It’s been established on these interweb pages that WFAN isn’t in the best shape right now. One of the big boo-boos they made in recent weeks included sharing a “report” about the Mets having a toxic clubhouse. Oh, and that first baseman Pete Alonso was part of the problem.
The backtracking began shortly after these reports were called out for what they were: complete garbage. But after a new article by Tim Britton and Will Sammon of The Athletic dropped Thursday, they’re trying to do the “See? We told you so!” routine again.
As expected, it’s not working.
Britton and Sammon conducted nearly two dozen interviews before providing a very detailed look at what went wrong in 2023 for the Mets. After all, this was MLB’s most expensive team ever. And instead of preparing for the postseason, they’re headed for their fifth losing record since 2017.
The entire article is fascinating and worth a full read. The following excerpt that included Tommy Pham is getting a lot of attention:
As The Athletic reported earlier this month, the conversation started with Pham explaining that he wanted New York to roll out more than one batting-practice group because he used the time to work on live reads in the outfield. With Lindor, Pham felt comfortable sharing something that roamed in his mind after observing how often some players in the clubhouse played games like pool.
Pham says he told Lindor, “Out of all the teams I played on, this is the least-hardest working group of position players I’ve ever played with.”
Opinions varied on the subject. Per Pham’s recollection, the players at the restaurant seemed receptive to what he had to say. In further explaining his comment later, he added that he held a lot of respect for the work ethics of the team’s leaders: Lindor, Alonso and Brandon Nimmo. And Lindor told The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal that before Pham left in a trade to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Lindor said to Pham, “Hey man, thank you for teaching me how to work hard again.”
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Naturally, Sal Licata and his WFAN midday show partner, Brandon Tierney, are taking victory laps on X without providing full context:
Best excerpt from this great column- Pham says he told Lindor, “Out of all the teams I played on, this is the least-hardest working group of position players I’ve ever played with.” https://t.co/9mSRlDBWJW
— Sal Licata (@sal_licata) September 21, 2023
“Out of all the teams I played on, this is the least-hardest working group of position players I’ve ever played with.”
Scorching indictment of Lindor, Alonso AND Buck. Woooow!!
MUST change core. https://t.co/NP4OFbiRDB
— Brandon Tierney (@BrandonTierney) September 21, 2023
This isn’t surprising. These guys are trying to find any way to bring relevancy to the false information they initially spread. I wonder what they’ll say once the Mets and Alonso eventually agree to a long-term extension.
That might be a WFAN show I’ll tune in for. Probably not, but maybe.
You can reach Matt Musico at matt.musico@xlmedia.com. You can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
