The laws of blogging require that I write about both Bobby V and Joe Torre today.
Let’s knock Torre out first. Blah blah “core four” Jeter quote, Pettitte quote etc.
I remember Mets manager Joe Torre. I thought he was terrible. I was also in my single digits. All I knew was that the Mets stunk and he was the manager. So I was happy when he got fired, and surely this George Bamberger fellow would give me what I wanted.
I’m not going to waste a paragraph on telling you he was good with the Yankees. You were here and lived through it. I will quickly add that where he is underrated by those who underrate him is that he handled the media well. There was rarely chaos in the Bronx during those years, and if you lived the 20 years before that you know that the Bronx Zoo made the 2009 Mets circus look like a tightly run ship.
Then there is Bobby V, the king of finishing second. You can look it up. Nobody almost wins better than Bobby.
Bobby will get the Marlins to 90+ wins. Bobby will maximize a frugal budget. Bobby will get in the heads of certain other organizations in his division.
As a Mets fan you should be afraid of Bobby. He will be winning Wild Cards. He also won’t be managing the 2011 Mets (although it would be rude to get rid of Jerry Manuel, winner of the 2010 World Series anyway).
I still think the Phillies are solid, the Braves have it together and the Nats have like 5 players on their roster that could start for my team any day.
This is an interesting division, so far it has been a fun summer.