Denver beat reporter Tracy Ringolsby of MLB.com writes about how patience has paid off for Mets manager Terry Collins who is a big league manager for the third time.
He is having fun, writes Ringolsby, and it is not just because the Mets are in first place in the National League East. Mainly it is because Collins is so much more comfortable with his situation.
“I am much more patient,” Collins said. “That time in Houston if we lost a game I felt like it was my fault. I thought I had failed the team. The players could see it and they thought I was upset with them. I was mad at myself, but if affected the team. Now I make a decision. Some work, some don’t.”
“One thing I wanted to do here, was I told myself to enjoy it,” Collins said. “I told myself to have fun. It doesn’t change the way I do my job. I still work to find that edge every day, but this has really been fun.”
Fresh off the heels of consecutive 14-9 wins against the Colorado Rockies with a chance to sweep all seven games of the season series, Collins says his team is simply doing what good teams have always done – that is beat the bad teams.
“This is how a lot of teams win pennants. They beat teams you’re supposed to beat,” Collins told reporters after Saturday night’s game. “You come in here, and they play very good in their park. They’re tough to play here. You know what? We’ll go in tomorrow, hopefully Logan can give us five or six, and we’ll see where we’re at.”
“But this is a good stretch. It’s a stretch you’ve got to make hay, because we’re going to run into the Yankees, we’re going to run into the Nationals. We’ve got our work cut out for us. That’s why we’re taking each one we can get, because you don’t know what’s going to take place tomorrow.”
