FERNANDO Martinez was born to be a Met.
For in what other organiz ation or on what other team would this 20-year-old prove that he belongs by doing what has come naturally to so many in Queens, which, quite simply, is not running hard out of the batter’s box?
Who cares if it was only the young man’s second big-league game and just his seventh plate appearance? Who claimed that he would need work? Who said that the Mets were rushing him by recalling him on Tuesday from AAA Buffalo in just his fourth pro season?
Last night in the fifth inning, Martinez could have been mistaken for a veteran — a veteran Met, that is. Because with one out, Ramon Castro on second and the Mets on top of the Nationals by 5-3 in the game they would win 7-4, Fernandez hit a spiraling pop-up in fair territory a few feet in front of the plate under which catcher Wil Nieves fairly staggered.
The ball went up and Martinez stood by, watching. The ball began to come down and Martinez stood by, watching. Nieves dropped the ball, and the left-handed hitting Martinez started to run to first.
Uh, it was a little too late.
But it was entirely Metsian.
Mike Piazza, Hall of Famer in waiting who only occasionally busted tail out of the box, would have been proud. Jose Reyes, whose penchant for watching rather than running was at the center of yet another storm before he went down last week with tendonitis behind his right calf, can know that he has set a fine example.
Timo Perez in Game 1 of the 2000 World Series had nothing on young Mr. Martinez.
Reyes’ maddening walkabouts persist though manager Jerry Manuel pledged that he would put an end to such indolence the moment he replaced Willie Randolph last June 17. The Mets, once renowned for their historically significant pitching, now have a reputation as a team on which players young and old don’t have to run hard to stay in the lineup.
But this young?
“That was really an unfortunate thing for him, but it was a mistake,” Manuel said after his club reclaimed first place by a half-game over the Phillies with its fifth win in the last six. “I don’t see that as part of his [regular] behavior.”
The Mets are trying to shield Martinez from by limiting the amount of time he is available to the press. That’s the same approach the team took a couple of years ago with Lastings Milledge, another one whose attention span on the field seemed to come and go until he was gone in a trade to the Nationals.
It’s the same approach they took with Doc Gooden when he was a rookie, and how well did that serve him in life outside the lines?
Mets managers may have little choice but to tolerate sloth on the basepaths. Randolph, you will recall, lost Reyes after chastising the shortstop for his indifference. He lost Reyes and then he lost his job.
Mets fans, however, they have a choice. And they exercised it loudly when Martinez next came to the plate in the seventh, booing the kid they had heard so much about and had yearned to see, until that is, they saw his act in the fifth inning.
Martinez pledged to win them back when he was allowed to chat with the media after the game. He did fine, accepting responsibility without even attempting to find an excuse for the inexcusable.
“I will say sorry to my fans and I promise that will never happen again,” said Martinez, 0-for-7 with a hit-by-pitch thus far. “I promise that’s not me.”
The overriding complaint about the new ballpark in Queens is its absence of franchise history and Mets identity. Of course that overlooks the fact that it’s there to be found on the field.
Last night, 20-year-old Fernando Martinez hit a pop fly in front of the plate.
He did not run.
Meet the Met.