Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

After an embarrassing 4-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday, the New York Mets fired hitting coach Dave Hudgens and released veteran reliever Jose Valverde. Hudgens didn’t take his ouster easy, though – he lobbed some grenades at the team’s ownership and broadcasting crew on his way out the door. Newsday has the explosive quotes.

“The naysayers, the guys who disapprove of us, the guys who I listen to on TV all the time, those guys that know everything about the game, I’m just amazed at it,” Hudgens said. “What’s wrong with getting a good pitch to hit? Somebody, please punch a hole in that for me. I just shake my head at the old-school guys that have it all figured out. Go up there and swing the bat. Well, what do you want to swing at? It just confounds me. It’s just hilarious, really.

“That’s one thing. I’m glad I don’t have to listen to those guys anymore.”

That’s a pretty damning shot fired at the SNY broadcast crew of Gary Cohen, Ron Darling, and Keith Hernandez, and it looks like most of the venom is aimed at Hernandez, a former NL MVP and career .296 hitter with the Cardinals, Mets, and Indians.

This brings up an interesting point – how much should broadcast crews that are essentially employed by the team or RSN dumping millions of dollars into the team advocate for major chances with the team? Should Hernandez have editorialized when talking about the Mets’ struggles, or should he have simply stayed on the straight and narrow and not veered into the land of personal opinion? I really have no idea, but Hudgens was clearly bothered by Hernandez constantly harping on the same issues, and you have to wonder how many other people employed by teams across the league feel that way about their broadcast crews.

[Newsday]

About Joe Lucia

I hate your favorite team. I also sort of hate most of my favorite teams.