Two slumping stars in New York, yet only one gets ripped by the NY sports media.
Now that the month of April is over, the New York media, Met fans and WFAN AM sports radio station is all over David Wright for his early slump.
He's striking out at a high pace, though still has decent hitting numbers for the month.
But are they being fair to the Mets and ignoring the even-worse start that the $180-million man in the Bronx has had? And if so, why?
Is it merely because the Yankees are one game over .500 and the Mets are 3 games under .500?
Is it because Tex is "the new guy" and there's far too many A-Roid stories to bother mentioning Tex's lack of hitting?
Is it because the NY sports writers are giving Tex more leeway because of the sore wrist problems he had early in the season?
Is it because Mark Teixeira has the built-in excuse of being a slow starter? Well, so does David Wright. Except neither of them has ever hit .200 to begin the first month of the season.
Mark Teixeira:
| G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | CS | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | |
| April 2009 | 19 | 70 | 11 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 17 | 12 | 0 | 0 | .200 | .367 | .371 | .738 |
David Wright:
| G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | CS | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | |
| April 2009 | 21 | 82 | 15 | 23 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 12 | 27 | 3 | 2 | .280 | .372 | .390 | .763 |
David Wright is certainly striking out at a much higher clip, but there's a huge difference between hitting .280 and hitting .200 over a month. Yet there's not a NY pundit column to be found about Tex's slumping?
The NY Daily News' Sports Web site currently has a poll asking fans what the Mets should do about David, along with two visible columns on the main page that use David Wright's slump as part of the headline, and one column dedicated entirely to it.
Well maybe New York Newsday's Sports team is more fair? Nope. A whole column dedicated to Wright's slumping, Oh look, an article about Tex! Hey wait a minute... That's a pretty friendly headline here....
Angels' visit brings back good memories for Teixeira. They do briefly mention Tex's "funk," but they hardly rip him the way they do David Wright.
The New York Times today (April 30 / May 1)? No headline mentions of Wright's slumping. Nor Tex's.
Alright, I'll check the NY Post's Sports page, but I can pretty much guess what they'll do.
One David Wright slump column? Check! Do they have any mentions of Mark Teixeira's slump? Not a one.
Of course, both hitters are going to turn their slow starts around and put up good-to-great numbers over the course of the season. Except that's not the point here.
The point is that while two players on two different New York baseball teams are slumping, only one of them is singled out by New York sports writers and WFAN talk show hosts.
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