Carlos Delgado News

"There is a school of thought that says if baseball fans insist on a curtain call, they get one. Carlos Delgado, thankfully, did not attend that school."

"The Mets’ game against the Pittsburgh Pirates was postponed because of rain, so the verdict on whether the Shea Stadium fans feel snubbed by Delgado’s response, or lack thereof, to their standing ovation a day earlier will have to wait."

"With Mets fans still in an uproar over Carlos Delgado spurning Sunday's curtain call and rejecting their olive branch, the oft-booed star insisted the decision had nothing to do with how much the fickle Flushing faithful have disrespected him, and everything to do with how much he respects the game."

"Carlos Delgado probably expected the curtain to drop quickly on the latest local media firestorm of the 2008 baseball season. But Monday night's rainout against the Pirates only meant that the controversy over Delgado's curtain-call snub of the fickle faithful at Shea on Sunday could be discussed and dissected at length for another full day. "

"If the Mets were looking for a turning point to their season, they've found it. It was the moment Carlos Delgado rejected his curtain call on Sunday after his second home run. Mark that down as his New York minute. Delgado left the Mets' fans hanging on their cheers. He says it simply wasn't a curtain call moment. "

"Delgado? He likely has 138 more games in New York, maybe a piece of the October playoffs, and then a $4 million buyout coming his way. But then Chris Russo decided on WFAN Monday that Wright had been telling Delgado to defy the fans' appeals on Sunday for a curtain call, following a second solo homer."

"The camera was on Carlos Delgado, with his arm around Aaron Heilman in the Mets' dugout. This was in the sixth inning Saturday after the reliever had given up a run to Atlanta. From the look of it, the Mets' first baseman - a boo magnet - was consoling the pitcher."

"So here are THE NUTS and BOLTS questions and answers from Carlos Delgado's entertaining 20 minutes of give and take with reporters a little while ago about the most talked-about "curtain" since Jamie-Leigh Curtis' mom had hers shredded in the original "Psycho" (Read: Not the one with Vince Vaughn!!)"

"Delgado, though, did not budge. The seventh inning of the Mets’ 6-3 victory against the Atlanta Braves continued without Delgado acknowledging the fans’ plea for a curtain call. Afterward, he explained why."

"With thousands of fans brandishing giveaway foam fingers yesterday at Shea Stadium, Carlos Delgado essentially gave everyone The Finger. At least you could have made that argument after watching the scorned first baseman refuse to leave the dugout for a curtain call in the seventh inning, having just circled the bases for his second home run of the afternoon. "The way I look at it, I hit a solo home run in the seventh inning," Delgado said after the Metsbeat the Braves 6-3. "

"But that sudden Kiss-Cam love went unrequited as Delgado declined to acknowledge the fickle crowd's demand for a curtain call in the seventh inning of the Mets' 6-3 series-sealing victory over Atlanta Sunday at Shea."

"But after Delgado's second homer of the game, off Braves reliever Will Ohman, made it a 6-3 game in the seventh and relieved some belated tension for the crowd, the beleaguered Mets first baseman, who pumped his fist as he started his tour of the bases, couldn't believe his ears. Were those cheers really for him? Were these people actually imploring him to take a curtain call?"

"The slumping first baseman Carlos Delgado was benched Friday night by Manager Willie Randolph as the Mets returned home for a three-game series with the Atlanta Braves."

"Carlos Delgado did not start Friday night against the Braves and Willie Randolph seemed lukewarm about Delgado's prospects for a strong season. Marlon Anderson started at first in place of Delgado, who is mired in a 4-for-42 slump and hasn't homered since April 8. Delgado struck out as a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning of the Mets' 6-3 loss and was lustily booed by the Shea faithful. "

"We know how this ends for Carlos Delgado with the Mets. We might not know the exact date or the exact term, be it designated for assignment or outright release, but we see the bread crumbs now heading toward the exit."

"It took Manager Willie Randolph until May 23 of last season to drop a struggling Carlos Delgado to sixth in the batting order. He did not wait as long this year, moving Delgado down in an effort to revive a stagnant offense that scored two runs and managed a total of 10 hits in two losses in Chicago."

