With the Mets just one out away from clinching their first division title in nine years, manager Terry Collins couldn’t help but shed some tears in the dugout as he looked on. These tears, unlike Wilmer Flores’ back in late July, were tears of joy.
Sure, it’s been a long wait for the Mets and their fans since their last playoff appearance, but nobody has waited longer than Collins, who will make his first playoff appearance ever as a manager, a week from Friday.
“It’s worth all the time, all the press conferences and everything you do, this is the culmination of it all,” said Collins. “It’s a great feeling and it’s really fun.”
In his previous 10 seasons as manager of the Astros, Angels, and Mets, Collins, who is now 66 years old, had missed out on the playoffs each year. It’s his now fifth season with the Mets and many would argue his first with a team capable of contending.
“As long as Terry’s been around baseball, he deserves this. I’m excited we were able to get him there,” said David Wright. “He’s been through some rough years, that rebuilding phase, to stick through that, alot of those ugly times and cap it off with a nice playoff run, means a lot to us for him.”
He’s endured some rough years indeed. Terry Collins took over this Mets team back in 2011 amid some dire circumstances, and this year will be his first winning season, although he wasn’t exactly dealt the greatest of hands for most of the year.
After the team’s red hot start in early April, Collins had to manage a below average offense and a team that dealt with several key injuries, all while making sure to protect his team from the myriad of negative distractions and keeping everyone in the clubhouse positive and motivated. He finally got some of the help he was looking for at the end of July.
Collins is now one of the top candidates to win the National League manager of the year award, and perhaps nobody believes he should win it more, than his boss Sandy Alderson.
“Terry did a super job holding the team together for as long as he did, and then taking advantage of some additional personnel late in the season, managing the pitching staff,” said Alderson.
“You think about what Dan (Warthen) and Terry did with the pitching staff, having to skip starts and limit innings and do a host of things to try to get us to the end, it really was an incredible job in that area not to mention keeping everybody on an even keel day after day.”
It wasn’t too long ago that Terry Collins was on the hot seat. Fans, and even some of the media were calling for his departure. Nobody within the Mets organization however, players and front office, ever doubted him throughout the process.
It’s been quite a journey for Terry Collins to get to this point in his baseball career, and he has no plans to ease up now. The Mets skipper continues to forge ahead, well aware of what the next step in that journey is. “Now we have to get home-field advantage, that’s next.”
