Category: Wally Backman

Over at NBC Craig Calcaterra wrote an interesting piece about how the Mets could hire Wally Backman without seeming hypocritical.

I still think there is a road to forgiving K-Rod, but please don’t take that to mean that I don’t take domestic violence seriously.

Good morning Mets fans,

I had been on a real nice rhythm with the blog all year – usually writing ahead on weekends – until about a month ago when back to back trips tripped me up.  Since then I have been swinging from day to day, which is not how I like to work.  Even right now this is the “last” post, whereas usually the blog would outlive me by a week or so (and maybe longer if Media Goon figures out the admin password after my death).

Yesterday was going to be “get ahead” day – and then Media Goon hit me up around 11am to tell me the site was FUBAR.

I logged in and saw that all 7,000 or so posts, pages, photos – basically everything from the last 3 years was GONE.   D’oh motherlovin’ D’oh.

I threw some money at the problem (and I must say GoDaddy’s customer support is excellent) and they were able to pull the super backup (why didn’t I have my own backup you ask – because my computer required a new Windows install two weeks ago and I hadn’t thought to run my regular backup yet.  Triple D’oh.)

Anyway we’re back – lost a week’s worth of posts but that’s better than three years worth.

Last night I went to Unnecessary Football Stadium and sat in some $500 seats.   The seats were nice but “$500 nice” is another thing entirely where I grew up.  These are NOT “$500 nice.”  I will post some pictures later today and early next week.

One thing I have learned from blogging is that traffic falls off a cliff on holiday weekends, so although I will continue to post news items I think I will rerun some greatest hits in between rather than use up some ammo that will be more well-read next week.   Since many of you are newer to the site you won’t be annoyed – and if you have been around for a year maybe re-reading things like Dan’s letter exchange with the Mets will be a good read.

I have several programs that can estimate traffic to the site, all of which give me crazy swing numbers.  On the low end Mets Police has had a half million page views or so, on the higher end the other program shows 1.5 million.  Somewhere in the middle the truth probably lies but even if it’s half a million – WOW and thanks.  This isn’t the biggest blog and definitely not the best written but I do enjoy doing it.

We are still doing podcast Sunday at 6:30pm.

And with that – here’s today’s must-read from the Brooklyn Paper. Jeff Wilpon was hanging with Wally yesterday in Brooklyn.   Now before we go off the deep end let’s remember that Jeff runs the Brooklyn Cyclones…however it’s interesting.   I will have more to say about Wally in an hour.

“Did you talk to Jeff about the Mets managing job?” (the reporter)  asked.

Backman spat out an answer so quickly that it must have been rehearsed — but he stuttered just enough to make it seem that even he couldn’t swallow what he was saying.

“No. No. He came in for some, uh (pause), um, they had to look at some structural stuff, I guess, for the stadium,” he said.

While I drop my share of naughty words, I can’t say I ever lose it like this.   Oh my….

(this video has many curse words.  hide the children.)

Got a nice note from John from Playing for Peanuts.   Since I’m finishing off connecting wires at Newly Refurbished Mets Police HQ and I’m about to go on a media blackout so I can watch soccer at night (never waste sunshine and warmth on television.  Never. Oh and ABC should just stream the darn game on ESPN3.) …where was I…oh yeah John sent me a note and in the interest of time, Control-V is cut and paste:

The media reports made it seem like wally ran upstairs and assaulted the broadcaster in a rage. we had video to prove he walked up, waited for a few minutes till the postgame show was over and then he dropped some F-bombs, turned around and left. he wasn’t physically confrontational and the GM didn’t break up a fight… in hindsight it seems like a trivial thing, but that incident was misreported and no one was interested in seeing the footage of what really happened, until now.

just wanted to point that out. i agree with you – it wasn’t something i ever wanted to see or get involved in, but it happened and i feel like i should at least try to explain what was actually happening before/during/after…

i put up all the videos relating to the incident here: http://playingforpeanuts.com/

that video player has fan reactions (positive and negative), wally’s thoughts immediately after the ejection, etc.

keep up the great work! your blog is great.

Sometimes walking the Mets Police beat I run into a few things I’d rather not have found.   Over the winder there was Marital Scandal With 69 Mets Player that I let go, and even some of the Dykstra stuff I just don’t want to get into.

This one I will share because it’s just interesting. I too have been known to say “are you #@*ing kidding me?” at work – and did quite a few times this past week, so I’m not saying this should reflect negatively on Wally as he seeks his destiny as manager of the New York Mets.

However, I think you’ll find it interesting.  Not shocking, just worth watching.