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November 22, 2009 09-10 Offseason Joe Janish

Q&A and More with Wally Backman

Steve Serby has an entertaining Q&A with Wally Backman in today’s New York Post, which I encourage you to read.

In case you missed it, Bart Hubbach posits Backman as a possible successor to Jerry Manuel.

David Lennon presented “leftover thoughts” regarding the Backman hiring.

Ben Shpigel of The New York Times gives his take on the second chance afforded Wally.

In between officiating a mustache contest and getting hired to be the Brooklyn manager, Wally visited a nursing home near Shea Stadium Citi Field.

From the archives, here is Toby Hyde‘s take on the possibility of Wally returning in a minor league role with the Mets running the Mets’ player development system — which he termed “crazy talk” — written back in August. Ironically, Toby likely will be covering the Cyclones as part of his MetsMinorLeagueBlog next summer.

If you missed it, you can listen to Mike Francesa’s interview with Wally Backman on WFAN

And here is Wally reading from cue cards:

Can you ever remember so much media attention given to the hiring of a Rookie Short-Season A league manager?

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Joe Janish began MetsToday in 2005 to provide the unique perspective of a high-level player and coach -- he earned NCAA D-1 All-American honors as a catcher and coached several players who went on to play pro ball. As a result his posts often include mechanical evaluations, scout-like analysis, and opinions that go beyond the numbers. Follow Joe's baseball tips on Twitter at @onbaseball and at the On Baseball Google Plus page.
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  1. James K. November 22, 2009 at 6:27 pm
    Unfair to Toby. He said Backman was unfit specifically for the role of “running the player development system”, not a “minor league role” as you wrote. Said nothing about him being unfit for a minor league managerial role. Sorta twisting words.
  2. joejanish November 22, 2009 at 8:03 pm
    James K. – OK, I’ll correct it, in fairness to Toby. Though, I honestly did not believe I was being unfair — Toby published some pretty strong words and took a very clear stance on what he thought of Backman’s qualifications. It sounded to me like Toby didn’t find Backman fit for ANY job involving minor leaguers. But, I probably misinterpreted (as I often do).

    Here was my train of thought: players “develop” in the minor leagues, thus, “minor league role”.

  3. Andy November 23, 2009 at 2:37 am
    Aren’t the Cyclones class-A? I thought Rookie Ball was something below that . . .
  4. joejanish November 23, 2009 at 10:45 am
    Andy – thanks for the correction. Wow! That’s two huge mistakes in one little post. Time to hire an intern.

    Yes technically speaking, the NY-Penn League is classified as “Short Season A”. But I wouldn’t go so far as to say “Rookie” is below it, as that classification is assigned to any short-season league not called the NY-Penn or the Northwest. It’s on the same level as the Appalachian and Pioneer Leagues, which are termed “Rookie” (and are also short-season leagues). Ask MLB the reason for the distinction.

    So I stand corrected, and have made the change in the post.

    Thanks again.