LEFTOVERS: Mets nix plan to chase cougar votes
Older single women have become a sought-after voting bloc in the country’s elections in the past few years.
Who knew that extended to the Major League Baseball All-Star Game selection process?
Someone in the New York Mets organization thought that was the demographic to target to ensure the host team’s star third baseman, David Wright, would not lose out to San Francisco’s Pablo Sandoval yet again in fan voting for next month’s game at Citi Field.
The idea didn’t come out of left field, however.
CougarLife.com, a dating website that caters to older women who prefer to date younger men, voted Wright “hottest cub” last month.
An unnamed employee in the Mets’ marketing department reached out to the site in hopes it would urge its users to vote for Wright to start in the game.
Perhaps thinking better of the affiliation, the Mets announced they had backed off the request to CougarLife.
The move was just the latest in a series of efforts by the team to rally votes for Wright.
“It’s nice when the organization is trying so hard to do something for one of their players, and I can’t thank them enough for that,” Wright told The Associated Press.
“At the same time, I’ve asked them to kind of back it down a little bit, especially with the stuff in between innings. You appreciate what they’re trying to do ... but to me this is a team game. As much as I’d like to be here to represent this team in the All-Star Game, we can’t let this become an in-between-inning, one-player production.”
One thing the Mets haven’t tried is to win games and get fans, who would attend games and vote for Wright.
Wright is 30, so his cougars appeal is soon to run out. Where will the Mets turn for fans then?
■ NOT BUYING IT — Boston-based band Dropkick Murphys tried to delay its Wednesday show in Huntington, N.Y., until after their Bruins’ Stanley Cup Finals game was over.
The plan hit a snag with the overtimes. Unfazed, the band set the big screens in the venue to the game as it played its show.
The Murphys certainly don’t want this to happen again.
A check of its website revealed the band canceled a Toronto show that was scheduled for tonight due to one of the members needing a “minor medical procedure.” The June 26 show in Indianapolis also was scrapped.
Those dates coincide with Games 2 and 7 of the series.
Sounds like the only ailment these guys have is Bruins Fever.
■ EXTREME SACRIFICE — Former Bears wide receiver David Terrell took exception to a recent article that called him one of the biggest draft busts in team history.
The No. 8 overall choice in 2001 out of Michigan produced little in four years with the team.
Terrell contacted the website that made the list and laid the blame on a foot injury and a series of bad quarterbacks after Rex Grossman was injured.
Of note was his response when asked what he would have done to play with Jay Cutler.
“I would have cut off both my balls. I’d give those up, no problem,” he told RedEye Chicago. “You could have neutered me. I would been neutered with a smile. (Expletive), man, for real.”
Yeah, but how many games would that injury have cost him?
COMPILED BY ADAM HILL
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
