Tag: Kevin Pillar

Mets players reacted to backlash over their thumbs-down celebration for the booing fans

Even when the Mets win, they lose.

The Mets put together back-to-back wins on Sunday for the first time in weeks to close out a brutal month of August that saw their NL East lead completely evaporate. And yet, the Mets still managed to make their entire fanbase upset.

During that win over the Nationals, fans and media members noticed a new celebration gesture from the Mets players. After big hits, players like Javy Baez, Francisco Lindor and Kevin Pillar would signal “thumbs down” towards the dugout.

Baez, who hit the go-ahead home run, was asked about the gesture after the game, and he admitted that it was essentially the Mets players trolling the Mets fans who have spent much of August booing them at Citi Field.

That didn’t go over too well with Mets fans, considering they had every reason to be upset with a team that fell out of playoff contention at a stunning pace. Team president Sandy Alderson even spoke out against those celebrations in a Medium blog.

But how are the Mets players taking this latest controversy? A few players have addressed it on social media, and the reactions have varied.

There was pitcher Taijuan Walker who appeared to laugh about the whole ordeal with a cryptic emoji tweet. To be fair, the Alderson blog post was funny.

And, of course, some Mets fans didn’t take kindly to the tweet.

Pillar, who was among the players to do the thumbs-down celebration, tried to explain on Twitter that the players weren’t actually booing the fans. They were just having fun.

Pitcher Marcus Stroman blamed the media for looking for something to cause controversy — though Baez was the one who made it about the fans. Had Baez simply dismissed the gesture as an inside clubhouse joke, it wouldn’t have turned into the kind of issue that drew public condemnation from the front office.

Mets pitcher Trevor May took a different approach and tweeted that he appreciates fans and wants to make an effort to be better with interacting with them. So, that was nice.

The Mets are off on Monday before hosting the Marlins Tuesday at Citi Field. So, they’ll have to deal with this controversy for another day.

The best photos of Javier Baez, Francisco Lindor giving ‘thumbs down’ to Mets fans at Citi Field

This particular scenario has been brewing for a long time at Citi Field.

New York Mets middle infielders Francisco Lindor and Javier Baez upset fans at Citi Field by flashing thumbs down in their direction.

While beef between players and fans usually occurs between the home fans and the road team, the Mets have always had their own way of doing things. This particular scenario has been brewing for a long time, as Lindor has been on the receiving end of boos all season long.

Lindor has used the negative energy as fuel for his fire in the past but the two players have heard it go on for long enough and now, they’re fed up.

Deesha Thosar, a beat reporter who covers the team, relayed the message from Baez (via NY Daily News):

“We’re not machines, we’re going to struggle. … It just feels bad when I strikeout and I get booed. … We’re going to do the same thing to let them know how it feels.”

Baez, who made his debut with the team less than a month ago in late July and hasn’t had the warmest welcome, wanted fans to have a taste of their own medicine. As he put it, simply put, they are going to get booed when the team has success.

Regardless of where you stand on the issue, Baez has a point. You expect to get jeered when you’re on the road but when you’re at home, a more welcome environment would certainly help.

Lifelong Mets fan and NBA star Donovan Mitchell didn’t seem to mind, anyway. Mets president Sandy Alderson, however, doesn’t agree.

As he noted, fans are “understandably frustrated” by the recent performance of the team. The executive said that he loves New York fans for how “loyal, passionate, knowledgeable and more than willing to express themselves” they are for their team. He added that they have “every right” to express their disappointment with the on-field product.

The players and the organization are “equally” frustrated, per Alderson, but he will hold a team meeting to tell them players cannot be negative towards fans (via Mets):

“In a post-game press conference today, Javy Baez stated that his “thumbs down” gesture during the game was a message to fans who recently have booed him and other players for poor performance. These comments, and any gestures by him or other players with a similar intent, are totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”

Frankly, there are far worse things that have happened within the Mets organization and in comparison, this feels like small potatoes.

However, this somehow isn’t the first time (!) the team has issued a statement about a gesture someone within the organization gave towards the crowd. It’s also not the first time that someone putting their thumbs down at Citi Field has made headlines.

But this time around, we have more photographic evidence. Scroll down for the best photos we could find of the new incidents in question:

No, Kevin Pillar is not still using the same blood-covered bat from when he got hit in the face

It was just pine tar.

