First some background: The Mets organized a trip earlier this week to Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital to visit with wounded military veterans. The visit was not mandatory, but Fred Wilpon made the trip to Washington just to attend — and to encourage players to attend as well. Only three members of the team didn’t attend (other than Dillon Gee, who was making his big-league debut that night): Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo, and Carlos Beltran.
We’ll spare you the line about there being a Bad Contract Convention in town and instead provide their respective reasons: Beltran said he couldn’t attend because of a conflict with a meeting about a high school he is helping fund in Puerto Rico, Luis Castillo explained that he’s too troubled by the sight of the wounded soldiers to attend such outings, and Perez — well, Perez didn’t comment, except to say “I don’t answer anything about outside the stadium.”
The News reports that “team brass seethed behind the scenes,” and R.A. Dickey said that while he does have thoughts on the matter, “I don’t want to make them public.” You can bet, though, that his thoughts aren’t “It’s a personal choice to attend such outings.”
By the way, in the midst of all this, the Mets won yesterday behind the aforementioned Dickey, who earned his tenth win.