Guess who’s back?
For those of you who don’t know me, I am just as much a Jets fan as I am a Mets fan. For those of you that don’t follow Jets football, the Jets have been experiencing a period of success in the last two years or so. The major factor in the Jets success is their administration – Mike Tannenbaum and their new head coach, Rex Ryan.
Mike Tannenbaum, like Sandy Alderson, is a big numbers guy. Tannenbaum is not afraid to take risks and make controversial moves. He takes nothing for granted and really cares about the success of his team. For example, take his two controversial moves over the off season. His running back Thomas Jones was coming off the best season of his career, but he slowed down during the end of the season. What would Mike do? He cut him. Alan Faneca – a six-time all-Pro, nine-time Pro Bowl, and superbowl champion LG was considered one of the best around. His numbers didn’t look too good after last year so Mike cut him.
Alderson might just be in the same mentality. He is not taking Santana’s return for granted and he will not take any nonsense from his players. Alderson seems like a nice combination but overall, he’s a numbers guy. If the Mets have Alderson as their Tannenbaum, what’s missing?
A head coach. Or in the case of baseball, a manager. Although the majority of the news coming out of the managerial search is that Terry Collins or Bob Melvin is easily going to win the job, I’m still hoping in the back of my head for Wally Backman to be chosen. Backman is probably the longest shot to win the job and yet he is probably the most favored by the fan base.
The reason I think Backman would be great for this team is that he can do what Rex Ryan did to the Jets, to his New York Mets. Backman brings energy, attitude, and desire along with a wealth of experience from playing the game and small managerial jobs here and there in the minors.
Hear me out, though. Am I going to be ridiculously upset if I hear that Collins or Melvin or Hale was named Manager? No, not really. I just think that Backman’s personality brings a unique feel to this team that has been missing for a little while.
The bottom line is that I trust Sandy Alderson and I’ll ride with whatever decision he decides to go with. The fact that they haven’t announced a Manager yet gives me hope that this is a real attempt to find a great Manager, and it’s not just some pre-determined decision, which means that whoever gets chosen is probably the right decision.
Whether it be Backman or not, I’m going to be here to suffer through one more Mets season and I’ll be happy about it. I just hope that whoever gets chosen for Manager, if not Wally, can interject the emotion into the fanbase and the team that Backman could.
