Boo-bird, boo-bird through my window

Because you can put a newspaper on a bookshelf…

I didn’t think it was such a big deal when Javier Baez gave the thumbs-down sign in Sunday’s game. Did it really need to generate so much attention from the media?

In Tyler Kepner’s column, “In Queens, the Mets Give Their Fans a Bronx Cheer,” in yesterday’s New York Times he quotes the ballplayer from the post-game news conference:

“Just the boos that we get,” said Baez, who homered on Sunday and is now hitting .210 as a Met. “We’re not machines, we’re going to struggle. We’re going to struggle seven times out of 10. It just feels bad when I strike out and I get booed — it doesn’t really get to me, but I want to let them know that when we’re a success, we’re going to do the same thing, to let them know how it feels.

Yes, it’s been frustrating for everyone to see the team plummet from the top of the NL East. Yes, Baez is a free agent after the season. Yes, Francisco Lindor claims he was never booed in Cleveland:

Lindor, in particular, seems not to understand. He was adored in Cleveland, where he was a four-time All-Star known as Mr. Smile and led his team to the World Series. To stay in Cleveland would have required a contract extension below his market value. That wasn’t happening, so Lindor was traded to New York in January for four players, including shortstop Amed Rosario.

This is where I stop defending the players. The Mets gave him a ten-year deal for more than $340 million. I used the word “for” rather than “worth” deliberately because I don’t think any athlete is “worth” that kind of money. Can you say “Bobby Bonilla”? How many players have come from small markets and been disgruntled by the way the fans treated them when they didn’t live up to their hype? Can you say “Mo Vaughn”? Some guys just don’t have the personality to have to deal with large market towns where the fans and media are so demanding (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, to name a few; I’m certain there’s not the same kind of pressure in Cleveland). Maybe they should do a little research before signing the contract.

Just about all of the comments I’ve read say that the fans pay the (exorbitant) price of a ticket, they have a right to boo. If the players don’t like it, too bad.

So what just happened in yesterday’s game with the Marlins, which was the completion of a suspended game from way back in April? Posters expressing the fans’ displeasure with the team; to be fair, it wasn’t just Baez who complained. Fans putting their thumbs down when the Mets came to bat.

Baez did not start the game. He came up as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning with the Mets losing , 5-1, to the expected cascade of boos. The announcers are talking about the whole situation. Baez is hit by the pits to sarcastic cheers.

The next inning, Chance Sisco walks with one out. Brandon Nimmo homers to close the gap to 5-3 but I don’t get too excited; we’ve been down this road before where the Mets come teasingly close but ultimately fail to come through. Lindor lined to right for the second out. Ho-hum.

Dominic Smith — another Met who is have a down season after doing so well last year — had an infield single. Pete Alonso doubled to left to put runners on second and third. Still not getting excited; we’ve been down this road before. I asked on Facebook, how many times have the Mets had men on second and third or bases loaded with one out and failed to score? I can’t remember so many inning-ending double plays — especially during their slide — in all my years watching them.

They talk a lot about the redeeming features of sports and the Mets announcers brought that up, how Baez could turn things around with a swing of the bat. But I’ve gotten so used to them falling behind, coming tantalizingly close, and failing, that I didn’t even look up from my reading.

But Baez — the much despised — didn’t exactly tear the cover off the ball, but he did drive in a run with an infield single. I believe it was Gary Cohen who praised him for taking a pitch he might have ordinarily swung at. That brought the Mets within one. That left it up to Michael Conforto who was having another bad game in a frustrating season. Improbably — or maybe because he was “due” — Conforto single to left to drive in the tying run and when the outfielder booted the ball, Baez further redeemed himself by racing home with the winner.

So good for the Baez, Conforto, and the rest Mets. But I’m still not getting my hopes up.