Tag: Wally Backman

Mets Madness Recap: 1986 Mets Beat 1976 Mets

The 1986 Mets knocked out the 1976 Mets in the first round of the Mets Madness tournament. While the ’86 Mets won the series in five games, the ’76 Mets put up a fight. Ed Kranepool powered the Mets to victory in Game 4, and if not for a blown save late in the series, the ’76 Mets could have pulled ahead of the World Champ ’86 squad. Game 1  Tom wasn’t so terrific...

Morning Briefing: MLB Proposing Reduction to Pitch Clock Time

Good morning, Mets fans! Major League Baseball continues in its efforts to minimize the time of games after rapid improvement in the area following the adaptation of the pitch clock in the 2023 season. Jeff Passan of ESPN reported that the MLB’s competition committee has proposed reducing the pitch clock from 20 seconds to 18 seconds when runners are on base next season, while keeping the...

Morning Briefing: Giants Fire Gabe Kapler

Good morning, Mets fans! On Friday, the San Francisco Giants fired Gabe Kapler after four years as the team’s manager. The highlight of Kapler’s tenure was an out-of-nowhere 107-win season in 2021, but the results in his other three years as the team’s leader were underwhelming. The Giants are officially eliminated from playoff contention after having a dreadful second half of...

Shoebox Memories – 1986 Topps Tom Paciorek

We all have Aunts down in Florida.  Okay, maybe not everyone, but I do.  And recently she sent some “vintage” mid-80s Mets cards up to me in NY from a neighbor who wanted to get rid of them after her spouse passed on.  In looking through them, I came across the 1986 Mets card shown below:             Several things about this card. Firstly 1986 is not “vintage”.  In 1986...

Edgardo Alfonzo Leading Candidate for Atlantic League Managerial Job

Edgardo Alfonzo is a finalist and leading candidate to manage the new minor league team the Staten Island Ferry Hawks, part of the independent Atlantic League, per Jon Heyman. Fonzie, a member of the New York Mets Hall of Fame, last managed in 2019 for the Brooklyn Cyclones. He began with the Cyclones as their bench coach in 2014 and became the manager in 2017 when Tom Gamboa retired. Alfonzo...

OTD 1986: Mets Outlast Astros, Win NLCS

The 1986 Mets dominated the National League. They won 108 games during the regular season, and seemed destined to steamroll any opponent that stood between them and a championship. The Houston Astros had other ideas. The Mets and Astros clashed in the 1986 NLCS, after Houston won the National League’s western division with a 96-66 record. The Astros, behind the pitching of Mike Scott, gave...

OTD 1986: Carter’s Walk-off Single Gives Mets NLCS Lead

Gary Carter delivered two of the most important hits of the 1986 season — both singles. One kept the Mets season alive, sparking the World Series Game 6 rally. The other brought the Mets a win closer to reaching the Fall Classic. Carter overcame a dreadful 1-for-21 slump to break a 1-1 tie give New York a 3-2 edge in the NLCS against the Houston Astros. “I kept telling myself, ‘I’m going...

OTD 1986: Mets Clinch NL East

It wasn’t a matter of if, but when. The Mets left the rest of their division in the dust, opening up an astounding 22-game lead by September 10. It was total domination of their competition, just like their manager predicted before the season. But New York couldn’t have picked a better time for its second four-game losing streak. By dropping three straight in Philadelphia and one of...

MMO Exclusive: Former Utility Infielder, T.J. Rivera

The story of T.J. Rivera is one of resilience and taking the opportunities given and making the most of them. After going undrafted as a college senior in 2011, the Bronx native was unsure of how he’d reach his dream of playing professional baseball. Unbeknownst to Rivera at the time, his junior college coach and former Mets alum Mackey Sasser put in a good word for him with Mets scout...

MMO Roundtable: Favorite Mets By Position – Second Base

The MMO team will be going all around the field, sharing our favorite Mets players by position.  First Base Next up, second base. Tim Ryder Jeff Kent was a childhood favorite, and Fonzie was a thrill, but Jeff McNeil may very well be my favorite Mets second baseman. Such a pure hitter. Absolutely gritty defensive player. He’s gonna be a great one by the time he hangs them up. Patrick Glynn The...

MMO Exclusive: Mets ’86 Champ, Wally Backman

When the news broke in mid-November of 2017 that Wally Backman had agreed to manage the New Britain Bees, one of eight independent teams in the Atlantic League, it took few by surprise. The baseball lifer is still chasing his dream of one day managing in the major leagues, a position he held for all of four days in November 2004 with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The club was unaware of his past...

Shoebox Memories: 1983 Topps Willie McGee

In a recent Shoebox Memories article on Art Shamsky, commentor Jason Black asked us to review the card above – #49 from the 1983 Topps set – and to identify the Mets first basemen. Most of the other commentors, particularly MetsHof, felt that the Mets first baseman that day was either Lee Mazzilli or Dave Kingman.  Let’s take our Sherlock Holmes deerstalker hat off of the peg...

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