"Howard Johnson watches Carlos Delgado every day, watches his approach, his footwork, his swing, his pitch selection, his everything. And the statistics, he says, are deceiving."

"Carlos Delgado broke an 0-for-14 streak last night but continues to weigh down the Mets offense. With the 35-year-old first baseman hitting just .206 after his fifth-inning single in a 7-1 loss to the Cubs, the Mets are fielding no shortage of questions about Delgado's future. "

"After batting .258 last season, the pressure is on Carlos Delgado to have a rebound year for the Mets. Yesterday, he came through at the plate. It was in the field where he cost the team."

"He had brought the Shea faithful to their feet with a second-inning home run that put the Mets on the board. He later smacked an opposite-field single, which continued his torrid hitting. But Carlos Delgado's stellar day at the plate in the final Shea opener was overshadowed by a seventh-inning throwing error, one that led to two Phillies runs and pushed the momentum in the visiting team's favor."

"A 3-1 loss at Turner Field yesterday afternoon wasted a fine outing by Johan Santana and made the two-game weekend stay in Atlanta forgettable. But if you're looking for the proverbial silver lining it would have to be Carlos Delgado."

"Carlos Delgado needed four stitches to close a bloody gash on his right forearm after he was speared by Brady Clark's broken bat as he led off third base in the third inning of Sunday's 7-4 split-squad win over the Tigers."

"If you think he is at the beginning of the end, why exactly would you think differently of Carlos Delgado ? Because he is a Met, not a Royal? Because every official in Mets camp proclaims the hip injury minor and treats the likelihood of his recovery as surer than Hank Steinbrenner saying something outrageous in the next week?"

"The recovering Carlos Delgado was not in the lineup as the Mets edged the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-5, in an exhibition game in Vero Beach, Fla., on Sunday. The Mets spoke optimistically about Delgado’s hip injury being minor, but it was another concern for a team that already seems fragile."

"The first baseman, Carlos Delgado, returned from New York but was unavailable for Sunday's Mets-Dodgers game. Still, he was relieved that the discomfort in his right hip wasn't anything more severe than an impingment in the area."

"The Mets’ dual worries, age and injury, were joined at Carlos Delgado’s hip Saturday. While his teammates set out to win their first game of spring training, Delgado, the Mets’ 35-year-old first baseman, traveled to New York to have a magnetic resonance imaging test on his right hip, which came back negative."

"The Mets need Delgado to have the kind of positive impact that was advertised when he was acquired. So much more was expected. Delgado has not delivered. He hasn't been the leader the Mets thought he would, and he hasn't put up the kind of numbers or big-time hits. He's getting beat by the fastball."

"Just one of those days, the Mets kept muttering to themselves as the bad news washed over them like a storm. First, doctors determined that Carlos Delgado is suffering from an impingement in his right hip and will be out for several days."

"Carlos Delgado doesn't feel as if he necessarily has to save Puerto Rico, but he does want to do everything in his power to make it a better place to live."

"The statistics compiled by Carlos Delgado during 14 years in the major leagues — particularly his 434 home runs — offer ample evidence that he knows how to hit a baseball. Contrary to popular belief, he did not forget how last season, the worst of his career. But he returned home to Puerto Rico feeling he had to do something radical nevertheless."

"Everything about Carlos Delgado last season screamed "end of the line." The numbers were down, in some cases plumbing career lows. The bat speed was alarmingly slow. Even Delgado's body language signaled a 35-year-old whose best years were fading from view. "

"Carlos Delgado would have been a postseason spectator even if Tom Glavine's final home game in Flushing hadn't been a dud. Dontrelle Willis assured that much when he drilled Delgado in the left hand in the first baseman's first at-bat that devastating Sunday afternoon against the Marlins, ending his season eight innings prematurely."

