WFAN's Benigno Doesn't Back Down, Says Harvey Thinks He's King Of NY
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- On Tuesday afternoon, WFAN co-host Joe Benigno went on a mini-rant about Mets ace Matt Harvey after the pitcher was seen at the Knicks game with his girlfriend, supermodel Anne V.
Among other things, Benigno said, "Harvey's like this major celebrity. The guy has basically done nothing. I know he's had a tremendous -- however time that he's pitched. He's barely pitched a year, he's not gonna play at all this year because of the Tommy John surgery. Who knows what this guy (could be)? He could turn out to be Mark Fidrych at the end of the day, for all I know.
"...And this guy's sitting there at courtside, he's all over this Anne V ... I don't need to see it. I don't need to see my star pitcher who's not gonna pitch at all this year and is gonna be in rehab, I don't need to see him canoodling with his girlfriend at courtside at a Knick game!"
Matt Harvey Is Upset At Us
The Mets' ace got wind of the midday host's comments and wasn't pleased. He tweeted at Evan Roberts, Benigno's co-host, on Tuesday night, writing, "Very classy. Jealousy is a bad trait. #JustDontWatchThen."
The 24-year-old also retweeted a tweet that said "who the f--- is Joe Benigno?"
The 2013 National League All-Star Game starter deleted the tweets later that night.
Joe & Evan addressed the issue on Wednesday afternoon, and Benigno didn't back off his initial comments. In fact, he continued to call out the hard-throwing right-hander.
"My issue is this," Benigno said on Wednesday in the aftermath. "Matt Harvey wants to be Derek Jeter. OK? Now, that's all well and good. But you know what? You've got a long way to go, you've got a lot of pelts to put on the wall before you're Derek Jeter. So I'm watching the Knick game, and he's sitting there with her courtside, and he's yukking it up and having a great time.
"...I've gotta see more from Matt Harvey. I think he even thinks of himself as, like, the king of the city here right now. He's gotta do a lot more before I can look at him that way."
Roberts didn't have a problem with Harvey hanging at Madison Square Garden to watch the Knicks play, but he did find it strange that the All-Star deleted the tweets directed at Benigno.
"I don't understand why Matt Harvey deleted the tweets, though," Roberts said. "Just because you delete a tweet, doesn't mean it doesn't exist ... I think what made it worse, I thought, was the fact that he deleted the tweets. I think that makes him look weird, and look wrong in this case ... I don't know, I think when you delete a tweet it brings more attention to it."
Harvey was brilliant for the Mets on the mound in 2013, but was criticized for some of his actions off the field. He appeared in ESPN The Magazine's "Body Issue" and was profiled in a controversial piece by Men's Journal, in which Harvey claimed he was misrepresented. Most recently, he did an awkward interview with Dan Patrick in which he repeatedly touted Qualcomm instead of discussing his troubled elbow.
In his first full season for the Mets, Harvey went 9-5 with a 2.27 ERA, recording 191 strikeouts and just 31 walks.
You May Also Be Interested In These Stories
