While not sitting in stands over you while you're working, because not many are as lucky to "work" for 3 hours a day in the sun in a beautiful outdoor facility, isn't this kind of scrutiny almost, to a T, what just about every high powered (and well-compensated) figure faces, in addition to the heavy scrutiny on just about anyone who works in the public sector (teachers, politicians, police, etc)?

Yeah, Johnny Cube Jockey, the low-level financial analyst, doesn't face that - but neither does the guy playing semi-pro ball in suburban middle-America trying to work his way up to the pros. If Johnny makes his way to the top of the corporate ladder, he'll face the scrutiny, as will the athlete if he makes it big time.

Lets really not make it seem like athletes have this enormous burden on them to perform at their jobs, lest they face THE BOO, that no one else does. Unfair.

I am in the "no booing" crowd, but I will say that booing is the great equalizer in the world of guaranteed contracts. By all accounts, Jason Bay is a really nice, hard-working guy...who has lost his swing. In the real world -- the world that we all live in -- we don't get BOOED when we do a bad job, but we can get fired for sharpening a pencil incorrectly.

The irony is that Jason Bay is only doing a bad job because the business he is in involves him getting paid which means that ownership is compelled to make him work before determining -- correctly or incorrectly -- that he is a sunk cost. In the universe that we all come from, we wouldn't be allowed to struggle as much as he has. We'd be fired long before the booing began.

That said, it gives me no joy to boo so I don't do it. Hard to ignore that it's part of our sports culture though, and I don't think it'll ever stop, even if we were all raised in St. Louis.

I think what he was trying to say is this:

-Booing someone like Bay IS childish. He's a good guy, he's obviously trying hard. He doesn't make excuses, and he doesn't bring his at bats with him when he trots out to left field. It makes zero sense to boo someone like that because all he wants to do is succeed, and he simply hasn't been able to.

-Booing someone for lack of effort, though, is acceptable. As is booing someone for being a horrible human being - especially if that horrible behavior is repetitive and takes place while they're playing for the team you root for (Bobby Bonilla, Vince Coleman, etc.)

No, booing somebody who doesn't have the talent or skill to do something but is giving effort is childish. Booing somebody who doesn't care enough to put in the effort is fine. Big difference.

The Mets being open to benching Bay is a good thing, though I'm not sure who in the organization could do a better job right now. On the other hand, if Nieuwenhuis tears it up until Torres comes back...

Wait, what?

You said boo Terry Collins for not platooning him. You don't think Terry Collins is giving proper effort as the manager?

This whole conversation is veering into the "ridiculous" realm. Creating an etiquette on when and who it is proper to boo and when and who it is not proper to boo is really giving THE BOO way more thought and attention than it deserves. Its really, really not a big deal and really, really not going away any time soon.

This is starting to go the way of "Mark Healey's Guidelines on How to be a Proper Mets Fan".

First of all, they work more than 3 hours a day. The game lasts 3 hours or so, but you know that. There's a lot of effort that goes into Bay standing at the plate while someone is firing 90+ mph fastballs and sharp breaking pitches at him. He used to be one of the few in the world who could turn one of those around and send it out of the park. Now apparently he can't. But by all indications he's still putting in that time before, during and after the 3+ hour games. He's just not physically capable any longer. Is that good reason to be verbally abused? I think not.

I NEVER said athletes "only work 3 hours a day" - I said most of us, unlike athletes, don't work in a public arena filled with folks for 3 hours a day that have the chance to cheer or jeer us as they see fit, so its not an apples to apples comparison. They get booed in stadiums, others get skewered by commentators, reporters, newspapers, at school board meetings, during press conferences, public forums, by their bosses, y their shareholders, etc.

The whole "Lets see you try to work when people are cheering or booing you at your job" argument always rings hollow to me, because in one sense or another, almost everyone who has reached the pinnacle in their field that professional athletes have in theirs absolutely DO face some form of high scrutiny.

You didn't really respond to the other points, though.

Anyway, again, this whole idea of a "booing" etiquette is quite ridiculous, IMO. Getting back to the topic at hand here, which is the potential treatment of Bay as the season wears on - as someone raised above, its good they're thinking about it, but until there is a viable alternative (no, Mike Baxter is not a viable alternative), its mostly about lineup placement for now. At some point this summer, when Torres is back, hopefully Lagares is hitting, maybe even Adam Loewen is repeating his 2011, but this time in the IL, then we can realistically start considering what to do. But again, its good that its already being brought to the forefront, so early, and with Bay not standing out more than anyone else insofar as season failures.

Its obviously a matter of when, not if, anymore.

Sports are childish. We're watching a bunch of grown men run around a grass field smacking a ball only to have other grown men throw that ball back to where it was smacked from. There's no reason spectators wouldn't act childish while watching a childish game.

I boo and yell at my own players [very rarely] because that's what everyone around me did when I was growing up. That's how I learned to watch sports. The documentary film "Gladiator" clearly teaches us that the Romans did the same. It's all part of the game and comes with the territory. Hard to see that ever changing.

As an experiment I will boo the next person at my office who underperforms. I'll let you all know how it goes.

All booing is, is a way to get out frustration against a specific player. As long as no one crosses the line and throws something at him, or gets cruel with it, there is no problem IMO with it. Actually I think the debate is silly. Therfore, I BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO this debate!!!

And getting back to the topic, there isn't a better alternative to Bay right now. Just don't let that option vest!!!!!