Bring the Bad Boys Back

Not Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. Not the '88 Pistons either. I'm talking the Ray Knights of the world.

Where have all the bad boys gone? They've been replaced by a nonchalant Carlos Beltran, a boy scout sweet David Wright and a cast of characters that could care less. I'm not saying we need to get rid of Beltran or Wright. I'm saying what on earth has happened to the fire?

I remember the '86 Mets getting into fights at least once a week. Not that a baseball brawl is a good thing, but they weren't going to let anyone push them around. Those teams in the late 90's had guys like Ventura, Zeile and Piazza who would take a stand and light a fire in their teammates. Ventura even charged the mound on Nolan Ryan once, although not with the Mets.

Who's going to charge the mound on this team? Can you imagine if Carlos Beltran just dropped the bat and tee'd off on Ricky Nolasco? I can't even imagine it.

Jerry Manuel has even lost some of his gumption that he had last season. I loved seeing that guy jump out of the dugout and start getting in the umps faces when they screwed up.

Omar Minaya made a comment about some guy's having edge and others who don't. Some players didn't like it.

Too bad.

This is New York. Toughen up. Let's start playing hard. Play with some fire. Let's take out guys sliding into second. Let's brush a guy back every once in a while. Let's hustle out in the field.

Bring back the Delgado fist pump. I want Reyes dancing on the top step. I want David Wright to show some of the fire he had in his belly during the WBC when the opposing player was showing off after hitting a home run.

None of that stuff helps win ball games today, but it can lead to that.