It’s been less than a month since New York Mets outfielder Kevin Pillar took a fastball right to the face, suffering nasal fractures. And he’s already back in the Mets lineup.

That in itself is pretty incredible and speaks volumes to Pillar’s toughness. The day following the scary hit by pitch, he even joked about wanting to be in the lineup.

But no, Pillar was not out there during Wednesday’s game in Baltimore hitting a pair of home runs with the same, blood-covered bat from that hit by pitch against the Braves.

A few tweets gained traction on Wednesday night that complimented Pillar’s toughness while pointing out that his bat appeared to be covered with blood. That led to speculation that Pillar was using the same bat.

It really does look like blood. But a look at the photos showed that Pillar was using two entirely different brands of bats between his hit by pitch and Wednesday’s game.

When he got hit, he was using a black Marucci bat. Notice the logo:

(AP Photo/John Bazemore)

On Wednesday, he was using a gray-shaded Warstic, which features a two-stripe logo where the handle and barrel meet.

(Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)

And then, Pillar himself corrected the record and tweeted that he was just using pine tar. It wasn’t blood.

There’s no denying that Pillar hitting two dingers with a blood-soaked bat would have been epic. But that clearly wasn’t the case here. It’s still incredible that he’s already back in the lineup and making an impact for the Mets, though.

https://youtu.be/pzN93qXVXBc

Kevin Pillar made an epic clubhouse appearance a day after taking a pitch to the face

“Am I in the lineup today or what?”

Monday night’s game between National League East rivals Mets and Braves took a terrifying turn when New York outfielder Kevin Pillar took a 94 mph fastball to the face from Jacob Webb.

Despite blood pouring down from his face, Pillar would leave the field under his own power and tweet that he was OK that night. Pillar would later get diagnosed with multiple nasal fractures and remained in Atlanta to see a specialist.

Well, with the Mets and Braves set for the second game of the series, Pillar made a point to drop by the clubhouse to lift the spirits of his teammates. It’s safe to say that it worked.

Mets pitcher Marcus Stroman described the scene in the Mets clubhouse on Tuesday.

“Am I in the lineup today or what,” Pillar evidently asked to the delight of his teammates.

On the flip side, the Braves’ Webb was clearly shaken about hitting Pillar in the face — an obvious accident — and he reached out to the Mets outfielder to send his best wishes. Pillar responded that he was fine and joked he would have been in the lineup if he could see out of his right eye.

Just awesome.

Let’s hope Pillar makes a speedy recovery.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_wyY8tioV00sun97Zsmg52CAWj2gYlBA

 

Mets’ Kevin Pillar tweets he’s ‘doing fine’ after pitch horrifyingly hit him in the face

Thank goodness.

It was a frightening scene at Truist Field on Monday night — a pitch thrown by Atlanta Braves reliever Jacob Webb hit New York Mets outfielder Kevin Pillar directly in the face, leaving him bloody.

Pillar somehow walked off the field under his own power. It was a horrifying moment as he was taken to the hospital for a CT scan.

Yet the outfielder tweeted hours later that he was “doing fine,” and he even seemed to joke it was an RBI that turned out to be the game-winner — the hit-by-pitch drove in a run for a 2-0 Mets lead, and New York eventually won 3-1.

Thank goodness he’s OK. Here are the opposing managers talking about the incident, which was completely accidental:

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New Boston Red Sox outfielder Kevin …

New Boston Red Sox outfielder Kevin Pillar, who grew up in the Los Angeles area as a Lakers and Kobe Bryant fan, was most impressed by Bryant’s post-basketball career and had hoped to emulate it when he was done playing baseball. Pillar said he hopes to write a children’s book about baseball like the one Bryant wrote about basketball, but he had been waiting until his career was over to approach Bryant about it. “That’s something that’s going to haunt me,” Pillar said.

Pillar’s fandom went as far as to name …

Pillar’s fandom went as far as to name his daughter “Kobie” after she was born in October 2017. He shared the story with the Toronto Sun in January 2018 of how he and his wife, Amanda, landed on the name. “My wife wouldn’t admit to naming her after Kobe Bryant,” Pillar told the newspaper, “but it was a name I grew up around and obviously I was a big Kobe Bryant fan, there’s no secret there. We wanted to name our daughter something with a K. We wanted her to be KP; that was the nickname I had growing up. We bounced around a bunch of different K names, and Kobe came out one day on a road trip and the name Kobie Rae came out and it was in our final two.