Jose is one of the two young players that are the foundation of this club.

Yes, everyone makes mistakes and young players make more than others.

However, as one of the faces of the organization that happens to play in the media capital of the world, people notice.

If he played in seattle no one would notice. In ny there are more media types per square foot than most other places. There is more competition for a story.

So there are several reasons why he gets more criticism.

1) At a very young age he was tabbed as the future for his talent.
2) The organization has used him as a face for the team
3) Lots of reporters
4) He has made more than his share of mistakes recently.

See Frank Sinatra’s ode to the big city.

Dave

thank you for the follow up

as others here have noted it is noticed.

Again, no problem with you calling guys out. It’s when you use inflammatory language like, “no stones,” that gets me going.

I highly enjoy this blog and your column!

I agree with this. A lot of things went wrong that inning. That play was one of them.

I think some of the criticism of Reyes is warranted and some over the line. I get on him a lot because my demands of him are higher than most players.

He’s young, but he’s been here a long time. I spoke with him yesterday about the play at second. I also spoke with Easley, too. Easley said he yelled to Reyes to ``take it yourself,’’ but yesterday had second thoughts and could have taken the flip.

Reyes acted on instinct and misjudged how close Victorino was to the bag. When he heard Easley, he dashed for the bag. On second thought, he said, he should have thrown to first.

Would it have mattered?

Who really knows? Manuel said sometimes just getting an out can settle things down. Maybe that would have happened, maybe not. Perhaps the way the pitchers would have worked would have been different in a different situation. That’s possible, but not guaranteed.

A lot of things happened that inning, most of them bad for the Mets. The Reyes play was one of them, not the cause for the loss.-JD

I want to expand a bit on my prior comment. I may be a tad harsh on you. I think the reason is that I feel the media harps on Jose a bit more than in necessary. Not just you, but across the board in NY, and even the national media.

I agree, the young man has all the talent in the world, and there are times he makes me scratch my head, but I think the focus on him by man in the media is a tad much. Other players make similar mistakes, yet I do not see them get the kind of attention for it as Jose does.

Also, many in the media like to slam bloggers when they post snarky stuff (see the Real Sports episode with Will Leitch from Deadspin and Buzz Bissinger). I just find it odd when a professional writer makes snarky comments on their blog when most writers would kill a “blogger” who did that, and would not do that in a story that appears in “print” in the paper.

In any event, I’m guilty of letting my personal feelings about the treatment of Jose by the media in general get the best of me. I will lay off you a bit more in the future.

I do appreciate that you respond to comments on your blog. That is something you have over the other writers in the area.

I know I bash you a bit here, especially when it comes to Jose (I have a soft spot for him in case you haven’t guessed by now), but your apology is nice to see.

Few writers would have done that.

Now, lay off Jose a bit, and we can be friends :-)