Volume 67, Issue 3

Blame the Manager?  Follow the Money

by Binyamin Muschel

Arguably the most underachieving team Major League Baseball has seen since its inception, the cellar-dwelling New York Mets began the off-season in need of improved player development, a personnel shakeup, and, most importantly, a scapegoat.  And so it came to pass that at high noon on October the 1^st, Robert John Valentine found himself unemployed.  Like any sport’s head coaches, baseball’s managers can never have full job security, knowing full well that they will bear the punishment for poor play by their players.  Such was the case with Valentine, an unfortunate victim of the overpaid athletes he was hired to baby-sit.

Bobby Valentine managed his first game with the Mets on August 26, 1996.  His first four full seasons with the team saw steady improvement, culminating in a National League pennant in 2000.  Throughout those years, especially in the last one, Valentine was acclaimed for his managerial skill during games and for his handling of young talent.  It would be bold, if not completely false, to suggest that somehow Valentine’s expertise as a field general waned in the last two years, bringing about the current miserable state of affairs at Shea.  A manager, even if he tried, could not be directly responsible for more than a handful of losses each season. 

The blame for the last two embarrassing seasons rests in one of two places.  Steve Phillips, who is lucky to still have a job, is the man responsible for bringing the underachieving players to New York, and shelling out an average of 7.5 million dollars for the players in the starting lineup.  Phillips is paid to evaluate talent, and it can be said that he failed miserably in his offseason transactions.  Or, if you would like to defend Steve Phillips on the grounds that going into the season these moves looked terrific, then who’s to blame for Jeromy Burnitz’s stellar .215 batting average and 54 RBI’s?  How about, say, Jeromy Burnitz?  Mo Vaughn, who led the league in shortest hang time jumping for line drives, had an impressive year, accomplishing the rare feat of hitting for a batting average lower than his weight.  (Burnitz made it by two points.)  This is the same Mo Vaughn who is one of the top ten paid players in the league.  Whose fault is that?  Shawn Estes managed to average more than a million dollars of his salary for each of his wins this year (four wins, six million), and the list goes on and on.  Fred Wilpon, in his press conference explaining the firing of the manager, said, “We put very good players in place who didn't play very well. It's best to jump-start and get a manager to motivate these players and get the best out of the veterans and the young players.”  They need a manager to “motivate” them?  Mo Vaughn makes 12 million dollars a year and he needs someone in the dugout to motivate him?

They, the omnipresent “they,” say that Valentine lost control over his players.  They point to the scuffles between players, to the lackadaisical play towards the end of the season, and, of course, to the Newsday report from September alleging marijuana use by a handful of players.  But these players aren’t children, and their manager, whoever it may be, is not coming in to send them to their rooms.  The players will, unfortunately, play when they want to, rest when they want to, and smoke what they want to. 

Managerial positions are invariably based on the team’s wins and losses, and the Mets’ position is no exception.  So the Mets will go on, find a new manager, maybe even make the playoffs next year.  And then the same Steve Phillips will be a genius and the same players will be All-Stars, and the reason they didn’t win in the past was all because of Bobby Valentine.  Offseason checklist: improved player development, personnel shakeup, scapegoat.  One down, two to go.

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