Monday, April 12, 2010

Are the Mets the Only Team with Nemeses?

The Mets appear to be perpetually haunted by the ghosts of the past. Are the Mets the only team in baseball to have multiple nemeses? Why is it that when players get dumped by the Mets they came back to destroy them? Is this organization cursed?

I've been a Mets fan all my life, but having talked to friends who are Yankees, Phillies, Braves and Dodgers fans none of them could name more than one player who they would classify as a nemesis to their team. And in most cases their response was simply that this particular player has hurt them in the past year or two, but not throughout their career.

I realize my sampling is small and potentially myopic, but it made me question whether the Mets are the only team to have not just one nemesis, but sever Lex Luthor's out there.

Off the top of my head I'm sure any Mets fan can tell you that the archenemies of this team include Jimmy Rollins, Hanley Ramirez, Pat Burrell, Josh Johnson, Willy Harris, and Chipper Jones. These guys always seem to come through for their teams against the Mets. They may not have averages over .400 against the Mets, but they damage us at just the right time.

How many diving catches can Willy Harris make at Citi Field? Pat Burrell has more home runs against the Mets than Daniel Murphy has as a Met. Josh Johnson has enough scoreless innings against the Mets to total 4 shutouts.

If you know of other players that just destroy other teams, please share them because I'd like to know that the Mets aren't the only ones in this plight. But at this current it appears that the Mets may soon have a nemesis on each of the teams in the National League before this season is out.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

hmmmmm....i find myself a bit confused. you first mention players that the mets have dumped, and then go on to talk about Chipper, Burrell, Hanley, and josh johnson.

All are pretty good players, not just against the mets. And none were "dumped" by the mets to my recollection. and the Mets did hand Johnson a loss this year on opening day.

i find the Burrell statement a bit hard to believe, but here at work i can't do the necessary research, so i'll take your word for it.