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.

I did not get to hear Omar, Jeffey and Dave The Lawyer on with the Sports Bloviator last night and I can’t listen to the replay at work because of the filters on our computers, so I am relying on Mathew Cerrone’s recap which is court stenographer accurate.

The first thought in my mind when I heard the Gang of Three were going on ‘FAN with Francesa was how could I get some C5 explosive into that studio. The only nit wits missing from that group were Glen Beck, Momar Kadafi, and Vince the ShamWow guy for it to be a true Carnival of Douchebags.  

So let’s look at some of the highlights of this day of damage control Skill Sets style:

Only two coaches got whacked, Alomar Sr. and Luis Alicea and they were the only two who didn’t have anything to do with the season of suck. Razor Shines, the most inept third base coach since Wendel Kim, not only stays but he becomes Manuel’s confidant. But according to J-Man, Shines was responsible for the awful base running and for not making Daniel Murphy into an acceptable outfielder, but he’s a good baseball man so he gets to stay. Alomar Sr. gets the boot because it’s his fault that Luis Castillo is a broken down pedestrian second baseman. Christ, my head hurts already! As for Alicea , I wouldn’t know Alicea if he were sitting here next to me. So much for flying under the radar.

Jeffey apologized up and down for the awful season and said time and again that injuries were not to blame and that the lack of fundamentals were front and center a huge problem. He also said that the problem stems from the minor league system and the organization has to do a much better job of preparing the players on the farm so they can step in when the big league team calls them up. Well, knock me over with a Wilson Valdez’ bat. It’s good to see that Jeffey is reading the blogs and finally getting reliable information, especially the soon to be hiring of Wally Backman, to manage Binghamton.

The money issue came up and Jeffey claims the Mets will have plenty of bucks this off season to tantalize free agents. That’s great, but just because you have money doesn’t means you know what to do with it.  I give you Mets fan exhibit A, the Oliver Perez contract. Jeffey also was proud to say the Mets went over slot with first round pick Steve Matz by giving him a bonus of $895K. That’s great, but now with the 7^th pick in this years draft I want to see if the Skill Sets go over slot as they are sure to get a top talent to drop in their lap due to signabilty. It will be put up or shut up time next summer.

I’ll give Jeffey and his stooges this much, they learned the lesson from 2007 when they left Willie Randolph hanging in the wind for a couple of days before the came out and said he’d be back and addressed the collapse. This year they were out in force and addressed everything that needed to be addressed. The key is money talks and bullshit walks and with all the bullshit that comes from the Mets corporate office, the stuffed shirts in charge must go thru a lot of shoes.

The plan sounds good but it will take a big time move to prove to me they Skill Sets are sincere and intelligent enough to pull this off. Bring me Roy Halliday and I’ll be conveniced.

Watching Jeffey on SNY during his presser and with Chris Carlin, I’m pretty certain he never took a public speaking course in college. The guy is soooooo uncomfortable in front of the camera and reading his prepared statement was as painful to watch as it was for him to give it.. He has the personality of stale Wonder Bread. Crack a fucking smile will ya ! and stop the Elmer Fudd impersonation. Besides the on field work that needs to be done, the organization needs to hire a front man with some personality, some pizzaz. Not only would hiring Bobby Valentine bring that but he also brings a brilliant baseball mind as well. Sure the Skill Sets love Jay Horowitz like a son but it’s time to get someone in here who will push the Mets agenda a little more forceful. If you have seen Giants mouth piece Pat Hanlon on Giants All Access, that’s the kind of PR flack the Mets need.

Maybe it’s that phenomena of the Mets playing down to the competition as they come off a 2-4 abbreviated road trip against the Bucs and Nats the suck and suck more teams of baseball and now the biggest three weeks of the Mets 2009 season starts tomorrow here in the Greatest City on the Planet against the Phucking Phillies in the biggest series of the season.

To start off this series I sat with an enemy correspondent , Bill Bear of Crashburn Alley who has been a guest on PRO BASEBALL CENTRAL and a guy I like to e mail back and forth during the season as I like to be an annoying ball breaker but even though Bill has a major character flaw being a Phucking Phillies fan he’s a good guy and is always great when he comes on PBC and I like his in depth stat work on Crashburn Alley so click here to read the Q & A I did with Bill .

Over at Jorge Says No they have a very good interview with Wally Backman who is now managing in the Northern League for the Joilet Jackhamers. Backman of course would love to get a shot at a big league managerial job and the hard work as a player and perseverance as a manager at the most obscure outposts of baseball only make his resolve stronger. Maybe some day he will be back in Flushing where his work ethic and passion for the game would be a boost for the organization and the fans.

