It looks like Wally Backman will indeed be managing the Brooklyn Cyclones in 2010.
It had already been reported three weeks ago by Adam Rubin, that Backman would be managing one of the Single-A teams for the Mets, but which one had not yet been determined.
Yesterday, Dora Licastri, long time friend of MMO, and Port St. Lucie native, reported on her Facebook Mets Rumor Mill that Wally Backman would manage the Brooklyn Cyclones and Edgar Alfonzo would manage the St. Lucie Mets.
You can add her to your Facebook here.
Bart Hubbuch of the NY Post has confirned the news and says that the Mets will make an official announcement early next week.
Mike Silva of NYBD reported that the Mets will hold that press conference on Tuesday.
Here’s to hoping that a new clean slate does wonders for Wally.
Welcome Back!
*Mets Merized Online Needs Your Help*
Love it. He was my favorite Mets player growing up (as the profile says.) One day he’ll be managing the Mets. I’m very pleased with this
Great move!!!!!!! I miss Wally!!!!
I sincerely hope that he takes this opportunity and makes something good out of it. I’ve long been a big Wally Backman fan when he was a player, but because of some of his post Mets problems and issues I soured on him a little. I thought some of the early talk about making him the Mets manager was outrageous and ridiculous, but this is something that I could live with and I hope he does well.
BREAKING NEWS! Who cares!
Very happy to see him in the organization. In my view, Backman got hosed by the D-Backs – thrown out of the Bridal Suite during his honeymoon for a past transgression or two.
Under today’s standards, Billy Martin would be unemployable. He was simply the best in-game strategist of his time, despite his excesses.
Someone like Backman could crack the whip and bring our high-priced whiners back down to earth, where championship baseball is played.
Here’s an excerpt from a NY Times article that announces Backman’s hiring by the Mets:
“After one season managing Class A Lancaster of the California League to an 86-54 record, Backman was named minor league manager of the year by The Sporting News. The Mets planned to interview him in 2004 after they fired Art Howe, but Backman withdrew as a candidate to pursue the Diamondbacks job.
When he was hired, an article in The New York Times detailed his troubled past. During a four-year span before his hiring, Backman had been arrested after a domestic dispute involving his second wife and for a drunken-driving incident, and he filed for bankruptcy. The Arizona Republic reported that Backman’s first wife filed a restraining order against him in 1995.”
Imagine that…he failed to disclose a domestic dispute that occured 9 years before his interview with the D-Backs. Failed to disclose a DWI and the fact that he was broke at a certain point in time. Apparently, the domestic incident did not result in a criminal conviction and the other two issues do not bear upon his moral turpitude, so what’s the big, frickin’ deal? He’s a baseball manager, not an alter boy.
Your surprised by the tone and tenor of the Times article? The article was about a man charged with DUI and domestic violence GIVEN another chance to work in his chosen field! How dare he!
Perhaps if the circumstances of Backman’s DUI were different; I wonder if Back had walked away and not bothered to report that he had driven off a bridge into a river and left a 20 yr old woman dead in the car if the Times might treat Backman a little differently? Backman is what the New York Times hates, a hard working, day in and day out, in your face get the job done kind of guy. If Backman were not White and his last name began with a “K” I suspect the article would have been a bit diffierent.
GO WALLEY!
Why do we always limit the scope of a talent search to players from the 1986 team? Is Wally Backman really the hottest managerial candidate out there? Is he the most deserving and qualified? Or was his only ticket back to the majors a job with the Mets who took pity on him?