The Cirtcuitous Route We Sometimes Take to Where We're Supposed to Be

Five years ago Wally Backman got his first job as a major league manager. A few days later he lost that job.

He’s spent the next five years working his way back and is now the manager of the Brooklyn Cyclones.



Most people in New York think that job is just the incubator for him to eventually take over for Jerry Manuel, perhaps even during the season if 2010 starts as badly as 2009 ended.

According to the Daily News, bad blood between Manuel and Backman goes back to 2003 when Backman reportedly told his ex-teammate Ron Gardenhire to kick the White Sox ass so he could take Manuel’s job managing that team.

Backman’s eventual hiring as Mets manager could be held up though as the Wilpons were reportedly very concerned about his personal background in light of the domestic violence issue which cost him the Diamondbacks job.



I think Manuel is a shitty manager and though I don’t really know much about Backman’s style, I can only assume he’d be better than Jerry.

And I know Master Bates would like him a lot better.

Why is Master Bates Smiling?

Sports Illustrated's Jon Heyman reports the Mets will hire Wally Backman.

"The team now appears willing to give scrappy fan favorite Wally Backman a chance to return to baseball in a minor-league job. Backman has technically not been given a new position yet, but he's been told they'd like to hire him and have invited him for an interview that is expected to be a formality.

The Mets apparently will resist any temptation to immediately add Backman to the major-league staff.

The Mets fired a few minor-league coaches recently and have openings to fill there as well."



But that's not all the good news for MB.

The Marlins have had conversations with Bobby Valentine about a possible position within the organization.
Current manager Fredi Gonzalez is expected to be fired.

Watching Wally

The reality series "Playing for Peanuts", which profiled the independent league team managed by Wally Backman, premieres tonight at 6pm on SNY.
You can probably catch it on reairs during the week.

Master Bates's Favorite Athlete of All-Time

Wally Backman, fired by the Arizona Diamondbacks after three days, is now working his way back into the majors by managing the South Georgia Peanuts in the independent South Coast League.
Filmmaker John Fitzgerald is following the Peanuts around hoping to sell a reality series about the team, called "Playing for Peanuts."

In a possibly related development, Backman was ejected from a game after dropping several F-bombs on [the umpire] and kicking dirt on home plate. Then Backman started tossing equipment onto the field. Not only did he throw 22 bats onto the grass, he also emptied a bucket of baseballs down the third base line.

The situation was made worse by the fact that Backman's foul language was clearly audible since there were only a handful of fans left in the stadium. Some of those fans were, in fact, children.

Bad News for Master Bates

According to the New York Post, Former Met Wally Backman, whose off-the-field problems cost him the Arizona managing job just days after he was hired last winter, said he called Minaya recently to ask about the Mets' managerial vacancy at Double-A. "I'd love to come back to the Mets. They were my first organization," Backman said. "But I think Omar indicated that I wasn't going to get the job. That's what I took out of it."