Doug Branch at Mets Merized Online is getting drawn and quartered for a post that suggests that the Mets might look at being sellers and if they do maybe Carlos Beltran would be the guy to trade. Well if you read the comments Branch is called out for not only suggesting that the Mets become sellers but think about trading Beltran. I won’t speak for Branch but as for myself I’ll say I don’t want the Mets to be sellers and I don’t want to deal off Beltran but as I wrote in a post over the weekend maybe it’s time for the front office and ownership to take stock in what it is the team and what this franchise is looking to accomplish. The reason I think like this is that as much as I think Omar Minaya has done a pretty good job he could do much better and I never feel like there is a plan in place or a course of action for this team. Sure Omar went out and retooled the bullpen to the point it’s one of the best in baseball but he never addressed the need for a left fielder with power and seems to be more enthralled with finding players left on the side of the curb than being creative in making a deal for bona fide major league talent.

It is good though to see the Mets fan exuding passion like the commentators are doing on that site and of course here. Too bad that ownership is to inept to realize what a great fan base they have.

The Mets Police checked out the cuisine at Highlander Stadium and found it to be overpriced and bland just like its tenants.

After watching my kid’s soccer games yesterday I had to make a trip to the mall to buy a sports jacket (one that didn’t have METS or an NY on it but a sports jacket that adult men wear. The two that I own are way too big and my son is graduating from grammar school this Friday and I need to dress up like a grown up so hence the sports jacket. I guess it’s a shame that a soon to be 51 year old man owns just two pair of slacks but 12 pairs of jeans, and has more than 200 t-shirts and maybe three dress shirts, one pair of shoes but  2 pair of Cons’ 3 pair of running shoes, 2 pair of basketball shoes, and 2 pair of baseball cleats and the only neck ties I have are hand me downs from my brothers. I’d be more than happy to live everyday in shorts, a t shirt, flip flops and my Mets cap) when I returned home I relaxed by watching the Padres-D’Backs game that went to 18 innings. I picked the game up in the 10^th inning and when it ended in the 18^th I realized the D’Backs bullpen did not give up a hit from the 10^th to the 18^th inning an extra inning no hitter! The D’Backs blew a 6-0 lead and the Padres had shortstop Josh Wilson pitch the 18^th and he almost got out of jam with two on and 0-2 count on Mark Reynolds before Reynolds put one just over the right field wall. Wilson by the way was a D’Back just a month ago before he was claimed by the Padres. Even stranger was of the 27,000 plus who were in attendance for the beginning of the game morphed into empty seats by the 18^th inning.

I’ll leave you with this from Henry Aaron on the release of Tom Glavine and the apology from John Schuerholz:

“I wouldn’t have said anything if I were John Schuerholz. I think that was a mistake, because it was a no-win situation in his case, as much as [Schuerholz] tried to patch up the differences,” Aaron said. Then he laughed, adding, “This is the first time I’ve ever been on management’s side. I mean, Glavine got paid very well through the years to play here, and there’s never a good way to handle these situations. But if you’re the Braves, you’ve got to throw those kids out there and let them pitch. If you’re Glavine, you have to be gracious enough to step aside.”

Why don’t the Glavines of any sport do so? “The hardest thing for anybody — especially athletes — is to wake up in the morning and realize everything has stopped for them,” Aaron said. “The cheering. The booing. The traveling. All the things that you used to be doing are no longer there, and it’s hard for you to realize that, along with the idea of losing all of the money that I made. It’s just not there any more.

Brooklyn Mets Fan is 100 % right on about the new Apple that is being constructed for $it Field. I love the Apple and I’m happy that a new one will be built and installed in the new house but why is it being built in MINNESOTA? So much for the promise of using local business for work at $iti Field.

Jeff Kent has called it a career so let me bid farewell to one of the biggest jerk offs to wear at Mets uniform. The times I had any contact with Kent at Shea he was just the most miserable nasty redneck  you could meet. As opposed to Wally Backman who is one of the nicest and most friendly rednecks you could meet. But Kent’s douchebaggery aside he will be in the Hall of Fame. I doubt he will have a Mets cap on his plaque though.

This reminds me I need to call my two brothers today to make sure we’re cool and all.

I’m a fan of the Chief (Freddy Garcia) and I’m glad it has come down to the Mets or Highlanders for his services but I hope he is not THE starting rotation piece that Omar feels is the missing link.