Wayne Coffey in today’s Daily News has a great two page story on Dwight Gooden and his road back into baseball and leading a life free of drugs and alcohol. Coffey zones in on Doc’ 1985 season which is one of the greatest pitching season in baseball history. I love that Coffey mentions that the Gooden phenomenon back then has not been matched in this city.  No player in any sport in this city can match what Gooden and the Mets did back then. I remember that any start Gooden made was a must see event and as hard as this is to believe where I lived in Brooklyn we did not have cable. So when any Gooden starts were not on Ch 9 the choice was either get to Shea or get to a bar that has one of those huge satellite dishes to watch his starts.

I’m glad that Doc is back in baseball as he is working for the Newark Bears but with this new found thinking of management bringing back players who actually have a winning pedigree with the Mets in coaching positions, you would think there would be a spot for Doc.

I know I’m late with this but kudos to Mike Silva and Joe DeMayo over at NYBD for breaking the story on the hiring of Wally Backman by the Mets to manage the Brooklyn Cyclones. Not only is great to have Wally back in the family but to manage Brooklyn makes it even sweeter.

By the way all of the folks who are attacking Mike and Frank Russo over his report that Carl Crawford has asked out of Tampa need to grow up. What, you think Crawford is going to retire a Ray?

To me the biggest question of the off season is still how much power does Omar Minaya have, Joel Sherman shines some light on the subject:

Rival executives and agents described a man not fully in charge of baseball operations regardless of what Mets ownership says. One NL official said that lag time between discussing business with Minaya and the time it took him to respond suggested he had to run the information through a committee.

An agent said, “You might not like what Omar had done in the past, but he was always aggressive and decisive. He looked old, beaten and without a plan this time.”

Executives and agents said they thought Minaya has yet to be told a true budget by ownership, and that is leading to the belief that the Mets do not want to spend big. A second agent said, “The Mets are not a destination spot right now, especially if you are a hitter. You would be going to a questionable team playing in a huge park. So if you’re Jason Bay, why would you leave the Red Sox for the Mets unless you were blown away (financially), or if you were Matt Holliday, why would you leave St. Louis for the Mets unless you were blown away?”

If this info is right then the Skill Sets fucked up again by not firing Omar and not giving the job to either John Rico or going out and hiring a younger more aggressive GM. This is what bugs the living shit out of me with Jeffey Skill Sets, all along he states that Minaya has “full autonomy “ over the baseball ops but according to Sherman’s sources he has to run his moves though a committee so in effect you’ve cut Omar’s balls off. Great move Jeffey, you little shit.