{"id":3775,"date":"2021-05-07T12:12:06","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T16:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/?p=3775"},"modified":"2021-05-07T12:12:06","modified_gmt":"2021-05-07T16:12:06","slug":"chili-davis-proves-the-mets-still-havent-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/2021\/05\/07\/chili-davis-proves-the-mets-still-havent-changed\/","title":{"rendered":"Chili Davis proves the Mets still haven&#8217;t changed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Professional sports provides little to no job security, especially when it comes to coaching. Chili Davis found this to be true on Monday night after he was fired from his post as New York Mets hitting coach. If you look at the surface level issues of the Mets batting this season, it\u2019s easy to tell that there are issues. OPS wise, the Mets are ranked 20<sup>th<\/sup> in the league with a .688 mark, and their slugging percentage sits at .364, which is 27<sup>th<\/sup> in the league. The Mets are last in home runs hit, and have an anemic .209 batting average with runners in scoring position. Not good numbers for a lineup that features the likes of Francisco Lindor, Michael Conforto, and Pete Alonso.<\/p>\n<p>Despite these marks, the timing of the firing came during an odd time. The Mets were coming off of a 6-5 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night, and had just finished a three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies where they had scored a combined 14 runs across the series. The Mets players, in jest, had an odd explanation for their sudden burst of run production on Saturday night. Donnie Stevenson, the name of an apparently fictional hitting coach, was receiving the credit for the sudden outburst of offense from the Amazins\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The jokes were rampant on Twitter, as Stevenson became the talk of post-game press conferences.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Donnie Remix. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Id1QpQ0gyU\">pic.twitter.com\/Id1QpQ0gyU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AnthonyDiComo\/status\/1388680798795087877?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 2, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/STR0?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@STR0<\/a> is a legend for rocking <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/DonnieStevenson?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DonnieStevenson<\/a> pregame <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LGM?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LGM<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ciHKOTdPXg\">pic.twitter.com\/ciHKOTdPXg<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Athlete Logos (@athletelogos) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/athletelogos\/status\/1389715044536102915?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 4, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Yet when Davis was fired after the game Monday night, the jokes about Stevenson had quickly come to a halt, and players proved to be pretty upset about the firing of Davis. \u201cIt really caught us all off guard. It\u2019s confusing for me, and, listen, I respect everybody who made that decision. But to me, it just doesn\u2019t make sense right now\u201d Alonso told reporters on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Francisco Lindor on the firings: &quot;It broke my heart. I was sad.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Steve Gelbs (@SteveGelbs) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SteveGelbs\/status\/1389681481606475780?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 4, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>When Davis was asked whether or not he thought that the Stevenson jokes had anything to do with him being fired, his response was surprising. \u201cThe players were having fun and I know they didn\u2019t mean any harm,\u201d Davis \u00a0told the New York Post. \u201cIt was a fun time for them, but it probably didn\u2019t help. People were just trying to loosen up as a group and it worked that night. They went out and put some runs on the board. I am all for them enjoying the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Was Davis inciting that the Mets were poking fun at him? Or did he just get caught in the crosshairs of a situation of odd timing? Was Donnie Stevenson a way that Mets players were sending a message that they didn\u2019t need Davis? Any of those are possibilities, but the whole situation is just another sour taste in the mouth of a season that was supposed to be one of redemption for the Mets. After the Wilpons sold the team to Steve Cohen, a new age of Mets baseball was supposed to take place. Yet, this season is showing shades of seasons past.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Whether it be Francisco Lindor so far not living up to the mammoth contract extension that the Mets gave him prior to opening day, much in the style of the infamous Jason Bay contract in 2010. Or even the firing of Davis late at night after a game, much like when they fired Willie Randolph in 2008 after the first game of a west coast road trip. Owners may change hands, and hopefully things improve for the organization under Steve Cohen, but the Mets still have not proven a propensity to change in 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Professional sports provides little to no job security, especially when it comes to coaching. Chili Davis found this to be true on Monday night after he was fired from his post as New York Mets hitting coach. If you look at the surface level issues of the Mets batting this season, it\u2019s easy to tell&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4977,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4977"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3776,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3775\/revisions\/3776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}