JustASC

The Times has a piece about Mets reliever J.J. Putz’s name and the possibilities it raises among NY’s tabloid editors and unforgiving fans. And just as I predicted, in his offical welcoming ceremony,

 “Mets welcome J. J.,” [the CitiField scoreboard read], deftly avoiding the use, or misuse, of the player’s surname.

As for whether he took a razzing when he played in Seattle:

The columnists Steve Kelley of The Seattle Times and Art Thiel of The Seattle Post-Intelligencer said they never heard Putz’s name used as an insult against him, either at the ball park or by letter writers and talk-radio callers in Seattle. Putz played for the Mariners from 2003 to 2008.

Putz said that he had rarely heard his name used derisively, even in high school in Michigan.

“Dude, I was bigger than everybody in high school,” he said.