The Phillies-Mets rivalry is decently exciting. It adds a little beef to the NL East and it inspires a constant train of vitriol from both simply wonderful fanbases. It also inspired Cole Hamels to state that the Mets were "choke artists."
And Hamels' statement, plus the rivalry, also apparently inspired a much-belated response from Carlos Beltran, who stated that he hopes the Mets "kill" Hamels when the two teams square off.
"Well, you know, he made a comment," Beltran said of Hamels upon arriving in camp this morning. "The only thing that I know is that he will be watched every time he faces us and hopefully we kill him. And then he'll have to deal with the situation."
I'm not here to shake my fist angrily and state that Beltran should keep the word "kill" out of his vocabulary while speaking to the media. That seems a bit over the top, even if you can bank on someone telling him to tone it down.
Instead, I would probably echo Chipper Jones' sentiments regarding this rivalry. That is to say, "just keep your mouth shut and go play your game." It's not that intense rivalries aren't exciting for baseball. They are. And watching the Mets and Phillies go back and forth is as enjoyable as seeing Giants and Eagles fans argue. But it seems just a tiny bit early for Beltran to be running his mouth to the defending World Series champions without the Mets having won anything in quite some time.
Carlos Beltran: Let's 'Kill' Cole Hamels originally appeared on MLB FanHouse on Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:50:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
