Somebody has to defend Omar Minaya right? Prior to yesterday, I felt he should keep his job as I’ve stated and discussed with Joe D back and forth. Today, I still remain in favor of Minaya keeping his job and helping this team get into the playoffs, this year!
To me, Omar Minaya now more than ever has to remain the General Manager of the New York Mets. Despite what beat writers think, despite was professional bloggers think, and despite what radio talk show hosts think, they do not control how this team is run. What Omar Minaya said yesterday was that he felt there was a conflict of interest in the story that was reported by Adam Rubin. He just couldn’t find the proper words to express himself. Everybody knows that is what he meant, but everybody listed above has chosen to ignore the fact.
Has there been one person inside the situation that has said the story happened exactly as Rubin reported? Last night, Eduardo Perez on ESPN said he spoke to Bernazard and even Bernazard admitted something went down, but not how it was reported. How come nobody is concerned about that? Look, I thought Bernazard had to go after the Randolph incident. I’m not concerned about his job. I am however, concerned that people are calling for a General Manager’s job, simply because he stood up to a reporter who has written some scathing columns about him, and his staff.
Does Omar Minaya have a blog? When was he supposed to be able to stand up for himself, and stand up for his organization? How come the media as a whole doesn’t have to answer questions, and doesn’t have to be held accountable for their stories, but he is forced to respond and investigate reports that may not be 100% true?
Also, when the Bernazard story was released about the Binghamton incident, everybody immediately took it for 100% fact it seemed. He was the laughing stock of sports talk radio essentially, and heck, it was even on cnn.com! How do we know that Minaya isn’t telling the truth about Rubin? If he is, then I think he has every right to point that out at that moment. If Adam Rubin is covering the team, and choosing for Daily News readers what gets read about the New York Mets, while at the same time inquiring about a possible position with the team, then that is a conflict of interest, not only in regards to the Bernazard story, but also in regards to stories written about Minaya!
It was handled wrong, nobody denies that. However, Minaya was backed into a corner by a reporter he feels is reporting on his team negatively and he has a conflict of interest in that regard. Plain, and simple. Rubin had his outlet to get Minaya and Bernazard and he used it. Minaya had his chance to get Rubin, and he used it.
Binghamton Mets coach Mako Oliveras himself said the story was being blown out of proportion and didn’t happen the way Rubin reported. Prospects like Josh Thole, and Jose Coronado who were mentioned as being a part of the challenge said they were never named, or challenged to fight. So, three people who were actually there with Bernazard said Rubin’s report was not accurate. This to me means, something happened in the locker room, but Rubin’s story took it further than it actually went. The public opinion about Bernazard was already created though, and by who? Adam Rubin.
This was a great way for Omar Minaya to tell reporters, if you’re going to cover our team, get the facts. Quit jumping to conclusions, and making stories on a slow news day. For those that say they lost respect for Minaya, then who did you gain respect for? You lost respect for Minaya because he stood up for his organization and his friend and accused a reporter of having a conflict of interest?
I hate to break it to WFAN, Daily News, the Post etc, but Mets fans don’t care about how you are treated by Omar Minaya. Mets fans care about whether Minaya can make a deal to push this team over the top this year.
Omar Minaya’s job in the next 4 days will be to make a move that allows all Mets fans to forget about this press conference. He’s going to do it to. The second he makes a deal, not one of us will be talking about this story. Why? Because it’s not important. This story has absolutely nothing to do with how the team on the field performs. Minaya already made one move that his critics are still failing to give him credit for when he dealt Church for Francoeur. He’ll make one more move, and hey, maybe Adam Rubin will get the story first!
In the end, Adam Rubin got his wish. He was involved in the Mets player development. While he and Minaya were having their public feud, the Mets players themselves were able to watch, enjoy, and stay relaxed and focused on the task at hand which is, in case we all forgot, winning a baseball game.
This post was contributed and authored by Jessep.
