Bring Wally Back, Man!
Wouldn’t it be great if the Mets did in fact find it in their heart to bring Wally Backman back into the organization?
Funny that a little over a year ago, this was written on MetsBlog, in reference to a review of Playing for Peanuts:
The show is about Wally Backman’s return to managing in the independent league for the South Georgia Peanuts.
In Adam’s opinion, SNY must be showing this in an effort to soften Backman’s image – while trying to make him a more viable candidate to replace Willie Randolph.
I doubt this very much, actually. SNY is probably just trying to fill content. I mean, it was on today in the middle of the day, which is hardly prime-time viewing, and I was totally unaware it would be on.
Also, for what it’s worth, I have seen no evidence that Backman will ever be considered as manager of this team, seriously. From what i understand, a) Backman torched his bridge from Shea, and it will not be rebuilt – no matter how badly some Mets fans want to see him return, and, b) from what I understand, most all of MLB sees him as a total loose cannon, who, while entertaining, can be very, very unprofessional in a day and age when team’s have way too much money on the line.
I understand why some fans want to make him an icon, or want to believe his passion is a good thing. However, fact is, there are hundreds and hundreds of professional baseball teams and he has been unable to latch on to any of them. I mean, he quit the only job he could get, which was managing an Independent League team. Add these things together, plus consider this record, and I can’t see him back at Shea.
How quickly things change … losing can do that.
Matt Cerrone was right – Backman would not return to Shea. But he didn’t say anything about Citi Field.
Interestingly, the tune changed at MetsBlog over the past few weeks. And today Jon Heyman tweeted that the Mets may be bringing Wally back after all.
Personally, I don’t want to see Wally named manager of the Mets right now. It’s Jerry Manuel’s job through the end of 2010, and the man should be given a chance to show what he can do with a “full stack” of ballplayers from game 1 through game 162. We’ll hope that no injuries occur, every player has a career year, and everyone executes perfect fundamentals and makes good decisions on their own.
Meantime, install Wally somewhere in the minors as a manager of young men, and let’s see what he can do with the talent of the most underrated farm system in baseball.
Wally Backman catches a raw-deal on almost every baseball-blog in America. Time after time, we see story-after-story, spewing out the same b.s. about his divorce, money-problems, etc.
For what it’s worth, I take personal endorsements of Backman — from actual players who’ve played for him — and look at them instead of the “usual stuff” we’ll see written about him, ad nauseum.
Just this winter, I had the opportunity to pick the brain of one of his former players (a friend of mind who played for him at Lancaster) – while working out for the season; and it was told to me that Wally Backman was absolute “aces to play for”….
Matching that up with what the likes of Conor Jackson, Dan Uggla, etc. have said — I start to look at things in a bit of a different perspective from “the popular crowd” who hates on him.
No matter who is brought in — they should be preaching about “making the adjustments” at every level of development.
Through the years, an overall “constant” has remained. The Mets, whether player not following — or coach not drilling — have not been committed to a plan.
This is why we rarely see any sort of true development within the Mets; at the farm-level…..or while here in The Bigs. What you see from a player is what you typically get — until he falls off the radar; or excels with another organization.
There’s equal blame across the board for that…management doesn’t stay committed to putting the best product out there, the coaching staff seems to tolerate alot of the same crap we see year-after-year, and the players don’t seem smart (cooperative) enough to realize that many of their approaches aren’t going to get them past their current levels of production.
Whatever the problem is: it stinks to high-heavens.
I’d hope that Wally Backman finds himself on a Major League coaching staff one day.
Being the greatest guy in the world (**cough** Razor Shines) doesn’t get you jack, or mean that you’re any better an instructor than anyone else.
Glad to see Wally’s going to get another shot within the Minor League Baseball circuit……..hopefully, Kenny Oberkfell is promoted to a coaching job with the major league mutts, err, Mets.
The last thing I’d want to see is another Manny Acta hiring as bench-coach — or something to the like. Keep goin’ with the house-cleaning, Jeffy Boy….you’ll be glad you did in the long-run.
The sense of complacency with this team was more than evident, dating back to the winter of 2006…..this team plays like they’re owed-something; and are very comfortable in giving a lackluster effort.
It stems from the top; and we’ve seen that with coaches who miraculously stay on, while staring the face of underachievement directly in the mug.
Good riddance to 2009, and hopefully, one day – we’ll meet a true version of the “New” Mets.