Ron Darling On WFAN: Mets Should Take Hard Look At Disconnect With Fans
NEW YORK (WFAN) -- Ron Darling says he has nobody to blame but himself for putting his name on a widely panned letter from the New York Mets to "True New Yorkers."
The SNY analyst was one of 10 former Mets players to sign the email asking fans to pledge their support head of this month's Subway Series.
The letter wasn't received well, with some calling it "dopey," "beyond insulting" and "disgraceful."
"I'll tell you it this way, because if I explain completely how it went, I'm throwing someone else under the bus," Darling said Wednesday on WFAN's "Joe & Evan" show. "I was asked to put my likeness and name to something. I did not read what was going to be put out there. And I think for me to criticize it and to go after it, I'm going to put someone else in harm's way. So I think I should just put myself in harm's way.
"I didn't do my due diligence to read what went out."
Ron Darling On Mets
Darling said he first found out about the letter while out to lunch in Philadelphia with SNY play-by-play man Gary Cohen, who received the email and read it aloud.
"It's on me. It's not on anyone else," Darling said. "I put my name on it. I put my likeness on it. I have to live with it."
The 53-year-old said things were different during the glory days of the mid-80s, when every move the franchise made was applauded. It feels like the polar opposite now, which Darling said should make the Mets re-think how they connect with fans.
"What is happened now -- and I'm not saying it's rightfully so -- but it seems like everything that comes out from the Mets is looked at poorly" said Darling, who acknowledged that turning it around starts with spending and winning.
"When you're looking at something where you feel like you're Charlie Brown and Lucy keeps taking the ball out, and you keep kicking because you're such die-hards, I just think that there has to be a re-evaluation of the disconnect and how to reconnect to how (fans) feel and what (the team) is trying to do," Darling said. "And I think that's an obvious thing."
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