Is there a ‘Puerto Rican Curse’ in the Mets?

As Francisco Lindor and Javier Baez struggle to establish themselves as key players for the faltering New York Mets this season, the urban legend resurfaces that Puerto Rican ballplayers are cursed once they move to Queens.

Fiction or reality, is there a curse for Puerto Ricans on the Mets?

Fiction, totally. Just as Carlos Baerga (.267, 0.3 WAR) and Roberto Alomar (.265, o.2 WAR in two seasons) were far inferior ballplayers when they arrived at old Shea Stadium, others like Carlos Delgado (.104 homers, 339 RBI in 468 games with the Mets; .351 and 11 towers in 10 playoff games), Carlos Beltran, who had an offensive line of . 280/369/.500/.869, with 551 runs scored, 559 towed and Felix Millan, who struck out 92 times…in five seasons in New York, give no reason to believe in a Puerto Rican curse in Queens. As in all teams, there are players who did well and others who did poorly, but everything in New York is magnified. As a side note, Beltran was booed just like Baez and Lindor in his first turns in the Big Apple and won three gold gloves and two silver bats as a Met.

Fiction: They say that perception is reality, but aren’t there different ways of perceiving what happens? There are several Puerto Rican players who have been successful with the Mets; there are also several who have not. Those who succeeded went through instances of mediocrity and those who failed also had flashes of lucidity. Everything depends on the color of the glass through which you look at it, and the stigma of the ‘curse’ has long been popularized and every time a Puerto Rican player does not perform up to expectations, the subject of the curse resurfaces; then he recovers, and no one remembers the curse. (Jaime Vega-Curry)

Fiction: I have always been of the belief that the Queens team was a sort of ‘graveyard’ for the careers of Latino ballplayers, especially Puerto Ricans. And it is that to my mind came the images of players I saw while growing up, like Roberto Alomar and Carlos Baerga, ending in a painful way their time in the Major Leagues in that uniform. But digging a little deeper for this article, in order to better support my point, I have realized that others have also shined brightly in Queens, such as Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran, and before those mentioned, Felix ‘Nacho’ Millan. In New York, everything is magnified to the point of exaggeration, and I can confess myself guilty of being part of that exaggeration. It is true that they have failed, but they have also shined, just as in almost every major league team.