The only problem with baseball no longer being America’s pastime and leading every hour of every sports broadcast and radio show is how the 2023 New York Mets disaster season has slipped under the radar. The team was built around Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer which was a problem from day one—because they hate each other.
The two likely future Hall of Famers — who looked to work toward “harmony,” a source told The Post’s Mike Puma, after they didn’t have the best relationship when they pitched for the Tigers from 2010-14 — still had some bumps in their relationship this season.
A Met told Puma that Verlander was a “diva” who was detached from his Mets teammates and complained about how the team’s analytics department was not at the level as the one he worked with during his first stint with the Astros.
I love the Mets. Justin Verlander is 40. Max Scherzer is 39. The Mets gave them a combined $216 million. And didn’t take a step back to consider perhaps they are overpaying for two players who are a sneeze away from throwing their back out. And they certainly didn’t consider their performances may negatively be affected by being forced to hang out with a guy they have a decade-long beef yet.
God, I wish I was in that clubhouse with Justin Verlander walking around like “ugh, is that…Poland Spring?? In Houston, we had sparkling water” while Max Scherzer does everything in his power not to strangle him.
Good for Justin Verlander though. He tricked the Mets into giving him the contract Houston couldn’t afford and then ended up being traded back to Houston anyway. That man was so annoying to be around that the Mets drove his ass back to Texas. “Oh, we had bigger lockers in Houston” while Max Scherzer throws darts at a photo of Kate Upton.
More teams need this level of tension. Too many baseball teams are simply bad. Look at the Anaheim Angels. They have the two best baseball players of all time on the roster and they can barely stay in the playoff picture. They’re boring as shit. We need a Shohei Ohtani/Mike Trout feud to make the Angels interesting.
The Yankees losing every single series is boooooring.
Sure, Yankees-haters can enjoy their fall from grace but as a Yankees fan, I wish there was an internal war between Aaron Judge or Gerrit Cole or something. I’m tired of teams just sucking. Don’t just lose every game. Lose every game and then be catty and passive-aggresive to your teammates in the post-game press conferences.
Thank you to Tim Anderson for making a terrible White Sox team more interesting by being the most unlikable guy in the league.
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