not anywhere close to being off the hook.
“wait…what’s wrong with liking 18-year-old girls?”
Nothing, if you’re close to that age yourself. But once you hit 50, suddenly it’s a big deal and everyone starts saying things like, “You should be ashamed of yourself,” and, “Put your pants back on, this is a public library.”
He didn’t know to say “no comment,” so he publicly called out his teammates to forgo the sense he failed to demonstrate. I see a deficit of character in publicly blaming coworkers for vulnerabilities of his own making.
I look at it this way, the Mets are having a terrific season, a wonderful season, a spectacular season! The thing is, they are doing it mainly under the radar – even when they had a bad spell at the beginning of June, the back pages of the tabloids were focused more on the Yankees.
Truthfully, I prefer it that way – the media covering the Yankees in such magnifying detail – it leaves Mets fans more time to enjoy this glorious season.
I just look at it as the tabloids trying to manufacture some kind of drama, to sow some seeds of discord in what has been an otherwise quiet clubhouse.
Every time the tabloids (and sports radio) have tried to make an issue out of some facet of the Mets game, whether it be the pitching staff, Delgado’s season, the injuries… they just fizzle.
LoDuca is a much beloved Met and certainly has endeared himself to Met fans despite both his transgressions and that he had some big shoes to fill. The important thing at the end of the day was how his teammates took it and it didn’t appear that anyone in the clubhouse had a problem with it and that’s all that mattered.
Posted by: brady at June 30, 2007 05:55 PM
wait…what’s wrong with liking 18-year-old girls?
This reminds me of a recent revoltin’ development…
Back X-Factor #19 came out, I said something about how I wished Layla Miller was not only real, but legal because I loved her soooo much!
So the latest issue comes out, and Layla is drawn as looking like a fourth-grader instead of a post-pubescent female, making me look very creepy all of a sudden to anybody who goes back and reads that comment. *groan*
Ooops, I meant #18. When the artist changes so frequently, being one issue off makes all the difference.
While I don’t think anyone reading this thinks there’s anything wrong with you emphasizing the appeal of a character who is worldly yet whose tastes are fulfilled by simple pleasures (not unlike Neil Gaiman’s portrayal of Death), I think it’s worth mentioning that when you say “post-pubescent” it implies that the character has completed a development she has not been portrayed to have completed.
Any chance of an open letter to the NY Post that A-Rod’s wife wearing a tank top with “F*CK YOU” (apparently) on it isn’t news? 🙂
I try to confine open letters to people who might actually give a dámņ. The New York Post is to news what vaseline is to velcro.
PAD