DENVER – Angry Mets fans are a big pile of … fertilizer?
Manager Jerry Manuel apparently thinks so, at least when it comes to their harsh treatment of reliever Aaron Heilman at Shea Stadium this season.
Adding to his fast-developing reputation for outrageous comments, the Mets’ interim boss compared the atmosphere at home for Heilman with manure today.
Asked how the struggling Heilman was holding up under constant booing at Shea this year, Manuel said: “It’s very, very fertile ground for growth in Shea Stadium. It’s fertile ground for a team’s growth and development. Sometimes, fertile ground has fertilizer.”
Manuel, who already has put his foot in his mouth repeatedly since replacing Willie Randolph just six days ago, then tried to soften the metaphor.
“Fertilizer is a good thing,” Manuel said before the Mets’ afternoon contest against the Rockies. “It’s a good thing. You get the greatest results – get the most beautiful plants – when you put it in that type of fertile soil. That’s what we have the opportunity to do.”
Manuel, who will make his first appearance at Shea Stadium as manager of the Mets tomorrow against Seattle, pleaded with reporters before and after the fertilizer reference not to blow it out of proportion or do “something crazy with this.”
Manuel, though, has been no stranger to crazy statements since taking over for Randolph.
The AL Manager of the Year in 2000 with the White Sox, Manuel already has sounded at times as if he wants to be as opinionated and unpredictable as Ozzie Guillen, the manager who replaced him in Chicago.
Shortstop Jose Reyes was the target of Manuel’s first colorful outbursts this week. After Reyes threw a helmet-throwing tantrum last Tuesday night in Manuel’s debut when Manuel pulled him in the first inning with a tight hamstring, Manuel jokingly threatened to knife Reyes if it happened again.
“I told him the next time he does that, I’m going to get my blade out and cut him right on the field,” Manuel said. “I’m a gangster.”
Manuel also invoked Bill Parcells’ famous reference to Terry Glenn as “she” instead of “he” by doing the same thing to describe Reyes for his on-field fit.
“She acted up with me, and she had a day off,” Manuel said of Reyes.
bhubbuch@nypost.com