"Carlos Delgado suggested he never labeled the 2007 Mets "bored." This, instead, is how he terms the play that contributed to the historic collapse:"

"Mets fans have an interest in knowing who will play first base for the team in 2009. Here is, probably, the best-case scenario: Carlos Delgado, who showed up at Tradition Field yesterday looking leaner, puts up a rebound 2008 season, a considerable improvement from the .333 on-base percentage and .448 slugging percentage he recorded last year. The Mets, with Delgado's consent, exercise a mutual $12-million option for 2009."

"Carlos Delgado wasn't looking for excuses. He knew he just stunk. At 35, there were obvious concerns about his age, and following surgery on his hand and elbow in the winter after his 38-homer 2006 season, there were questions about his health. But was the worst season of his career an aberration or the beginning of a slide? Was age catching up to him? Was he playing hurt?"

"Carlos Delgado arrived in camp Monday morning. But just which Carlos Delgado it was the Mets might not know for a while. Is it the one that they chased in free agency and then traded to land, the one who was a model of consistent production? Or the banged-up 35-year-old who struggled to the worst batting average and slugging percentage of his career last season?"

"First, Carlos Delgado struggled with his timing. Then he suffered a hip pointer and a hyperextended knee that forced him out of the lineup for 21/2 weeks in a September pennant race."

"Mets first baseman Carlos Delgado said his rehabilitation from a fractured left hand was on schedule and that he expected to be at full strength when he reports to spring training in six weeks. As Delgado prepared to begin the next phase of his recovery, hitting off a tee, General Manager Omar Minaya was getting ready to depart for an eight-day good-will tour of Israel."

"Have the Colossal Collapse Mets learned their painful lesson? Listening to Carlos Delgado yesterday, it was clear he learned his lesson. In their own strange way the Mets quit on the 2007 season and it cost them dearly. "

"Carlos Delgado does not have an excuse to justify the worst offensive season of his career. He took the heat for his plunge that also coincided with a disastrous late-season collapse for the Mets."

"Carlos Delgado's season ended painfully, his left hand fractured by a Dontrelle Willis fastball in the first inning of the final game of the season. But it was the pain of the Mets' collapse and his own season-long struggles that stuck with him, the mental anguish far worse than the physical pain."

"Mets first baseman Carlos Delgado's fractured left hand has healed to the point that he will begin swinging a bat next week."

"After undergoing offseason elbow and wrist surgeries and missing time in September with a hip injury, Carlos Delgado had career lows in just about every offensive category since he became a full-time player in 1996."

"As Carlos Delgado Delgado rehabbed from elbow surgery last winter, he did so with the knowledge that he produced big numbers in his first career postseason despite the Mets' seven-game loss to the Cardinals in the 2006 NLCS."

"Carlos Delgado stood in front of his locker, his hand bandaged, having fractured his left wrist when he was hit by a Dontrelle Willis pitch in the first inning of yesterday’s season-ending loss, and wrapped up the Mets’ collapse succinctly."

"Carlos Delgado, the injured first baseman of the Mets, took batting practice Thursday during a simulation of game conditions and said he was almost ready to return from the right hip flexor injury that has idled him since Sept. 5. But Luis Castillo, the second baseman, was a late scratch from the starting lineup against the Florida Marlins because his right knee, a chronic problem this season, was too sore for him to play."

"Carlos Delgado, who has missed the past 14 games with a hip injury, took part in a simulated game yesterday afternoon at Dolphin Stadium and it's possible the first baseman could be in the lineup tonight against the Marlins, although tomorrow seems more likely."

"Willie Randolph doesn't except Carlos Delgado to play this series, but the first baseman labeled himself within days of returning from a strained hip flexor."

"The Mets' plan for Carlos Delgado to miss a week to 10 days took a hit yesterday when Willie Randolph said the slugger won't play against the Braves or Phillies - the remainder of the 10-game homestand."

"There has been little improvement in Carlos Delgado's strained right hip flexor since he suffered the injury on an eighth-inning swing last Tuesday in Cincinnati against the Reds. Willie Randolph said yesterday the first baseman is unlikely to appear in a game before next Monday in Washington."