The New York Mets taught the team a valuable lesson at the expense of rookie starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard.
That will teach you to be a newbie, rook. How dare Noah Syndergaard have zero Major League Baseball experience? That is what the conventional hazing wisdom is in sports. The New York Mets are no different as their rookie pitcher had his lunch reportedly thrown out by his own teammates. However, there was more to this story than simple fun and games.
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In actuality, the story goes as follows. When the Mets took the field for their inter-squad game on Tuesday, Syndergaard was eating lunch in the team clubhouse.
There is no written rule against this, however, conventional wisdom among his teammates states that this practice was not appropriate.
That is when team captain/third baseman David Wright and relief pitcher Bobby Parnell came in to lecture the young right hander. Wright scolded Syndergaard for not conforming to franchise etiquette, and Parnell threw out the rookie’s lunch.
Manager Terry Collins stated that he is firmly behind the actions of his two veteran players.
“You better believe it. We have preached it and preached amongst the players: we are in this together. If they felt someone was violating that trust, it needs to be addressed and it sounds like it was addressed,” Collins told New York Daily News.
Wright defended his actions. With his experience at the major level, it is hard to argue against him stepping up in this leadership type role.
“If there is a young player that is here [in major-league camp] there is a reason: they have talent and potential. I would encourage them to use this chance to take every opportunity to learn from it. If you are a young pitcher, you can learn from sitting in meetings with [pitching coach] Dan [Warthen] or watching Zack Wheeler, who I know is young, but he has experience,” said Wright.
“That’s what I think all young players should be doing. That’s all.”
The Mets head into the 2015 MLB season with improvement on their collective minds. The team, which boasts a very promising young rotation featuring standouts Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom, as well as the aforementioned Wheeler, has a postseason spot on its radar, hoping to play October baseball for the first time since 2006.
The additions of outfielder Michael Cuddyer and catcher Travis d’Arnaud provide a little more depth for a line up that struggled to plate runs at a frequent rate last season, finishing 8th in the National League with 629. The league average was 640.
H/T For The Win via USA Today
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